Pulse: Origins

Singularity Pulse Network

Everything has an origin. The borders on your map, the food on your table, the price of oil, the language you're reading this in. Pulse: Origins investigates the forces that shaped the modern world — the geography, the science, the empires, and the decisions that quietly determined everything else. Hosted by Roman and Austin. Every Sunday.

Season 1

  1. EPISODE 1

    The Strait of Hormuz — Act 1

    Four thousand years ago, Bahrain's merchants calibrated their scales to Indian standards — not Mesopotamian ones. That detail reveals who organized Gulf trade and why: the same tectonic collision that built the oil reserves also carved the six-mile bottleneck everything has to pass through. This act covers the ancient Sumerian trade highway, Alexander the Great's unbuilt thousand-ship armada, and the starving Portuguese commander who seized Hormuz Island in 1507 with six ships and a costume change. New episodes every Sunday. Follow us on X @ThePulseSPN singularitypulse.substack.com

    17 min

  2. EPISODE 2

    The Strait of Hormuz — Act 2

    The Route to India: Britain didn't come to the Persian Gulf for the Gulf — it came to protect the passage to India, and it built an entire political order to do it. This act covers how calling Arab sailors 'pirates' became the legal foundation for the Trucial States, why the borders on today's map were drawn to serve an empire that no longer exists, and what happened when Britain announced it was leaving — and the rulers it had installed offered to pay it to stay. New episodes every Sunday. Follow us on X @ThePulseSPN singularitypulse.substack.com

    20 min

  3. EPISODE 3

    The Strait of Hormuz — Act 3

    The Oil Trap: In May 1908, an engineer in the Persian foothills ignored a telegram telling him to shut down and kept drilling. The gusher he struck set off a chain reaction that runs unbroken to the present: Churchill's 1914 purchase of Anglo-Persian Oil, Mosaddegh's nationalization, the CIA coup that reversed it, the Shah's fall, and the revolution that turned Iran's position at the strait from a guarantee of flow into a permanent threat. New episodes every Sunday. Follow us on X @ThePulseSPN singularitypulse.substack.com

    29 min

  4. SEASON 1 TRAILER

    Pulse: Origins — Trailer

    Everything has an origin.

    1 min

Trailer

About

Everything has an origin. The borders on your map, the food on your table, the price of oil, the language you're reading this in. Pulse: Origins investigates the forces that shaped the modern world — the geography, the science, the empires, and the decisions that quietly determined everything else. Hosted by Roman and Austin. Every Sunday.

Information

  • Creator
    Singularity Pulse Network
  • Episodes
    4
  • Seasons
    1
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Singularity Pulse Network. All rights reserved.
  • Show Website
    Pulse: Origins