Thirsty

You turn on the tap and water flows indefinitely. It never crosses your mind that there is a finite amount. The sky is blue, the earth is round, and water comes out of a faucet. Our ancient ancestors used to spend every day of their life ensuring that they had access to clean water. They developed ingenious methods for supplying it, methods that have shaped our modern world more than we realize.

Four thousand years ago, for example, an ancient people began to make their way north from the Maya civilization in Mexico. Their entire worldview was different. They had no concept of how big the earth is or their place in it, no scientific method to give them answers to where the weather comes from or what it might be like one day after the next. And the Sonoran Desert where they were headed, is not an ideal place to live. There is so little moisture there that everything has evolved to

protect what little water it can get. The cacti will prick you, and the rattlesnakes will poison you. There's an insect there known as the tarantula hawk that's basically a massive wasp with orange wings. It sting is the most painful of any insect on the planet. It will leave you in such excruciating pain that you won't be able to form a coherent thought for five whole minutes, which of course will feel like five out. So naturally, our desert people stuck to the Salt and Ghia rivers, and

they thrived. They traded with other ancient people in Mexico and southern California and formed an empire. But as their population grew into the tens of thousands, they could no longer confine themselves to the river banks. They had to venture further into the desert. Now, given the dangers we've discussed, one would think that they might have just tried some population control. We all know that humans aren't great at that, though,

so instead they began to dig. They dug canals fifteen feet deep and forty five feet wide, lengthening the rivers further into the desert. When the water flow was too weak, they narrowed the canals, creating a pressure. When it was too strong, they widened the canals. And they did this for over one thousand miles, making adjustments for every hill and valley. Soon their civilization numbered as much as eighty thousand,

and then just like that, they disappeared. Hundreds of years later, a new civilization arrived in the desert, American settlers looking for gold. One of those settlers, a man named Jack Swilling, stumbled across a massive underground ditch while he was working his gold claim. He realized that it went on for miles, eventually connecting to a river. So with the help of sixteen other miners, he dug out the canals and reconnected

them to the Salt River. Soon he had water flowing again in the desert, allowing for thousands of miners to drink from the canals and grow crops. Darryl Dupa, an English lord who had come to settle in the area was moved by the site of this new civilization born out of ancient canals. He took it all in and said, a city will rise Phoenix, like new and beautiful from the ashes of the past. And so Phoenix, Arizona was born. Today, Phoenix continues to get its water from improved versions of

the same canals dug by the ancient Sonorans. They are now called the Johokum, a word from the more modern Pima Native Americans that means those who have vanished, and Arizonans do well to remember that name and its meaning, because as much as the Johokum civilization flourished, it ended just as quickly, and the prevailing theory is that they moved on after they finally ran out of their most valuable resource, water. The canals are susceptible to drought, and

Arizona has experienced one for fifteen years. Though modern advances allow for greater water pumping and storage, the system is experiencing more strains than ever, and in our modern world, various corporate interests compete for the water on top of what has already needed to sustain the local lives. Today, Phoenix is the fifth largest city in America. But if its occupants don't learn from history, their city, risen from the ashes of the past, will be reclaimed by the

desert where the rattlesnakes and the tarantula hawks are waiting. Officially, then national drink of England is tea. But if you've spent any time in the United Kingdom, then you know that another beverage reigns supreme in the hearts of many Brits, a drink that causes millions to race to the nearest watering hole every day at quitting time. I'm talking, of course, about beer. Yes, the British loved their pints and have

for centuries. In the sixteen hundreds, beer was almost more popular than water, which was easily contaminated, especially in urban areas. The brewing process killed a lot of the bacteria that made water dangerous at the time. As a result, beer was seen as not just more nutritious, but also healthier, and according to a lot of people, it just plain tasted better too. It wasn't uncommon for working men to have a beer with breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Many would

average eight to ten beers a day. This drinking habit became a major problem in sixteen oh seven, when one hundred and four English settlers crossed the Atlantic to establish the colony of Jamestown. Upon their arrival, one of the colonists first acts was to establish a town brewery. But simply erecting a building didn't do them much good because

none of them actually knew how to brew. You see, virtually all of the initial colonists were men, and in the seventeenth century, brewing was a task that had been traditionally done by women, often in their own home kitchens, and it wasn't the only skill the colonists lacked. Most of them couldn't sew, cook, bake bread, or make cheese, all of which were essential skills for basic living. So as the months passed, their food stores waned and their

clothes became more threadbare and ragged. Without female companions, many of the colonists became lonely, even depressed, and yet one of their most consistent complaints was the frustratingly poor supplies of beer. Within a few years, men were abandoning the colonies in droves. England was on the verge of giving up on the whole venture altogether, but Sir Edwin Sandy's of the Virginia Company convinced them to give it one more shot. They would send another ship of colonists to Jamestown.

Only this one would not carry men, but young women, all eligible brides who hopefully would marry the existing colonists and save Jamestown front collapse. Now, as you might expect, the company had a hard time finding women willing to give up their lives in England and make the trip. To convince them, the company offered to pay the women's dowries, allowing poorer women to move up the social ladder. But

they couldn't just send anyone. The company sought out young women who had the skills that the male colonists lacked, and one of the most important skills they were looking for was the ability to brew beer. The first ship of roughly one hundred women arrived in sixteen twenty, with more to follow soon. The next year, the colonists planted their first crop of hops, a crucial ingredient in beer and ale. After fourteen years, the Jamestown colonists were finally

on their way to a functional brewing industry. But the road before them wasn't easy. They lacked many of the ingredients typically used in English beverages, and warm summers made brewing alcohol difficult in general to get by, the female brewers had to be incredibly creative. Instead of barley, they used whatever vegetables they could get their hands on, things

like corn, pumpkin, molasses, ivy, and even common weeds. They experimented constantly, creating complex recipes involving ginger root, sage, rye, and more. The resulting drinks had little in common with English beer, but they did the trick. The brewing industry blossomed, and by seventeen seventy the American colonies were awash with alcohol, with the most popular drinks being cider, rum and beer. Now that changed in seventeen seventy five with the start

of the American Revolution. Beer was still associated with England and drinking it was suddenly viewed as unpatriotic. In its place, whiskey rose to become the most popular form of alcohol. Everything comes full circle, though, and today beer is back on top as America's favorite alcoholic beverage. Cracking a cold one on July fourth is once again a patriotic pastime, so long as your beer of choice is brewed in the good old us of a. I hope you've enjoyed

today's guided tour of the Cabinet of Curiosities. Subscribe for free on Apple Podcasts, or learn more about the show by visiting Curiosities podcast dot com. The show was created by me Aaron Mankey in partnership with how Stuff Works. I make another award winning show called Lore, which is a podcast, book series, and television show, and you can learn all about it over at the Worldoflore dot com. And until next time, stay curious.