History of the Grill

The Hidden History Podcast · May 28, 2026 · 20m

Before it was a backyard tradition, it was a survival technique. Two million years old.The word "barbecue" is Taino — borrowed from a people the Spanish nearly wiped out within a century of Columbus arriving.

The techniques that define American BBQ were built by enslaved pit masters whose names history never recorded.

Henry Ford invented the charcoal in your garage. And the most iconic grill in history was born when a welder cut a metal buoy in half.

In this episode of Hidden History, Aiden Thomas traces the grill from the first fires of Homo erectus through the Caribbean, the American South…