In Our Time (radio series)

Coffee, first broadcast December 12, 2019 World history told through one drink: from Ethiopia through the Ottoman Empire to the coffeehouses of 17th-century Western Europe, where caffeinated customers stayed awake longer and argued more, then on to colonial plantations worked by enslaved and indentured laborers. Judith Hawley, Markman Ellis and Jonathan Morris keep the pleasure and the exploitation in the same frame, ending with Brazil's rise as a major producer feeding demand in the United States. An easy, likable place to start, and one you will think about every time you order a cup.