Uploaded May 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago

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How an alchemist actually managed to turn something into gold...

Alchemy – the supposed ancient art of turning everyday objects into gold – is widely believed to be obsolete. Interestingly, however, every bit of this notion is wrong.

First of all, as it turns out, alchemy is still being practised today and, according to one of our guests, is doing better than ever. And second of all, it apparently was never actually an art of the physical transmutation of objects, but a very profound blend of philosophy, chemistry, physics and religion.

Join us on SFTEW as we travel back to the Middle Ages and meet Michael Sendivogius, an alchemist who contributed to the discovery of something absolutely essential...

More about the episode at Culture.pl:
https://culture.pl/en/podcast/SFTEW-23-TRANSMUTATION

More episodes:
https://culture.pl/en/stories-from-the-eastern-west

Episode Credits:

Written & produced by Elizabeth Lawrence & Wojciech Oleksiak
Edited by Adam Żuławski
Scoring & sound design by Wojciech Oleksiak
Hosted by Nitzan Reisner & Adam Żuławski
Research by Monika Proba

Stories from the Eastern West is a podcast from Culture.pl telling little-known histories from Central & Eastern Europe that changed our world. It was brought to you by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.