World War I is often summarized with one staggering figure: 40 million casualties. But that number is so enormous it almost stops meaning anything. In this episode, we go inside the data behind that total and uncover the hidden human stories buried inside the statistics.

Using a wide range of historical casualty records, demographic studies, and official reports, we break down how the First World War killed and wounded people on a scale the world had never seen before. We explore the shift from 19th century warfare, where disease killed more soldiers than battle, to the industrialized slaughter of machine guns, artillery, poison gas, and trench warfare, where the majority of military deaths happened directly in combat.

But this episode goes far beyond the familiar trench narrative. We examine the civilians, laborers, colonial troops,  ...