Mentioned in Podcasts

Episode · Stuff You Should Know · 2025-07-17

Books mentioned on How Alchemy Worked

1 book · Listen · Watch on YouTube

Alchemy evokes sorcerers working by candlelight combining potions to create magical items, real Dungeons & Dragons stuff. But alchemy gets a bad rap.

Chuck Bryant discussed The book of the cow.

Books mentioned, in the order they came up

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  1. The book of the cow

    Unknown · at 29:58

    Discussed
    “I mean, the word homunculus is fun in and of itself, but uh yeah, there's something called the book of the cow. Uh this is an Arabic book in the 9th century uh that apparently Plato had something to do with. And there was a recipe for a homunculus in there, which is one hunculi.”
    Chuck Bryant How Alchemy Worked 2025-07-17 Listen at 29:58
    Where to get it
    AmazonListen on Audible
Other mentions in this episode (1) — ad reads, self-promotion and passing references, never counted
Passing Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
“It'd make a really cool like title for a Harry Potter book or a Willie the Wizard book or something, you know? Are you making philosophers stone? Um no, I think it's just kind of like it it's just na it fits naturally, you know. Well, that was the original title of the Harry Potter book. Uh, sorcerer stone.”
Chuck Bryant How Alchemy Worked 2025-07-17 Listen at 20:49
Link to this list from the episode’s show notes

For the whole show, see the Stuff You Should Know page.