Stacy Schiff is one of America's most acclaimed historians and biographers. Her book The Witches is a detailed, almost forensic, history of the Salem witch trials on 1692. She very kindly came on the podcast to talk about it and she is every bit as good a storyteller in person as you would imagine from reading the book. I found her book and our conversation really quite troubling in what it says about our ability to tell lies from fiction. In particular even the accused seemed confused about their own guilt. I hope to revisit the theme in future podcasts but for now I think this is one of the most fascinating episodes to date. I hope you enjoy it!
Clive of India with Dr Zareer Masani
Laurence Bergreen on Magellan
With one leap he was free! - stories from Peter Henderson's life
A history of astronomy - from the Babylonians to Galileo
Clocks, Civilization, Power . . . all About Time with David Rooney
Talking movies with Freddie deBoer and Abe Callard (Mad Max, OUTIH, Ghostbusters etc)
Julian Sancton on the ill fated voyage of the Belgica to the Antarctic in 1898
When the Shogun's Sumo met Commodore Perry's minstrel show
Amazon the behemoth
Memories of wartime Japan and reflections on the kamikaze
Conquerors - how Portugal built its empire in India
Mike Dash on Batavia's Graveyard
Abulafia and Devereaux - the ancient Mediterranean
Peter Pomerantsev has stories to tell (and they are all true)
Bean on battleships (and much else besides)
David Goodhart on Head, Hand and Heart and the Road to Somewhere
The Siege of Gondor - Bret Devereaux rates the Witch King - A Bad Man, a Good General
The Knights of St John against the Turks (and the sheer bloody horror of Lepanto)
Bret Devereaux cancels Saruman. (Helms Deep as ancient military history)
Tom Holland scores 300
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It is Free
Irish Songs with Ken Murray
History Obscura
Historycal: Words that Shaped the World
Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra
The Rest Is History