Today I want to talk about a discovery humans have taken for granted for thousands of years — something woven into every great voyage in history.

Every age of discovery, every battle at sea, every whaling hunt, every shipwreck — held together, quite literally, by miles and miles of it. And yet, almost no one ever thinks about it.

My guest today however does. Tim Queeney is the author of Rope: How a Bundle of Twisted Fibers Became the Backbone of Civilization, and he’s joining me to talk about the maritime thread of that story — the ropewalks, the rigging, the disasters, the whalers, and the salty language we still use today without realizing where it came from.