Podcasts about cromwell

Ireland and castles go hand in hand. With thousands scattered across the island, it can feel like there's one around every bend in the road. The real challenge isn't finding castles in Ireland — it's deciding which ones to add to your itinerary. Barbican Gate Rock of Dunamase, County Laois, Ireland This article is based on the Traveling in Ireland podcast, episode 331. Use the player below to listen or scroll to continue reading the article and get resource links. No matter the type of travel you enjoy—or the type of transportation you're using—you'll find castles that easily fit into your trip. With more than 30,000 castles and castle ruins scattered across Ireland, the real challenge isn't finding them… it's deciding which ones make sense for your route and the time you have. That's exactly the kind of planning the Ireland Travel Compass is designed to help with. It brings attractions and accommodations together geographically, helps you see what fits well together, and makes it much easier to build an itinerary that actually works. And if you'd like a simple way to start thinking about your own itinerary, I've created a resource that walks you through my TRIP framework – a straightforward way to avoid the most common Ireland planning mistakes and build a trip that feels manageable and enjoyable. 10 Castles in Ireland Worth Visiting With thousands of castles scattered across Ireland, choosing which ones to visit can feel a bit overwhelming. Here are a few of my favorite castles in Ireland—and why they stand out. Rock of Dunamase (County Laois) – The Dramatic Castle Ruin Rock of Dunamase may be one of the most atmospheric castle ruins in Ireland. The site dates back to the 9th century when it served as a stronghold of the Kings of Laois. The ruins visitors see today sit on top of a massive rocky outcrop and were largely destroyed during Cromwell's invasion in 1650. Even in ruin, the location tells you why it mattered: the views stretch for miles across the countryside. Traveler tips: Free OPW-managed site Rarely crowded Easy detour when traveling between Dublin and Kilkenny Short walk up to the ruins with sweeping views Driving through narrow country roads and farmland to reach it only adds to the experience. Lawn games in front of Malahide Castle : Crack the whip.By Aoife for Flytographer; Dublin, Ireland. All rights reserved. Malahide Castle (County Dublin) – The Fairy Tale Castle Just 10 minutes from Dublin Airport, Malahide Castle is a perfect first stop after arriving in Ireland. The castle itself offers fascinating guided tours led by engaging storytellers who bring the Talbot family history to life. But the estate offers far more than the castle alone. Visitors can enjoy: Extensive parklands perfect for stretching your legs after a flight Walled gardens A fairy trail Butterfly house Dining at Avoca café The grounds are partly free to explore, while the gardens and castle tour require tickets. During busy months (May–September), it's smart to pre-book the castle tour. Malahide is also very easy to reach from Dublin city center by DART or bus, making it a great half-day excursion. Looking for more day trips from Dublin? Click Here! Bunratty Castle beyond Durty Nellie's Bunratty Castle (County Clare) – The Irish Tower House Experience If you want to understand the most common type of castle in Ireland, Bunratty Castle is the perfect example. Tower houses — tall, four-story defensive structures — once dotted the Irish landscape. Bunratty is considered the most completely restored example in the country. Visitors can explore: Dungeon levels Narrow spiral staircases Battlements with views over the countryside Surrounding the castle is Bunratty Folk Park, a 26-acre living history village that showcases historic Irish homes and daily life. Highlights include: Traditional farmhouses and cottages Costumed interpreters A recreated village with shops, schoolhouse, and pub Bunratty is also famous for its medieval banquet experience, held year-round. These dinners are extremely popular, so booking well in advance is highly recommended. Kilkenny Castle viewed from the parklands Kilkenny Castle (County Kilkenny) – Ireland's Castle Palace Unlike many defensive castles, Kilkenny Castle evolved into a grand aristocratic residence. Originally built as a fortress, it was transformed over centuries by the Butler family — Earls and later Dukes of Ormond — who held the castle for more than 600 years. Today visitors will find: Elegant reception rooms Decorative plasterwork ceilings Large windows overlooking parkland Formal gardens The castle sits in the center of Kilkenny City, surrounded by roughly 50 acres of parkland that locals still use for picnics, sports, and relaxing on sunny days. Kilkenny Castle is an OPW managed site. Tickets are available on site, and advance booking is rarely necessary. Learn about the OPW Heritage Card – the best deal in Irish history Cahir Castle along the River Suir Cahir Castle (County Tipperary) – The Norman Stronghold Cahir Castle is one of the largest and best-preserved Norman castles in Ireland. Set on the River Suir, the fortress features massive stone walls, towers, and defensive structures typical of Norman military design. Visitors can: Climb the tower Explore defensive passages Stand beneath the working portcullis Look for cannonballs embedded in the walls Guided tours are included with admission and provide fascinating insight into how these massive defensive castles operated. Despite its impressive size, Cahir Castle often sees surprisingly small crowds, making it a rewarding stop between other popular attractions like the Rock of Cashel and Blarney Castle. Leap Castle Photo credit: Mike Searle, CC BY-SA 2.0 Leap Castle (County Offaly) – Ireland's Haunted Castle Leap Castle is often called the most haunted castle in Ireland. Built in the late 15th century, the castle is tied to dark legends and family power struggles. The castle chapel is known as the “Bloody Chapel,” named after a violent incident during a rivalry between brothers. During restoration work in the early 20th century, a hidden dungeon filled with human remains was reportedly discovered. Leap Castle is privately owned and lived in by musician Sean Ryan, who has carried out much of the restoration work. Visits are possible, but only by appointment, so travelers must contact the owner ahead of time to arrange a tour. Dunluce Castle on the Causeway Coast Dunluce Castle (County Antrim) – The Dramatic Cliffside Castle Few castles in Ireland match the dramatic setting of Dunluce Castle along the Causeway Coast. The ruins sit right on the edge of towering Atlantic cliffs, creating one of the most photographed castle locations in Ireland. Visitors can explore: Ruins of the castle keep Clifftop viewpoints Visitor center exhibits about the castle's history The castle itself is impressive, but the surrounding views may be even more memorable. Two particularly stunning viewpoints include: The bend in the road east of the castle, where it suddenly appears in front of you Magheracross viewpoint west of the castle, offering a sweeping coastal perspective Bring a jacket — the winds here are often strong even on calm days. Ireland's Best Castle Hotels Ashford Castle viewed from the gardens Ashford Castle (County Mayo) – The Luxury Castle Stay For travelers dreaming of staying in a castle, Ashford Castle delivers a truly luxurious experience. Once owned by the Guinness family, the estate now consistently ranks among the best hotels in Ireland. Activities on the estate include: Falconry Golf Horseback riding Boat tours on Lough Corrib Gardens and woodland walks Afternoon tea is particularly popular and should be reserved ahead of time. Ashford Castle works best as a destination stay rather than a touring base — there is so much to experience on the estate that most guests prefer to stay at least two nights. Access to the estate is restricted to guests or visitors with reservations. Lough Eske Castle from the guest car park Lough Eske Castle (County Donegal) – A Relaxing Castle Retreat Lough Eske Castle offers a luxurious but peaceful castle experience surrounded by the landscapes of County Donegal. The focus here is relaxation rather than packed schedules. Highlights include: Spacious rooms Beautiful lake and woodland setting A highly regarded spa Fine dining and afternoon tea Unlike some castle hotels, Lough Eske also works well as a touring base. Nearby excursions include: Slieve League Cliffs Glencolmcille Scenic drives along Donegal's coast Families will appreciate that the hotel offers interconnecting rooms — something not commonly found in castle accommodations. Approaching Kinnity Castle Kinnitty Castle (County Offaly) – The Most Authentic Castle Stay For travelers who want a castle experience that feels historic and intimate, Kinnitty Castle is a wonderful option. Unlike many castle hotels that have been extensively modernized, Kinnitty retains much of its traditional character. The baronial rooms at the top of the castle feature exposed stone and wood, creating the feeling of being a guest in a historic residence. Activities nearby include: Horseback riding Archery Hill walking in the Slieve Bloom Mountains Guests can also visit nearby attractions like Birr Castle and Gardens. Inside the castle, the Dungeon Bar is a memorable spot for a meal, while the Library Bar is perfect for relaxing by the fire with a drink. One practical tip: there is no elevator, so pack lightly if you're staying on the upper floors. No matter how you choose to explore Ireland, castles have a way of connecting you to the country's history, its stories, and sometimes even its legends. And with so many scattered across the island, chances are you'll find at least one – or several – that fit perfectly into your trip. The post 10 Castles in Ireland to Inspire Your Trip appeared first on Ireland Family Vacations.

Igniting Contagious Faith!Sermon Notes: https://links.kchanford.com/sunday

Joined on the gallops on Day 2 of the Cheltenham Festival by yesterday's Champion Hurdle winning jockey Paul Townend as he reflects on Lossiemouth's achievement and looks ahead to Il Etait Temps and Gaelic Warrior later in the week. Gavin Cromwell is out watching his string and after a couple of good results on day 1, he looks at where his first winner might come from and what he's expecting from Inothewayurthinkin in Friday's Gold Cup, as he looks to go back to back. Shark Hanlon offers a very positive bulletin on Hewick who's bound for the Stayers Hurdle after a wind op and we're back in the shopping village with artist Liz Armstrong. Finally, a day late this week we go around the Bloodstock World with our friends a Weatherbys and this week we're talking to Pippa Mickleburgh.

Joined on the gallops on Day 2 of the Cheltenham Festival by yesterday's Champion Hurdle winning jockey Paul Townend as he reflects on Lossiemouth's achievement and looks ahead to Il Etait Temps and Gaelic Warrior later in the week. Gavin Cromwell is out watching his string and after a couple of good results on day 1, he looks at where his first winner might come from and what he's expecting from Inothewayurthinkin in Friday's Gold Cup, as he looks to go back to back. Shark Hanlon offers a very positive bulletin on Hewick who's bound for the Stayers Hurdle after a wind op and we're back in the shopping village with artist Liz Armstrong. Finally, a day late this week we go around the Bloodstock World with our friends a Weatherbys and this week we're talking to Pippa Mickleburgh.

“This is not the beginning of a new right-wing revanche fascist era; this is the end of something. But the problem is we can't get to the new world because the new world is too filled with problems.” — Jonathan TaplinTrump fantasizes about himself as a king. But he's actually just an interregnum, at least according to Jon Taplin — author of Move Fast and Break Things, Hollywood insider, and old friend. In a “terrifying” new piece in Rolling Stone, Taplin draws an unusual historical parallel: Trump as Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell cut off the king's head, slaughtered Catholics in Ireland (his Lebanon), tried to install his son as successor, and ended up with his head on a pike outside Parliament. MAGA is not the future, Taplin suggests. It's the Gramsci-style death rattle of something that was already dying.The real question is what's being born. Jon Taplin calls it the digital military-industrial complex — managed by Thiel, Musk, Andreessen, and a “real piece of work” drone entrepreneur unluckily named Palmer Luckey. In the Fifties, Eisenhower warned America about the dangers of a military industrial complex made up of 40 or 50 defense contractors. Now there are five, and — in Thielian Zero to One fashion — Silicon Valley wants to shrink them down to a techno-oligarchy.Today's Iranian war, Taplin says, is the sneak preview of this. In Iran, AI is now, so to speak, calling the ethical shots. Palantir's targeting system used old intelligence and identified a former military base. Thus the 175 dead children in a school next to a munitions factory. AI is only as good or evil as the information you feed it. Move fast and break things, Taplin appropriated Zuckerberg's dictum to describe Silicon Valley's impact on America. But Zuckerberg was only referring to domestic things — technology, society, democracy. Now it's the world.But there may be hope. Anthropic is resisting the administration. The midterms are coming. Republican unity is cracking. But there's also Taplin's Taco Tuesday (TTT) — “Trump Always Chickens Out” — especially, for some reason, on a Tuesday. Taplin predicts Trump will declare victory in Iran and withdraw. The alternative — invoking the Insurrection Act to cancel the midterms — would have sounded insane a year ago. But, of course, nothing sounds insane in our interregnum times. Cromwell's head ended up on a pike. Jon Taplin's Hollywood cronies are, no doubt, licking their lips in anticipation of history repeating itself. First as tragedy, then as farce. Five Takeaways•       Trump Is Cromwell, Not the Future: Taplin argues this is not the beginning of a permanent MAGA era but the end of something—an interregnum in Gramsci's sense. Cromwell ruled for eight years, tried to install his son, and ended up with his corpse dug up and his head on a pike. The old is dying and the new cannot be born. In this interregnum, many morbid symptoms appear.•       The Digital Military-Industrial Complex Is More Dangerous Than Eisenhower's: Eisenhower warned about 40 or 50 defense contractors. Now there are five. Silicon Valley—Thiel, Musk, Andreessen, Luckey—wants to replace them. The US spends more on defense than the next ten countries combined. 59% of discretionary spending goes to the Pentagon. That money doesn't build bridges or fund colleges.•       AI Targeted a School and Killed 175 Children: AI is selecting targets in Iran. The system—Palantir's—used old intelligence and identified a former military base that had been a school for eight years. The children are dead. AI is only as good or evil as the information you feed it.•       Altman Threw Amodei Under the Bus: Sam Altman publicly supported Anthropic's position on surveillance and autonomous weapons on a Tuesday. By Friday he'd signed a deal with the Department of War. Classic Sam. Meanwhile the administration is trying to kill Anthropic by barring any government contractor from using Claude—a potential death sentence for a company built on enterprise clients.•       Taco Tuesday: Trump Always Chickens Out: Taplin predicts Trump will declare victory and withdraw—“Taco Tuesday,” where TACO stands for “Trump Always Chickens Out.” The midterms are coming. Either the Democrats run the table, or Trump invokes the Insurrection Act to avoid electoral defeat. Nothing is insane with this president. About the GuestJonathan Taplin is Director Emeritus of the Annenberg Innovation Lab at the University of Southern California and the author of Move Fast and Break Things, The Magic Years, and The End of Reality. He was tour manager for Bob Dylan and The Band and produced Martin Scorsese's Mean Streets and The Band's The Last Waltz. He lives in Los Angeles.ReferencesReferences:•       Jonathan Taplin, “The Terrifying New Era of American Imperialism” — Rolling Stone•       Move Fast and Break Things by Jonathan Taplin•       The End of Reality by Jonathan Taplin•       Eisenhower's farewell address (1961) and the original military-industrial complex warning•       Antonio Gramsci: “The old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum many morbid symptoms appear”•       The Last Supper (1993)—the Clinton-era consolidation of defense contractors from 25 to 5About Keen On AmericaNobody asks more awkward questions than the Anglo-American writer and filmmaker Andrew Keen. In Keen On America, Andrew brings his pointed Transatlantic wit to making sense of the United States—hosting daily interviews about the history and future of this now venerable Republic. With nearly 2,800 episodes since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010, Keen On America is the most prolific intellectual interview show in the history of podcasting.WebsiteSubstackYouTubeApple PodcastsSpotify Chapters:(00:00) - Introduction: Move fast and break the world ...

### HEADLINE: EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION AND THE RESTORATION OF CHARLES IISUMMARY: Dennis Sewall describes Downing's betrayal of former allies, his role in capturing regicides, and the grisly display of Cromwell's head at the House of Commons. GUEST: Denniis Sewall NUMBER:12 (12)1838 Dorchester looking to Boston

SHOW SCHEDULE 3-5-20161895 CARACASRussia Leverages Middle East Conflict to Pressure European Energy Markets Anatol Lieven analyzes how the Middle East conflict strengthens Russia's leverage over Europe while potentially causing internal Iranian anarchy and a massive refugee crisis. (1)Drone Strikes on Energy Infrastructure Threaten European Gas Supply Stability Lieven explores threats to European energy from strikes on the Baku pipeline and proposes sanctions relief to incentivize Russia toward a Ukrainian peace settlement. (2)Constitutional Debates Over Presidential Authority and the War Powers Act John Yu discusses the War Powers Resolution's history and argues that presidents possess inherent constitutional authority to use force abroad without prior congressional consent. (3)Judicial Limits and Political Checks on Presidential War-Making Power John Yu argues that elections, rather than courts or the War Powers Resolution, serve as the primary constitutional check on a president's use of force. (4)Cuba Faces Total Grid Failure Amid Severe National Oil Shortages Evan Ellis describes Cuba's widespread blackouts caused by aging infrastructure and lack of fuel, while the US facilitates humanitarian oil shipments to private entities. (5)Venezuelan Leadership Slow-Rolls Political Transition Despite Economic Openings Evan Ellis details how the Rodriguez administration benefits from eased oil sanctions and mining interests while maintaining repressive control and delaying meaningful democratic transitions. (6)Chinese Influence and Strategic Integration in the Caribbean and Peru Evan Ellis examines China's deep strategic presence in Caribbean infrastructure and the upcoming Peruvian elections, where conservative candidates currently lead in the polls. (7)Regional Security and Trade Shifts in Ecuador, Mercosur, and Argentina Evan Ellis reports on joint US-Ecuadorian military operations against narco-terrorists, the Mercosur-EU trade deal, and Javier Milei's ongoing economic and legal reforms in Argentina. (8)SEG 9 George Downing and the Puritan Vision Dennis Su introduces George Downing, a Harvard graduate who bridged the New England colonies and the English Civil War as a key Puritan figure. (1)SEG 10 Harvard Scholar Turned New Model Army Preacher After excelling at Harvard, Downing traveled to England, becoming a chaplain for Cromwell's New Model Army while exhibiting ruthless traits regarding Caribbean slavery. (2)SEG 11 Cromwell's Spy and the Edinburgh Intrigue Dennis Su explains how George Downing used intelligence and rhetoric to infiltrate the Scottish government, acting as a crucial spy for Oliver Cromwell in 1650. (3)SEG 12 Scoutmaster General and the Birth of Downing Street Downing rose to Scoutmaster General, overseeing Scotland's administration while building a massive fortune through seized properties and the trade of war prisoners. (4)SEG 13 Artificial Intelligence Joins the Battlefront in Iran Experts debate the ethical and strategic implications of using Claude AI for targeting and simulations in the Iran conflict, highlighting concerns over accountability and command. (5)SEG 14 The Fragile Alliance and European War Hesitation The panel discusses why European allies hesitate to join the US in Iran, citing domestic unrest and a significant technological gap between military forces. (6)SEG 15 Bill Casey and the Traitorous October Surprise Craig Unger describes how Bill Casey allegedly hijacked American foreign policy by negotiating with Iran to delay hostage releases, ensuring a Ronald Reagan electoral victory. (7)SEG 16 Uncovering Receipts of Treason in Tehran Unger details his 2014 trip to Tehran, where he obtained receipts and witness testimony regarding illegal arms deals that supported the 1980 October Surprise conspiracy. (8)

SHOW SCHEDULE 3-6-2026APRIL 30, 1789 NEW YORK INAUGURATION### HEADLINE: LAS VEGAS CONSTRUCTION AND THE DECLINE OF WEST COAST CITIES SUMMARY: Jeff Bliss discusses Las Vegas's massive infrastructure projects, including Brightline rail, while contrasting its growth with the "ghost town" atmospheres currently found in Reno and Portland. GUEST: Jeff Bliss NUMBER: 1 (1)### HEADLINE: GAVIN NEWSOM'S BOOK TOUR AND KAMALA HARRIS'S POLITICAL STANDING SUMMARY: Jeff Bliss analyzes Governor Newsom's national media strategy and book tour alongside Vice President Harris's controversial and ill-timed comments regarding the ongoing Middle East conflict. GUEST: Jeff Bliss NUMBER: 2 (2)### HEADLINE: THE WAR POWERS RESOLUTION AND MODERN CONFLICT REALITIES SUMMARY: Professor Richard Epstein explores the history of the War Powers Act, arguing that modern warfare's speed makes congressional deliberative processes difficult and potentially counterproductive today. GUEST: Professor Richard Epstein NUMBER: 3 (3)### HEADLINE: ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE IN WARFARE AND THE ANTHROPIC DISPUTE SUMMARY: Professor Richard Epstein discusses the integration of Claude AI in military targeting simulations and the public disagreement between the administration and the developer over autonomous weapons. GUEST: Professor Richard Epstein NUMBER: 4 (4)### HEADLINE: SPIKING FUEL PRICES AND REVOLUTIONARY HISTORY IN LANCASTER COUNTY SUMMARY: Jim McTague reports on gasoline prices jumping forty cents in Pennsylvania due to war, while noting Lancaster's unique history as the nation's capital for one day. GUEST: Jim McTague NUMBER: 5 (5)### HEADLINE: ITALY'S HIDDEN GEMS: EXPLORING LECCE AND OTRANTO IN PUGLIA SUMMARY: Lorenzo Fiori recommends visiting the "heel of the boot" to experience Roman ruins, Baroque architecture, and local Primitivo wine away from Italy's over-touristed hubs. GUEST: Lorenzo Fiori NUMBER: 6 (6)### HEADLINE: NUCLEAR PROLIFERATION AND THE FUTURE OF THE NPT SUMMARY: Henry Sokolski addresses China's nuclear expansion and the potential breakdown of the Non-Proliferation Treaty as the U.S. justifies the Iran war as a preemptive strike. GUEST: Henry Sokolski NUMBER: 7 (7)### HEADLINE: TAIWAN'S SECURITY CONCERNS AMID THE MIDDLE EAST CONFLICT SUMMARY: Colonel Grant Newsham explains Taiwan's anxieties regarding energy supplies and how U.S. military success in Iran influences the island's confidence against potential Chinese aggression. GUEST: Colonel Grant Newsham NUMBER: 8 (8)### HEADLINE: GEORGE DOWNING'S 17TH-CENTURY DIPLOMACY AND ESPIONAGE IN FRANCE SUMMARY: Dennis Su details George Downing's 1655 mission to France, where he used Latin to negotiate a secret alliance with Cardinal Mazarin against Spanish influence. GUEST: Dennis Su NUMBER: 9 (9)### HEADLINE: THE RISE OF GEORGE DOWNING UNDER CROMWELL'S PROTECTORATE SUMMARY: Dennis Su explores George Downing's role as Cromwell's intelligence chief and his mission to study Dutch economic success to help transform England into a trading power. GUEST: Dennis Su NUMBER: 10 (10)### HEADLINE: CROMWELL'S DEATH AND DOWNING'S SECRET DEAL WITH THE KING SUMMARY: Dennis Su recounts the "dummy" funeral of Oliver Cromwell and George Downing's opportunistic decision to offer state secrets to the exiled King Charles II. GUEST: Dennis Su NUMBER: 11 (11)### HEADLINE: EXTRAORDINARY RENDITION AND THE RESTORATION OF CHARLES II SUMMARY: Dennis Su describes Downing's betrayal of former allies, his role in capturing regicides, and the grisly display of Cromwell's head at the House of Commons. GUEST: Dennis Su NUMBER: 12 (12)### HEADLINE: THE TAX CODE ORIGINS OF HIGH AMERICAN HEALTHCARE COSTS SUMMARY: Veronique de Rugy traces modern healthcare expenses to a 1920s tax error and advocates for health savings accounts to restore consumer control and transparency. GUEST: Veronique de Rugy NUMBER: 13 (13)### HEADLINE: CHINA'S ENERGY DEPENDENCE AND THE REBUILDING OF IRAN SUMMARY: Max Meish discusses China's reliance on Iranian oil and proposes a U.S. "economic strike force" to stabilize Iran while excluding Chinese interests from reconstruction. GUEST: Max Meish NUMBER: 14 (14)### HEADLINE: THE RISE OF THE PRIVATE SPACE INDUSTRY AND GLOBAL COMPETITION SUMMARY: Bob Zimmerman highlights VAST's private space station, Spanish and South Korean rocket startups, and Japan's recent struggles with repeated orbital launch failures. GUEST: Bob Zimmerman NUMBER: 15 (15)### HEADLINE: WEBB TELESCOPE DATA AND THE BIOLOGICAL RISKS OF WEIGHTLESSNESS SUMMARY: Bob Zimmerman analyzes new asteroid data from Webb and a study suggesting microgravity increases blood clot risks, emphasizing the need for artificial gravity in space. GUEST: Bob Zimmerman NUMBER: 16 (16)

### HEADLINE: THE RISE OF GEORGE DOWNING UNDER CROMWELL'S PROTECTORATESUMMARY: Dennis Sewall explores George Downing's role as Cromwell's intelligence chief and his mission to study Dutch economic success to help transform England into a trading power. GUEST: Dennis Sewall NUMBER: 10 (10)1806 Boston

SEG 9 George Downing and the Puritan Vision Dennis Su introduces George Downing, a Harvard graduate who bridged the New England colonies and the English Civil War as a key Puritan figure. (1)1653 CROMWELL

SEG 10 Harvard Scholar Turned New Model Army Preacher After excelling at Harvard, Downing traveled to England, becoming a chaplain for Cromwell's New Model Army while exhibiting ruthless traits regarding Caribbean slavery. (2)1658 CROMWELL

SEG 11 Cromwell's Spy and the Edinburgh Intrigue Dennis Su explains how George Downing used intelligence and rhetoric to infiltrate the Scottish government, acting as a crucial spy for Oliver Cromwell in 1650. (3)1661 CROMWELL POST MORTEM

The Tudor court was one of the most glamorous, exciting, and genuinely terrifying places in the world. And the people who lost their heads there were not stupid. Thomas More was a legal genius. Cromwell basically invented modern bureaucracy. Wolsey ran England for fifteen years. So what went wrong? Today we're building the actual survival guide. The real unwritten rules that separated the people who died in their beds from the people who died on Tower Hill. Spoiler: it is more complicated than "don't annoy the king." Topics covered: why being the most powerful person in the room will get you killed, how information could be currency or a death sentence, why your religion was a political decision you had to remake every few years, and why loyalty was sometimes the most dangerous thing you could offer. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Comment apparaissent les tueurs en série ? Une des explications possibles est qu'ils développent un sixième sens pour repérer les victimes vulnérables. S'ils parviennent à assouvir leurs pulsions en tuant quelqu'un et réussissent à s'en sortir, alors ils vont devenir encore plus dangereux."Le 24 février 1994, alertée par de troublantes déclarations d'une enfant de Fred et Rose West, la police perquisitionne le domicile du couple. Les époux paraissent sereins, jusqu'à ce que les agents se mettent à creuser le jardin de la maison.Ce qu'ils découvrent va lever le voile sur des décennies d'étranges disparitions dans la région. 9 corps sont exhumés de ce banal pavillon de banlieue. Mais qu'est-ce qui a mené ce couple apparemment normal à commettre de telles horreurs ? Et que s'est-il réellement passé derrière les portes closes du 25, rue Cromwell ?Bonne écoute !“Fred et Rose West : La maison de l'horreur” est un podcast d'Initial Studio, adapté du documentaire audiovisuel éponyme produit par Blink Films et distribué par Blue Ant, écrit par Daniel Soiseth et réalisé par Adam Kaleta et Nathaniel Lippiett. Production exécutive du podcast : Initial StudioProduction éditoriale : Sarah Koskievic et Marie AgassantMontage : Camille LegrasAvec la voix de Vincent Couesme. Hébergé par Audion. Visitez https://www.audion.fm/fr/privacy-policy pour plus d'informations.

"Ils ont créé une sorte de toile d'araignée, dans laquelle ils piégeaient les gens. Ils pouvaient ensuite faire ce qu'ils voulaient d'eux."Le 24 février 1994, alertée par de troublantes déclarations d'une enfant de Fred et Rose West, la police perquisitionne le domicile du couple. Les époux paraissent sereins, jusqu'à ce que les agents se mettent à creuser le jardin de la maison.Ce qu'ils découvrent va lever le voile sur des décennies d'étranges disparitions dans la région. 9 corps sont exhumés de ce banal pavillon de banlieue. Mais qu'est-ce qui a mené ce couple apparemment normal à commettre de telles horreurs ? Et que s'est-il réellement passé derrière les portes closes du 25, rue Cromwell ?Bonne écoute !“Fred et Rose West : La maison de l'horreur” est un podcast d'Initial Studio, adapté du documentaire audiovisuel éponyme produit par Blink Films et distribué par Blue Ant, écrit par Daniel Soiseth et réalisé par Adam Kaleta et Nathaniel Lippiett. Production exécutive du podcast : Initial StudioProduction éditoriale : Sarah Koskievic et Marie AgassantMontage : Camille LegrasAvec la voix de Vincent Couesme. Hébergé par Audion. Visitez https://www.audion.fm/fr/privacy-policy pour plus d'informations.

In this week's episode, I take a historical digression to look at the four major Thomases of the English Reformation - Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, and Thomas Cranmer. This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Dragonskull series at my Payhip store: QUEST25 The coupon code is valid through March 9 2026. So if you need a new ebook this winter, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 292 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is February 27th, 2026. Today we are taking a digression into history by looking at the four Thomases of the English Reformation (with one bonus Thomas). We'll also have Coupon of the Week and a progress update on my current writing and publishing projects. First up, let's do Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Dragonskull series at my Payhip store. That coupon code is QUEST25 and as always, the links to the store and the coupon code will be available in the show notes of this episode. This coupon code is valid through March 9th, 2026. So if you need a new ebook this winter, we have got you covered. Now for an update on my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. I am very nearly done with Cloak of Summoning. As of this recording, I am 35% of the way through the final editing pass. This episode should be coming out on, let's see, March the 2nd. I'm hoping Cloak of Summoning will be available a few days (hopefully like one or two days) after this episode goes live, but we'll see how things go. In any event, it should be out in very early March, which is not far away at this point. I'm also 14,000 words into Blade of Wraiths, the fourth book in my Blades of Ruin epic fantasy series. Hopefully that will be out in April, if all goes well. That's my secondary project right now, but once it gets promoted to primary project once Cloak of Summoning is available, my new secondary project will be Dragon Mage, which will be the sixth book in the Rivah Half-Elven Thief series. I'm looking forward to that since it is going to bring to an end a lot of ongoing plot threads. So it should be quite a fun book to write and hopefully to read. That should hopefully be out in May or possibly June, depending on how things go. In audiobook news, Cloak of Titans, the audiobook narrated by Hollis McCarthy, should be available in more audiobook stores than it was this time last week, though it's still not on Amazon, Audible, or Apple. Brad Wills is working on recording Blade of Storms and I think the first six chapters are done. Hopefully we should have those audiobooks available to you before too much longer. So that is where I'm at with my current writing, publishing, and audiobook projects. 00:02:18 Main Topic: The Four Thomases of the English Reformation Now without further ado, let's get to our main topic and it's time for another of my favorite topics overall, a digression into obscure points of history. I've mentioned before that Wolf Hall (both the TV show and the book) is a lot easier to understand if you are at least passingly familiar with the key figures of the English Reformation, which happened during the reign of King Henry VIII. But who were these key figures? I had a history professor who said that to understand the English Reformation, you need to know about the four Thomases of the English Reformation: Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, and Thomas Cranmer, since each one of them altered events in a major way. Fun fact: only one of the four died from natural causes and right before he was about to go on trial for treason, which would have likely ended with his execution. The English Reformation was a tumultuous time and the Tudor court was not a place for the faint of heart or the morally scrupulous. So let's talk about the four Thomases and one bonus Thomas today. But first to understand them, we should look at three background trends that converged and boiled over during their lifetimes. #1: Henry VIII needs an heir. King Henry VIII was quite famously married six times and executed two of his wives in his quest for a male heir. To the modern era, this sounds odd and chauvinistic, but one of the errors of studying history is assuming that the residents of the past had any interest in 21st century standards of behavior. By the standards of Henry's time, having a male heir to assume the kingdom after his death was absolutely vital. In fact, an argument could be made that Henry was attempting to act responsibly by going to such lengths to father a male heir, though naturally he went about it in a spectacularly destructive and self-absorbed way. Remember, Henry's father, Henry VII, came to the throne after a 30-year civil war, and there were noble families that thought they had a better claim to the throne than Tudors and would be happy to exercise it. A good comparison is that the lack of a male heir for Henry VIII was as serious a crisis as a disputed presidential election in 21st century America would be. You can see evidence for this in Henry's famous jousting accident in 1536. For a few hours, people were certain that he was dead or was about to die, and this incident caused a brief constitutional crisis. If Henry died, who would rule? His daughter, Mary, who he had just declared a bastard? His young daughter Elizabeth from Anne Boleyn? His bastard son, Henry FitzRoy? A regent? One of the old families who thought they had a claim to the throne? Now, these are the sort of questions that tend to get decided by civil wars, which nobody wanted. So Henry needed a male heir and it weighed on him as a personal failure that he had been unable to produce one, which was undoubtedly one of the reasons he concluded that several of his marriages had been cursed by God and needed to be annulled. Though, of course, one of Henry's defining traits was that his self-absorption was such that nothing was ever his fault, but a failing of those around him. #2: The Reformation is here. At the same time Henry was beginning to have his difficulties, the Protestant Reformation exploded across Europe. The reasons for the Reformation were manifold. There was a growing feeling across all levels of society that the church was corrupt and more concerned about money than tending to Christ's flock, a feeling not helped by the fact that several of the 15th and 16th century popes were essentially Renaissance princelings more interested in luxury, money, and expanding the power of the papal states than in anything spiritual. Many bishops, archbishops, abbots, and other high prelates acted the same way. The situation the early 16th century church found itself in was similar to American higher education today. Many modern professors and administrators go about their jobs quietly, competently, and diligently, but if you want to find examples of corruption, folly, and egregious waste in American higher education, you don't have to try very hard. Reformers could easily find manifold examples of clerical and papal corruption to reinforce their arguments. Additionally, nationalism was beginning to develop as a concept, as was the idea of the nation state. People in England, Scotland, Germany, and other countries began to wonder why they were paying tithes to the church that went to build beautiful buildings in Rome and support the lavish lifestyle of the papal court when that money might be better spent at home. For that matter, the anti-clericalism of the Reformation was not new and had time to mature. At the end of the 14th century, Lollardy was a proto-Protestant movement in England that challenged clerical power. In the early 15th century, the Hussite wars in Bohemia following the teachings of Jan Hus were a preview of the greater Reformation to come. Papal authority had been severely damaged by the Great Schism at the end of the 14th and the start of the 15th century when two competing popes (later expanded to three) all tried to excommunicate each other and claim control of the church. In the aftermath, Renaissance Humanists had begun suggesting that only the Bible was the proper source and guide for Christianity, and that papal authority and many of the church's practices were merely human traditions that had been added later and were not ordained by God. A lot of the arguments of the Reformation had their earliest form from the writers of the 15th century. Essentially, the central argument of the Reformation was that the believer's personal relationship with God is the important part of Christianity and doesn't need to be mediated through ordained priests in the official sacraments of the church, though such things were still important. Of course, all the various reformers disagreed with each other about just how important and what the nature of that relationship was, how many sacraments there should be, and what the precise relationship between the individual, the church, and the state should be (and that argument got entangled with many other issues like nationalism), but that was a central crux of the Reformation. So all these competing pressures have been building up, and when Martin Luther posted his statements for debate on church reform in October of 1517, it was the equivalent of lighting a match in a barn that had been stuffed full of sawdust and was suffering from a natural gas leak. #3: The printing press. So why did Luther's action kick off the Reformation as we know it and not the other proto-Protestant movements we mentioned? I think the big part of that is the printing pass, perhaps the biggest part. The printing press did not exist during the early proto-Protestant movements, which meant it was a lot harder for the ideas of reform to spread quickly. The Lollards in particular wanted to translate the Bible into English instead of Latin, but the Bible is a big book and that is a lot of copying to do by hand. In 1539, after a lot of encouragement from Thomas Cromwell, Henry VIII decreed that an English Bible should be placed at every church in England. In 1339, that would have been an impossible amount of copying by scribes. In 1539, thanks to the printing press, it was essentially on the scale of the government embarking on a mid-sized industrial project, perhaps a bit of a logistical and organizational challenge and you have to deal with contractors, but by no means impossible. The printing press made it possible for the various arguments and pamphlets of the Reformers to spread quickly throughout Europe. Luther published tracts on a variety of religious and political topics for the rest of his life, and those tracks were copied, printed, and sold throughout Europe. In fact, he had something of a flame war with Thomas More over Henry VIII's "Defense of the Seven Sacraments". Kings and governments frequently tried to suppress printers they didn't like, but the cat was out of the bag and the printing press helped drive the Reformation by spreading its ideas faster than had previously been possible. AI bros occasionally compare modern large language model AIs to the printing press as an irreversible technological advancement, but one should note that the printing press of the 16th century did not require an entire US state's worth of electricity and an unlimited supply of water. So those were some of the undercurrents and trends leading up to the English Reformation. With that in mind, let's take a look at our four Thomases. #1: Thomas Wolsey. Cardinal Thomas Wolsey was Henry's right hand man during the first 20 years of his reign and essentially the practical ruler of England during that time. He started his career in Henry's reign as the almoner, essentially in charge of charity, and it ended up becoming the Lord Chancellor of England. Since Henry was not super interested in actually doing the hard work of government, Wolsey ended up essentially running the country while Henry turned his full enthusiasm towards the more ceremonial aspects of kingship. Wolsey was an example of the kind of early 16th Century church prelate we mentioned above, more of a Renaissance princeling than a priest. However, as Renaissance princelings went, you could do worse than to have been ruled by someone like Wolsey. And if you were a king, you would be blessed to have a lieutenant as diligent in his work as the Cardinal. Granted, Wolsey did amass a large fortune for himself, but he frequently patronized the arts, education and the poor, pursued some governmental reforms, and deftly maintained England's position in the turbulent diplomacy of the time. He was also much more forgiving in questions of religious dissent than someone like Thomas More. Wolsey was the most powerful man in England at his apex, and the nobility hated it for him because his origins were common. So long as he had Henry's favor, Wolsey was untouchable and the nobility couldn't move against him. But the royal favor came to an end as Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon was unable to produce a son. Since Catherine had previously (and briefly) been married to his older brother Arthur before Arthur's death, Henry became convinced (or succeeded in convincing himself) that his marriage was cursed by God for violating the prohibition against sleeping with your brother's wife in the book of Leviticus. His eye had already fallen on Anne Boleyn and Henry wanted an annulment and not a divorce in his marriage with Catherine. In the eyes of God, he would never have been married at all, and then he could marry Anne Boleyn with a clear conscience. Here, Wolsey's gift for diplomacy failed him, but perhaps it was an impossible task. Catherine of Aragon was the aunt of Emperor Charles V, who at the time was the most powerful man in Christendom. All of Wolseley's efforts to persuade the pope to annul the marriage failed, partly because the pope had already given Henry VIII dispensation to marry his brother's widow. Wolsey's failure eroded his support with the king. Anne Boleyn likewise hated Wolsey partly because she believed he was hindering the annulment, and partly because he had blocked her from marrying the Earl of Northumberland years before she had her eyes set upon Henry. Finally, Henry stripped Wolsey of his office of Lord Chancellor, and Wolsey retired to York to take up his role as archbishop there. Wolsey's popularity threatened Henry and Anne, so Henry summoned him back to London to face treason charges. Perhaps fortunately for Wolsey, he died of natural causes on the journey back to London. His replacement as Lord Chancellor was Thomas More, the next of our major for Thomases. #2: Thomas More. More was an interesting contrast-a Renaissance Humanist who remained a staunch Catholic, even though Renaissance Humanists in general tended towards proto-Protestantism or actual Protestantism. He was also in some ways oddly progressive for his time. He insisted on educating his daughters at a time was considered pointless to educate women about anything other than the practical business of household management. Anyway, More's training as a lawyer and a scholar led him to a career in government. He held a variety of posts under Henry VIII, finally rising to become the Lord Chancellor after Wolsey. In the first decades of his brain, Henry was staunchly Catholic and despised Protestantism, in particular, Lutheranism in general and Martin Luther in particular. In 1521, Henry published "Defense of the Seven Sacraments" against Luther, and More helped him write it to an unknown degree. In their dislike for all forms of Protestantism, More and Henry were in harmony at this point. More was involved in hunting down heretics (i.e. Protestants) and trying to convince them to recant. During his time as the Lord Chancellor, More ended up sending six people to be burned at the stake for heresy, along with the arrest and interrogations of numerous others. This rather clashes with his "humanist man of letters" aspect, but More was undoubtedly convinced he was doing the right thing. And while he might have believed in education, he most definitely did not believe in freedom of conscience in several areas. To be fair to More, in the view of many at the time, Protestants, especially Anabaptists, were dangerous radicals. Likely More viewed hunting heretics in the same way as some modern politicians view hunting down covert terrorist cells or surveilling potential domestic terrorists. Harsh measures true, but harsh measures allegedly necessary for the greater good of the nation. However, the concord between More and Henry would not last. Henry wanted to set aside Catherine of Aragon and marry Anne Boleyn, which More staunchly opposed. More especially opposed Henry breaking away from Rome and becoming head of an independent English Church. At first, More was able to save himself by maintaining his silence, but eventually Henry required all of his subjects take an oath affirming his status as head of the church. Thomas Cromwell famously led a deputation to try and change More's mind, but he failed. More refused, he was tried on specious treason charges, and beheaded in 1535. Later, the Catholic church declared him the patron saint of politicians. This might seem odd given that he oversaw executions and essentially did thought police stuff against Protestants, but let's be honest-it's rare to see a politician even mildly inconvenience himself over a point of principle, let alone maintain it until death when he was given every possible chance to change his mind. Probably the most famous fictional portrayals of More are A Man For All Seasons and Wolf Hall. I would say that A Man For All Seasons was far too generous to More, but Wolf Hall was too harsh. #3: Now for the third of our four Thomases, Thomas Cromwell. After Wolsey's fall and More's refusal to support Henry's desire to either annul his marriage to Catherine or to make himself head with the church so he couldn't annul the marriage, Thomas Cromwell rose become Henry's new chief lieutenant. Cromwell is both a fascinating but divisive figure. For a long time, he was cast as the villain in Thomas More's saga, but Hillary Mantel's Wolf Hall really triggered a popular reevaluation of him. Like A Man For All Seasons was too generous to More, I would say Wolf Hall was too generous to Cromwell. Nonetheless, I suspect Cromwell was and remained so divisive because he was so effective. He got things done on a scale that the other three Thomases of the English Reformation never quite managed. Cromwell's origins are a bit obscure. It seems he was either of non-noble birth or very low gentry birth and his father Walter Cromwell was a local prosperous tradesman in a jack of all trades with a reputation for litigiousness. For reasons that are unclear, Cromwell fled his birthplace and spent some time in continental Europe, possibly as a mercenary soldier. He eventually made his way to Italy and started working for the merchant families there, gaining knowledge of trade in the law, and then traveled to the Low Countries. When he returned to England, he became Cardinal Wolsey's right hand man. After Wolsey's fall, Cromwell went into Parliament and defended his master whenever possible. This loyalty combined with his significant talent for law and administration caught the eye of Henry and he swiftly became Henry's right-hand man. Amusingly, Cromwell never became Lord Chancellor like More or Wolsey, but instead accumulated many lesser offices that essentially allowed him to carry out Henry's directives as he saw a fit. Unlike More and Wolsey, Cromwell had strong Protestant leanings and he encouraged the king to break away from the Catholic Church and take control of the English Church as its supreme head. Henry did so. His marriage to Catherine of Aragon was nulled. The rest of Europe never accepted this until Catherine died of illness and it became a moot point. In 1533, he married Anne Boleyn. Like Cromwell, Anne had a strong Protestant bent and began encouraging reformers to take various offices and began pushing Henley to make more reforms than he was really comfortable doing. For example, Cromwell was one of the chief drivers behind the English Bible of 1539. This, combined with Anne's inability to give Henry a son, contributed to Anne's downfall. Unlike Catherine, she was willing to argue with Henry to his face and was unwilling to look the other way when he wanted a mistress, and this eventually got on Henry's nerves. Events are a bit murky, but it seems that Henry ordered Cromwell to find a way he could set aside Anne and Cromwell complied. Various men, including her own brother, were coerced and confessing to adultery with Anne on charges that were most likely fabricated and Anne's "lovers" and Anne herself were executed for treason in 1536. Cromwell had successfully used a technique that many modern secret police organizations and dictatorships employ- if you want to get rid of someone for whatever reason, accuse them of a serious crime, coerce them to a confession, and then have them executed. Joseph Stalin did basically the same thing when he purged the Old Bolsheviks after Lenin's death. Henry married Jane Seymour shortly after Anne's execution, and she finally gave Henry his long-waited son, though she died soon afterwards of postpartum complications. Cromwell also oversaw the dissolution of the English monasteries in the 1530s. Monasticism had become quite unpopular even before the Reformation, especially among humanist writers. The concentration of property in the hands of monasteries made for a ripe target. Using Parliament and with Henry's approval, the monasteries of England were dissolved, the monks and nuns pensioned off, and the various rich properties held by the monasteries were given to the king and his friends. Cromwell himself profited handsomely. This was essentially legalized theft, but there was nothing the monasteries could do about it. Cromwell pushed for more religious reforms, but that combined with the dissolution of the monasteries caused "The Pilgrimage of Grace" in 1537, a rebellion that Henry was able to put down through a combination of lies, stalling, outright bribery, and brutal repression under the Duke of Norfolk (more about him later). Cromwell was at the zenith of his power and influence, but his reformist bent and made him a lot of enemies. For that matter, Henry was increasingly uncomfortable with further religious changes. He wanted to be head of his own church, but essentially his own Catholic Church, not his own Reformed or Lutheran one. Cromwell's alignment with the reform cause gave his more traditionalist enemies a tool to use against him. Cromwell's foes had their chance in 1540 when Henry married his fourth wife, Anne of Cleves. Cromwell had heavily pushed for the match, hoping to make an alliance with the Protestant princes of Germany against the Catholic Holy Roman Emperor. For whatever reason, Henry took an immediate dislike to Anne and never consummated the marriage, which was swiftly annulled and Anne pensioned off. Henry blamed Cromwell for the failed marriage and Cromwell's enemies, particularly Duke of Norfolk and Bishop Gardiner of Winchester, were able to convince Henry to move against him. Cromwell was arrested, stripped of all the titles and property he had amassed, and executed in July of 1540. The sort of legal railroading process he had born against Anne Boleyn's alleged lovers and numerous other enemies of Henry's was used against him. This was one of the very few executions Henry ever regretted. Within a year, the French ambassador reported that Henry was raging that his counselors had misled him into putting to death the most faithful servant he had ever had. Once again, nothing was ever Henry's fault in his own mind. The fact that Henry allowed Cromwell's son Gregory to become a baron and inherit some of his father's land shows that he likely changed his mind about the execution. For once in his life, Henry was dead on accurate when he called Cromwell his "most faithful servant". He never again found a lieutenant with Cromwell's loyalty and skill. The remaining seven years of Henry's reign blundered from setback to setback and all the money Henry obtained from the dissolution of the monasteries was squandered in indecisive wars with France and Scotland. I think it's fair to say that the English Reformation would not have taken the course it did, if not for Cromwell. As ruthless and as unscrupulous as he could be, he nonetheless did seem to really believe in the principles of religious reform and push such policies whenever he could do so without drawing Henry's ire. #4: Now the fourth of our four major Thomases, Thomas Cranmer. If Thomas Cromwell did a lot of the political work of the English Reformation, then Thomas Cranmer wrote a lot of its theory. Cranmer was a scholar and something of a gentle-minded man, but not a very skillful politician. He seemed happy to leave the politicking to Cromwell. I think Cranmer would have been a lot happier as a Lutheran pastor in say, 1950s rural Nebraska. He could have married a farmer's daughter, had a bunch of kids, and presided at weddings, funerals, and baptisms where he could talk earnestly about Jesus and Christian virtues, and he probably would have written a few books on obscure theological points. But instead, Cranmer was destined to play a significant part in the English Reformation. He started as a priest and a scholar who got in trouble for marrying, but when his wife died in childbirth, he went back to the priesthood. Later, he became part of the team of scholars and priests working to get Henry's marriage to Catherine of Aragon annulled. While he was at university and later in the priesthood, he became fascinated by Lutheran ideas and became a proponent of reform. As with Cromwell, Henry's desire to marry Anne Boleyn gave Cranmer his great opportunity. Anne's family were also in favor of reform, and they arranged for Cranmer to become the new Archbishop of Canterbury. The new archbishop and the like- minded clerics and scholars laid the legal and theological groundwork for Henry to break with Rome and become head of the English church with Cranmer and the rest of the reform faction wanted to be used to push for additional church reforms. He survived the tumults of Henry's reign by total loyalty to the king – he mourned Anne Boleyn, but didn't oppose her execution (though he was one of the few who mourned for her publicly), did much the same when Cromwell was executed, and personally sent news of Catherine Howard's adultery to the king. Because of that, Cranmer had a great chance to pursue the cause of reform when Henry died and his 12-year-old son Edward VI became King. Edward's uncle Edward Seymour acted as the head of the King's regency council, and Seymour and his allies were in favor of reform. Cranmer was at last able to steer the English church in the direction of serious reform, and he was directly responsible for writing the Book of Common Prayer and several other key documents of the early Anglican church. But Cranmer's of luck ran out in 1553 when Edward VI died. Cranmer was part of the group that tried to put the Protestant Lady Jane Grey on the throne, but Henry's daughter Mary instead took the crown. Mary had never really wavered from her Catholicism despite immense pressure to do so, and she had last had a chance to do something about it. She immediately brought England back to Rome and started prosecuting prominent reform leaders, Cranmer among them. Cranmer was tried for treason and heresy and sentenced to be burned, but that was to be commuted if he recanted his views in public during a sermon, which he did. However, at the last minute, he thunderously denounced his previous recantation, asserted his reformist faith, and vowed that he would thrust the hand that signed the recantation into the flames first. Cranmer was immediately taken to be burned at the stake, and just as he promised, he thrust his hand into the flames, and his last word is that he saw heaven opening and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. Cranmer had spent much of his life trying to appease Henry while pushing as much reform as possible, but in his final moments, he had finally found his defiance. When Mary died and Elizabeth took the throne, she returned England to Protestantism. Elizabeth was much more pragmatic than her half siblings and her father ever were, so she chose the most expedient choice of simply rolling the English church back to as it was during Edward VI's time. Cranmer's Book of Common Prayer and religious articles, lightly edited for Elizabeth's sensibilities, became the foundational documents of the Anglican church. So these four Thomases, Thomas Wolsey, Thomas More, Thomas Cromwell, and Thomas Cranmer were central to the events of the English Reformation. However, we have one bonus Thomas yet. Bonus Thomas: Thomas Howard, the Duke of Norfolk. Thomas Howard was a powerful nobleman during the reign of Henry, and the Duke of Norfolk was frequently Henry's lieutenant in waging various wars and putting down rebellions. He was also the uncle of Anne Boleyn and Catherine Howard, Henry's second and fifth queens. He was also involved in nearly every major event of Henry's reign. So with all that, why isn't Norfolk as remembered as well as the other four Thomases of the English Reformation? Sometimes a man would be considered virtuous by the standards of the medieval or early modern age, yet reprehensible in ours. For example, for much of the Middle Ages, crusading was considered an inherently virtuous act for a knight, whereas in the modern age, it would be condemned as war mongering with a religious veneer. However, by both modern standards and Tudor standards, Thomas Howard was a fairly odious character. For all their flaws and the morally questionable things they did, Wolsey, More, Cromwell, and Cranmer were all men of conviction in their own ways. More and Cranmer explicitly died with their faith. Cromwell's devotion to the Protestant cause got him killed since he insisted on the Anne of Cleves match. Even Wolsey, for all that he enriched himself, was a devoted servant of Henry after his downfall never betrayed the king. By contrast, Norfolk was out for Norfolk. This wasn't unusual for Tudor nobleman, but Norfolk took it to a new level of grasping venality. He made sure that his daughter was married to Henry's bastard son, Henry FitzRoy, just in case FitzRoy ended up becoming king. He used both his nieces, Anne Boleyn and Katherine Howard, to gain power and lands for himself, and then immediately turned against him once he became politically expedient. In fact, he presided over the trial where Anne Boleyn was sentenced to death. After the failure of the Anne of Cleve's marriage, Norfolk made sure to bring his young niece Catherine Howard to court to catch Henry's eye, and to use the Anne of Cleve's annulment as a lever to get rid of Thomas Cromwell. Both stratagems worked, and he attempted to leverage being the new Queen's uncle to bring himself to new power and riches, as he had with Anne Boleyn. Once Henry turned on Catherine Howard, Norfolk characteristically and swiftly threw his niece under the bus. However, as Henry aged, he grew increasingly paranoid and vindictive, and he had Norfolk arrested and sentenced to death on suspicion of treason. Before the execution could be carried out, Henry died, and Norfolk spent the six years of Edward VI's reign as a prisoner in the Tower of London. When Edward died and Mary took the throne, she released Norfolk since she was Catholic and Norfolk had always been a religious traditionalist suspicious of reform. He spent the remaining year of his life as one of Mary's chief advisors before finally dying of old age. As I often say, history can be a rich source of inspiration for fantasy writers, and the English Reformation is full of such inspiration. Wolsey, More, Cromwell, and Cranmer can all make excellent inspirations for morally ambiguous characters. For that matter, you can see why the reign of Henry VIII has inspired so many movies, TV shows, and historical novels. The real life events are so dramatic as to scarcely require embellishment. So that's it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show and thank you for listening as I went on one of my little historical digressions. I hope you found the show enjoyable. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes on https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave a review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy, and we'll see you all next week.

A big birthday with a big inheritance comes with more attention and trouble. So would a birthday party even be worth the risk? November 1933, after Doris Duke turns 21 and receives the first portion of her inheritance, she must now face threats from kidnappers, ill-intentioned suitors, and lawsuits. Meanwhile another kidnapping situation turns deadly. Amidst the threats, Doris has a small birthday dinner party with some illustrious guests back at her mansion. Other people and subjects include: Nanaline Holt Inman Duke, James H.R. Cromwell aka “Jimmy,” Princess Barbara Hutton Mdivani, Prince Alexis Mdivani, Prince Serge Mdivani, Prince David Mdivani, Eva Stotesbury, Edward “E.T.” Stotesbury, Walker Inman, Prince Serge Obolensky, Elsa Maxwell, Maury Paul / Cholly Knickerbocker, Janet Snowden, Harold Vanderbilt aka “Mike,” Charles Lindbergh, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Mrs. Curtis Dall aka Anna Roosevelt, “Atty” Atwater Kent Jr., Secretary of War, superintendent of Annapolis, West Point graduate, Newport sheriff, Cinina Rafaela (alternate spellings Cimina – Fafeala), J. Irving Shaffer, Brooke Hart, Thomas H. Thurmond, Jack Holmes, California Governor James Rolph, Grand Duke Dmitri, Mrs. Horatio Seymour Shonnard aka Mary Elizabeth Joyce, Mrs. Allan Ryan Jr., Harrison Williams and wife Mrs. Harrison Williams, Mrs. Allen Gouveneur Wellman, Lady Mendl, Mrs. Robert McAdoo, astrologer, reporter, photographers, injury lawsuit, twenty first 21st birthday inheritance, Army-Navy football game, broke suitors, FBI investigation, Lindbergh baby kidnapping, kidnapping, transatlantic air mail, American-European air mail service, League of Nations, mob rule, lynching, accordion, Great Danes, tiara, royal guests, Duke mansion, Duke Farms, Whitemarsh Hall, Santa Clara County Jail, Manhattan, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Cape Verde, Africa, different story format, anecdotes, expanding references, newspaper research, Pro Search archive, Newspapers.com, cultural references, , biographies, Richest Girl in the World by Stephanie Mansfield, Trust No One by Ted Schwartz, Daddy's Duchess by Valentine and Mahn, Too Rich by Pony Duke, The Silver Swan by Sally Bingham, prevalent fears of kidnapping, Great Depression newspapers vs modern social media, birthday quotes on wealth, Sherry Papini, Joseph Dunniger, Harry Houdini, Theodore Roosevelt, Thomas Edison, psychic mediums, Spiritualists – Spiritualism, debunking, Netflix Frankenstein 2025, Guillermo Del Toro, Del Toro's father's kidnapping, James Cameron, ransom, father – son reconciliation, creativity, Today Show host Savannah Guthrie, Nancy Guthrie, recent famous kidnapping, Niccola Peltz, Brooklyn Beckham… -- Extra Notes / Call to Action: Antique Jewelry Historian – Zuleika Gerrishhttps://www.instagram.com/antiquejewelleryhistorian/ Doris Duke and her tiarashttps://www.instagram.com/p/DT_YSorjd5X/?img_index=1https://www.naturaldiamonds.com/historic-diamonds/doris-duke-jewelry/ Marjorie Merriweather Posthttps://www.instagram.com/p/DUIMRV7jXTX/?img_index=1 YouTuber Meghan's Mole Doris Duke and Peltz Family Connection | Meghan's Mole January 31, 2026https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ffm5Aa1IGA Enty Lawyer – Crazy Days and Nights blog Doris Duke cryptic message relating to Peltz familyhttps://www.crazydaysandnights.net/2022/07/todays-blind-items-get-yours.html The Silver Swan: The Search for Doris Duke by Sally Binghamhttps://www.amazon.com/Silver-Swan-Search-Doris-Duke-ebook/dp/B078X21PDT Share, like, subscribe -- Archival Music provided by Past Perfect Vintage Music, www.pastperfect.com. Opening Music: My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands Section 1 Music: Top Hat, White Tie and Tails by Carroll Gibbons & Boy Friends, Album Sophistication – Songs of the Thirties Section 2 Music: Moonlight Cocktail by Hutch, Album Tea Dance 1920s, 30s, 40s Vintage Tea Party Section 3 Music: It's An Old Southern Custom by Carroll Gibbons, Album The Age of Style – Hits from the 30s End Music: My Heart Belongs to Daddy by Billy Cotton, Album The Great British Dance Bands --https://asthemoneyburns.com/ X / TW / IG – @asthemoneyburns X / Twitter – https://x.com/asthemoneyburns Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/asthemoneyburns/ Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/asthemoneyburns/

Sullivan & Cromwell partner Patrick Gadson discusses activism in banking and the shifting role of proxy advisers. 

This is Part 2! For Part 1, check the feed!This week we're looking at some of the most famous families that history has to offer. We've got the House of Cromwell for you, plus the Astors and the incredible story of the Spencer family and their slow centuries-long rise to power.Elsewhere, we're talking about the demise of Antiques Roadshow now Hugh Scully has effectively been replaced by Chat GPT. If you've got anything to add on this or anything else, you know what to do: hello@ohwhatatime.comAnd from now on Part 1 is released on Monday and Part 2 on Wednesday - but if you want more Oh What A Time and both parts at once, you should sign up for our Patreon! On there you'll now find:•The full archive of bonus episodes•Brand new bonus episodes each month•OWAT subscriber group chats•Loads of extra perks for supporters of the show•PLUS ad-free episodes earlier than everyone elseJoin us at

Igniting Contagious Faith!Sermon Notes: https://links.kchanford.com/sunday

Old pubs hit different after dark—low lighting, creaking timber, cellars you don't want to go down alone… and stories that refuse to die. In this episode we take on a haunted pub crawl across Wales, blending documented history with the legends and witness accounts that keep these places firmly on the paranormal map.We begin at Cardiff's Rummer Tavern, often cited among the city centre's oldest pubs, where reports consistently circle the cellar and toilets and a long-running sailor legend still hangs in the air. Next, we travel to Monmouth's Queen's Head, a historic inn wrapped in Civil War tradition and Cromwell-era storytelling, with recurring reports of strange presences that have become part of its identity. Then it's time for the Skirrid Inn—a pub with a dark past and a reputation for intense paranormal activity that's earned it “most haunted” status in countless retellings. And to round off the night, we stop in Abergavenny at The Duke of Wellington, because no haunted pub crawl is complete without one more old building, one more story, and one more “did you hear that?” moment.Note: We discuss hauntings as folklore and personal testimony rather than confirmed fact.Haunted pubs Wales, Rummer Tavern Cardiff, Queen's Head Monmouth ghost, Skirrid Mountain Inn haunted, Duke of Wellington Abergavenny, Welsh ghost stories, paranormal podcast UK, Pursuit Of The Paranormal

Le 24 février 1994, alertée par de troublantes déclarations d'une enfant de Fred et Rose West, la police perquisitionne le domicile du couple. Les époux paraissent sereins, jusqu'à ce que les agents se mettent à creuser le jardin de la maison.Ce qu'ils découvrent va lever le voile sur des décennies d'étranges disparitions dans la région. 9 corps sont exhumés de ce banal pavillon de banlieue. Mais qu'est-ce qui a mené ce couple apparemment normal à commettre de telles horreurs ? Et que s'est-il réellement passé derrière les portes closes du 25, rue Cromwell ?Plongez dans la plus grande enquête de meurtre de l'histoire de la Grande-Bretagne. “Fred et Rose West : la maison de l'horreur”, un podcast disponible prochainement sur toutes les plateformes. Hébergé par Audion. Visitez https://www.audion.fm/fr/privacy-policy pour plus d'informations.

This week we're looking at some of the most famous families that history has to offer. We've got the House of Cromwell for you, plus the Astors and the incredible story of the Spencer family and their slow centuries-long rise to power.Elsewhere, we're talking about the demise of Antiques Roadshow now Hugh Scully has effectively been replaced by Chat GPT. If you've got anything to add on this or anything else, you know what to do: hello@ohwhatatime.comAnd from now on Part 1 is released on Monday and Part 2 on Wednesday - but if you want more Oh What A Time and both parts at once, you should sign up for our Patreon! On there you'll now find:•The full archive of bonus episodes•Brand new bonus episodes each month•OWAT subscriber group chats•Loads of extra perks for supporters of the show•PLUS ad-free episodes earlier than everyone elseJoin us at

In this episode, Nathan Wrigley talks with Matt Cromwell about Matt's new agency, Roots and Fruit, which is aimed at helping WordPress product businesses grow sustainably. They discuss shifts in the WordPress ecosystem, the importance of focusing on the entire product experience (not just code), and how saturation and increased competition mean success requires more than just “build it and they will come.” Matt shares insights from his GiveWP and StellarWP journey and explains how he now supports both solo founders and teams with strategies prioritising customer experience, smart marketing, and purposeful growth.

A fast-track consent is currently being sought for a major gold mine in Cromwell, Central Otago.  This follows the approval of a controversial $8 billion dollar mine that received fast-track approval for the Coromandel in December.  Local response has largely presented environmental concerns, and raise questions of alternative initiatives for mineral mining in Aotearoa.  Producer Jasmine Gray spoke to Sue Coutts, Director of External Affairs at Zero Waste Aotearoa, about the potential of e-waste and a circular economy for mining gold and other materials.

In this episode, Nathan Wrigley talks with Matt Cromwell about Matt's new agency, Roots and Fruit, which is aimed at helping WordPress product businesses grow sustainably. They discuss shifts in the WordPress ecosystem, the importance of focusing on the entire product experience (not just code), and how saturation and increased competition mean success requires more than just “build it and they will come.” Matt shares insights from his GiveWP and StellarWP journey and explains how he now supports both solo founders and teams with strategies prioritising customer experience, smart marketing, and purposeful growth.

Igniting Contagious Faith!Sermon Notes: https://links.kchanford.com/sunday

Igniting Contagious Faith!Sermon Notes: https://links.kchanford.com/sunday

We find the Cromwell cherry grower behind the “Great Electric Cherry Migration” on his way to Wellington to woo politicians, with a big electric 18-wheeler truck laden with Central Otago’s finest fare.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

After the execution of King Charles I, England became a Republic for the only time in its history. Yet why was this revolutionary moment so short-lived? Why did Oliver Cromwell's Commonwealth collapse?Professor Suzannah Lipscomb explores its rise and demise with a panel of expert historians: Professor Ronald Hutton, Dr. Jonathan Healey and Dr. Miranda Malins. Together they discuss what the Republic's failure reveals about authority, popular consent, and the enduring pull of monarchy in 17th-century Britain.MORE:The English Civil WarListen on AppleListen on SpotifyOliver Cromwell v. Charles IListen on AppleListen on SpotifyPresented by Professor Suzannah Lipscomb. The researcher is Max Wintle, audio editor is Amy Haddow and the producers are Fiona Turnock and Rob Weinberg. The senior producer is Anne-Marie Luff.All music courtesy of Epidemic Sounds.Not Just the Tudors is a History Hit podcastSign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this week's episode, we look at five business lessons for indie authors from Brandon Sanderson's recent Apple TV deal. Once again it is time for Coupon of the Week! This coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Silent Order series at my Payhip store: CALASKAR25 The coupon code is valid through February 9, 2026. So if you need a new ebook this winter, we've got you covered! TRANSCRIPT 00:00:00 Introduction and Writing Updates Hello, everyone. Welcome to Episode 288 of The Pulp Writer Show. My name is Jonathan Moeller. Today is January the 30th, 2026 and today we are discussing five additional business lessons for indie authors from Brandon Sanderson in the aftermath of his recent Apple TV deal. Before we get into that, we will have a Coupon of the Week and an update on my current writing and publishing progress. First up is Coupon of the Week. This week's coupon code will get you 25% off the ebooks in the Silent Order series at my Payhip store. And that coupon code is CALASKAR25. And as always, you can get the coupon code and the links to my Payhip store in the show notes of this episode. This coupon code will be valid through February the 9th, 2026. So if you need a new science fiction ebook to read for this winter, we have got you covered. And now for an update on my current writing and publishing projects. Now that Blade of Storms is out and is doing well (thank you all for that), my main project is now Cloak of Summoning, and I am 34,000 words into it as of this recording, which puts me on Chapter 6 of 23 in the outline. I think it's probably going to come out in March because February is a short month and Cloak of Summoning is going to be a long book. So hopefully it should come out early in March. I'm also 1,000 words into Blade of Wraiths, which will be the fourth book in my Blades of Ruin epic fantasy series. That will be my main project once Cloak of Summoning is done. So hopefully that will come out in probably April or thereabouts. In audiobook news, recording is very nearly completed for Blade of Shadows, the second book in the Blades of Ruin epic fantasy series, and that will be narrated by Brad Wills. Hollis McCarthy is currently working on the audiobook of Cloak of Titans, and I think she's about halfway through. So hopefully we should have some new audiobooks for you to listen to before much longer. And that is where I'm at with my current writing and publishing projects. 00:02:04 Main Topic of the Week: 5 Business Lessons For Indie Authors From Brandon Sanderson Now onto our main topic this week, five additional business lessons for indie authors from Brandon Sanderson. And I think it is objectively factual to say that Brandon Sanderson is probably the most successful fantasy author who is currently publishing. Beyond the sheer number of sales, what many find most impressive about what he's achieved is his company, Dragonsteel Entertainment, that he has been able to create. It consists of Kickstarter campaign work, special book editions, a successful convention, merchandising (including an RPG), and a whole slew of other things. Even for authors like me operating on a much smaller scale, there are a few things to learn from his success at publishing and creating a specialized empire. Now what's amusing is the notes for the show were prepared a couple of weeks ago, but a few days ago, the news was announced that Brandon Sanderson entered into a licensing deal with Apple TV to produce adaptations based on his Mistborn and Stormlight Archive series. As the author himself said on Reddit, "The decision to pick Apple was due to two factors. First, the levels of approvals and control. Apple wants to be a true partner with me and they feel like they really get what I want to do. Second, their track record. Apple does fewer things, but higher quality than some other studios. I find virtually everything of theirs I watch is excellent and creator driven." So that and an impressive degree of creative control he wrung out of Apple for this and if you are at all familiar with the history of movie adaptations, you know that the author getting any degree of creative control does not happen all that often. Usually what happens is the studio cranks out the adaptation that butchers the book and then it disappears into obscurity. So this actually happens to tie in quite well with the original theme of today's episode, which is the Five Business Lessons from Brandon Sanderson. He was able to reach this level of success by following these five business lessons consistently over a period of decades. So we will go into that now. #1: Find a way to meet fan demand and find gaps in the market. Sanderson was ahead of traditional publishing when it came to responding to fan requests for high quality letter bound or other enhanced special editions. By focusing on this gap in the market, he was able to meet a need expressed by his most passionate fans and get an additional round of sales from existing customers who already have the mass market paperbacks or ebook versions. Even in an age with ebooks and audiobooks, physical copies are still important to many readers, partly because they can't be deleted off your ereader. This is even more true of special editions being gifted or displayed like decor. He further cemented the respect of his fans by spending a great deal of time and effort adding elaborate details like gilding and full color illustrations to the premium editions. He listened to fan demand and exceeded their expectations without pricing out or alienating fans by only offering the premium versions. It's also been long been a complaint of readers that they can't buy bundles of the physical book, ebook, and audiobook at the same time. There's a wide variety of reasons it's not easy or even possible to bundle these formats together, but Brandon Sanderson found a way to make it work with books from his largest Kickstarter campaign because he was controlling the production of all three formats. He found a gap in the market by addressing this need and made fans feel like they're getting a more complete experience by getting the formats all at once. #2: Take advantage of an opportunity. One of the most surprising parts of Brandon's largest Kickstarter campaign is how one of the Secret Project books, Tress of the Emerald Sea, took off on BookTok and became popular with readers who haven't read other Brandon Sanderson or even fantasy books before. Tress also gave potential readers who are intimidated by how prolific he is and how long and interconnected the books in his series are a chance to try his writing in a less intimidating way. Dragonsteel responded to this development by commissioning special editions of Tress, Mistborn, and The Emperor's Soul in a Sanderson starter pack on the TikTok shop, which did extremely well. Authors who are prolific would do well to think about entry points in a similar way. What are your "starter pack" books? How can people feel more comfortable trying out your work and sampling from your books in your different genres? For myself, one way I do this is making the first book in almost all my series permafree. This gives people a chance to try my work without making a financial commitment, and usually the second book is $0.99, which is a little bit of a financial commitment, but not very much. And if someone has read the first two books in the series, odds are they are probably going to continue on to the full price rest of the series. #3: Be transparent. Brandon uses weekly update videos and his podcast to update readers on his writing and publishing progress as well as new merchandise releases. If there is a delay or an unexpected development, he can use this outlet to explain what happened in more detail. For example, when there was a delay in the printing of the premium hardcover of Tress of the Emerald Sea, he posted to Kickstarter, social media, and his weekly video to explain what happened and what Dragonsteel was doing to address it. For myself, I include writing updates at the beginning of each of my podcast episodes and also post updates to my website and Facebook page on a regular basis. He also posts a State of the Sanderson every year on his website and YouTube channel that summarizes the status of his various projects in a more collected form so more casual fans can catch up on his news there. This level of transparency builds trust with your readers. Some authors hide from failed promises about publishing dates or future books, but it's better to be transparent when something changes than to act like it never happened or keep giving vague answers. For example, very recently, I'd hoped Cloak of Summoning was going to come out in February, but like I explained at the start of the episode, it's a long book, February is a short month and I've got a bunch of stuff to do in February that's not related to writing, so it's probably going to be early March that the book comes out. #4: Keep creative control. One of the reasons that even during the era of peak streaming, we did not see an adaptation of a Brandon Sanderson book (besides Wheel of Time, which doesn't really count because it mostly belongs to Robert Jordan and the series didn't last long enough to get to the final books in the series that Sanderson authored). It was in part because creative control of the work is important to him. He wants to find a production company that respects his work and is at least reasonably faithful to the original books. As anyone who has been disappointed by a show or movie that was created by people unfamiliar with the work or uninterested in following the original plot knows, that is not as simple of a request as you might think. Like of all the books I've read that have had TV or movie adaptations, I think I can think of only three adaptations that were better than the original book: Goldfinger (because Goldfinger's plot in the movie made more sense than it did in the book), The Godfather (because The Godfather movie frankly eliminated some unnecessary and frankly weird subplots from the book), and I think the show adaptation of Wolf Hall (because I've been reading the Wolf Hall books this year and while the books are good, I think the show kind of gets to the point in a better way and avoids some of the long internal monologues that Cromwell has that seem to kind of not be necessary, but that could be a matter of taste). So, but back to the main point, out of all the adaptations I've seen, I think I've only encountered three that were better than the original source material. So you can see how having creative control of the adaptation will be very important for an author. Even though most books will never become movies or shows, keeping as much creative control as possible is extremely important as a writer in general and indie publishing allows you to do that, which I found has been very useful to me in my writing career, especially after I started doing my own audiobooks because then I can move the audiobooks to different stores and make bundles of them as I want without having to fight with the rights holder about that. #5: Find good people you can trust and treat them well. One of the most underrated elements of Sanderson's success is that he has built a strong and loyal team at Dragonsteel headed by his wife, Emily, who is co-president of Dragonsteel Entertainment. The company has over 50 employees that work on merchandise, the podcast, the convention, and all of Sanderson's various projects, which baffles my mind because I don't think I talk to 50 different people in a month, let alone every day. Many of the employees are longtime friends (some going back as far as college) or family members, but Emily says that it's still important that each employee is qualified for their role. Treating employees well is a stated priority of Sanderson. One specific example is how he structures his major annual sale, which is called Light Day, early in November to not take place over the American Thanksgiving holiday, and the Dragonsteel Shop has earlier Christmas holiday ordering deadlines than most online stores do so his employees can have more time off around that holiday. Another example of treating others well is although many people have offered to volunteer at the Dragonsteel Nexus Convention, he hired temp employees instead. I hope that one of the reasons I've been able to keep employees like a cover designer and narrators for so long is that I try to treat people well. I try to act professionally, not make unreasonable quote requests, and pay people promptly. You can get away with a lot if you pay people on time as agreed. I'm not saying this is an excuse to act like a jerk, however, you will find that people are much more patient with you and much more willing to accommodate reasonable requests when they know that you will in fact pay on time when they are done. So finally, although you and I may never manage a media empire like Dragonsteel Entertainment, you and I can still learn from Sanderson's success and take lessons and apply them to our own businesses from what he has done well. So that is it for this week. Thank you for listening to The Pulp Writer Show. I hope you found the show useful and interesting. A reminder that you can listen to all the back episodes on https://thepulpwritershow.com. If you enjoyed the podcast, please leave your review on your podcasting platform of choice. Stay safe and stay healthy and see you all next week.    

Revolutionary leader Oliver Cromwell was executed on 30th January, 1661 - despite having been dead for more than two years. His body was exhumed from its tomb in Westminster Abbey on the instruction of King Charles II, who sought retribution for those involved in the trial and execution of his father, Charles I. Along with other Regicides, Cromwell's corpse was disinterred and subjected to public abuse. On the anniversary of Charles I's beheading, Cromwell's head was mounted on a spike and stuck on the roof of Westminster Hall - where it remained for thirty years. In this episode, Arion, Rebecca and Olly track the illustrious history of Cromwell's head from that date forth; consider whether the crowd in attendance at the ‘execution' really hated their former Lord Protector as much as their jeering suggests; and explain how the intervention of a future Prime Minister prevented Cromwell's relic being put on public display as recently as the 19th Century… Further Reading: • ‘Oliver Cromwell: Hero or Villain?' (HistoryExtra, 2014) : https://www.historyextra.com/period/stuart/oliver-cromwell-hero-or-villain/ • ‘The Strange Saga of Oliver Cromwell's Head' (Mental Floss, 2019): https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/585591/oliver-cromwells-head-history • ‘Opening The Coffin Of Oliver Cromwell' (The Fortress, 2023): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SR0_DE2zQgU We'll be back on Monday - unless you join CLUB RETROSPECTORS, where we give you ad-free listening AND a full-length Sunday episode every week!Plus, weekly bonus content, unlock over 70 bonus bits, and support our independent podcast.Join now via Apple Podcasts or Patreon. Thanks!The Retrospectors are Olly Mann, Rebecca Messina & Arion McNicoll, with Matt Hill.Theme Music: Pass The Peas. Announcer: Bob Ravelli. Graphic Design: Terry Saunders. Edit Producer: Ollie Peart.Copyright: Rethink Audio / Olly Mann 2026. This episode originally aired in 2024. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As the English Civil War ground on and the tides began to turn against the Royalist forces, Charles II decamped to Europe for his own safety. His mother was in Paris, but he also spent a lot of time in The Hague, where his sister Mary was the wife of William II, Prince of Orange. Charles, then still just the Prince of Wales, met a Welsh lass there named Lucy Walter. Lucy had skipped out on the UK to get away from her parents, whose ugly divorce had risen to high scandal, and was hoping to find her fortune - via a husband or lover - in the English Court-in-exile. In May of 1648, Lucy met Charles, and a relatively brief romance transpired, but one that produced Prince Charles's first child. Happily, Charles eagerly acknowledged his son, who would go on to become the Duke of Monmouth. Less happily, agents of English dictator Oliver Cromwell kidnapped the boy for 10 days, and years later, long after the romance was over, his own father would successfully kidnap him to hide him from Cromwell and other dangers. Sadly, Lucy died some time in 1658, and never saw her old flame on the English throne, or her son as a Duke. Listen ad-free at patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast. To advertise on this podcast, reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com.

As the English Civil War ground on and the tides began to turn against the Royalist forces, Charles II decamped to Europe for his own safety. His mother was in Paris, but he also spent a lot of time in The Hague, where his sister Mary was the wife of William II, Prince of Orange.Charles, then still just the Prince of Wales, met a Welsh lass there named Lucy Walter. Lucy had skipped out on the UK to get away from her parents, whose ugly divorce had risen to high scandal, and was hoping to find her fortune - via a husband or lover - in the English Court-in-exile.In May of 1648, Lucy met Charles, and a relatively brief romance transpired, but one that produced Prince Charles's first child. Happily, Charles eagerly acknowledged his son, who would go on to become the Duke of Monmouth. Less happily, agents of English dictator Oliver Cromwell kidnapped the boy for 10 days, and years later, long after the romance was over, his own father would successfully kidnap him to hide him from Cromwell and other dangers.Sadly, Lucy died some time in 1658, and never saw her old flame on the English throne, or her son as a Duke.Listen ad-free at patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast.To advertise on this podcast, reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Supreme Court hacking and the end of a Biglaw era. ------ The Biglaw world continues to watch single-tier partnerships slip away with Sullivan & Cromwell joining the income partner trend. Will the industry have any single-tier firms left by the end of the year? Also former Senator and current Hogan Lovells lawyer Kyrsten Sinema tagged with an alienation of affection tort from her former bodyguard's soon-to-be ex-wife. Come for the bad soap opera plot, stay for the MDMA-inspired psychedelic trip allegations. Finally, the Supreme Court got hacked, but federal law enforcement managed, a couple years after the fact, to track down the culprit whose social media handle was "ihackedthegovernment." Cracker jack work all around. Subscribe to Above the Law - Thinking Like a Lawyer: https://play.megaphone.fm/lpff6i7nq9wlb-pkdudwtw Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Igniting Contagious Faith!Sermon Notes: https://links.kchanford.com/sunday

Nick is joined by Lydia Hislop for a canter through the best stories in racing. First today, Lydia reflects on her trip to Gowran Park for Thyestes Chase day, where trainer Gavin Cromwell stole the honours - he joins the show as we wonder whether this marks a turning point for his season. Also today, Jane Williams talks about going head-to-head with son Chester in the Triumph Hurdle Trial on Saturday, while Bryony Frost has high hopes of coming home to fly the French flag with three rides at Cheltenham. In Florida, Nick catches up with trainer Saffie Joseph as he bids to win the Pegasus World Cup with last year's winner and third, White Abarrio and Skippylongstocking.

History includes a lot of highs and lows, but England's Interregnum period was a particularly low low. King Charles I had been defeated in the English Civil War and was tried and beheaded in January 1649. For the next eleven years, various flavors of religious extremists, mostly under the sway of Oliver Cromwell, governed the realm (badly). Cromwell died in 1658 and his successor, his son Richard, proved a more miserable leader than even his predecessors, which led to the restoration of the monarchy and Charles II strolling into an eager London on his 30th birthday. By then, his reputation as a ladies' man was already well established, and for a grateful nation, it was time to let the good times roll once again. Listen ad-free at patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast. To advertise on this podcast, reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com.

History includes a lot of highs and lows, but England's Interregnum period was a particularly low low. King Charles I had been defeated in the English Civil War and was tried and beheaded in January 1649. For the next eleven years, various flavors of religious extremists, mostly under the sway of Oliver Cromwell, governed the realm (badly).Cromwell died in 1658 and his successor, his son Richard, proved a more miserable leader than even his predecessors, which led to the restoration of the monarchy and Charles II strolling into an eager London on his 30th birthday. By then, his reputation as a ladies' man was already well established, and for a grateful nation, it was time to let the good times roll once again.Listen ad-free at patreon.com/trashyroyalspodcast.To advertise on this podcast, reach out to info@amplitudemediapartners.com.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

This week on The Final Furlong Podcast Weekend Betting Guide, Emmet Kennedy is joined by Andy Newton, Jake Wilkes and Peter Michael to break down every race on Trials Day at Cheltenham, plus the best betting angles at Doncaster and Fairyhouse. If you're serious about Festival betting, this is the card that quietly produces winners for: • The Ultima • The Plate • The Stayers' Hurdle • The Turners • The Albert Bartlett We strip away the hype and focus on profiles, trends and prices that actually matter.

Supreme Court hacking and the end of a Biglaw era. ------ The Biglaw world continues to watch single-tier partnerships slip away with Sullivan & Cromwell joining the income partner trend. Will the industry have any single-tier firms left by the end of the year? Also former Senator and current Hogan Lovells lawyer Kyrsten Sinema tagged with an alienation of affection tort from her former bodyguard's soon-to-be ex-wife. Come for the bad soap opera plot, stay for the MDMA-inspired psychedelic trip allegations. Finally, the Supreme Court got hacked, but federal law enforcement managed, a couple years after the fact, to track down the culprit whose social media handle was "ihackedthegovernment." Cracker jack work all around.

THE REPUBLIC AND THE RULE OF CROMWELL Colleague Jonathan Healey. Following the regicide, John Lambert drafts the "Instrument of Government," creating a constitution with checks and balances. Oliver Cromwellbecomes Lord Protector, achieving stability and military success despite the shock of the King's execution. However, his rule relies on the army, alienating democratic radicals and Royalists. Parliament offers Cromwell the crown to legitimize his power, but he refuses, believing God had cast down the monarchy. Cromwell manages to hold the factions together through force of personality, but his death in 1658 leaves a dangerous power vacuum. NUMBER 61690 ETON COLLEGE

THE RESTORATION AND THE BLAZING WORLD Colleague Jonathan Healey. Seeking stability after political chaos, England invites Charles II to return in 1660. The Restoration maintains parliamentary taxation power but brings a severe Anglican religious reaction against dissenters. Royalists exact revenge, grotesquely exhuming and hanging Cromwell's corpse. Charles II rules with more financial independence due to growing customs revenue from trade and empire. The era also sees intellectual vibrancy, exemplified by Margaret Cavendish, whose book The Blazing Worldblends science fiction with critiques of technology and gender roles during a time of scientific curiosity. NUMBER 71669 ALLEGORY OF BEHEADING CHARLES I

Save 10% on a Las Vegas Advisor 2026 membership and book with code MTM.  https://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/shop/products/lva-membership-platinum/ Episode Description This week Shawn was on the Strip and provided a number of updates from down there. Caesars Palace continues with Omnia Dayclub construction but is it blocking the front too much? Caesars also is installing their giant new screen plus we look at the new carpet at Palazzo and discuss food hacks for saving money on the Strip. In other news Matthew Boyer may finally be getting banned from Nevada casinos. Should he be in the Black Book? We also discuss: Mermaids, the return of free slot pulls, Sunset Station's continuing renovation, how much you should tip plus how you can now visit the Mob Museum at the Las Vegas airport. Episode Guide 0:00 Almost 10 years since we lost Mermaids 0:35 Mob Museum opens at Harry Reid airport 1:25 Vegas tipping guide - Too much or too little? 3:00 How much to tip Vegas cocktail servers 4:27 Cromwell's final days are coming 5:37 Caesars frontage update - Omnia Day Club blocks everything 7:10 Caesars Palace giant screen installation update 8:20 McDonald's app hack & other food saving tips 10:01 Sunset Station's new bar & Gaudi renovation 11:40 Carpet update - Flamingo & Palazzo's new offerings 13:40 Binion's free slot pull returns 15:16 Matthew Boyer into the Nevada black book? 17:21 Why the board wants to prove a point with Boyer Each week tens of thousands of people tune into our MtM Vegas news shows at http://www.YouTube.com/milestomemories. We do two news shows weekly on YouTube with this being the audio version. Never miss out on the latest happenings in and around Las Vegas! Enjoying the podcast? Please consider leaving us a positive review on your favorite podcast platform! You can also connect with us anytime at podcast@milestomemories.com.  You can subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or by searching "MtM Vegas" or "Miles to Memories" in your favorite podcast app. Don't forget to check out our travel/miles/points podcast as well!

In early 1540, Thomas Cromwell was still powerful, but he knew something had shifted.Today we look at the final year before Cromwell's fall, not as a sudden collapse, but as a slow recognition that his influence was draining away. As the court reoriented itself, allies fell silent, old enemies returned, and the systems Cromwell built no longer protected him. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On this episode of Currently Reading, Meredith and Kaytee are discussing: Bookish Moments: experimenting with our reading and taking on choker books Current Reads: all the great, interesting, and/or terrible stuff we've been reading lately Deep Dive: answering the questions of how or why we rate our books The Fountain: we visit our perfect fountain to make wishes about our reading lives Show notes are time-stamped below for your convenience. Read the transcript of the episode (this link only works on the main site). .  .  .  2:39 - Our Bookish Moments of the Week 3:01- The Complete Stories by Flannery O'Connor 3:05 - Bookshelf Thomasville 3:07 - From the Front Porch podcast 3:31 - It by Stephen King 4:53 - Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel (#1 in the Cromwell series) 5:30 - Footnotes and Tangents on Instagram 6:45 - The Stand by Stephen King 6:47 - Laura Tremaine on Substack 8:52 - Our Current Reads 9:00 - Matched by Ally Condie (Kaytee) 9:32 - The Giver by Lois Lowry 11:26 - The Selection by Kiera Cass 11:30 - The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins 13:04 - Turns of Fate by Anne Bishop (Meredith) 14:45 - The Tainted Cup by Robert Jackson Bennett 18:15 - Cultish by Amanda Montell (Kaytee) 18:21 - Wordslut by Amanda Montell 21:52 - Creative Visualization by Shakti Gawain (Meredith) 23:00 - The Secret by Rhonda Byrne 23:35 - The Painted Porch 23:40 - The Daily Stoic by Ryan Holliday 26:05 - The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron 27:37 - When the Tides Held the Moon by Vanessa Vida Kelley (Kaytee) 30:43 - CAWPILE 31:38 - The Ghostwriter by Julie Clark (Meredith) 35:51 - The God of the Woods by Liz Moore 36:28 - The Last Flight by Julie Clark 36:50 - Deep Dive: How And Why We Rate Our Reads 37:53 - A Good Girl's Guide to Murder by Holly Jackson 37:59 - Dante and Aristotle Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz 38:04 - Wives Like Us by Plum Sykes 38:14 - Victorian Psycho by Virginia Feito  49:41 - CAWPILE system 51:53 - Meet Us At The Fountain 52:41 - I wish that we would all pick one small way to challenge our reading this year. (Kaytee) 54:23 - I wish you would sign up for our newsletter! (Meredith) 54:25 - Sign up for the newsletter on our website  Support Us: Become a Bookish Friend | Grab Some Merch Shop Bookshop dot org | Shop Amazon Bookish Friends Receive: The Indie Press List with a curated list of five books hand sold by the indie of the month. January's IPL is our annual visit to Fabled Bookshop in Waco, Texas. Love and Chili Peppers with Kaytee and Rebekah - romance lovers get their due with this special episode focused entirely on the best selling genre fiction in the business.  All Things Murderful with Meredith and Elizabeth - special content for the scary-lovers, brought to you with the behind-the-scenes insights of an independent bookseller From the Editor's Desk with Kaytee and Bunmi Ishola - a quarterly peek behind the curtain at the publishing industry The Bookish Friends Facebook Group - where you can build community with bookish friends from around the globe as well as our hosts Connect With Us: The Show: Instagram | Website | Email | Threads The Hosts and Regulars: Meredith | Kaytee | Mary | Roxanna Production and Editing: Megan Phouthavong Evans Affiliate Disclosure: All affiliate links go to Bookshop unless otherwise noted. Shopping here helps keep the lights on and benefits indie bookstores. Thanks for your support!

THE MUTINY PLOT AND THE DECISION TO EXECUTE Colleague Richard Snow. Spencer's "mutiny" plot is revealed to a steward, triggering Mackenzie's paranoia. Mackenzie arrests Spencer, Cromwell, and Small without concrete evidence of an uprising. An irregular council of officers, influenced by the captain's fear and the lack of a brig, decides the three men must be executed. NUMBER 7 v

THE MUTINY PLOT AND THE DECISION TO EXECUTE Colleague Richard Snow. Spencer's "mutiny" plot is revealed to a steward, triggering Mackenzie's paranoia. Mackenzie arrests Spencer, Cromwell, and Small without concrete evidence of an uprising. An irregular council of officers, influenced by the captain's fear and the lack of a brig, decides the three men must be executed. NUMBER 7

C Judy Dempsey examines fears that Russia will shift military forces to the NATO border if a Ukraine peace deal is reached. She discusses reported US pressure on Kyiv to surrender the Donbas, noting that both Ukraine and the EU oppose such concessions due to sovereignty concerns and lack of security guarantees. Judy Dempsey addresses the industrial crisis in Germany, specifically the auto industry's struggle against Chinese electric vehicles. She notes that Chancellor Merz is avoiding necessary pension reforms due to political pressure, while the rise of the AfD and a shifting transatlantic relationship further complicate Germany's economic stability. Mary Kissel argues that Ukraine cannot surrender the Donbas without ironclad security guarantees, citing past broken agreements like the Budapest Memorandum. She validates Finnish and Baltic fears regarding Russian aggression and questions whether the Trump administration's business-centric approach can effectively manage Vladimir Putin's ideological brutality. Mary Kissel characterizes China's economy as collapsing under Xi Jinping's mismanagement. She highlights the plight of Jimmy Lai, a 78-year-old British citizen imprisoned in Hong Kong, and urges Western leaders to use economic leverage to demand his release as a prerequisite for any improved relations. Jonathan Schanzer critiques the slow Australian police response to the Bondi Beach attack, linking the shooters to ISIS training in the Philippines. He warns that the Albanese government's political "virtue signaling" regarding Palestine may have emboldened radicals, while noting Hezbollah is reconstituting its money and weapons pipelines in Lebanon. Jonathan Schanzer analyzes the "murky" killing of US servicemen in Syria, attributing it to jihadist elements within the government's security forces. He describes the situation in Gaza as a deadlock where Hamas remains armed because no international force, other than the unacceptable option of Turkey, is willing to intervene. Gregory Copley details how the Bondi Beach attackers trained in the Philippines' insurgent areas. While praising Australian intelligence agencies, he blames the Albanese government for encouraging anti-Israel sentiment, arguing this political stance has given license to radical groups and undermined public safety. Gregory Copley reflects on the 25-year war on terror, arguing that Western governments have become distracted. He contends that elevating terrorists like Bin Laden to "superpower" status was a strategic error, as the true objective of terrorism is to manipulate political narratives and induce paralysis through fear. Gregory Copley observes a 2025 shift toward nationalism and decisive leadership, asserting that globalism is declining. He notes that nuclear weapons are becoming "unusable" due to changing military doctrines and warns that Western democracies are sliding toward autocracy, drawing historical parallels to Oliver Cromwell's rise as Lord Protector. Gregory Copley reports on King Charles III's improving health and his unifying role within the Commonwealth. He contrasts the stability of the constitutional monarchy with the historical chaos of Cromwell's republic, suggesting the Crown remains a vital stabilizing force against political turmoil in the UK and its dominions. Joseph Sternberg challenges the Trump administration's antagonistic view of the EU, citing polls showing the institution remains popular among Europeans. He argues that US policy should not be based on the expectation of the EU's collapse, noting that the UK's exit was unique to its specific history and not a continental trend. Joseph Sternberg condemns the imprisonment of British citizen Jimmy Lai in Hong Kong as a failure of UKdiplomacy. He argues that Hong Kong's economic success cannot be separated from its political freedoms, warning that the erosion of the rule of law threatens the territory's viability as a business center. Joseph Postell discusses the 1983 INS v. Chadha decision, which eliminated the legislative veto. He explains how this ruling stripped Congress of its ability to check the executive branch, transforming a once-dominant legislature into a weak institution unable to reverse administrative decisions on issues like tariffs. Joseph Postell suggests correcting the Chadha precedent by adopting a view of severability where delegations of power are unconstitutional without the accompanying legislative veto. He notes that the War Powers Resolutionremains a rare exception where Congress still retains a mechanism to reverse executive actions via simple majority.

Gregory Copley observes a 2025 shift toward nationalism and decisive leadership, asserting that globalism is declining. He notes that nuclear weapons are becoming "unusable" due to changing military doctrines and warns that Western democracies are sliding toward autocracy, drawing historical parallels to Oliver Cromwell's rise as Lord Protector. 1648 CROMWELL