Kew: The Garden That Changed the World

Walk with me through a garden. Not just any garden, mind you, this is Kew. A place where palm trees from the Pacific share soil with Himalayan orchids, and where, if you listen closely, every leaf rustles with a story of conquest, trade, survival, and exploitation.

In this episode, we uncover the tangled roots of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew, a quiet place that was never really quiet. For nearly three centuries, it stood at the beating heart of empire. It was here that plants were not only catalogued but conscripted, moved like pawns across continents, reshaping economies and empires alike.

We’ll trace the footsteps of Joseph Banks, who turned Kew into the nerve centre of imperial botany. We’ll explore how quinine, rubber, tea, and cinchona moved through these glasshouses before transforming the tropics. And we’ll ask a bigger question: was this a garden, or a global laboratory for empire?

So come with us into the steamy hothouses, the specimen drawers, the expedition journals. Because to understand how the world was changed—not by guns or gold, but by seeds, you need to start here, beneath the glass canopies of Kew.