What Day Is It, Really?
Summary
Hosts Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens explore the surprisingly arbitrary nature of our calendar and time. They trace the errors in the Julian calendar, Pope Gregory XIII's controversial 10-day jump, and the resistance to his reforms. The discussion also covers the administrative origins of New Year's Day, how travel necessitated time standardization, and the incredible precision of atomic clocks, ultimately questioning how we'll keep time across the solar system.Episode description
What day is it, really? And who decided? What happens to time when we leave the Earth? And when might future humans be counting down to the dawn of a New Year in the middle of the day?
From missing days and meddling popes to atomic clocks and vanishing centuries, Professor Hannah Fry and Michael Stevens dive headfirst into one of the slipperiest questions in science and society: what IS the time and date?
On the way they trace a tiny error by Julius Caesar, a correction by Pope Gregory XIII, and how time itself has bent to human will.
In the process, faiths have quarrelled, centuries have blurred or been deleted altogether and yet, we crave precision in a universe that drifts, producing clocks so exact they must pause to let the Earth turn.
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Video Producer: Adam Thornton
Video & Social: Bex Tyrrell
Assistant Producer: Imee Marriott
Producer: Becki Hills
Senior Producer: Lauren Armstrong-Carter
Head Of Digital: Samuel Oakley
Exec Producer: Neil Fearn
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