Hidden Histories Posts
The overlooked stories behind the ideas we take for granted. Trace the beginnings of inventions, ancient technologies, spiritual traditions, words, and ideas that continue to influence speculative fiction, from alchemy and the Holy Grail to the first robots.
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First Robots in Fiction
Was Frankenstein’s creature the first robot in science fiction? Tik-Tok, Čapek, the golem and a long line of automata say the answer is much older and messier.
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Inner Alchemy: How the Search for Immortality Gave Us Better Ways to Boil Water
From Taoist immortals and Egyptian metallurgists to medieval laboratories and the invention of the bain-marie, alchemy has been quietly influencing the modern world for thousands of years.
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Why Did We Forget Isaac Newton Was an Alchemist?
The father of modern physics wrote about a million words on alchemy. Why we forgot, and what inner alchemy says about experience science still can’t measure.
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Everyone Runs on Faith, Even Scientists
Ancient people weren't less intelligent, just less informed. On volcanoes, the problem of induction, and why faith in science resembles medieval faith.
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What Was the Holy Grail Before It Was Holy?
The first Grail story never calls it holy or even clearly a cup. How a golden serving dish became the cup of Christ—and what that teaches writers about myth.
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What the Knights Templar Found
A documentary said the Knights Templar dug up brotherhood beneath the Temple Mount. I think they found Asherah, the Canaanite Queen of Heaven.
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Wasteland
Merriam-Webster says a wasteland is barren and spiritually arid. So why does the word feel so good to write? A dig through etymology, Chernobyl, and 1838 law.
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Tell Me a Big Lie
A 2017 op-ed connecting "America First" rhetoric, The America We Deserve, and the Reform Party—daring readers to explain away what was standing in plain sight.