Candy canes feel harmless — festive, nostalgic, impossible to take seriously. But this episode asks a simple question: why do we trust sweet, familiar objects so easily?

We start with a real-world reminder that even a cane can hide danger, then trace the history of sugar itself — from chewed sugarcane in Southeast Asia to hand-pulled sugar sticks in medieval Europe. By the 1600s, refined sugar had become a global luxury, produced almost entirely through enslaved labor on Caribbean and Brazilian plantations. Those early sugar sticks — the ancestors of candy canes — were symbols of wealth built on violence and exhaustion.

As sugar became more refined, it also became more abstract. Stripped of its origins, shaped into sticks, bent into hooks, and flavored with peppermint, sugar slowly transformed into something decorative, innocent-seeming, and easy to forget.

Candy canes didn’t just sweeten the holidays — they polished history smooth.

1. History of candy canes & sugar sticks
   History.com — Who Invented Candy Canes?
   https://www.history.com/articles/candy-canes-invented-germany

2. Sugar’s role in slavery & global trade
   Smithsonian Magazine — The Bitter Truth About Sugar
   https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/bitter-truth-about-sugar-180953268/

3. Sugarcane origins & early use
   Encyclopaedia Britannica — Sugarcane
   https://www.britannica.com/plant/sugarcane

4. Sugar, refinement, and colonial economies
   National Museum of American History — Sugar and the Atlantic World
   https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/object-groups/sugar

5. Modern reflections on sugar labor exploitation
   The Guardian — How Sugar Fuels Exploitation Today
   https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2021/mar/07/sugar-slavery-modern-exploitation

6. Candy cane evolution in American culture
   Smithsonian National Museum of American History — The History of the Candy Cane
   https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/candy-cane-history