Ross King: The Secret Genius Behind Florence's Impossible Dome

In this episode, Pat sits down with acclaimed author Ross King, whose book Brunelleschi's Dome has captivated readers for over two decades (and inspired Pat to give away more than 100 copies to friends). Ross opens up about his childhood in a tiny Saskatchewan border town, his winding academic path through three universities and a failed bid at a professorship, and how a novel-in-progress about Filippo Brunelleschi transformed into one of the most beloved works of narrative nonfiction ever written.The conversation dives deep into the story behind the story: how 14th-century Florence dared to build a dome larger than the Pantheon before anyone knew how, how Brunelleschi - a goldsmith and clockmaker with no architectural training - solved it through secrecy, ingenuity, and sheer force of will, and the astonishing engineering details that still puzzle experts today (the herringbone brickwork, the ox hoist with history's first clutch mechanism, safety harnesses centuries ahead of their time). Along the way, Pat and Ross find a deeper theme running through it all: that building something impossible — a dome, a book, a life — always comes at a cost, and that cost is worth it.In this episode: - Ross King's childhood on the Canada/North Dakota border and his earliest memory - How reading transported him beyond a town of 150 people - Comparisons to Dava Sobel's Longitude and their shared editor - Why Brunelleschi's Dome almost became a novel instead of nonfiction - The 1290s Florentine "hubris" that led to the dome being commissioned - Brunelleschi's secrecy, his rivalry with Lorenzo Ghiberti, and being thrown out of a public meeting - The herringbone brick pattern and ox hoist that made construction possible - What it's like to climb all 463 steps to the top of the dome today - Life, legacy, and building your own "cathedral"