Oil’s legacy: fueling industrial growth and shaping imperial strategies

Trace the rise of oil: from early drilling to today’s global power

This animated map video vividly illustrates how petroleum shaped global politics and industry—from 18th-century uses and 19th-century drilling booms in North America to today’s OPEC strategies, shale revolution, and geopolitical oil influence.

Oil shocks, war, and the 1970s crisis that remade American energy and economics

The oil crises of the 1970s—fueled by Middle East conflict and OPEC’s dominance—triggered inflation, price controls, and policy failure. But they also accelerated fracking, alternative energy, and the rise of free-market economics.

The 1967 war was the first use of oil as a geopolitical weapon

Following the June 1967 Arab–Israeli war, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Libya, and Algeria embargoed oil shipments to the US, UK, and West Germany. While the move did not have a large impact, it reshaped global oil flows, and foreshadowed OAPEC's later actions.

Lessons from the 1973 energy crisis still echo in today’s geopolitical battles over oil

The video from the Economist highlights how energy supply disruptions can be weaponized—just as in 1973, today’s gas cutoffs (Russia throttling supplies to Europe after their invasion of Ukraine) reveal the ongoing importance of strategic energy resilience.

Explore a timeline of US dependence on crude oil from 1850 to 2023

Oil dependence began with the rise of oil as a commodity, followed by an era of geopolitical competition for the resource after World War II. The domestic fracking boom, which started around 2006, was driven by a desire to reduce the nation's dependence on international adversaries for energy.

Hear how the US and Iran went from close allies to bitter adversaries after the 1979 revolution

Covering five decades of conflict and diplomacy, this podcast examines key flashpoints—from the Iran-Iraq War and the 1983 Beirut bombings to Iran's use of proxy forces and cyberattacks—offering insight into one of the most consequential and complex rivalries in modern geopolitics.

Japan attacked Pearl Harbor largely because it was running out of oil

This video traces how US-led sanctions and Japan’s near-total dependence on imported oil pushed Japanese leaders toward a high-risk plan: seize Southeast Asian oil fields and neutralize the American Pacific Fleet, hoping Washington would negotiate rather than fight.

OPEC often intervenes to influence the price of oil

This guide explains how investing in oil works with in-depth explanations of each of the forces that control oil’s price. Oil is unique as a commodity in part because of OPEC’s role in regulating its price.

A four-part podcast traces how the Manhattan Project reshaped the world

This podcast series explores the origins of the Manhattan Project, its secret cities, and the scientists behind it—showing how the effort contributed to the end of World War II, launched the Atomic Age, and later led Oppenheimer to become a critic of nuclear weapons.

Large oil companies knew about the impact of carbon emissions since the ’70s

PBS Frontline’s The Power of Big Oil reveals how industry giants like Exxon and Shell were researching climate change in the 1970s but then funded denial campaigns—using internal science to sow public doubt for decades.

Hear about the legacy of the British Empire

This popular history podcast hosts a discussion about the legacy of the British Empire with guest Sathnam Sanghera, a journalist and author of the books "Empireland" and "Empireworld." The conversation contemplates the impact and lasting legacy of the Empire.

The recorded history of crude oil use, starting with Babylonians waterproofing boats

The ancient civilization located in modern-day Iraq also used crude oil as mortar in construction, while the Egyptians used it to treat human remains during the mummification process. After the invention of the first motorcar in 1885 and the introduction of the affordable Model T in 1908, demand for crude oil skyrocketed.

How the Rockefellers' wealth evolved over time

The Rockefellers built one of the most powerful business empires in US history. By the early 1900s, their company, Standard Oil, controlled over 90% of the US oil market.

Go inside the global effort that led to the Montreal Protocol in this narrative podcast

Nobel laureate Mario Molina and other key voices recount how science and diplomacy converged to develop a plan to close the ozone hole, offering insight into history's most successful environmental treaty.

Behind the scenes on tariff politics

Economist Gene Grossman joined the Trade Talks Podcast to discuss why tariffs really happen. The episode digs into how voters, politicians, lobbyists, and even campaign cash can affect when protectionist trade policies are put forward. Produced in 2019, the podcast also discusses how populist trade policies and identity politics accounted for Donald Trump’s victory in the 2016 Presidential election.

History shows what’s wrong with the idea that war is ‘normal’ in the Middle East

An old trope claims that war is ‘normal’, innate, and inevitable in the Middle East. However, the history of the region reveals complex and civilized systems of coexistence. Empires found economic and political strength in fostering diversity;...

Tracing the history of refrigeration

Refrigeration has become critical to most of our lives. But not long ago, it wasn't available. How did we become so dependent on our fridges and freezers? This fun, informative podcast traces the history of keeping it cool with ice and...

The ins and outs of oil refining

The oil industry is broken up into the upstream, midstream, and downstream segments, and oil refining is part of the latter. “Downstream” refers to companies like Standard Oil that are converting crude oil into a finished product.

Explore the technical side of the Erie Canal

Listen to this podcast from Northwestern University exploring the canal’s groundbreaking infrastructure—from locks and aqueducts to its role as America’s first large-scale engineered waterway.

Mosaddegh nationalized Iran's oil industry in 1951, threatening Western control of the country's resources

Before nationalization, British companies controlled most of Iran's oil wealth, with little revenue returned to Iranians. Mosaddegh's decision made him a national hero at home but triggered a Western-led embargo and ultimately contributed to the coup that removed him from power.

1440 Explores: The Evolution of the US Presidency

1440 traces how the presidency transformed from the limited office envisioned by the Founders into today's powerful institution—examining how presidents like FDR and Nixon reshaped executive authority.

Assessing the effectiveness of peacekeeping forces

This podcast episode of Diplomatic Immunity from Georgetown’s Institute for the Study of Diplomacy explores the evolution of UN peacekeeping over its 70-year history. The podcast is joined by Dr. Lise Howard to examine the origins, challenges, and shifting role of peacekeepers—those “blue helmets” deployed where few others will go—in a broader conversation about multilateralism and global conflict response.

The global economy runs on US dollars

Nearly 90% of international trade in 2019 was processed in US dollars. It's not only the most circulated currency in the world but also considered one of the most stable.

The science (and scams) behind essential oils

Essential oils are a big business, with industry estimates pegging its market size at $10B last year—a number expected to double by 2030. These distilled plant compounds have a long history of both legitimate and exaggerated uses, and many marketed oils are, as the author of this long read claims, just selling wish fulfillment. Revisit some of the history and contemporary use of essential oils with this piece.

Hear how Putin's Soviet childhood shaped his rule

In this podcast, journalist Julia Ioffe traces Putin's worldview to his "dvor"—the rough Soviet courtyards where he learned power, loyalty, and survival. The series shows how these early lessons shape his war in Ukraine.

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

Listen to an in-depth conversation on the links between Parkinson's disease and herbicide exposure and the challenging pace of scientific investigation.

Hear about the 250-year history of the United States Postal Service, complete with some of its strangest deliveries, important innovations, and the figures that made it an American institution.

The United States has had a tumultuous relationship with Cuba since its 1959 revolution, highlighted by a nuclear crisis and a decades-long trade embargo.

Explore the history, structure, and species of Australia's Great Barrier Reef with this interactive journey narrated by Sir David Attenborough.

Explore an interactive map of battles from the American Revolution, along with detailed summaries of each engagement

See the most iconic photos from four decades of LIFE magazine

Iran's Revolutionary Guard Corps is independent of Iran's regular army and is one of the most powerful and influential military-political organizations in the Middle East.

After the Boston Tea Party, colonists switched to coffee, which became the main morning drink for revolutionaries.

When a Paris department store hesitated to sell Estée Lauder's perfume, she 'accidentally' broke a bottle, causing the smell to spread throughout the store and shoppers to start asking to buy the scent.

Scientists can determine Earth's past climate conditions by analyzing air trapped in microscopic bubbles within ice cores—columns of compressed snow layers that build up over hundreds of thousands of years.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

The name 'Silicon Valley' arose from the founding of Shockley Semiconductor Laboratory in Fairchild Semiconductor in 1956-57, founded near Stanford University in Palo Alto

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

See how fireworks are made and learn how metals like magnesium and copper are responsible for different colors.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

Some renewable energy sources may weaken the resiliency of electric grids by removing outage buffers provided by coal- and natural gas-fired plants, which provide the system with more time to find a new power source if a plant goes down.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

Watch a 1934 short film starring jazz legend Cab Calloway, a major figure in the Harlem Renaissance's music scene

Sunflowers have long been a symbol of nuclear disarmament because they can extract large amounts of radioactive cesium from soil.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years