Ancient people around the world all made a rather similar discovery. In certain places, they could find a black stone in the ground which could burn.
For the most part, this combustible black rock took a backseat to wood as a fuel source, but eventually, it replaced wood and was the fuel source that drove the industrial revolution.
Over time, other energy sources supplanted coal, and now coal appears to be on its way out.
Learn more about coal, its past, present, and future as a source of energy, on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily.
Today's Book of the Day is a little bit of everything: punk rock music, high school dynamics, some horror tropes, and pointing out the dangers of nostalgia. Author Paul Tremblay discusses with Shannon Bond why that is, and explains the influence his own high school experience and Stephen King brought to his book The Pallbearers Club.
Amanda Holmes reads Sam Cornish’s poem “Harriet in the Promised Land.” Have a suggestion for a poem by a (dead) writer? Email us: podcast@theamericanscholar.org. If we select your entry, you’ll win a copy of a poetry collection edited by David Lehman.
This episode was produced by Stephanie Bastek and features the song “Canvasback” by Chad Crouch.
As the House's committee hearings on Jan. 6 continue, today's episode offers some context from The Atlantic reporter Mark Leibovich, who has a new book out this month titled Thank You For Your Servitude: Donald Trump's Washington and the Price of Submission. He sits down with Juana Summers to talk about the price of blind loyalty under the Trump administration, and how that affected the insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.