LONDON — Fifteen years ago, before the podcast took hold, the BBC and the British Museum had radio audiences riveted with a daily show called “A History of the World in 100 Objects.”

The list took in the Rosetta Stone, the Sutton Hoo helmet from Anglo-Saxon Britain, and a Maya maize god statue dating to 3500 B.C., and each object was accompanied by a 14-minute story about its place in the arc of civilization.

In her new book, “If Jewels Could Talk: Seven Secret Histories” (Simon & Schuster), Carol Woolton takes a slightly different approach, gazing at human history through the lens of gold hoops and rings, glass beads, lucky charms and Coco Chanel’s Verdura cuffs.

Woolton, a jewelry historian, writer and founder-host of the podcast “If Jewels Could Talk,” looks at jewelry from all angles, and sees symbols of love, weapons, shields and talismans. She also looks at historical figures, and how their lives were shaped — for better and worse — by rings, pendants and pomanders.

There is Napoleon Bonaparte, giving his wife and great love, Joséphine de Beauharnais, a ring with two stones, a blue sapphire and a white diamond that touch each other at the center. Engraved on the inside were the words “toi et moi toujours,” which started a fashion for “you and me” rings.

Then there is the great Carthaginian general Hannibal, who crossed the Alps with elephants in his bid to conquer the Romans, but who was ultimately killed by ingesting poison that was hidden inside a small ring.

Woolton also tells a story about Queen Elizabeth I of England swinging her sweet-smelling, stench-busting pomander around, and deciphers the meaning behind Anne Boleyn’s famous “B” pendant.

The pendant, which hangs from a pearl choker and drips with teardrop-shaped pearls, appears in a number of portraits, including the one by an unknown painter that hangs in London’s National Portrait Gallery.

“It was a bold statement at the time,” writes Woolton. “She was identifying herself as a Boleyn, declaring self-ownership at a time when women didn’t have independence. It [was] a way to brand one’s identity.”

There are whole sections dedicated to the mystical and protective properties of coral, and to the origins of eye amulets, and the Neapolitan “mano cornuto” charm. According to Woolton, the shape of the “mano,” with two fingers pointing downward like horns, came from “a pre-Roman gesture” that was (and still is) meant to keep evil vibes at bay.

Other charms are more about self-expression. Woolton points to Elsa Schiaparelli’s miniature leek, cauliflower and aubergine charms, and sees them as a reflection of the designer’s surreal take on fashion.

The book is fun, but more than anything else it forces the reader to look at the jewelry they wear and to question why they’re wearing it.

“These very small objects tell very big stories — and they have a lot to say,” said Woolton in an interview. “They give a glimpse into the lives and passions of people who owned them, or who wore or designed them. Jewelry, arguably, tells us more about people’s lives than anything else because, in many cases, these are the only objects that survive.”

Woolton believes that jewelry — from diamond rings and hoop earrings to prayer beads and protest badges — “are the cornerstone of pretty much everything — be it art, religion, fashion or politics. Little protectors, decorative frivolities, meaningful religious aids — we’re all wearing the same things, and we’re all connected” to one another, to the past — and the future.

“I do believe that people’s avatars in the metaverse will wear these same objects,” added Woolton, who’s already at work on her next book, to be published by Assouline, about the history of “pearling,” or diving for natural pearls.

And for the “If Jewels Could Talk” podcast, she’s lined up Jennifer Tilly, Marisa Berenson and the curator Katherine Purcell to talk about all of those rocks, stones, metals and sparkling objects that humans can’t seem to live without.