PODCAST · society
Documents That Changed the World
by Joe Janes
A look at documents that have made a difference in the world. Joe Janes, of the University of Washington Information School, tells the stories of these important information objects, how and why they were created, and the impacts they've had. These documents also tell the story of human society, and its never ending evolution. Look for our Podcast in the iTunes Store
Episodes
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77. Roman Citizenship Extension Decree ("Edict of Caracalla"), 212 CE
"Civis Romanus sum" - "I am a Roman citizen". Well, I'm not, but if I was, it would have been one of the most important phrases in my world. Citizenship confers rights, asks responsibilities, offers protection, and is easy to take for granted unless you haven't got it; and though we don't know…
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35. Alfred Nobel's Will, 1895 (Encore)
As the Nobel Prizes are announced, we revisit one of the greatest legacies, and worst-written wills of all times, though almost completely not what the author had in mind; wills, their history and how to (almost always) get the last word
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76. Documents of 9/11: A Special Episode
A charred notebook, videos of the impossible, espionage, memorials, Helen Keller's letters, papers drifting down from a clear blue sky, flyers of the missing, DNA. In this special episode, we examine objects, records, documents of all kinds, and the people and institutions that collect and keep...
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75. Canadian Plan for Invasion of U.S. (Defence Scheme No. 1), 1921
You read that right, imagine phalanxes of Canadians pouring (insert maple syrup joke here) over the US border to pre-empt a potential American invasion and the colorful character who might have turned neighbors into invaders
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74. Browser Cookies, 1994
Mmmmm...cookies... Just be careful, these cookies can bite back. The story of the untold number of cookies lurking on your browsers, meant to make browsing easier and faster, which became a major threat to privacy on the Internet
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73. Declaration of Independence Deleted Passage, 1776
Updated with new details: How do you read words that aren't there? The towering idea of the Declaration of Independence, the passage on slavery deleted before its adoption, and the hole that silence has left behind
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72. The Nineteenth Amendment, 1920
Updated: You might know how the Constitution is amended, but do you know where it is? Chances are, what you think is wrong, and the serious and hilarious story of a crucial amendment tells us why the words matter but the location doesn't
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71. HeLa (Henrietta Lacks) DNA, 1951
The worst thing that ever happened to Henrietta Lacks - the cancer that killed her - is what has immortalized her, in a line of cellular tissue used in research, making her the savior of countless lives - even at the cost of her dignity
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70. Periodic Table of the Elements, 1869
Einstein famously didn't say "God doesn't play dice with the universe". But what about cards? That periodic table you stared at in high school has a surprising origin story; once you hear it, you can't unsee it
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69. Fermat's Last Theorem, c1637
Let me just jot down this little note - a few words tossed off in the margin of a book, and 3 1/2 centuries of mathematicians banging their heads against walls, ensure, dogged determination to achieve an indisputable outcome, whatever the reason
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68. Negro Motorist Green Book, 1936
Road trip! Let's just pack up and go - but where should we go, stay, eat? Easy decisions for some, perilous for others, until a mailman lent his name to a little book that made the journey a whole lot safer, less humiliating and more enjoyable to generations of travelers setting out on the open...
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67. Guinness Book of Records, 1955
A compendium of fastests and highests and mosts in a book that nobody needs but millions have enjoyed - documenting the boundaries of human capability; just don't call it trivial, and please, stop eating the bicycles. Golden plover for the win! (or not) (researched by Brooks Scheibler)
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66. First Motion Picture Camera Patent, 1888
Edison invented the movie camera, right? Nope - and therein lies a Hollywood story that doesn't take place anywhere near Hollywood, with guest appearances by Greer Garson, Spencer Tracy, Jack the Ripper, and Louis Le Prince, the real inventor, and his real life mystery (researched/written by...
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65. NCAA Transfer Portal, 2018
Just enter the portal and fame and fortune await, right? Maybe, though nothing is guaranteed - one of many misconceptions about a tool that does its job and makes things work, no wormholes required
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64. "First" Social Security Number, 1936
Who's got your number? Hopefully nobody who isn't supposed to - the origins of the number we (almost) all live by, why and how it's become so necessary, and what happens when you die - or somebody thinks you have
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63. Incan Quipu (knotted fiber cords), by c1300
How can you know what you can't read? A writing system without a key, suspended knots and strings we can't interpret, leaving entire peoples also in suspense to understand their past and stories (researched/written by Diego Licea)
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62. Sumerian Complaint Tablet, c1750 BCE
"How dare you treat me like this?" The cry of untold millions of consumers with a grievance to air, or type, or phone in - or bake into clay tablets, in the faint but eternal hope of being heard (researched/written by Ellianna Thayne)
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61. Oldest Known Galaxy, 13+ billion years ago
How is a galaxy a document? How could it change the world? Well, look out there, as far as we can see, and even farther - and then look inside, and maybe you'll find out.
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60. Mètre des Archives (original standard meter), 1799
I love you, a bushel and a peck - or maybe an acre, or fathom, or hundredweight, or any of the thousands of measurements we have created, which somebody has to establish and standardize, like the meter, one way or the other
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59. Egyptian "Book of the Dead", c1600 BCE
The road map and guide book to the afterlife, all spelled out to ensure a successful and surprisingly personalized journey
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58. Emily Post's Etiquette, 1922
According to Emily Post...etiquette is meant to make people feel comfortable and at ease, and the more who know the better - and it's not about the forks
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57. Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948
Human rights and how they came to be recognized, agreed upon and most importantly recorded and declared, for all of us to share
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56. Electoral College Documents, 2020
Papers, signatures, seals, ceremonies, rules that produce documents to let hundreds speak for millions in having their say in the most important decision they make
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55. World's Fair Time Capsule, 1938
The best known example of an attempt to help the future to understand the present when it's the past, even 5000 years on
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54. Articles of Impeachment, 1868
The extraordinary ordinariness of articles of impeachment, then and now, and the lessons to be learned, over and over again
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53. Code of Hammurabi, c1754 BCE
Whoever thought finding the law could be a challenge? Not if it's on a 7 ft tall stela for all to see - now, as then, finding the law can be almost as complicated as finding justice
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52. Eurovision/European Broadcast Union Statutes, 1950
What's the most popular television show in the world that you may never have heard of? Founding documents, politics, dancing apes, and the shared cultural moments that are the Eurovision Song Contest
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50. IRS Form 1040, 1914
Line after line, year after year, the forms that keep information organized, processes processing, and civilization working
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49. "Operation Mincemeat" Faked Documents, 1943
When is a fake not a fake? A strange WWII stories, authentically fake documents on a dead fake British officer to divert German attention from an invasion of Sicily and change the course of the war-for real (researched/co-written by Kate Merifield)
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48. Voyager "Golden Records", 1977
Mixtape, love letter, time capsule, letter of introduction, message in a bottle and more, not to mention the furthest object of human construction, sending our messages out to the stars, seeking understanding and remembrance
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47. Webster's Dictionary, 1828
Words define a language, and in turn languages help to define cultures and societies. And people define words, as the last man who tried to define them all himself knew, in the process trying also to define and distinguish his developing nation
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46. Liber Abaci (Arabic Numerals), 1202
800 years ago, an Italian mathematician and world traveler brought the gift of digits to Europe, from India, through Arabia, and taught the West how to count, and calculate, and figure it all out
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45. Palm Beach County "Butterfly" Ballot, 2000
Vote for the person you want, somebody in charge counts ‘em up and then we find out the winner. As if. The many ways that can go wrong, and the importance of good design done well but somebody who knows how
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44. Stock Market Crash Ticker Tape, 1929
When the market started to crash, the ticker, reliable source of up-to-the-second information, fell behind, and all of a sudden not knowing what you didn't know was worse than knowing, and the spiral went down and down from there
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43. FDR Thanksgiving Proclamation, 1939
Two Thanksgivings! Twice the turkey, twice the parades, twice the football? Nope, but for a few years the nation was split by a presidential proclamation that didn't quite work as intended
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42. Declaration of Independence Deleted Passage, 1776
How do you read words that aren't there? The towering idea of the Declaration of Independence, the passage on slavery deleted before its adoption, and the hole that silence has left behind
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41. Nupedia (Wikipedia precursor), 2000
Encyclopedias have changed, due to the one you know - but actually the one you probably don't, and the ways in which we know the things we know are changing right along with them
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40. Richter Scale, 1935
The Richter Scale...isn't used any more, and the man who created it had a mind more sensitive to the movements of the earth than the subtleties of society
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39. Fannie Farmer Cookbook, 1896
Hungry yet? The cookbook, and the woman, who standardized recipes and encouraged us all to think about food as science and art
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38. Vietnam Veterans Memorial, 1982
Name after name, row after row, the wall, and the things we bring to it, including ourselves, all of which help us remember and reconcile
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37. Statistical Significance, 1925
How to know when to believe a research study, drawing the line between real and spurious, and how a "random" line in a book defines the way we understand the world
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36. Annals of the World, 1650
Bishop James Ussher, the search for the beginning of the universe, and the date (and time) of Creation, making the most of the tools at hand
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35. Alfred Nobel's Will, 1895
One of the greatest legacies, and worst-written wills of all times, though almost completely not what the author had in mind; wills, their history and how to (almost always) get the last word
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34. "The Star-Spangled Banner", 1814
O say do you know...the story behind the Star-Spangled Banner? It took off fast, then slowly, and has stood the test of time while still, and always, becoming
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33. Philosophical Transactions, 1665
The first scholarly journal, at the dawn of the Scientific Revolution, and helping to give birth to the way we write and think about scholarship and investigation...and now it's all changing again
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32. First Woman's College Diploma, 1840
It's just "a piece of paper," except it's not. The story of Catherine Elizabeth Benson Brewer, the first woman to receive a diploma, and how we recognize achievement, yesterday and today (written/researched/recorded by Kelsey Gibbons)
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31. Joseph McCarthy's "List", 1950
I have in my hand a list...of 57 Communists in the State Department. Or was it 205? Or 81? Or was there a list at all? How documents get their power, from us, even if they don't exist
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30. The Exaltation of Inanna, c2300 BCE
One of the oldest works of literature we know, a hymn written by Enheduanna, perhaps the first known named author, in the Sumerian city of Ur, a plea for help that doesn't feel out of place 4300 years later
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29. Donation of Constantine, c750
Why the Popes ruled Italy: one of the greatest gifts in history, as a result of one of the greatest forgery in history, the art of making a document lie, and figuring out what's real and what's not
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28. Zimmerman Telegram, 1917
The secret decoding of a secret message: how Britain found out that Germany wanted Mexico to attack America to keep them out of World War I, and the spectacular backfire that resulted (researched/produced by Jill Fenno)
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ABOUT THIS SHOW
A look at documents that have made a difference in the world. Joe Janes, of the University of Washington Information School, tells the stories of these important information objects, how and why they were created, and the impacts they've had. These documents also tell the story of human society, and its never ending evolution. Look for our Podcast in the iTunes Store
HOSTED BY
Joe Janes
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How many episodes does Documents That Changed the World have?
Documents That Changed the World currently has 77 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
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A look at documents that have made a difference in the world. Joe Janes, of the University of Washington Information School, tells the stories of these important information objects, how and why they were created, and the impacts they've had. These documents also tell the story of human society,...
How often does Documents That Changed the World release new episodes?
Documents That Changed the World has 77 episodes. Check the episode list to see recent publication dates and frequency.
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Who hosts Documents That Changed the World?
Documents That Changed the World is created and hosted by Joe Janes.
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