Thank you for listening to Power Corrupts. This season of Power Corrupts is ad-free,

keeping us editorially independent, so we can unapologetically name and shame without having

to worry about offending anyone who's paying the bills. Instead, we're asking you to help us

keep the show going in one of two ways. First, you can order my new book, Corruptible,

Who Gets Power and How It Changes Us. I study dictators, despots, and crooks,

but this book goes beyond that to also look at petty tyrants from homeowner's associations

to mid-level management. It draws on more than 500 interviews that I've conducted with

some seriously unsavory people, but it also draws on the latest research in social science,

neuroscience, and evolutionary biology to better understand power, corruption, and abuse.

If you buy a copy, you can get access to an exclusive episode of Power Corrupts

that isn't publicly available. Just go to my website, www.brionpcloss.com,

that's class with two A's, click on Corruptible, fill out the form, and you'll get a link sent to

you with the exclusive episode. Alternatively, you can also support our work on Patreon by going to

patreon.com slash power corrupts. For a few dollars a month, you can get access to exclusive bonus

content, uncut interviews, and much more. Thanks for listening and for making the show possible.

You've probably heard that fireworks were invented in China. Around 200 BC,

the earliest fireworks were created, and the origin story goes something like this.

2,200 years ago, someone in China accidentally tossed some bamboo onto a fire,

and it created a pleasing effect. A thousand years later, an alchemist who was looking for an

elixir to create eternal life accidentally created gunpowder. When it was packed into bamboo,

fireworks were born. By the year 1200, China had invented rocket cannons, and with rockets flying

high into the sky, a new tantalizing possibility was considered. Can humans reach space?

...