The History of the World – the 100th object

Published by Tony Quinlan on

One of the great podcasts from the BBC is reaching its conclusion – and it has just announced how it will finish.

I love my morning drive – I usually end up listening to podcasts – it’s the University of Prius. A favourite this year has been the joint venture between the British Museum and the BBC – A History of the World in a 100 Objects. Each one is a 15 minute snapshot narrated by Neil MacGregor, the director of the British Museum.

It all started off in January 2010 with the Olduvai Stone Chopping Tool

Olduvai Stone Chopping Tool

And using objects in the British Museum to delve into fantastic anthropology, it’s covered Art, Leadership, War, Protest, Religion, Work, the Family and far more. The objects have come from every corner of the globe. (Globe’s don’t have corners, but allow me that licence, OK?)

It’s also opened up the project for people to nominate their own objects – a great piece of open-source, collaborative work.

And it will be finishing next week with its 100 object: Solar-powered lamp and charger

The full list of programmes is here. 100 programmes at 15 minutes each. A well-spent 25 hours…