Hi, I'm Ed Zittron, host of the Better offline Podcast.

I've been both a tech writer and a tech executive for 15 years,

and I've seen this industry grow from a bunch of dorks building things in their

garage into a multi trillion dollar behemoth that has monetized every corner of our lives.

Better offline is a podcast where I'll lead you through the good, the bad and the stupid of the tech industry.

And tell you exactly how venture capitalists and technocrat billionaires intend to influence your digital lives.

Listen to better offline on the IHOP radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcast. Jerry's here too, Dave's not, but you know the jam and this is short stuff.

You go.

Okay, I'll go.

So we're talking about the Benin bronzes and they are a treasure trove of artworks that came out of Benin, which is a former kingdom.

Well, actually it's still a current kingdom in Edo State in the south of Nigeria right now.

But before Nigeria was Nigeria, Benin was a kingdom

along West Africa that was a very powerful kingdom and one of the things that

they did when a new a king which they called an Oba, OBA, or a new

Queen Mother ascended to the throne when there was some sort of important event or even something that they just wanted to kind of

chronicle they would make these plaques, these incredibly intricate well-made

bronze plaques.

And over time, over hundreds of years

of creating these things and documenting the kingdom,

they ended up with a lot of these things

and so much so that it became essentially considered a

cultural legacy of of the world but in particular Benin in West Africa.

...