Skip to main content
Back to Show
Origin of Everything

How Your Rubber Ducky Explains Colonialism

Season 1 Episode 10

Rubber is an extremely important part of modern living, from tires to clothes to building materials to adhesives. And though we don’t often think of it in the same league as oil or cotton, industrialization drove the demand for rubber which drove into intense competition between world powers hell bent on imperial expansion. How did it happen? Watch the episode to find out.

Sign up now for inspiring and thought-provoking media delivered straight to your inbox.
Support Provided By
Season
Six Historically True Facts about Money
11:11
How did money come to be such a driving force of modern life?
Why Do All Malls Look the Same?
8:54
Why do all strip malls look the same, even across different states?
Why Did Europeans Enslave Africans?
7:42
Why were most slaves in America from West Africa?
Why Do Women Shave Their Legs?
7:27
Why do women shave their legs and armpit hair, but men don’t?
6 Weird Facts About the History of Birth Control
9:17
The history of birth control is very long and very odd.
Why Do We Say "Asian American" Not "Oriental"?
6:59
Why do Americans no longer use the word “Oriental”?
Why Was It Illegal to be Ugly?
5:53
For nearly 100 years it was illegal to be “ugly.” How did we put an end to this?
What Was Jesus' Real Name?
4:18
How did we get the name “Jesus”? And is “Christ” a last name?
History of the Word “Gay”
6:03
Why did “GAY” stop meaning “happy” and start referring “same sex relationships?
Do Standardized Tests Do More Harm Than Good?
9:08
Do standardized test help or harm students?
When Men Wore High Heels
6:27
For much of their history high heels were seen as a marker of an epic masculinity.
The 2nd Amendment Explained
9:28
We dive into the Supreme Court cases that shaped our understanding of the 2nd amendment.
Active loading indicator