3 ms·
Seems like an opportunity to plug the latest video by my favorite YouTube long form documentary maker, OTR: The History of the Banana https://youtu.be/YVVD1cY
by danans 3mo ago
Seems like an opportunity to plug the latest video by my favorite YouTube long form documentary maker, OTR:
The History of the Banana
https://youtu.be/YVVD1cYelUE?is=ADLXFR_-mIMdDfom https://youtu.be/YVVD1cYelUE?is=ADLXFR_-mIMdDfom
Here gets into ancient innovations that allowed bananas to be grown outside of their native habitat in Papua New Guinea.
If you haven't seen his content, and you get sucked in, then settle in without distractions - this is the opposite end of spectrum of TikTok, etc. Also, don't watch his "History of Sugar" documentary if you are feeling depressed. Instead watch the "History of Curry".
- dataviz1000 3mo agoIf you like this long format style of video, you might enjoy Asianometry, "video essays on business, economics, and history." [0] Here is a video on the banana also, "The Wildly Infectious Banana Plague." [1] [0] https://www.youtube.com/@Asianometry https://www.youtube.com/@Asianometry [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OsiD_s00RQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6OsiD_s00RQ
- MPSimmons 3mo agoI'll second this. I'm continually impressed with the breadth of coverage from Asianometry. Great channel.
- tambourine_man 3mo agoI wish Jon would post a video on his research methodology.
- caminanteblanco 3mo agoAsianometry is one of the rare gems among youtube channels, along with Alexander the ok [0] and Technology Connections [1] [0] https://www.youtube.com/@Alexander-the-ok https://www.youtube.com/@Alexander-the-ok [1] https://www.youtube.com/technologyconnections https://www.youtube.com/technologyconnections
- rdedev 3mo agoMy favorite is the history of chili pepper. It's something so fundamental to indian cuisine that I assumed chillies were native to India for a long time. His video shows the true history of how that spice travelled from the Americas to all over the globe
- zulux 3mo agoWhen my Korean friends tell me that my cuisine isn't spicy enough: Well... let's talk about that spice.
- pfdietz 3mo agoHave you read Charles C. Mann's book "1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created"? It's all about the global impact of the opening of the New World by the Europeans, and how the global exchange created and is creating the "homogenocene", the age of homogeneity. There's a part about a folk song in the Philippines that lovingly goes over the crops being grown around a village. They're all introduced.
- culi 3mo agoIt really transformed Europe too. Europe's basically a story of famine after famine until they got access to the potato. I don't know if any other technology has saved as many European lives as the potato Pacific island cultures are a bit unique in their relationship to the New World though. Chickens which come from SE Asian jungles have been in South America since at least 1300 AD. And sweet potatoes were grown in Polynesia around 1000 AD.
- gwerbin 3mo ago1300 AD?! Did the Polynesians bring chickens with them? I knew about the sweet potatoes, but the chickens are a whole different manner.
- pfdietz 3mo agoChickens descend from jungle fowl, which were carried out into the Pacific from SE Asia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_junglefowl https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_junglefowl
- pfdietz 3mo agoSugarcane is also thought to be originally from New Guinea, although it spread widely in prehistory.
- kdheiwns 3mo agoDidn't expect to see this on HN, but it's definitely one of my favorite YouTube channels. Most food history content online feels like straight up readings from Wikipedia, but OTR does actual research and interviews. The Golden Triangle episode where they interviewed the anti-CCP rebel veteran who was like 90 years old was pretty neat. Doesn't sound like it'd tie into food, but it does.