One Up The Annals
https://linktr.ee/oneuptheannals
Welcome to One Up the Annals
Hosted by Rab Greeson.
Join me as I do a cinematic narration of my creative nonfiction.
This isn’t a typical talk into a mic and interview people. Come hear a unique take on topics I find interesting, episodes are produced with music and sfx.
This show digs into the moments, obsessions, and mischief that shaped our world… not the textbook versions, but the human ones. The “how did we get here?” moments that connect past to present.
Each episode blends,
Cinematic storytelling
Cultural commentary with teeth
A little humor (the classy kind, mostly)
A unique approach and perspective
Whether it’s artists spiraling into brilliance, rulers courting disaster, or icons wrestling with the thin line between genius and madness, the Annals bring it all to life with heart, style, and a dash of irreverence.
If you love history, storytelling, or simply seeing humanity at its most human, you’re in the right place.
Where shame becomes legend… and the past finally gets the podcast it deserves.
Goodnight.
One Up The Annals
Mini Ep- Caviar: Why Fish Eggs Cost Thousands
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
https://linktr.ee/oneuptheannals
Last time it was truffles.
This time… it’s fish eggs.
Caviar, one of the most expensive foods in the world, didn’t start as luxury.
It started as leftovers.
In this episode of Out of My Budget Origins, Rab Greeson dives into the strange history of caviar, from struggling fishermen in ancient Persia… to Russian tsars… to French aristocrats… to billionaires today.
Why does it cost so much?
Why do people eat it with special spoons?
And how did fish eggs become a global status symbol?
From leftovers… to luxury…
This is the story of caviar.
Where shame becomes legend…
and luxury starts as yesterday’s leftovers.
Last time it was truffles. This time, it's fish eggs. Caviar is on the plate for today's out-of-my budget origins. Because somehow, tiny fish eggs became one of the most expensive foods in the world. Ancient Persia about 2,500 years ago. Fishermen around the Caspian Sea ate caviar because it was cheap, salty, and easy to preserve. They sold the valuable fish and kept the eggs no one wanted. Because when you're struggling, you eat the eggs and you sell the fillet. Which means one of today's biggest luxury foods started as leftovers. But here's the part most people don't know. Technically, real caviar only comes from sturgeon. Everything else? Just fish eggs wearing a tuxedo with roe on the name tag. The most expensive caviar comes from Beluga Sturgeon. This three-toed sloth of the water takes 15 to 20 years just to produce eggs. 15 to 20 years? That's not a food, that's a retirement plan. And once they do produce eggs, they don't do it every year, which means every tiny spoonful represents decades. Meanwhile, the caviar most of us can afford comes from fish that reproduce every season. Which is why one costs thousands per ounce and the other lives next to the discount can tuna. Then around the 1500s and 1600s, caviar started swimming up the social ladder. Russian czars developed a taste for it. And what was once a fisherman family's do we have to eat this again dinner? suddenly became royal luxury. By the 1700s and 1800s, French aristocrats got involved and fish eggs became status. Because once rich people started eating leftovers, they stopped being leftovers. Same thing happened with lobster in New England, from prisoner food to Michelin star luxury. And the rich didn't just eat caviar, they made the rules. No metal spoons, because it might affect the flavor. So they used mother of pearl, bone, sometimes even gold. No crackers at first either, just tiny spoons, elongated pinkies, and serious faces. Because nothing says luxury like needing special equipment to eat fish eggs. And then, something happened. By the 1900s, sturgeon started disappearing. Overfishing, pollution, dams. Suddenly the fish that once fed fishermen became rare. And when something takes 20 years to make and rich people want more of it, it stops being food and starts becoming luxury. Today, caviar is served in tiny portions kept on ice, sometimes flown across the world. Because apparently fish eggs now travel better than I do. From fishermen bazars to billionaires and back to my can of tuna. You're not paying for the taste, you're paying for the decades. Stay hungry, stay skeptical, and maybe one day I'll try real caviar. But for now, it's in the annals. Good night.
