The History of Glasses 👓

Apr 17

Did we invent glasses, or did we invent the problem that makes us need them? 👓 From bone goggles carved by the Inuit 2,000 years ago to the forgotten woman scientist behind the lenses in your glasses right now, this is the history of eyeglasses, vision correction, and the myopia epidemic nobody is talking about. Nearly half the world struggles to see clearly. Screen time is changing our eyes. And the story of how we got here is way weirder than you think.

In this episode, we cover:

👁️ The world's first corrective eyewear — made from bone, wood & ivory in the Arctic

👁️The 2,700-year-old Nimrud lens and what ancient Iraq knew about optics

👁️How a medieval Islamic scholar named Ibn al-Haytham cracked the science of human vision (while faking madness to survive his boss)

👁️The invention of reading glasses in 13th-century Italy — and why we don't know who made them

👁️Chinese judges who wore smoky quartz lenses in court to hide their reactions

👁️Benjamin Franklin, bifocals, and a very suspicious interest in "the views."

👁️Dr. Estelle Glancy — the brilliant woman whose 10 years of math changed optics forever, and whose name was left off the work

👁️Why 80–90% of young adults in parts of East Asia are now nearsighted — and what that means for the rest of us

Whether you wear glasses, contacts, or you're considering laser eye surgery, this one will change how you see your own eyes. (Pun absolutely intended.)