The rise and fall of a forgotten frozen empire. Sponsored by Brilliant. To learn for free on Brilliant for a full 30 days, go to https://brilliant.org/Veritasium/. Our viewers also get 20% off an annual Premium subscription, which gives you unlimited daily access to everything on Brilliant. In 2025, we launched the Elements of Truth game on Kickstarter and were thrilled by the response. We’re now in the final stages of production, with Kickstarter rewards shipping soon. If you missed the campaign, you can now pre-order the retail edition through our new website here -https://ve42.co/IceDesc If you’re looking for a molecular modelling kit, try Snatoms, a kit I invented where the atoms snap together magnetically - https://ve42.co/SnatomsV Sign up for the Veritasium newsletter for weekly science updates - https://ve42.co/Newsletter ▀▀▀ A huge thank you to Amy Brady and Tom Jackson for their invaluable expertise and contributions to this video. Check out Amy Brady’s book here - https://ve42.co/BradyIce Check out Tom Jackson’s book here - https://ve42.co/JacksonChilled ▀▀▀ 0:00 The Frozen Monopoly 4:40 How To Stop Ice From Melting 8:06 An Icy Welcome 10:52 The Rise Of The Ice King 14:32 How Ice Transformed Cities 18:29 The First Ice Machine 23:22 Why is the back of the fridge hot? 25:45 Natural Ice Is Deadly 27:14 Would the world be different without refrigeration? ▀▀▀ References can be found here - https://ve42.co/IceRefs Image and video references can be found here - https://ve42.co/IceVisuals ▀▀▀ Special thanks to our Patreon supporters: Adam Foreman, Albert Wenger, Alex Porter, Alexander Tamas, Anton Ragin, armedtoe, Balkrishna Heroor, Bertrand Serlet, Blake Byers, Bruce, Data Don, Dave Kircher, David Johnston, David Tseng, EJ Alexandra, Evgeny Skvortsov, Garrett Mueller, Gnare, gpoly, Hayden Christensen, Hong Thai Le, Ibby Hadeed, Jeromy Johnson, Jesse Brandsoy, Jon Jamison, Juan Benet, KeyWestr, Kyi, Lee Redden, Marinus Kuivenhoven, Mark Heising, Martin Paull, Meekay, meg noah, Michael Bush, Michael Krugman, Orlando Bassotto, Paul Peijzel, Richard Sundvall, Robson, Sam Lutfi, Shalva Bukia, Sinan Taifour, Tj Steyn, Ubiquity Ventures, Vahe Andonians, wolfee ▀▀▀ Writers: Darius Garewal & Casper Mebius Producer & Director: Darius Garewal Presenters: Derek Muller & Gregor Čavlović Editor: Peter Nelson Animators: Andrew Neet, Ulugbek Islamov & Fabio Albertelli Illustrators: Nataly Zhuk, Maria Gusakovich, Grace Nemanic, Isaac McRee & Jakub Misiek Assistant Editor: James Stuart Additional Editors: James Horsley & James Stuart Researcher: Callum Cuttle Thumbnail Designers: Abdallah Rabah, Ren Hurley & Ben Powell Production Team: Josh Pitt, Matthew Cavanagh, Anna Milkovic, Katy Southwood & Jess Bishop-Laggett Executive Producers: Derek Muller, Zoe Heron, Casper Mebius & Gregor Čavlović Additional video/photos supplied by Getty Images & Storyblocks Music from Epidemic Sound