Podcasts about when european

Welcome to another spine-chilling episode where we delve deep into one of America's most enduring supernatural legends. Tonight, we explore the terrifying tale of the Jersey Devil, a creature born from desperation, blasphemy, and a mother's curse that echoes through nearly three centuries of American folklore.Our story begins in the winter of 1735, deep within New Jersey's Pine Barrens, a vast wilderness that has always been different from other forests. The Lenape Native Americans spoke of this place in hushed tones, calling it a land of shadows where spirits dwelt in the deepest groves.When European settlers arrived, they found the forest resistant to civilization itself, as if the very soil rejected their attempts at taming the wild.In this primordial landscape lived the Leeds family, existing on the margins of colonial society in a ramshackle cabin that seemed to exhale malevolence. Deborah Leeds, weathered by hardship and twisted by bitterness, had already borne twelve children to her weak-willed husband Daniel. As she felt the stirrings of her thirteenth child, the crushing weight of poverty and desperation drove her to make a bargain that would damn not just her own soul, but unleash upon the world a creature so terrible that its very existence would become woven into the fabric of American folklore.On the night of January 13th, 1735, as an unnatural storm raged outside their cursed cabin, Mother Leeds spoke words of blasphemy that would forever change the Pine Barrens. In her fury at God's apparent abandonment, she cursed her unborn child, asking that it be born not as a blessing but as the very Devil himself. Her desperate plea was answered in ways she could never have imagined.What emerged from that supernatural birth was no ordinary child, but a creature that defied every law of nature and sanity. Before the horrified eyes of the Leeds family, the infant underwent a transformation so violent and complete that it became something altogether inhuman. With a horse-like head, leathery wings, burning red eyes, and an intelligence both ancient and malevolent, the Jersey Devil was born into a world unprepared for its terrible presence.Our tale follows the creature's first night of freedom as it discovered the intoxicating rush of inspiring fear itself. The Jersey Devil's early encounters with isolated farming families like the Whitmores revealed not just a monster, but an entity that could think, plan, and choose to be cruel with calculating precision. These weren't random acts of violence, but carefully orchestrated campaigns of terror designed to feed on the very essence of human fear. As word of the creature's rampage spread through the Pine Barrens, colonial authorities took notice.Captain Jeremiah Stockton's military expedition into the forest resulted in a confrontation that demonstrated the Jersey Devil's power to reshape reality itself, turning the very environment into a weapon against those who would challenge its dominion. The creature's victory over organized opposition established it not merely as a local threat, but as a force that could defy the authority of kings and governors.The Jersey Devil's influence expanded beyond simple terrorism as it learned to manipulate the psychological landscape of entire communities.The fishing village of Tuckerton became the stage for a supernatural siege that tested the limits of human faith against otherworldly malice. When the creature made its dramatic appearance in the village church, it sought to destroy not just bodies but souls, exposing the secret sins and hidden shames of the congregation.Yet in this confrontation, the Jersey Devil encountered something unexpected—resistance that could not be overcome through terror alone. The simple faith of ordinary people, led by the courage of an elderly sexton named Samuel Hartwell, proved that even the darkest powers had limits. This defeat marked a turning point in the creature's understanding of its own nature and the true complexity of human resistance.Driven by rage and a hunger for revenge, the Jersey Devil employed more subtle methods of warfare, infiltrating the dreams and subconscious minds of Tuckerton's residents. Through sustained psychological pressure, it accomplished what brute force could not, turning the community against itself until neighbor betrayed neighbor and the bonds of trust dissolved into paranoia and violence. The destruction of Tuckerton demonstrated that even the strongest faith could be eroded by doubt, fear, and the gradual corruption of human relationships.Our exploration extends beyond the creature's origins to trace how the Jersey Devil legend evolved through American history. From academic investigations by colonial scholars to mass sightings during the famous "Phenomenal Week" of 1909, the creature adapted to changing times while maintaining its essential mystery. Environmental challenges, industrial development, and modern skepticism all shaped how each generation encountered and interpreted the legend.The Jersey Devil's story reveals deeper truths about the nature of folklore and its function in human society. In an age of increasing scientific understanding and technological advancement, the creature represents something more profound than simple superstition. It embodies the enduring human need for mystery, the recognition that some experiences transcend rational explanation, and the acknowledgment that there are still places in the world where the known and unknown coexist in uneasy tension.The Pine Barrens themselves remain largely unchanged despite centuries of human habitation, their ancient forests still holding secrets that may never be fully revealed. Whether the phenomena reported by travelers represent encounters with the Jersey Devil itself or manifestations of collective expectation and cultural memory is perhaps less important than their continued occurrence. The legend persists because it serves essential functions that transcend entertainment or historical curiosity.Tonight's tale reminds us that the most powerful stories are often those that can never be definitively proven true or false. The Jersey Devil stands as a testament to the enduring power of the unexplained, a bridge between older ways of understanding the world and our modern attempts to categorize and quantify every aspect of existence. In a universe that science seeks to map with ever-increasing precision, some truths remain forever beyond the reach of equations and databases.As we conclude this journey into the heart of American supernatural folklore, remember that the Jersey Devil continues to soar through the darkness on leathery wings, its red eyes burning like coals in the infinite night.The legend lives on, waiting in the depths of the Pine Barrens for the next traveler brave enough to venture into its domain and discover whether it represents merely a story told to frighten children, or something far more profound and dangerous than any rational mind dares to consider .The thirteenth child of Mother Leeds has achieved an immortality that transcends the physical world, dwelling forever in the realm of imagination where it will continue to evolve for as long as human beings gather to share tales of the wonderful and terrible things that lurk just beyond the edges of our understanding.

About this PodcastWhat did European missionaries misunderstand about Hinduism when they first arrived in India?How did colonial power and missionary pressure help reshape Hindu identity from within?Could the rise of modern Hindu nationalism be traced back to these early cultural and religious encounters?When European missionaries arrived in India in the sixteenth century, they entered a world both fascinating and bewildering. Hinduism, as they saw it, was a pagan mess: a worship of devils and monsters by a people who burned women alive, performed outlandish rites and fed children to crocodiles. But it quickly became clear that Hindu ‘idolatry' was far more layered and complex than European stereotypes allowed, surprisingly even sharing certain impulses with Christianity.Nonetheless, missionaries became a threatening force as European power grew in India. Western ways of thinking gained further ascendancy during the British Raj: while interest in Hindu thought influenced Enlightenment thinkers like Voltaire in Europe, Orientalism and colonial rule pressed Hindus to reimagine their religion. In fact, in resisting foreign authority, they often adopted the missionaries' own tools and strategies. It is this encounter, Manu S. Pillai argues, that has given Hinduism its present shape, also contributing to the birth of an aggressive Hindu nationalism.Gods, Guns and Missionaries surveys these remarkable dynamics with an arresting cast of characters – maharajahs, poets, gun-wielding revolutionaries, politicians, polemicists, philosophers and clergymen. Lucid, ambitious, and provocative, it is at once a political history, an examination of the mutual impact of Hindu culture and Christianity upon each other, and a study of the forces that have prepared the ground for politics in India today. Turning away from simplistic ideas on religious evolution and European imperialism, the past as it appears here is more complicated – and infinitely richer – than previous narratives allow.

When European explorers set off from Europe, many of them chased things that didn't exist. The Fountain of Youth, the City of El Dorado, and Prester John were all things they pursued but came up empty-handed.  However, there was one thing that these European explorers searched for that actually did exist, but not in the way they had hoped.  While it was never historically relevant, it could play a much bigger role in the future.  Learn more about the Northwest Passage, its discovery, and its future on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Sign up at butcherbox.com/daily and use code daily to get chicken breast, salmon or ground beef FREE in every order for a year plus $20 off your first order! Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Ben Long & Cameron Kieffer   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Rapacious European corporations were top users of Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) tribunals. For decades, they extracted billions from taxpayers worldwide, attacking local laws and suing governments before ISDS tribunals of three corporate attorneys.   So, it was big news when the European Union recently exited one of the world's largest ISDS agreements -- the Energy Charter Treaty.   In the latest episode of the Rethinking Trade podcast, Lori Wallach is joined by two people who know the inside story: Cecilia Olivet, advisor to the Left Group in the European Parliament, and Fabian Flues, of the German-based organization Powershift. Here's a hint: When European domestic climate policies got ISDS attacked, the Dutch, German and other ISDS-booster governments had to shell out billions. And climate activists turned up the, um, heat. Nothing like being on the receiving end of ISDS – and domestic grassroots campaigns - to change opinions…

When European colonists first landed in North America, they were anticipating the discovery of all manner of new animals of all shapes and sizes. What they weren't expecting, however, was tales of a mythic bird, dozens of times bigger than anything they had seen before, with the power create storms and even shoot lightning from it's eyes like the most powerful of Greek gods. They were fascinated and terrified by the indigenous people's stories of the Thunderbird. But what if the Thunderbird isn't just a spiritual belief or oral tradition, and rather a real living fossil roaming the mountain ranges of America? Time for Kit and Rory to investigate!Follow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunitySupport us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeIntro music by www.purple-planet.comResearch by Ewen FriersEdited by Philip Shacklady Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

North America was never virgin territory. For thousands of years it has been home to established nations of Indigenous people who founded ancient cities like Cahokia. When European settlers arrived on the eastern seaboard, Native Americans never saw them as a threat. But as the United States established itself, how did its notion of a new republic affect those who had always lived there? Listen as Anita and William are joined by Kathleen DuVal to discuss interactions between Native Nations and American settlers. Twitter: @Empirepoduk Email: empirepoduk@gmail.com Goalhangerpodcasts.com Assistant Producer: Anouska Lewis Producer: Callum Hill Exec Producer: Neil Fearn Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Last time we spoke about Chinese laborers during the Great War. Although China took upa stance of neutrality at the offset of WW1, there was still this enormous desire to join the Entente side. The new Republic of China wanted to get a seat at the peace table to hopefully undue some of the terrible unequal treaties. To procure that seat, China approached France, Britain, Russia and by the end of the war America to send their workers to help the war effort. On the western and eastern fronts, chinese laborers made a colossal contribution that tipped the scale of the war towards an Entente victory. On the Eastern front some Chinese fought in irregular units and under emergency circumstances even on the western front some saw combat. When the laborers came back home they brought with them new ideas that would dramatically change China. The people of China demanded change, but how would China fare by the end of the Great War?   #90 Twenty-One Demands & the Walrus Emperor   Welcome to the Fall and Rise of China Podcast, I am your dutiful host Craig Watson. But, before we start I want to also remind you this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Perhaps you want to learn more about the history of Asia? Kings and Generals have an assortment of episodes on history of asia and much more  so go give them a look over on Youtube. So please subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry for some more history related content, over on my channel, the Pacific War Channel where I cover the history of China and Japan from the 19th century until the end of the Pacific War. Taking a look back at China at the outbreak of WW1. Yuan Shikai certainly had a lot on his plate. When European nations began declaring war in late July, it brought military conflict to China. Yuan Shikai and his advisors thought over all the options laid bare before them and decided to proclaim neutrality on August 6th of 1914. As we have seen the other great powers, particularly Japan did not care. Japan besieged Tsingtao, despite China tossing protests. Yuan Shikai had little choice but to permit the Japanese military actions against Qingdao. The fighting that broke out in the Kiautschou area would constitute the only acts of war on Chinese soil during the first world war. Unfortunately the Japanese were not going to settle with just defeating the Germans. Japan had already gained a enormous sphere of influence in Manchuria after her victories in the 1st Sino-Japanese war and Russo-Japanese War. When China underwent its Xinhai revolution it became fragile, quite vulnerable and thus opened a floodgate.  With WW1 raging on in Europe, the global powers were all too preoccupied to contest any actions in Asia, giving Japan an enormous opportunity. Japan sought to expand her commercial interests in Manchuria, but also elsewhere. After seizing Qingdao, Prime Minister Okuma Shigenobu and Foreign Minister Kato Takaai drafted the infamous Twenty-One Demands. From the Japanese perspective, Yuan Shikai's government looked rogue, untrustworthy, they had no idea how long the thing would stand up, it might crumble at a moments notice. Their leases in south Manchuria were going to run out soon, thus they needed to extend them. Then there was the situation of Shandong province. Its always Shandong as they say. Japan was technically occupying it, having taken it from the Germans who previously held a concession over it. Being a concession, it was known Shandong would be returned to China, but now then when was an unknown variable. Japan also had some economic trade with China that made her somewhat dependent upon her. For example Yawata, Japan's first iron and steel complex that had been financed with Chinese indemnity payments ironically, was also dependent on Chinese raw materials that had been streaming into Japan since 1901. Japan industrialists needed to firm up their commercial relations with places like the Hanyehping works in Hankou. They hoped to establish joint sino-japanese control over strategic resources. Japan also strongly sought to be the dominate power in Asia, she wanted the western powers to back off. With these things in mind, the twenty-one demands were born. And by demands they were technically more “requests”, nevertheless they amounted to substantial infractions upon Chinese sovereignty. On January 18th of 1915, Japanese ambassador Hioki Eki delivered the twenty-one demands to Yuan Shikai in a private audience. They were delivered with a warning of dire consequences if the Beiyang government were to reject them. I know it might be quite boring and rather a University professor thing to do, but I will read the demands out. Now the Twenty-One Demands were divided into 5 groups Group 1 (four demands) confirmed Japan's recent seizure of German ports and operations in Shandong Province, and expanded Japan's sphere of influence over the railways, coasts and major cities of the province. Group 2 (seven demands) pertained to Japan's South Manchuria Railway Zone, extending the leasehold over the territory for 99 years, and expanding Japan's sphere of influence in southern Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, to include rights of settlement and extraterritoriality, appointment of financial and administrative officials to the government and priority for Japanese investments in those areas. Japan demanded access to Inner Mongolia for raw materials, as a manufacturing site, and as a strategic buffer against Russian encroachment in Korea. Group 3 (two demands) gave Japan control of the Han-Ye-Ping (Hanyang, Daye, and Pingxiang) mining and metallurgical complex in central China; it was deep in debt to Japan. Group 4 (one demand) barred China from giving any further coastal or island concessions to foreign powers. Group 5 (seven demands) was the most aggressive. China was to hire Japanese advisors who could take effective control of China's finance and police. Japan would be empowered to build three major railways, and also Buddhist temples and schools. Japan would gain effective control of Fujian, across the Taiwan Strait from Taiwan, which had been ceded to Japan in 1895. Now Japan knew what they were asking for, particularly in group 5 were basically like asking China to become a full colony under Japanese rule. Traditional history holds the narrative that Japan simply was taking advantage of the first world war to press China for imperial gains and Yuan Shikai accepted the demands in exchange for funding and support of his future monarchical project. Yuan Shikai ever since has been vilified as a sort of traitor who negotiated a dirty deal with the Japanese. Its a bit more complicated than that however as you can imagine. Yuan Shikai was outraged when the Japanese minister came over with the demands, it was a heavy blow against him and his new government. Accordinging to US minister Paul Reinsch “Yuan was stunned, unable to speak for a long time”. When the Chinese were trying to smooth talk Yuan and his advisors they made flowery speeches about how Japan would shoulder the modernizing of China, that the demands were in the spirit of Amity, friendship and peace. Yuan Shikai remarked to this “our country would no longer be a country and our people would be slaves.” Yuan Shikai understood full well what Japan sought, but he was powerless to stop them. What he did do to try and curb some of the damage was delay the response by replacing his foreign minister Sun Baoqi with Lu Zhengxiang, whose slow and overly polite manner, greatly frustrated and pissed off the Japanese. The classic Chinese approach to diplomacy, stall stall stall. It is said Lu often spent an hour or more in courtesies like tea-drinking before getting down to business. Over 24 meetings would be held over the demands. Now the Japanese wanted all of this to be kept secret as it would hurt both nations reputations on the world stage. Yuan Shikai did not play by their rules. Instead he leaked the demands to foreign diplomats and representatives, and in turn this got leaked to the media and caused nationwide protests. Yuan Shikai hoped the protests would push the Japanese to back off. Yuan Shikai also tried to persuade foreign intervention. First he sent his Japanese adviser Argia Nagao back to Japan to prod the Genro. Then he began speaking to the Americans who were very focused on maintaining their Open Door Policy and the British who were very suspicious of Japan's intentions. Neither nation wanted to see China simply falling into Japan's orbit. And of course Yuan Shikai tried to negotiate the demands themselves, particularly the group 5 demands which he pointed out “these items interfere with China's internal politics and infringe on our national sovereignty. It is hard to agree.” Towards the economic demands he remarked “these demands are too broad and cannot be enforced.” Regarding Japan's demands that China not lease islands or coastal regions to “Taguo /a third country”, Yuan Shikai wanted to change the words “Taguo” to “waiguo / foreign countries”. That change altered China's national interests for it meant China would not allow any country, including Japan to lease or rent Chinese islands or coastal regions.  Overall though, Yuan Shikai was very careful not to be overly aggressive for he knew full well, no one was able to help China at that moment if Japan decided to start another war. He also was playing with fire massively, for he unleashed Chinese nationalism, something that could and would get out of hand. The Chinese stalled for as long as they could, but the Japanese patience would run out on May 7th. Japanese ambassador Hioki Eki issued an ultimatum, but this time with only thirteen demands. Yuan Shikai's government had only 2 days to accept. After months of tenacious diplomacy, the final version of the demands was quite different. The 5th group had been dropped and more other items were less harsh. Yuan Shikai was powerless he was going to have to accept the demands and he knew full well this was yet another humiliation against China and her people. The supreme state council met on the 8th, where Yuan Shikai told his officials it was a shameful and heartbreaking agony to accept the demons, but they had no choice, lest war ravage them all again. He looked at his council and stated bluntly, China needed to catch up to Japan within a decade to remedy the situation. Yuan Shikai would issue secretly on May 14th, a notice to high ranking officials throughout the country, telling them to expose Japan's ambitions and China's debility. He urged them to bear in mind the extreme pain of this humiliation and advised them to work hard to create a bright future to avoid the collapse of the state and the extinction of the nation. The demands were reluctantly accepted on May 9th, and henceforth May 9th was declared “a day of national humiliation” commemorated annually.  The consequence of accepting the thirteen demands, became colloquially known as “the Shandong problem”, again its always Shandong province haha. Now at the beginning of the war China supported the Entente under certain conditions. One of those conditions was that Kiautschou Bay, the leased territory of the Shandong peninsula belonging to the Germans, would be returned to China. Something that occurred very very often during WW1, particularly on the part of Britain, was the issue of double promising. I literally made up a term I think. Britain during WW1 in an effort to secure allies or certain objectives would promise two different states or non-state actors the exact same thing after the war was done. A lot of the problems facing the middle-east today can be attributed to this. In the case of the Shandong problem, when Japan entered the war on behalf of the Entente, Britain basically promised they could keep their holdings, this of course included Shandong. We will come back to the Shandong problem as its a surprisingly long lasting one, but now I want to take quite a silly detour. Yuan Shikai is quite a character to say the least. He was viewed very differently at given times.Take for example the public perception of him after the Xinhai Revolution took place. Many honestly saw him as a sort of Napoleon Bonaparte like figure. Many also questioned what Yuan Shikai truly sought, did he believe in things like democracy? One author I have used during these recent podcasts, who in my opinion is a hilarious Yuan Shikai apologist tried to argue the case “Yuan Shikai did not understand what democracy was, thus that is why he did the things he did”. Now beginning around 1913, there were rumors Yuan Shikai simply sought to make himself an emperor over a new dynasty. This of course came at a time everyone was vying for power over the Republic, China was supposed to be a Republic after all, I think we all know however this was not ever a reality. Yuan Shikai certainly tried to make the case he was a Republican, that he believed in the republicanism espoused by just about all the leading figures. He also would make statements publicly espousing “I will never proclaim myself to be a monarch”. Yet as we have seen he certainly sent the wheels into motion to create a dictatorship. Yet for public appearances he kept the charade he was doing his absolute best as president and that he unwaveringly supported republicanism.  Thus there were two major hurdles in the way, if lets say he did want to become an emperor: 1) he kept making pledges he would not do so and 2) the republican system obviously did not allow for this, there had been a revolution to stop the monarchy after all! There was little to no options if someone wanted to make themselves emperor over China…unless they made it seem like thats what the people wanted. In 1915, Yuan Shikai quasi stomped all political rivals, I say quasi because there actually were rivals literally everywhere, but for the most part he had concentrated power into his own hands. Now, the apologist author had this to say about Yuan Shikai's sudden change of heart for the monarchy “His belief in superstition was perhaps another factor, for geomancers had told him that by establishing a monarchy he would smash his family curse, which held that men in the Yuan family would rarely live beyond their fifties. The suggestion here was that he would live long if he founded a monarchy. Also, fengshui masters had told him that his ancestral tombs had shown a blessed sign favouring imperial rule” The author then finishes by stating, its a difficult question and further inquiry should be made. That is the classic end of any scholar article, where they know full well they can't justify what they are writing haha. According to the high ranking official Zhu Qiqian who was close to Yuan Shikai “Yuan's monarchical movement started with Kaiser Wilhelm II telling the Chinese that monarchy would be more suitable for China”. British minister Jordan had a meeting with Yuan Shikai on OCtober 2nd of 1915, and on the topic of him becoming emperor, he simply stated “this is China's internal affairs which should not be interfered with by any others.” American minister Reinsch basically said the same thing when asked. News outlets began spreading rumors Yuan Shikai was going to declare himself emperor. In June of 1915, Japanese media reported as such, but Yuan Shikai responded “nothing is more foolish than a man becoming emperor. For national salvation, I have already sacrificed myself, and I would rather not sacrifice my descendants.” Well despite this, a monarchical movement began, orchestrated by many people such as Yuan Shikai's son Yuan Keding. Our friend from the last podcast, Liang Shiyi, now minister of communications, raised funds and organized popular petitions for Yuan to form a monarchy. Soon numerous petition groups “organically” with quotation marks, sprang up all over Beijing all claiming republicanism held too many weaknesses and that China was in a dire strait needing a strong monarchy. Petition groups sprang up in provinces urging the same thing. Beijing was filled with noisy parades, procession, petitioners ran around rampantly.  Then the United Association of National Petition was founded on September 19th, 1915 in Beijing to champion monarchism. Supporters gathered in Beijing, producing this “organic” impression everyone wanted the monarchy back.  Facing so many petitioners, Yuan Shikai decided to let the people determine the future of the national political system and by the people, I mean him. On October 8th, 1915 he approved the order that a “Canzhengyuan”, political participation council organize a “ Guomindaibiaodahui”, a national representative assembly. They would form a final ruling on the issue. The order required all the representatives had to be elected, each county had to choose one, and various ethnic groups, civil societies and overseas Chinese organizations also needed to select representatives. Yuan Shikai hoped such an arrangement would dispel any perceptions he was just appointing himself Emperor. Each county representative went to his provincial capital to cast a ballot. The political participation council in Beijing collected the ballots and announced the results. The representatives were selected and each received 500$ for travel expenses. Yuan Shikai dispatched Zhu Qiqian to secretly telegram all provincial officials to regulate the “election” air quotes. Yuan Shikai had all of his confidents working for this election. High ranking officials, family members, friends and so forth. On December 11, 1915 the Political Participation Council announced the results, all 1993 ballots endorsed a constitutional monarchy with Yuan Shikai as emperor. So yeah, every ballot, hrmmmm. On behalf of the representatives, the council begged Yuan Shikai to assume the throne immediately, claiming it was the will of the people. Yuan Shikai declined, arguing he had pledged to support the republic, that as the guardian of republicanism he would lose trust if he became emperor. He asked the council to find another candidate. What proceeded as you can imagine was simple theatrics. That afternoon, the council held a special meeting and decided to present a second imperial advocacy. In the advocacy were things proving Yuan Shikai was an indispensable ruler, qualified for taking the throne. His 6 great accomplishments were suppressing the Boxer Rebellion, enforcing progressive reforms, achieving a post-revolutionary conciliation, crushing the second revolution and conducting intense diplomacy with neighbors like Japan. To absolve Yuan Shikai of the guilt of violating his republican pledges the document stated “the pledge to the republic was effective only if the peoples' will supported republicanism. If the people have switched to constitutional monarchy, the previous pledge was automatically relinquished. As the presidency does not exist anymore, the former presidential pledges naturally disappear”. And thus Yuan Shikai reluctantly, under extreme pressure issued a public order declaring his acceptance on December 13th, 1915. Thus Yuan Shikai became the Hongxian Emperor and began to implement imperial orders. To woo over the national elites, he created a system of noble ranks and bestowed 130 prominent individuals titles as princes, dukes, marquis, earls, viscounts and barons. His closest friends were given special appellations and exempted from imperial duties. Xu Shichang, Li Jingxi, Zhang Jian and Zhao Erxun, his closest 4 friends became the Songshansiyou “four friends of Mount Song”. Yet just as he was getting down to the work as they say, an anti-yuan movement swept the country, go figure. High ranking Beiyang generals and politicians were amongst Yuan Shikai's, lets call them, reluctant collaborators, and some were even opponents. His monarchy turned them hostile. Many had supported him for decades and their very careers were beholden to his patronage. But the monarchy was simple incompatible with the times. Li Yuanhong, a leading figure in the Beiyang Clique who was linked to Yuan Shikai through marriage, strongly resisted the monarchy. He was the first to have the title prince bestowed upon him, but he refused and threatened to commit suicide if coerced to take it. Xu Shichang, simply resigned. Feng Guozhang, a military commander in Nanjing was very angry about the situation. Feng Guozhang came to Beijing to try and persuade Yuan Shikai to not become emperor, and Yuan Shikai promised him for months it was only rumors, he'd never do it, not Yuan come on man! Once he became emperor, Feng Guozhang felt betrayed and became quite an obstacle to Yuan Shikai. Then there was Duan Qirui another Yuan Shikai loyalist, but he concealed his anti-monarchy stance. He simply told Yuan Shikai that if he tried to become emperor, he would become a villain in chinese history. Duan Qirui was the only high ranking general not to be given a noble title rank. Instead he was given a personal chef by Yuan Shikai, and Duan Qirui made sure never to eat any food prepared by the man. All these names by the way are important figures of the Beiyang clique, cliques will become a dominating feature when we get into the warlord era. Basically the leader of the Beiyang clique, Yuan Shikai had greatly pissed off all of his followers.  Of course Dr. Sun Yat-sen responded immediately to Yuan Shikai becoming emperor, calling for another revolution. In his words “the future of our motherland has suddenly became more darkened. The republic built by our martyrs has unexpectedly turned out to be the private possession of the Yuan family. Four hundred million compatriots wept profusely ... and see the third revolution as the best remedy for national salvation.” Dr Sun Yat-Sen portrayed Yuan Shikai as a “minzei” national thief and now the Chinese people lived in bondage. He called upon the people to fight to save the republic. Soon KMT revolutionaries began to seize county seats, first in Shandong led by Ju Zheng, then they occupied parts in Guangdong and attacked the provincial capital there. However Dr Sun Yat-Sen was not the only player in town anymore. There was the new Nation Army led by Cai E in Yunnan province and Liang Qichao. Liang Qichao was one of the first big voices against Yuan Shikai's monarchial movement when they were emerging as rumors. He was also something of a sensei to Cai E, pushing him to coordinate military commanders in the southwest. Liang Qichao left northern China for Shanghai after Yuan Shikai proclaimed himself emperor and then made his way to Hong Kong, before traveling to Vietnam. From there he gradually traveled to join up with the Nation Army in March of 1916. And there he created a rival government. Then there were the liberal types, many intellectuals who had traveled abroad like Chen Duxiu. Chen Duxiu published in the New Youth an article stating “the nomenclatures of emperors and kings should have already perished after the Qing abdication edict, but unfortunately the Prepare for Peace Society led to the problem of the national political system.” Many pro-Yuan Shikai intellectuals suddenly turned against him, such as Li Dazhao. Born in Zhili, Li Dazhao had benefited from Yuan Shikai's reforms and supported him for quite some time, but the monarchism enraged him. As Li Dazhao joined the anti-Yuan movement he declared “All those who dare to rekindle the tyrannical cinders, or reignite the monarchical flames, whether the followers of the Prepare for Peace Society or the adherents of dynastic restoration, should be regarded as traitors of the state and public enemies of citizens. Their organization should be exterminated, their books burned, their backers eradicated, and their roots removed. Their sprouts should be destroyed so that they could not grow and proliferate. Then, there will be a hope of great prospect for our country”. Japan, never one to let an opportunity slip by them, began communicating with Cai E, Sun Yat-sen, Liang Qichao and Beiyang generals like Feng Guozhang and Duan Qirui. Japan began training and arming them. Soon military commanders in Guangxi, Guizhou, Yunnan working in league with Liang Qichao declared war against Yuan Shikai. Zhang Xun in Xuzhou of Jiangxi province refused to fly the Beiyang republic flag and made sure his men grew long queues, expressing their loyalty to the Qing dynasty. Liang Qichao dispatched Cai E to Kunming where he met with Tang Jiyao, a local military commander to begin a rebellion. On December 24th, Yuan Shikai received a telegram from Cai E urging him to return China into a Republic and he had one day to do so, or else. Yuan Shikai rejected the order and on the 25th of December, Yunnan province declared independence, uh oh. The Nation Army consisted of 3 main forces, Cai E's first army who marched upon Sichuan; Li Liejun's 2nd army who marched upon Guangxi and Hunan and Tang Jiyao's 3rd army who were held in reserve. Their goal was to occupy southern China so a Northern expedition could be launched to overthrow Yuan Shikai.  On January 1st, 1916 they issued an proclamation, claiming Yuan Shikai had performed 20 egregious crimes and must go into exile and let China be a republic again. Within days their armies marched upon Sichuan and Guizhou. By February Guizhou declared independence. Yuan Shikai immediately went to work stripping the rebels of their official titles and ordered Cao Kun to lead a military expedition against Yunnan. Under Cao Kun was Ma Jizeng who took an army through Hunan to attack Guizhou and Yunnan. A second force was led by Zhang Jingyao through Sichuan then Yunnan. A third force led by Long Jiguang went through Guangxi and then Yunnan. There were fierce battles, one particularly rough one at Xuzhou, where Cai E's armies seized the city in January, but lost it by March. The war was dubbed “the strange war,” because it really became  “a war of tongues,”. Each side kept through accusations in telegrams, newspapers and pamphlets. Now Yuan Shikai's Beiyang forces were superior in terms of numbers, weaponry and such, but the southerners were using terrain against them. All of the Beiyang forces were northern chinese, not used to southern climate and it proved difficult for them to acclimate. They were also not in the greatest state of morale, having to fight for the tin pot emperor as it were.  As a result the Beiyang forces did not seize the quick victory they thought they would. Though one major triumph was when Feng Yuxiang took Xuzhou on March 2nd, 1916 earning himself the title of baron. For those who don't know, Feng Yuxiang would famously become known as the Christian warlord. Meanwhile, Guangxi declared independence on March 15th led by Lu Rongting. Looking at a brutal stalemate of a war, Feng Guozhang began secretly telegraming Yuan Shikai to give up the monarchy, not a good sign. By early 1916, all the war fronts were seeing disasters. On March 21st, Yuan Shikai convened a special meeting with his high ranking officials. He proposed abolishing the monarchy and only one diehard loyalist general, Ni Sichong said he shouldn't, the rest all said yes. The following day Yuan announced his decision to step down from being an emperor. On March 23rd, 1916 the Hongxian dynasty ended, yes he was emperor for 83 days.  I would like to take this time to remind you all that this podcast is only made possible through the efforts of Kings and Generals over at Youtube. Please go subscribe to Kings and Generals over at Youtube and to continue helping us produce this content please check out www.patreon.com/kingsandgenerals. If you are still hungry after that, give my personal channel a look over at The Pacific War Channel at Youtube, it would mean a lot to me. I bet some of you are wondering why I titled this the Walrus Emperor. I could not help myself, he honestly is such a goofy character and the propaganda outlets of his day drew him as this fat walrus, seriously give it a google “Yuan Shikai Walrus”. You wont be disappointed

Jesus, the glory of God and the glory of Israel, is also the ultimate prophet who proclaimed God’s judgment on the nation for its sins and rejection of Him. - SERMON TRANSCRIPT - Turn in your Bibles to Mark 13. You can also refer to Matthew 24. I'm going to be leaning on both of the chapters but mostly walking through Mark 13, as we begin to look at a topic that theologians call eschatology or the study of end times or last things. In 1925, the American poet TS Eliot wrote his masterpiece entitled The Hollow Men. It was a reflection of his generally gloomy outlook on the direction of human history after the devastation of World War I. That terrible so-called “War to End All Wars” left permanent scars in the minds and hearts of many. Pictures of bleak battlefields that were stripped of all trees, all vegetation, all life, looking more like a moonscape which had been pounded by artillery for years. Deep craters, mud and death everywhere. TS Eliot looked at that, he looked at human history and he wondered bleakly where it was all heading. In the poem he spoke of men with heads filled with straw, men without eyes groping through a valley with dying stars, in which little by little all energy just seems to leak out or drain out slowly from the universe until nothing is left. The poem ended famously with these words, “this is the way the world ends.” “This is the way the world ends, not with a bang but with a whimper.” That's TS Eliot's opinion or poetic prophecy. But it's just, in my opinion, another example of the fascination that human beings have with where this is all heading. Where are we going in all of this and more specifically with the conceptions of the end of the world? Doomsday scenarios, apocalyptic visions, dystopian societies clawing out some existence on a dying planet after World War III has wiped out most of the human race or some other such thing. It says in Ecclesiastes 3:11, “God has set eternity in the hearts of men, but they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.” We have a sense of a movement towards something but we don't know what it is. We can't figure out where we've come from. We don't really understand the history that leads up to this, and we don't know ... even James says, what's going to happen tomorrow? But we have a fascination in it. We're interested in it. In our culture, especially movie makers cash in on this kind of thing. They depict earth in its final stage after some thermonuclear holocaust, like in the movie “Planet of the Apes” or “Dr. Strangelove” or others. Or perhaps a pandemic which wipes out all of earth's population, such as in the movie “I Am Legend.” Or some kind of ecological disaster, climate change, global warming, or some kind of solar flares like in “2012” or “The Day After Tomorrow.” Or a blight that kills all vegetation except corn, that’s “Interstellar.” Or even alien invasions, that's “The War of the Worlds”, or conquest by artificial intelligence robots, “The Matrix." I'm sure I've missed a few of the ways that the world ends. How exactly will the world end and how will we know when it's coming? Is there anything we can do about it? These are questions that burn in the hearts of normal people, and they burned in the hearts of the disciples of Jesus as well. These are the questions that Jesus Christ seeks to answer in Mark 13 and also Matthew 24 and 25. One of the key issues He brings up is, what are the signs by which we can see the impending end of the world as it approaches? Jesus amazingly begins, in the account we're going to look at today, Mark 13: 1-13, by talking about things that will happen commonplace in every generation and are no certain signs of the immediate end of the world. But in the midst of it ... as we're going to talk about next week more especially, is the central purpose of history, the unfolding of history, and that is the proclamation of the gospel to the ends of the earth. The unfolding of uncertain signs that are true in every generation is a matrix or a canvas on which the painting, the masterpiece of the spread of the Gospel ... or what we call the external journey, goes on. Today we begin a fascinating and vital journey into true prophecy, not the prophecy of movie makers or of American poets, but the prophecy that flows from the mind of God. The only one who really knows the future is the sovereign God who decrees it. God is sovereign and therefore when He tells us what's going to happen, we need to listen. I. Christ’s Shocking Prediction It begins with Christ's shocking prediction there in Jerusalem, in Mark 13:2; "Not one stone here will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down." We need to understand the significance of this moment. We get it more clearly in the Gospel of Matthew, at the end of Matthew 23 and on into 24. As Jesus has finished his words of judgment, his seven woes on the scribes and Pharisees and condemns them, then the glory leaves the temple. In the Old Covenant, the glory cloud represented the presence of God, the special presence of the omnipresent God with his people, the Jews. God's glory cloud entered the tabernacle when Moses had finished constructing it. The glory cloud entered the tabernacle and filled it, symbolizing the special presence of God there in the tabernacle. So also, centuries later when Solomon completed the construction of his temple, the glory cloud entered the temple and filled it. But sadly, tragically, when the Jews forsook the true God, the only God, for idols and did this over centuries, the glory cloud departed from the temple. Ezekiel saw it in Ezekiel chapter 10, "He beheld the glory," called sometimes the “Shekhinah” glory. You're not going to see that word but it just means the dwelling glory of God. The dwelling glory departing the temple because of Israel's great wickedness and idolatry, the glory leaving the temple. That rendered the temple really nothing more than a empty or desolate pile of stones, which then the Gentiles were about to flood in and destroy, the Gentiles being the Babylonians at that point. In the kindness of God, a remnant of Jews ... a very small remnant compared to the original population that entered the Promised Land, 42,000 came back and were given permission by their Gentile overlords to rebuild a smaller version of the temple, which they did. The story is told in Haggai and also in Ezra and Nehemiah. But now in Matthew 23 and 24 the true glory of God, the dwelling glory, the incarnate glory of God leaves the temple. He walks out because the Jews have officially rejected him from being their Messiah. In Matthew 23, seven times He says, "Woe to you scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites." He condemns them. They are spiritual leaders and representatives of the Jewish nation. Jesus said in Matthew 23, "They sit in Moses's seat so you must obey them." They do represent the law of God, but they were deeply corrupted men. They were whitewashed tombs that looked beautiful on the outside, but inside full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. As Jesus says in Mark 12, "They devour widows' houses and for show make lengthy prayers." That's who they were. It culminates with these devastating words in Matthew 23:37-39, "Oh Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who killed the prophets and stoned those sent to you, how often I've longed to gather your children together as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, but you were unwilling. Behold, your house is left to you desolate." This is an incredibly important statement. Behold, look, your house is left to you desolate ... an important word. "I tell you, you will not see me again until you say, 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” In Matthew 24:1 and also in Mark 13, Jesus then left the temple, He walks out. It's not just the actions, it's the words and what He says, "Your house is left desolate. It's empty because I'm walking out. I'm not coming back until you say, 'Blessed is he comes in the name of the Lord.'" So out He goes, it's a hugely significant moment in redemptive history. Jesus is the ultimate prophet from God. He is the one who has been sent. After all these other servants have been sent and have been mistreated and killed, then the the absentee owner of the vineyard sends His son. But they reject him and they are conspiring to kill him, so therefore Jesus is leaving. He's departing and Israel's house, the temple is going to be left desolate. That is vacant, empty, stripped of glory. Why? Because He is leaving and He is the incarnate glory of God. Hebrews 1:3, “the Son is the radiance of God's glory in the exact representation of His being.” The glory cloud symbolizes Jesus. Jesus is the glory of Israel. He's the glory of God, and He's leaving because of Israel's wicked unbelief. They had rejected Jesus. They would officially do it at his trial. But they had already made the decision that if anyone declared that Jesus was the Messiah, they'd be cast out of the synagogue [John 9]. They've rejected him and out He goes. The glory departed the temple. Indeed, Jerusalem itself will be nothing more spiritually than an empty, vacant set of piles of stone, ready again for the Gentiles to come in and destroy. That's what's going on. At this moment the disciples who frequently weren't on message ... Do you get that sense? They're frequently just missing what's happening. They represent us. They come up at that moment, and one of them in particular just can't get over how beautiful the temple is. Look at verse 1, “As Jesus was leaving the temple one of his disciples said to him, ‘Look, teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent buildings.’" This is really remarkably poor timing but it’s significant as well. Herod's temple was indeed an impressive temple. Some of those stones were truly massive. Josephus, the contemporary Jewish historian a generation later from Jesus, tells us that some of the stones were as large as 45 feet long, 12 feet high and 18 feet in width. That's a single stone. Approximately 1.5 million pounds, astonishing. Furthermore, the building itself was lavishly beautiful. King Herod was a vicious, wicked tyrant. He was the one that ordered the slaughter of the newborns in order to kill Jesus after He was born. He's just a terribly wicked man. But he thought to ingratiate himself to his people by adorning the temple with stones of marble and with a lot of gold and other glitter. It was rather a very impressive building. Human beings in general marvel at human achievement. We get blown away by what humans can do and humans can do amazing things, created in the image of God. But from the Tower of Babel, then through Nebuchadnezzar gloating over Babylon ... “this great Babylon that I've built for my own glory and display of my splendor”, et cetera, we are drawn in and amazed at human achievements. God is not. Stephen says in Acts 7, quoting the scripture, “God says, ‘Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool. What kind of house will you build for me? Where will my resting place be? Has not my hand made all these things and so they came into being?’" God's not impressed. God instead yearns for a people characterized by brokenhearted humility and faith and repentance. That's what He's yearning for, and the Jews did not have it. So Jesus makes this shocking prediction, verses 1-2, “As Jesus was leaving the temple one of his disciples said to him, “'Look teacher, what massive stones, what magnificent buildings.’ ‘Do you see all these great buildings?" replied Jesus, ‘Not one stone here will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down.’" "God …yearns for a people characterized by brokenhearted humility and faith and repentance." Jesus frequently used object lessons, pointing to things, “Look at it”. But this is very much the topic. They were the ones calling his attention to the stones, to the temple, that's what they're talking about. “Do you see them? Look at all these great buildings.” I don't know whether his hand swept over the temple complex itself or the entire city. As you know historically, the whole thing was going to be destroyed, not just the temple. So it could be He was talking about the entire city of Jerusalem, as He wept over Jerusalem, as He lamented over Jerusalem, but specifically the topic there was the temple. Either way, these words would have been shocking to these Jewish disciples. Every stone placed on top of another will be toppled down. This entire place will be leveled. It's going to be raised. Humanity in pride builds upward and goes lofty and high. Like in Isaiah 2, these lofty towers and these cedars of Lebanon and all this rising up, it's just a symbol of human pride. Like the Tower of Babel, God casts it downward. This is nothing less than the prediction of the total destruction, not just of the temple I believe but of the entire city of Jerusalem. That prediction would be fulfilled a generation later in 70 AD. Josephus, a contemporary at that time, a Jewish historian, tells the story of the destruction of the city of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD. It was the decisive event of the first Jewish-Roman war. It was followed by the fall of Masada three years later in 73 AD. The Roman Army was led by the future Emperor Titus. It besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been occupied by zealous Jewish defenders, zealots, since the year 66 AD. For four years they had held out. Jerusalem is notoriously difficult to conquer, very difficult, it was easy to defend. Therefore frequently what would happen is, when the Gentiles like the Babylonians or the Romans would finally topple the city, they would be so filled with rage at how difficult it had been that they took it out on the defenders and on the city and that's what they did. Despite the fact that Titus wanted the temple preserved, they didn't. They burned it to the ground and they were determined, the Romans were, filled with rage, to remove even foundation stones so that it couldn't even be seen that there'd ever been a city there. The Romans did this kind of thing. It's the fulfillment of Jesus's words, just vindicating him as an accurate and faithful prophet of God. The spiritual significance is this, Israel had rejected God, so God had rejected Israel. Ezekiel 16 poignantly portrays a spiritual marriage between God and Jerusalem, his love relationship with Jerusalem and through Jerusalem, the people of Israel. But they had betrayed that love and had been spiritually unfaithful to God, spiritually adulterous through idolatry and wickedness. Despite his incredible patience, He swore that He would level it by means of a Gentile nation. This is his regular pattern. He said it in the Song of Moses in Deuteronomy 32, before Israel even entered the Promised Land, "I'm going to make you angry by those who are not a nation. I'll make you envious by a nation without understanding." He's clearly predicting Gentile destruction of the Jews if they do not keep the laws of God. Again and again, that's what God did. He would raise up Gentile armies who would come in and trample his people. In this case it was the Romans. He would pour out wrath on the Jewish nation and it began what Jesus called “the times of the Gentiles.” Luke 21:24, “Jerusalem will be trampled on by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled.” We're in those times now, “the times of the Gentiles.” What does that mean? It's a shift in the focus of God. First, God would give up the Jewish nation to Gentile armies to be trampled by the Romans. Then He would pour out his grace and mercy on the elect among the Gentiles all over the world to the ends of the earth, and rescue them from every tribe and language and people and nation. He would graft them into a cultivated olive tree, a Jewish olive tree, deriving nourishing spiritual sap from the patriarchs from the Jewish heritage, so we become sons and daughters of Abraham. Meanwhile, Israel would be experiencing a hardening in part; in every generation, some Jews believing in Jesus, but for the most part not. Until we're told a mystery at the end of time when God will turn the Jews back to himself through faith in Christ and be saved, so all Israel will be saved. That's the whole story of “the times of the Gentiles”, and part of it includes Gentile domination of the city of Jerusalem. This is the prediction of “the times of the Gentiles”, the destruction of the temple. It is also spiritually significant because it signals absolutely the end of animal sacrifice and the end of the Jews' ability to perform the Old Covenant. It's physically impossible for them to do. The destruction of the temple clearly means an end to animal sacrifice. The Old Covenant has come to an end, and now Jesus's death on the cross fulfilled the animal sacrificial system. Once He died on the cross, Hebrews 8:13 says that that old system, that Old Covenantal system was obsolete and aging and would soon disappear. The writer, writing clearly before the destruction of the temple is predicting, I believe there and in Hebrews 8:13, the destruction of the temple, It would disappear, you wouldn't see it at all. The moment Jesus died, the curtain in the temple was torn in two from top to bottom, signaling the end of animal sacrifice. The Jews should have known at that point, the priests should have all repented and come to Christ. There would have been no need for the temple to be destroyed. It would have been a Christian church. It would have been a symbol of the Old Covenant animal sacrificial system that has now been fulfilled in Jesus. But they had, through unbelief and hardness of heart, reestablished animal sacrifice, sewed up the curtain that was torn in two from top to bottom, reestablished all that. So God had to shut it down, and He did it by the Romans. "The destruction of the temple clearly means an end to animal sacrifice. The Old Covenant has come to an end, and now Jesus's death on the cross fulfilled the animal sacrificial system." The Jews cannot obey the law of Moses. Please do not say there is a spiritualized Judaism in which the animal sacrifice is not important. How could anyone ever say that? Read the first five books of Moses. There's an entire book, Leviticus, devoted to animal sacrifice from beginning to end. It is essential to the Jewish religion and it cannot be done. Even more later when the Muslims built the Dome of the Rock there, one of their sacred pilgrimage sites at the end of the 7th century. So Jesus makes the prediction, "Not one stone here will be left on another. Every one will be thrown down." [Mark 13:3-4] II. The Stunned Questions We have this stunned questions by the disciples in private. As Jesus was sitting on the Mount of Olives opposite the temple, Peter, James, John and Andrew asked him privately, "Tell us, when will these things happen and what will be the sign that they are all about to be fulfilled?" That's a simpler version of the more extended question he asks in Matthew 24:3, "When will this happen?" This being, not one stone left on another. "What will be the sign of your coming and of the end of the age?" It's asked in private on the Mount of Olives, across the Kidron Valley. They're up on the mountain, they can look down over the temple. I'm sure they could look down over the city of Jerusalem when they're sitting there privately. The disciples must have certainly been stunned and troubled by Jesus's prediction. They still fully expected that Jesus, the son of David, would just be another David, and that He would reign on a physical throne in Jerusalem and that animal sacrifice would continue, because they really didn't understand the need for his own blood to be shed for their sins—that the blood of bulls and goats could never take away sin that was waiting for the incarnate son of God to die. It was essential for their salvation. They didn't understand that. They were picturing Jesus in a palace of cedar, on a throne of gold, ruling over the Gentile nations. The idea that those Gentile nations would gain military ascendancy over Jerusalem and destroy it, would have been anathema to them. They would have hated it. They didn't understand any of these things. The key inner circle, Peter, John, James and Andrew, approached Jesus privately while He's sitting on the Mount of Olives. This probably was very wise. If the population in general had heard what Jesus was teaching here, they would not have taken it well. They're coming privately and they're asking for an explanation. Undoubtedly they could look down over the temple and over Jerusalem while this is going on. Because it's on the Mount of Olives, some scholars call this the Olivet Discourse, especially the longer version in Matthew 24 and 25, or sometimes the Little Apocalypse. In Matthew's Gospel, these three questions and Jesus's answer to them are woven together in a rather complex tapestry. What are the three questions? Question number one, "When will this happen?" Namely, the destruction of Jerusalem and of the temple. Number two, "What will be the sign of your coming?" The word “coming” is “parousia,” meaning the Second Coming of Christ, which they could not have fully understood. But certainly the parables Jesus tells in Matthew 24 and 25 will prepare them for the parousia, the coming. He also must have already been teaching, though I'm sure they didn't understand, "What will be the sign of your coming?" Then of the end of the age, the question of the end of the world. These are the three questions in Matthew 24:3. It's not as clear in Mark 13, but they're woven together. The complexity of Mark 13 and of Matthew 24 and 25 is to try to figure out what He's talking about at any moment. Is He talking about the destruction of Jerusalem? Is He talking about the end of the age? Is He talking about the Second Coming? What is He talking about and how do we understand that? As they go on, the questions go much bigger than just the destruction of the temple. They're thinking about everything. "Where is all this heading? If the temple gets destroyed, what's next? Where are we heading?" Jesus's answer I do believe does include the events connected with the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD by the Romans. But it goes beyond and extends to the entire age, right to the end of the world. So therefore I believe aspects of what Jesus says in Matthew 24 and in Mark 13 have yet to be fulfilled. They're still in front of us. For me an interpretive key on eschatology from Matthew 24:37 is, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the son of man.” If I could just keep it simple; as it was, so it will be. We get recurring themes. You get the theme of the holy place like the tabernacle, the temple destroyed, rebuilt, and then this recurring theme, the abomination of desolation, which we'll talk about in the new year. On the teaching on the Antichrist, in 1 John 2:18 it says, “You have heard the Antichrist is coming and even now many Antichrists have come.” What that means is, there's lots of lesser Antichrists that come that do dress rehearsals of the final Antichrist. But there is an Antichrist coming, so that's what I would say. Also the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD is a foretaste of a final and full destruction that is yet to come. III. The Warning Against Spiritual Deception Jesus begins his answer in verses 5-6. He begins with a warning against spiritual deception. In verses 5-6 Jesus answered, "Watch out that no one deceives you. Many will come in my name claiming I am he and will deceive many." The danger in every era is false teachers and false Christs. It's the single greatest threat to the church, greater than worldliness, greater than persecution, is false doctrine. So false teachers are going to come in every generation. One of the great hallmarks of many ... not all but many cult leaders is eschatological focus, a sense of the imminent end of the world and that they themselves are the key leader that God has sent for the people at this end of the world time. It's happened again and again and again. It's a fascinating study of these kinds of cult leaders that claim themselves the key leader and that the end is imminent. The Zwickau Prophets during the Reformation were like that. The Millerites in the 19th century, they led into the Jehovah's Witnesses that made predictions of the end of the world that did not come true. The Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas and all that, making all of these kinds of ... It happens again and again and Jesus warns. He doubles down in verses 21 and 22, "At that time if anyone says to you, look, here is the Christ, or look, there he is, do not believe it. For false Christs and false prophets will appear and perform signs and wonders to deceive even the elect, if that were possible." We'll talk more about that in time. I'm not getting to that today. I am mentioning it because it connects with this idea of false teachers that come and give false doctrine, and that culminates in the Antichrist himself who will be able to work great signs and wonders. He’s called the “man of lawlessness” in 2 Thessalonians 2:9-11. The Antichrist was coming, the final one. The coming of the lawless one will be in accordance with the work of Satan displayed in all kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and wonders and in every sort of evil that deceives those who are perishing. They perish because they refuse to love the truth and so be saved. For this reason, God sends them a powerful delusion so that they will believe the lie. He allows the Antichrist to work miracles. Jesus says, "To deceive even the elect, if that were possible." But it's not possible because you are forewarned in the scripture. You're told ahead of time this is going to happen, so you're ready. You should take this seriously, this idea of a world leader who can do signs and wonders and miracles. Get ready and tell your children and tell your grandchildren ... and if you live long enough, tell your great-grandchildren so they'll be ready. Because there will be a generation whose eternal salvation depends on knowing these truths. Forewarned is forearmed, Mark 13:23, “So be on your guard, I've told you everything ahead of time. Now we have the convulsions of a hate-filled dying world in verses seven and eight. When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be alarmed. Such things must happen but the end is still to come. Nation will rise against nation and kingdom against kingdom. There will be earthquakes in various places and famines. These are the beginning of birth pains.” IV. The Convulsions of a Hate-Filled, Dying World Here we have the wickedness of humanity continuing and unfolding, wars and rumors of wars, empires rising and falling. Human beings, with no love for God and no love for each other, violating overtly the two Great Commandments, will continue to hate and plunder and kill each other. That's human history and to some degree you could argue it's one of the reasons for history. We wanted an education at the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. This is what evil looks like. God is drawing it out and showing it to us, so we can see how awful it is. Then He mentions the physical convulsions of planet Earth, ecological disasters. He calls it famines and earthquakes. After Adam's sin, God cursed the ground because of him. It would produce thorns and thistles for him. We know from Romans 8 and from personal experience that the curse went beyond just the harvest of thorns and thistles from the ground. It extends to every area of physical life here on earth. Romans 8:20-22 makes it plain that God has cursed planet Earth because of human sin. Earth's ecology, God subjected the Earth's ecology to cycles of death and destruction and vanity. Earthquakes and famines that Jesus mentions, are just evidences of God's curse on the Earth. In every generation earthquakes and famines ... and other natural disasters like hurricanes and tornadoes, floods, tsunamis, mudslides, plagues, et cetera, display that the natural order has been cursed because of human sin. It's going to continue and Jesus says vaguely, "In various places." It's just going to happen in various places. He's not trying to be specific. He's saying, this is what life's going to be like. It's going to continue like this. These are what I would call non-specific signs. Is there any generation since Jesus in which there weren't famines and earthquakes and nations rising against nation and wars and rumors of wars? Every generation, there's no specificity to it. It's just general, but that's what life's going to be like. Jesus calls them the beginning of birth pains. He uses this language in John 16, also Romans 8:22 says, “The creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time.” Jesus talked about the anguish of his own disciples. The anguish they would have when they would see him arrested, beaten and crucified but then on the third day raised to life, He likens it to birth pains. In John 16:21-22, "A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come. But when her baby is born, she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So it is with you. Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you'll rejoice and no one will take away your joy." That's talking about his own resurrection, which is a foretaste of the New Heaven and New Earth that's coming, but the process before is birth pains. Jesus says this, "All of the rending and convulsion of planet earth is the beginning of birth pains but the end is yet to come," He's saying. Now, that is very hopeful, isn't it? If you look at John 16, Jesus says, "It's going to be painful for a while, but after that you're going to have joy and no one will take away your joy.” Lasting eternal undimmed joy will never happen in this world but it will happen in the world to come, where there'll be no more death, mourning, crying in pain. That's what Jesus's resurrection is pointing toward. In the meantime, there is the convulsions and the pain of labor, giving birth to something joyful afterwards. "Lasting eternal undimmed joy will never happen in this world but it will happen in the world to come, where there'll be no more death, mourning, crying in pain. That's what Jesus's resurrection is pointing toward." V. The Costly Growth of a Living Kingdom In the middle of all of this is, the real point of it all, and that is the costly growth of the kingdom of God. History has a purpose and the purpose is the salvation of sinners out of every tribe and language and people and nation. That's the reason for all of it. Wars, rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes, that's just the matrix of it or the blank canvas on which the real masterpiece is being painted. What is that real masterpiece? It is the spread of the gospel from Jerusalem through Judea and Samaria to the ends of the earth, saving people for all eternity. Look what He says about that costly growth of a living kingdom. Mark 13: 10 is the thesis verse. We're going to spend a whole week on it, God willing, next week, verse 10, “And the gospel must first be preached to all nations.” It's amazing this word “gospel", right in the midst of all this darkness and sorrow and misery, is good news. The good news is Jesus Christ. Jesus is the gospel. Jesus is the good news. Salvation through faith in Christ is the gospel. It is the good news. This good news must be preached to all nations in the midst of all these convulsions. The entire Gospel of Mark has been about understanding that gospel, that good news. Mark 1:1, “The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ or about Jesus Christ, the son of God.” These prophecies that Christ gives here in Mark 13 are incredibly sad and heavy and dark. "Not one stone left on another. Every one of them thrown down. Wars, rumors of wars, famines and earthquakes in various places, sorrow, destruction and death." Yet, Jesus hopefully calls them birth pains and what's being birthed is a perfect people of God redeemed from every tribe, language and people and nation through the blood of Christ, through faith in Christ, and a new heaven and new earth, which will be drawn out of this present cosmos through fire ... Peter tells us in 2 Peter 3, into perfection. That's what we're heading toward. Mark 13:10 is the centerpiece of all this, the kingdom of Christ is going to spread through the world through the proclamation of a verbal gospel, the Gospel. It's not random suffering for no purpose, rather, God is orchestrating these birth pains to end in eternal joy and glory. The suffering of the messengers of that gospel is clearly predicted. The suffering of the messengers, it's a laborious, a painful journey that the church has to go on. Look at Verse 9-13, “You must be on your guard. You will be handed over to the local councils and flogged in the synagogues. On account of me, you will stand before governors and kings as witnesses to them, and the gospel must first be preached to all nations. Wherever you are arrested and brought to trial, do not worry beforehand about what to say, just say whatever is given to you at the time, for it is not you speaking, but the Holy Spirit. Brother will betray brother to death and a father his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death. All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.” Jesus warns us, his followers, again and again, as the world hated him, it's going to hate us. It's going to hate Christians as well, and that hatred is actually going to increase. It's going to be greatly ramped up into the world. The persecution on the messengers of the gospel will be both informal and formal. Informally, family members and friends will betray and hate Christians. Verse 12, “Brother will betray brother to death and a father, his child. Children will rebel against their parents and have them put to death.” This is utterly heartbreaking. You look at Verse 12 and you're like, what would that actually mean for those people, to have those closest to you hate you and turn you over to death because they hate Jesus? That's how bad it's going to get, the betrayal. But the persecution will also be formal. It will involve synagogues, religious tribunals, governmental agencies, governors and kings and emperors and presidents and supreme courts, and all these formal tribunals that the messengers of the gospel are going to get hauled in front of. This has been a repeated scene in twenty centuries: the messenger hauled up in front of the authorities giving an account. It happens again and again and again. The Apostle Paul, the last third of the book of Acts is that; Paul on trial, Paul on trial, Paul on trial. They're standing before either religious tribunals or governmental inquiries, etc. Bottom line, all of that is going to culminate in the hatred of the Antichrist, when he controls the government of the entire world and uses his supernatural powers to seek to eradicate the church of Jesus Christ, precipitating the Second Coming of Christ I believe. So that tribunal aspect is going to keep coming and the persecution is going to get worse and worse. Summed up in Verse 13, “everyone will hate you.” It seems to me like American evangelicals need to understand, we're not going to win a popularity contest. We need to understand the truth. The more that our surrounding culture digresses from biblical Christianity, the more they're going to hate us. We need to be aware of that. That doesn't mean every single person will hate. There will be unconverted elects who will eventually cross over from death to life. But in general, the world's evaluation of Christians will be fiercely negative. In the middle of all of that persecution and tribunals and all of that, will be the powerful equipping by the Holy Spirit. The promise of the Spirit as power to witnesses. Acts 1:8 says, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you and you'll be my witnesses in Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria, to the ends of the earth.” We need the Spirit's power. The tribunals will be terrifying. The synagogues and the religious councils and the governors' courts and all of that, it's going to be terrifying. We're going to in our flesh, quake and melt in front of it. But we'll be positioned to be witnesses to them [verse 9], to preach the gospel [verse 10]. Jesus speaks of the violence of the persecutions. It says that they'll be betrayed by family members to death, to execution. But before that execution happens, the martyrs die, they speak words of witness. The blood of martyrs is seed for the church. They powerfully speak words of witness empowered by the Spirit of God. He says, "Don't worry ahead of time what to say, for the spirit will tell you what to say at that time." Some of the greatest statements in church history have been made by martyrs on trial. They could never have written that material ahead of time. The Holy Spirit knew what to say through them. A very good example of this is in Acts 4 when Peter and John were arrested for doing a miracle and they're brought before the Sanhedrin, and they are so filled with the Holy Spirit and they are absolutely fearless. They say, "If we are hauled in front of this tribunal and asked to give an account for a miracle done to a cripple, then know this, you and all the people of Israel, it is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth whom you crucified, by whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed. He is the stone you builders rejected, which has become the capstone. Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved." Wow, where did that come from? The Holy Spirit came on them. It says, when they saw the courage, the boldness of Peter and John and realized that they were unschooled ordinary men, they're just regular people, they were astonished and took note that these men had been with Jesus. Stephen's whole speech was saturated with the Spirit of God. Also, Polycarp's courageous message when they burned him at the stake in Smyrna at the end of the first century. Felicitas, the Roman noble woman said, "While I live, I shall defeat you and if you kill me, I shall defeat you even more." It's one of my favorite statements ever in church history, “you can't win,” something like that. “There's no way you can win. If you let me go, I'm going to keep preaching the gospel. I'm going to keep winning disciples. If you kill me, then things really take off.” Awesome. Jan Hus said, "What I proclaim with my lips, I now seal with my blood." Martin Luther, though he was not martyred, he thought he was going to be martyred just like Jan Hus. He said, "Here I stand; I can do no other.” Courageous, bold. Do not worry ahead of time, the Holy Spirit will come on you at that trial of faith. The increase of persecution will be a severe test of nominal Christians, people who aren't serious. They're in the habit of going to church but they're not really Christians. The fires of persecution will weed those people out. In Matthew 24:10 it says, “At that time, many will turn away from the faith and betray and hate each other.” So they're apostates. The increase of wickedness, it says, will cause people's hearts to grow cold. Natural affections will be replaced by animal-like instincts. The survival of the fittest [Matthew 24:12] because the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold. True Christians can never fall away from Christ. But in the Parable of the Seed and the Soils, there is that stony ground that springs up. But when heat comes, when trouble or persecution comes because of the Word, they quickly fall away. Jesus gives a warning to all of his true followers, he who stands firm to the end will be saved. You have to stand firm in your faith through all that persecution. That's Mark 1-13. VI. Applications Let's take some applications now. First and foremost, it's simple, come to Christ. Come to Christ. There is macro-eschatology, the big story of the world. But then there's your eschatology, do you know how much longer you have to be alive? Do you know when you're going to die? That's the end of your time here on earth. Do you know when that is? No one knows. All of this wickedness and convulsions and famines and earthquakes and wars and rumors of wars, all of that is caused, the Bible says, by sin. There is one and only one remedy, and that is the blood of Jesus Christ shed on the cross. Flee to Christ while you can. You don't know how long you have. You've heard the Gospel here this morning. All you need to do is repent of your sins, turn away from your sin and trust in Christ and you'll be forgiven. You'll be forgiven. So come to Christ, come to Christ for salvation. If you're a Christian, come to Christ for wisdom. I love what Peter, John, James and Andrew do. They didn't understand and they came to Jesus privately and said, "Explain it." Just like with the parables, Jesus gives them the secrets. The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of God has been given to you but not the outsiders. He'll tell you what you need to know. If you want to know things about the future, come to Christ and ask and He'll tell you the Scripture by the Spirit. He's not going to tell you more than the Scripture but the Scripture says everything you need. So come to Christ for wisdom and expect it in the Scriptures by the Spirit. Then, understand the direction of history. History has a direction. It has a purpose. This is not random sorrow and destruction like there's no purpose at all. No, there's a purpose to everything. History has a direction. Revelation 21, the second to last chapter of the Bible, in verses 6 and 7 Jesus said, "I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end." History has a journey. It's a story being unfolded and Jesus is that story. “I am the Alpha, I am the first letter and I'm the Omega, I'm the last letter. The beginning and the end.” Then He says, "To him who is thirsty, I'll give to drink without cost from the spring of the water of life. He who overcomes will inherit all this. I will be his God and he will be my son." That's the purpose of history, salvation. Come to Christ and drink. Come to Christ and drink, and never think that history is spinning out of control. God is sovereign. He is on his throne. When the so-called eternal city Rome fell to the vandals in the 5th century, many Christians thought it was the end of the world but it wasn't. When the Muslims swept across North Africa, destroying lots of good churches ... and then swept across the Strait of Gibraltar and conquered all of Spain. Then when they swept up into France in the 8th century, many thought it was the end of the world, but it wasn't. When the Vikings were pillaging and ravaging monasteries and churches all throughout the Northern part of Europe and then on into Russia and even down into the Mediterranean and all that, people begged God, deliver us from the fear of the Norsemen. They thought it was the end of the world, but it wasn't. When Mongol warriors extended the largest contiguous empire that had ever been ... coming in from the Asian steppes and no band of Christian knights could defeat them, and they just won battle after battle after battle, many thought it was the end of the world, but it wasn't. When the Black Death swept across Europe and killed a third of the population ... and all of their good luck charms and all of their incantations and all of that stuff could not drive it away. They really thought everyone's going to die of this disease. The end of the world is imminent, but it wasn't. When the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, Constantinople, finally fell in the 15th century because of a new invention, cannons with gunpowder ... and the Muslim banners fluttered over Eastern Orthodoxy, over the most significant site of Eastern Orthodoxy. The backdoor to Europe was finally thrown open it seemed to Turkish invasion, many thought the end of the world was imminent, Martin Luther did, but it wasn't. The 20th century dawned with a war to end all wars and millions died in that senseless conflict. When European poets said, “I see the lights of humanity extinguished all over Europe and we shall not see them lit again in our lifetime.” Then twenty years later, an even worse war came with an even more terrifying scourge, Nazism, subjugating one nation after another. It seemed they could never be defeated. Many thought the end of the world was imminent, but it wasn't. So also Communism when it spread from one country to the next, the dominoes were toppling in Southeast Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America and all kinds of places ... and it was godless atheism and openly hostile to the church, many thought the end of the world was imminent, but it wasn't. Now there will come a time, the end of the world will come but God is sovereign over all these things. In every one of these cases, the church continued and even flourished. Nothing can stop the spread of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. So let's rest assured in that and realize what our calling is. Our calling is to be holy and to spread the gospel. Close with me in prayer. Father, we thank you for the time we've had to begin this study in eschatology, in Mark 13. I thank you for the themes that Jesus lays out and He tells us very clearly ahead of time what's going to happen. Lord, continue to strengthen us for our mission in this world, that we'll be courageous and clear and bold, and unafraid of what's happening with governments, unafraid what's happening with natural disasters, knowing that we will suffer. It's not going to be painless but we know also all of it has a glorious purpose. We thank you in Jesus's name. Amen.

When European settlers arrived in the Americas they found many economies based on gift-giving. Jason talks to Brian Owensby about how this worked, how it didn't work, and how this could have led to conflict between the Old World and the New.Producer: Natt TapleySound: Pete Dennis Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When European explorers set off from Europe, many of them chased things that didn't exist. The Fountain of Youth, the City of El Dorado, and Prester John were all things they pursued but came up empty-handed.  However, there was one thing that these European explorers searched for that actually did exist, but not in the way they had hoped.  While it was never historically relevant, it could play a much bigger role in the future.  Learn more about the Northwest Passage, its discovery, and its future on this episode of Everything Everywhere Daily. Sponsors Draft Kings Step into the thrilling world of sports and entertainment with DraftKings, where every day is game day! Join the millions of fans who have already discovered the ultimate destination for fantasy sports and sports betting. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app and use code EVERYTHING to score two hundred dollars in bonus bets instantly when you bet just five dollars! Newspapers.com Newspapers.com is like a time machine. Dive into their extensive online archives to explore history as it happened. With over 800 million digitized newspaper pages spanning three centuries, Newspapers.com provides an unparalleled gateway to the past, with papers from the US, UK, Canada, Australia and beyond. Use the code “EverythingEverywhere” at checkout to get 20% off a publisher extra subscription at newspapers.com. Noom  Noom is not just another diet or fitness app. It's a comprehensive lifestyle program designed to empower you to make lasting changes and achieve your health goals. With Noom, you'll embark on a personalized journey that considers your unique needs, preferences, and challenges. Their innovative approach combines cutting-edge technology with the support of a dedicated team of experts, including registered dietitians, nutritionists, and behavior change specialists. Noom's changing how the world thinks about weight loss. Go to noom.com to sign up for your trial today!   ButcherBox ButcherBox is the perfect solution for anyone looking to eat high-quality, sustainably sourced meat without the hassle of going to the grocery store. With ButcherBox, you can enjoy a variety of grass-fed beef, heritage pork, free-range chicken, and wild-caught seafood delivered straight to your door every month. ButcherBox.com/Daily  Subscribe to the podcast!  https://link.chtbl.com/EverythingEverywhere?sid=ShowNotes -------------------------------- Executive Producer: Charles Daniel Associate Producers: Peter Bennett & Cameron Kieffer   Become a supporter on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingeverywhere Update your podcast app at newpodcastapps.com Discord Server: https://discord.gg/UkRUJFh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/everythingeverywhere/ Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/everythingeverywheredaily Twitter: https://twitter.com/everywheretrip Website: https://everything-everywhere.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When speaking about slavery, we must define the term to ensure clarity and understanding. This is important because the Islamic term "slavery" differs from the Western definition of the word, as it holds a different connotation in the English language than in Islam. The term slavery in the West is more closely associated with brutal depictions seen in Hollywood movies and disturbing accounts found in the annals of American history.  When European settlers first arrived in America at the beginning of the 16th century, they abducted and enslaved approximately 11 million Africans for 300 years to work under abhorrent, inhumane conditions, generating wealth and opportunity for the American people. At the same time, two million enslaved people died at sea on their way to America. The Islamic term slavery does not reference such abhorrent conditions. Never would Islam allow such horrific treatment of human beings. This brings us to the Islamic understanding of slavery. There was a time in history when slavery was not considered immoral, and almost every middle-class family owned a slave. They would kidnap free people from other lands and sell them into slavery. The act of enslaving people was a common practice in many areas. At a time when the inability to pay off one's debt could result in the enslavement of the debtor, Islam was the only religion to prohibit this form of practice and initiate laws about slavery. Islam states that all human beings are free and that no human has the right to withhold freedom from anyone unlawfully. Therefore, Islam did not allow free people to be taken, sold, or turned into enslaved people. It prohibited all forms of slavery except for instances in which captives of war were claimed, an act having nothing to do with race or skin color. To reaffirm, the only type of slavery Islam allowed was the taking of prisoners of war during the fighting of a battle. If two tribes were at battle and one side reigned victorious, taking enemy soldiers and citizens as captives of war, they could keep them. In modern times, soldiers of the opposite side can be imprisoned if captured because we now have prison institutions to house thousands of prisoners of war when needed. However, back in the Prophet Muhammad PBUH's time, such institutions did not exist. At that time, prisoners of war would be killed, ransomed, or taken into homes as enslaved people. Instead of killing them, Islam allowed them to live humanely in the homes of Muslims without any form of abuse. The faith initiated laws dealing with prisoners of war that were not ransomed. For those offended by the concept of wartime imprisonment: What else would Muslims have done with the prisoners they captured, enemies who had tried to fight and kill them? If they released them, those people could make another attempt on their lives. They didn't have prisons then, and even if they had housed captives of war, the prisoners would have lived in a harsher environment, especially when kept in the desert. Islamic scholars state that the law regarding treating war captives no longer applies today.Whereas Islam allowed only the taking of prisoners of war, the faith did not abruptly abolish slavery altogether, commanding everyone who had slaves to release them. Islam decreased the practice of slavery by degrees to maintain social and economic stability. If everyone freed their slaves simultaneously, the act would have negatively affected their economy and society, putting thousands of people out of work without shelter. Islam encouraged and offered many avenues for people to release their slaves. Islam mandated freeing enslaved people as a requirement for forgiveness for specific sins. The Holy Quran referenced the freeing of an enslaved person as a sign of piety. 

Summary: Did you know that there are more than 850 species of tarantulas and that they've been around since the time of the dinosaurs? Join Kiersten as she delves into the natural history of the tarantula and takes a look at the different species alive today.    For my hearing impaired listeners, a complete transcript of this podcast follows the show notes on Podbean.   Show Notes:  The Tarantula Scientist by Sy Montgomery Remarkable Animals: The Tarantula by Gail LaBonte “Tarantulas are everywhere and now researchers know why” by Mihai Andrei, ZME Science https://www.zmescience.com/science/biology/tarantula-evolution-gondwana-19042021/ https://nationalzoo.si.edu/animals/goliath-bird-eating-tarantula https://tarantulafriendly.com/category/tarantula-species/south-america “Farewell to the World's Smallest Tarantula?” By Jane Schneider https://www.nwf.org/Magazines/National-Wildlife/2017/Oct-Nov/Conservation/Spruce-Fir-Moss_Spider   Transcript (Piano music plays) Kiersten - This is Ten Things I Like About…a ten minute, ten episode podcast about unknown or misunderstood wildlife. (Piano music stops) Kiersten - Welcome to Ten Things I Like About… I'm Kiersten, your host, and this is a podcast about misunderstood or unknown creatures in nature. Some we'll find right out side our doors and some are continents away but all are fascinating.  This podcast will focus ten, ten minute episodes on different animals and their amazing characteristics. Please join me on this extraordinary journey, you won't regret it. This episode continues tarantulas and the fifth thing I like about these unbelievable spiders is how many different species and sizes there are!   There are 850 different species of tarantula currently known today and we're discovering new species all the time!   Let's clarify what exactly I'm talking about when I use the word tarantula. In all the episodes of Ten Things I Like About Tarantulas, I am talking about spiders in the Theraphosidae Family. This family includes nothing but tarantulas, the heavy bodied, hairy looking arachnids. All sub-tropical and tropical tarantulas are classified under Family Theraphosidae.    They were not originally called tarantulas actually. In Malaysia they are called “earth tigers”, parts of Africa call them “monkey spiders”. The name tarantula came from European explorers that made a mistake. The original spider referred to as a tarantula is not a spider classified in the Family Theraphosidae. It's actually a wolf spider from Mediterranean Europe and it IS a fairly large, hairy spider, but not a tarantula. Back in the day, people thought this spider's bite was exceptionally dangerous. They were mistaken, another spider was actually responsible for the terrible bite but that's another story.     It was said that the wolf spider's bite hurt so much that it made you dance around in pain while you tried to get rid of the venom! They called the dance the tarantella, named after the Italian town of Taranto where this wolf spider is commonly found. When European explorers traveled to far away lands and saw large hairy spiders they called them tarantulas because they looked so much like the wolf spiders they ere used to seeing. So once again, a misunderstanding in language has lasted throughout human history.    Okay, now that we know the origin of the tarantula's name, let's look at their evolutionary history. It seems that tarantulas evolved about 120 million years ago in the Cretaceous period. That's when dinosaurs were still roaming the earth. They actually shared the planet with dinosaurs for about 60 million years.    Tarantulas roamed the content of Gondwana, which was a super continent formed of modern day South America, Africa, Arabia, Madagascar, India, Australia, and Antarctica. This is why they are so widespread today. When continental drift began to create the Earth's modern day configuration, tarantulas hitched a ride on the moving landscape. The preserved fossil of a 40 million year old tarantula shows that they have changed very little from that time period. They look pretty much like the tarantulas of today. Why mess with perfection, right?   As time passed varies sizes and species of tarantula developed. Let's look at some of the fascinating species of tarantula that inhabit our planet today.   We'll start off with the largest species of tarantula. Weighing in at 6 ounces with a body length of 5 inches and a leg span of 12 inches, we have the Goliath Bird-Eating Tarantula. If you put a full grown adult on a common dinner plate their legs would sit comfortably on the edges of this plate. That is a huge spider!   The Goliath Bird-Eating Tarantula is found in South American rainforests. They eat pretty much anything smaller than themselves including mice, lizards, amphibians, and invertebrates. Even though they are called bird eating tarantulas they rarely if ever eat birds. The name comes from a sketch that Maria Sybilla Merian, a naturalist who lived from 1647-1717, drew of a tarantula in a tree eating a hummingbird. She based the sketch on reports from explorers in country at the time that stated the tarantula was large enough to eat birds.  Much like anything else outrageous, it has withstood the test of time.    Goliath Bird-Eating Tarantulas are a rust red color all over and the hairs, or setae, that cover their body lay more flat compared to some other tarantulas, giving them a more stream-lined look. Like all other tarantulas they have fangs that help them catch and eat their food. The Goliath Bird-Eating tarantula's fangs are 2 inches long!   Turning to the complete opposite end of the spectrum, let's look at the world's smallest tarantula. The Spruce-Fir Moss Tarantula is the size of a BB gun pellet when fully grown! That is a seriously small spider. It is found only in one place in the world, a few pockets of the Southern Appalachian Mountains of the Southeastern United States. They live under the moss mats that grow on rocks at high elevations of the mountains. They are typically found above 5300 feet above sea level. The moss they build their funnel webs under provides them with insulation and food resources they need to survive.    Spruce-Fir Moss tarantulas are a brown color all over the body and, similar to the Goliath bird-eating tarantula, they have a bit less hair than some other tarantulas.   Sadly these mini-tarantulas are on the endangered species list do to habitat loss. Since they are so small and live his in the mountain range we know very little about their individual live,s but researchers are still studying them when they can to learn everything we can about them in hopes of helping them survive.   Size is not the only thing that ranges widely between tarantula species. What would you think if I told you tarantulas come in many different colors? I can see you faces now! You're giving me the chin scratch! Tarantulas only come in different shade of brown, right? Nope! While brown is a very common color some tarantulas are actually bright blue, orange, and even green!   There is a Cobalt Blue Tarantula native to Myanmar and Thailand and their name is no exaggeration. This tarantula is as blue as a sapphire gemstone.   The Green Bottle Blue Tarantula of South America has bright blue legs, a lustrous green carapace, and a sunrise orange rump. It is one of the most ostentatiously colored tarantulas.   The Orange-knee tarantula of Mexico is a beautiful combination of black on the body with stripes of orange on the legs and outlining the carapace. The color-blocking on these tarantulas is truly spectacular.   The Pinktoe tarantula, the first species of tarantula to be described by European naturalists, is black on the legs and carapace, a lighter brown on the abdomen, or opisthosoma, with light pink on the last segment of their legs, hence pink toes!   And my personal favorite, the Chilean Rose Hair Tarantula from the desert of Chile. The majority of the body is brown but their carapace is an iridescent pink color.   And many other species of tarantulas that are mainly brown on their body will have shades of brown that create striking patterns such as the Skeleton Tarantula from Brazil. This tarantula is dark brown on the abdomen and legs with a light blonde on the carapace and light blonde patterning on the legs.    And the Pumpkin Patch Tarantula from Columbia. This oddly named spider is brown on the legs and chelicerae with black and tan creating an intricate geometrical pattern on the carapace and abdomen.   The various species and sizes of tarantulas is truly astounding and that's why it's my fifth favorite thing about them.   If you're enjoying this podcast please recommend me to friends and family and take a moment to give me a rating on whatever platform your listening. It will help me reach more listeners and give the animals I talk about an even better chance at change.    Join me next week for another thing I like about tarantulas!   (Piano Music plays)  This has been an episode of Ten Things I like About with Kiersten and Company. Original music written and performed by Katherine Camp, piano extraordinaire.    

The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022) tackles questions of Native power past and present and provides a fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations—including Biloxis, Choctaws, Chitimachas, Chickasaws, Houmas, Mobilians, and Tunicas—who helped shape the modern Gulf South. In The Great Power of Small Nations, Elizabeth N. Ellis (Peoria) tells the stories of the many smaller Native American nations that shaped the development of the Gulf South. Based on extensive archival research and oral histories, Ellis's narrative chronicles how diverse Indigenous peoples—including Biloxis, Choctaws, Chitimachas, Chickasaws, Houmas, Mobilians, and Tunicas—influenced and often challenged the growth of colonial Louisiana. The book centers on questions of Native nation-building and international diplomacy, and it argues that Native American migration and practices of offering refuge to migrants in crisis enabled Native nations to survive the violence of colonization. Indeed, these practices also made them powerful. When European settlers began to arrive in Indigenous homelands at the turn of the eighteenth century, these small nations, or petites nations as the French called them, pulled colonists into their political and social systems, thereby steering the development of early Louisiana. In some cases, the same practices that helped Native peoples withstand colonization in the eighteenth century, including frequent migration, living alongside foreign nations, and welcoming outsiders into their lands, have made it difficult for their contemporary descendants to achieve federal acknowledgment and full rights as Native American peoples. The Great Power of Small Nations tackles questions of Native power past and present and provides a fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations who helped shape the modern Gulf South. John Cable is assistant professor of history at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia. He earned the Ph.D. in history at Florida State University in 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022) tackles questions of Native power past and present and provides a fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations—including Biloxis, Choctaws, Chitimachas, Chickasaws, Houmas, Mobilians, and Tunicas—who helped shape the modern Gulf South. In The Great Power of Small Nations, Elizabeth N. Ellis (Peoria) tells the stories of the many smaller Native American nations that shaped the development of the Gulf South. Based on extensive archival research and oral histories, Ellis's narrative chronicles how diverse Indigenous peoples—including Biloxis, Choctaws, Chitimachas, Chickasaws, Houmas, Mobilians, and Tunicas—influenced and often challenged the growth of colonial Louisiana. The book centers on questions of Native nation-building and international diplomacy, and it argues that Native American migration and practices of offering refuge to migrants in crisis enabled Native nations to survive the violence of colonization. Indeed, these practices also made them powerful. When European settlers began to arrive in Indigenous homelands at the turn of the eighteenth century, these small nations, or petites nations as the French called them, pulled colonists into their political and social systems, thereby steering the development of early Louisiana. In some cases, the same practices that helped Native peoples withstand colonization in the eighteenth century, including frequent migration, living alongside foreign nations, and welcoming outsiders into their lands, have made it difficult for their contemporary descendants to achieve federal acknowledgment and full rights as Native American peoples. The Great Power of Small Nations tackles questions of Native power past and present and provides a fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations who helped shape the modern Gulf South. John Cable is assistant professor of history at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia. He earned the Ph.D. in history at Florida State University in 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022) tackles questions of Native power past and present and provides a fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations—including Biloxis, Choctaws, Chitimachas, Chickasaws, Houmas, Mobilians, and Tunicas—who helped shape the modern Gulf South. In The Great Power of Small Nations, Elizabeth N. Ellis (Peoria) tells the stories of the many smaller Native American nations that shaped the development of the Gulf South. Based on extensive archival research and oral histories, Ellis's narrative chronicles how diverse Indigenous peoples—including Biloxis, Choctaws, Chitimachas, Chickasaws, Houmas, Mobilians, and Tunicas—influenced and often challenged the growth of colonial Louisiana. The book centers on questions of Native nation-building and international diplomacy, and it argues that Native American migration and practices of offering refuge to migrants in crisis enabled Native nations to survive the violence of colonization. Indeed, these practices also made them powerful. When European settlers began to arrive in Indigenous homelands at the turn of the eighteenth century, these small nations, or petites nations as the French called them, pulled colonists into their political and social systems, thereby steering the development of early Louisiana. In some cases, the same practices that helped Native peoples withstand colonization in the eighteenth century, including frequent migration, living alongside foreign nations, and welcoming outsiders into their lands, have made it difficult for their contemporary descendants to achieve federal acknowledgment and full rights as Native American peoples. The Great Power of Small Nations tackles questions of Native power past and present and provides a fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations who helped shape the modern Gulf South. John Cable is assistant professor of history at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia. He earned the Ph.D. in history at Florida State University in 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/native-american-studies

The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022) tackles questions of Native power past and present and provides a fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations—including Biloxis, Choctaws, Chitimachas, Chickasaws, Houmas, Mobilians, and Tunicas—who helped shape the modern Gulf South. In The Great Power of Small Nations, Elizabeth N. Ellis (Peoria) tells the stories of the many smaller Native American nations that shaped the development of the Gulf South. Based on extensive archival research and oral histories, Ellis's narrative chronicles how diverse Indigenous peoples—including Biloxis, Choctaws, Chitimachas, Chickasaws, Houmas, Mobilians, and Tunicas—influenced and often challenged the growth of colonial Louisiana. The book centers on questions of Native nation-building and international diplomacy, and it argues that Native American migration and practices of offering refuge to migrants in crisis enabled Native nations to survive the violence of colonization. Indeed, these practices also made them powerful. When European settlers began to arrive in Indigenous homelands at the turn of the eighteenth century, these small nations, or petites nations as the French called them, pulled colonists into their political and social systems, thereby steering the development of early Louisiana. In some cases, the same practices that helped Native peoples withstand colonization in the eighteenth century, including frequent migration, living alongside foreign nations, and welcoming outsiders into their lands, have made it difficult for their contemporary descendants to achieve federal acknowledgment and full rights as Native American peoples. The Great Power of Small Nations tackles questions of Native power past and present and provides a fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations who helped shape the modern Gulf South. John Cable is assistant professor of history at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia. He earned the Ph.D. in history at Florida State University in 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022) tackles questions of Native power past and present and provides a fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations—including Biloxis, Choctaws, Chitimachas, Chickasaws, Houmas, Mobilians, and Tunicas—who helped shape the modern Gulf South. In The Great Power of Small Nations, Elizabeth N. Ellis (Peoria) tells the stories of the many smaller Native American nations that shaped the development of the Gulf South. Based on extensive archival research and oral histories, Ellis's narrative chronicles how diverse Indigenous peoples—including Biloxis, Choctaws, Chitimachas, Chickasaws, Houmas, Mobilians, and Tunicas—influenced and often challenged the growth of colonial Louisiana. The book centers on questions of Native nation-building and international diplomacy, and it argues that Native American migration and practices of offering refuge to migrants in crisis enabled Native nations to survive the violence of colonization. Indeed, these practices also made them powerful. When European settlers began to arrive in Indigenous homelands at the turn of the eighteenth century, these small nations, or petites nations as the French called them, pulled colonists into their political and social systems, thereby steering the development of early Louisiana. In some cases, the same practices that helped Native peoples withstand colonization in the eighteenth century, including frequent migration, living alongside foreign nations, and welcoming outsiders into their lands, have made it difficult for their contemporary descendants to achieve federal acknowledgment and full rights as Native American peoples. The Great Power of Small Nations tackles questions of Native power past and present and provides a fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations who helped shape the modern Gulf South. John Cable is assistant professor of history at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia. He earned the Ph.D. in history at Florida State University in 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-studies

The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022) tackles questions of Native power past and present and provides a fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations—including Biloxis, Choctaws, Chitimachas, Chickasaws, Houmas, Mobilians, and Tunicas—who helped shape the modern Gulf South. In The Great Power of Small Nations, Elizabeth N. Ellis (Peoria) tells the stories of the many smaller Native American nations that shaped the development of the Gulf South. Based on extensive archival research and oral histories, Ellis's narrative chronicles how diverse Indigenous peoples—including Biloxis, Choctaws, Chitimachas, Chickasaws, Houmas, Mobilians, and Tunicas—influenced and often challenged the growth of colonial Louisiana. The book centers on questions of Native nation-building and international diplomacy, and it argues that Native American migration and practices of offering refuge to migrants in crisis enabled Native nations to survive the violence of colonization. Indeed, these practices also made them powerful. When European settlers began to arrive in Indigenous homelands at the turn of the eighteenth century, these small nations, or petites nations as the French called them, pulled colonists into their political and social systems, thereby steering the development of early Louisiana. In some cases, the same practices that helped Native peoples withstand colonization in the eighteenth century, including frequent migration, living alongside foreign nations, and welcoming outsiders into their lands, have made it difficult for their contemporary descendants to achieve federal acknowledgment and full rights as Native American peoples. The Great Power of Small Nations tackles questions of Native power past and present and provides a fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations who helped shape the modern Gulf South. John Cable is assistant professor of history at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia. He earned the Ph.D. in history at Florida State University in 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Great Power of Small Nations: Indigenous Diplomacy in the Gulf South (U Pennsylvania Press, 2022) tackles questions of Native power past and present and provides a fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations—including Biloxis, Choctaws, Chitimachas, Chickasaws, Houmas, Mobilians, and Tunicas—who helped shape the modern Gulf South. In The Great Power of Small Nations, Elizabeth N. Ellis (Peoria) tells the stories of the many smaller Native American nations that shaped the development of the Gulf South. Based on extensive archival research and oral histories, Ellis's narrative chronicles how diverse Indigenous peoples—including Biloxis, Choctaws, Chitimachas, Chickasaws, Houmas, Mobilians, and Tunicas—influenced and often challenged the growth of colonial Louisiana. The book centers on questions of Native nation-building and international diplomacy, and it argues that Native American migration and practices of offering refuge to migrants in crisis enabled Native nations to survive the violence of colonization. Indeed, these practices also made them powerful. When European settlers began to arrive in Indigenous homelands at the turn of the eighteenth century, these small nations, or petites nations as the French called them, pulled colonists into their political and social systems, thereby steering the development of early Louisiana. In some cases, the same practices that helped Native peoples withstand colonization in the eighteenth century, including frequent migration, living alongside foreign nations, and welcoming outsiders into their lands, have made it difficult for their contemporary descendants to achieve federal acknowledgment and full rights as Native American peoples. The Great Power of Small Nations tackles questions of Native power past and present and provides a fresh examination of the formidable and resilient Native nations who helped shape the modern Gulf South. John Cable is assistant professor of history at Abraham Baldwin Agricultural College in Tifton, Georgia. He earned the Ph.D. in history at Florida State University in 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/american-south

Fraser Island has had many names. To its native Badtjala people, it is known as K'gari. When European settlers first happened upon the island, they named it Great Sandy Island. Then, after a particularly dramatic incident involving a shipwreck, a damsel in distress, and a timely rescue, the island was rechristened Fraser Island, in memory of Eliza Fraser and her adventures there. Join us as we learn more about this remarkable island in our program, The Secrets of Fraser Island.

Part 2 - Once-ignored Indigenous knowledge of nature now shaping science by If you come into contact with people working in and around natural resources in Minnesota you may hear the term TEK. It's a popular buzzword, which, confusingly, has little to do with technology. It's the acronym for Traditional Ecological Knowledge, an umbrella term for information about the natural world collected by countless generations of Indigenous people.  Through observation and life experience, they gained knowledge — what plants were good to make teas to soothe a sore throat, what bark to harvest to bring down a fever, how certain species adapted to changes in climate and how fire can revitalize the forest floor to produce an abundance of berries. That knowledge was shared, often orally through stories or songs. Once dismissed as unscientific, there's now increasing interest in incorporating Indigenous knowledge into the policies and practices of Minnesotans working with forestry and wildlife.  Mathew Holding Eagle III | MPR News A group of red pines in Camp 8 about a month after a prescribed burn. Michael Dockry is an enrolled member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation. He is also involved in American Indian studies at the University of Minnesota where he teaches TEK concepts.  Through a traditional ecological knowledge perspective, “we are connected with everything,” Dockry said.  “That's something that transcends science itself,” he said. “That's why the spirituality, that's why cultural practices and songs come into play with how tribal people are managing resources and thinking about them. We are all related.” TEK differs from what some call scientific or academic ecological knowledge, which often views humans as separate from nature.  "It's really about that relationship between people and the place where they live, and the beings that are there with them,” said Rob Croll, who coordinates the climate change program at the Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Commission.  GLIFWC represents 11 Ojibwe tribes in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan with treaty rights to hunt, fish and gather on lands ceded to the federal government. Scientists recently collected information through interviews with tribal elders and harvesters to assess how vulnerable certain species are to climate change.  Croll emphasized that collective Indigenous knowledge about natural resources isn't ancient history. "It's happening now, it's happening today,” he said. “It's happening as people are out in the field on the lake, practicing the same activities that their ancestors did for hundreds and thousands of years." Over time, that knowledge has been handed down, usually orally through stories and songs. Michael Waasegiizhig Price is GLIFWC's traditional ecological knowledge specialist. Growing up, he knew little about his Anishinaabe culture. But when visiting family members in Canada, he listened as they told stories. Mathew Holding Eagle III | MPR News A reminder of the prescribed burn remains standing amidst the backdrop of new growth. "Some of these stories talked about ecological concepts, like burning off a forest to chase away the bad spirits and bring back the good spirits,” Price said. “From a scientific term, that would be called forest regeneration. You're talking about the same thing from two very different worldviews." When European settlers negotiated or often imposed treaties on tribes, that Western ideology, along with Manifest Destiny and the belief system that people were ordained by God to reign over nature — that everything on Earth was put here for their consumption — became implemented in policies.  In turn, this threatened Indigenous people's way of life. However, at least on paper, it guaranteed them the right to hunt, fish and gather in ceded territories. Under TEK, the treaties have broader implications, said Seth Moore, a biologist for the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa. “If those foods are not available, if those foods are toxic, if our air is toxic, if our water is toxic, the United States federal government has not honored those treaties and there has been an abrogation of those treaty rights,” Moore said.  Using fire as a tool In the Cloquet Forest, just south of Duluth, underneath a canopy of towering white and red pines, nature's melody is a chorus of Traditional Ecological Knowledge. It's a point where science and spirituality overlap. In many Indigenous communities, people have long made careful use of burns to promote forest health. But the Western view saw fire as inherently bad. On the Fond du Lac Reservation of Lake Superior Chippewa, this resulted in a curbing of burns.    In 1904, urged by lumber companies, the land comprising the forest — three percent of the reservation — was given to the University of Minnesota by the government so that it could study methods to replenish areas after deforestation.   Dockry said nowadays, tribes are reclaiming TEK they were prohibited from using in the past, including fire. “We're starting again to see tribes leading natural resource management forward with fire use in the region,” Dockry said. Mathew Holding Eagle III | MPR News A burned log inside Camp 8 after a prescribed burn in the Cloquet Forest. In May, the first prescribed burn of at least an acre since 2000 was conducted in the Cloquet Forest.  To make it happen, at the request of the Fond du Lac Reservation to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the BIA and the U of M agreed to a memorandum of understanding. It defined the working relationship between the three entities and paid tribal fire professionals to help conduct the burn. “We can learn a lot from tribes,” Dockry said. “Tribes have done a lot of work around fire.”  Dockry says fires can be a real threat in Minnesota. However, prescribed burns help by removing forest waste which can lead to larger fires. It also encourages biodiversity by not allowing any one species of plant or tree to dominate an ecosystem — making it more sustainable.   During a recent workshop at the Cloquet Forestry Center, fire expert Damon Panek, an enrolled member of the Mississippi Band of White Earth Ojibwe, spoke from the field in Arizona while assisting another tribe with their fire efforts.    Panek helped lead the prescribed Cloquet Forest burn. He said using fires is about much more than reshaping the landscape, it is also about reclamation of something greater.   "Our identity depends on it,” Panek said. “Our language, our culture, our ways of seeing the world is based on an ecosystem that is fire adapted and we don't have that right now. So what does that mean for us?" Panek said if prescribed burns continue, they will help unshroud Indigenous identity. He predicts there will be families camping out on the reservation, on the ceded territory, foraging for berries and sharing songs, stories and life practices — as he put it, rediscovering inlets to old outlets.  ‘We want to see bigger trees' One place where traditional ecological knowledge about natural resources is being put to use is the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe reservation in north-central Minnesota. The reservation encompasses nearly half of the Chippewa National Forest. The red and white pine stands on and around the reservation were heavily logged starting in the 1800s. Long before those timber barons began cutting the trees for profits, BJ Gotchie's ancestors made their home here.  Kirsti Marohn | MPR News New plants, including wild strawberries, are visible on the forest floor in a portion of the Leech Lake forest where a prescribed burn was recently conducted. "A lot of tribal members — myself included — we want to see bigger trees,” said Gotchie, interagency fire restoration coordinator for the Leech Lake Band. “We don't care so much about having big trees to harvest for timber revenues.” Now, along with Keith Karnes, the band's forestry director, Gotchie is working to restore it closer to the forest his ancestors knew — by selectively cutting and using prescribed burns to give the remaining trees more space to grow." We want some of these big legacy trees, these great big old monoliths. They used to be here before the timber barons came through,” Karnes said. “There'll be some young forest that comes up, too. It's all about having a mix." The forest has responded. With less underbrush, the trees are able to grow taller and form more of a canopy.  "Look at the difference in the trees,” Karnes said. “They just look happy.” Kirsti Marohn | MPR News Forestry director Keith Karnes inspects a pine tree in an area of the Leech Lake reservation near Cass Lake where recent thinning and prescribed burns have helped clear underbrush and given the remaining trees more room to grow. The forest is also getting more diverse, with other native trees and shrubs such as wild blueberries, roses and juneberries, able to thrive. For Karnes, who's not a tribal member, embracing this old way of thinking is a transformation that's taken years. When he first started working for the Leech Lake Band 16 years ago, he brought a traditional forestry mindset, all about the economics — how to harvest the most timber for the most revenue, an attitude that earned him the nickname the “Timber Beast.” Karnes recalled a conversation with a tribal employee on his first day. "I told her, ‘A happy tree is a horizontal tree,' which is what my forest products professor told me in college,” he said. “I got this absolute evil look." But after a decade or so, Karnes said his perspective changed, as he began listening to what tribal elders wanted. "The idea of timber revenues to the tribal government — it doesn't matter,” he said. “Here I was, just constantly focusing on economics. And that wasn't a vantage point for the tribe." Related stories New Bemidji State degree draws on indigenous practices to teach 21st century sustainability USDA announces a new focus on Indigenous food and agriculture Changemakers: Sean Sherman - Teaching Indigenous foods as cultural preservation Foraged plants form a connection to the earth Now, Karnes said, he uses a more holistic approach, focusing on the sustainable ecology of the forest.  That includes thinning trees earlier and aggressively to allow the remaining ones to develop bigger crowns, letting some trees fall over to create habitat for wildlife, allowing more biodiversity and encouraging tree species that are hardy to climate change and invasive insects. In other words, Karnes said, thinking long term — not just about maximizing profits.  "It's grounded in not just Western science,” he said. “It's adaptive silviculture. It's climate change science. But it's also traditional ecological knowledge. Everything has a purpose." Some federal agencies also are beginning to incorporate more Indigenous ecological knowledge into their policies and practices. In 2016, then-Leech Lake tribal chairwoman Carri Jones sent a letter to the U.S. Forest Service, voicing the band's concerns that the overharvesting of timber had led to forests dominated by pine and aspen that lacked diversity of plants and wildlife. In 2019, the tribe and the Forest Service signed a memorandum of understanding for shared stewardship of the Chippewa National Forest that reflects the band's goals. For his part, Gotchie envisions a thriving forest that produces local foods and medicines, much like it did for his ancestors. "It's not going to be just in my lifetime. Not even in my kids' lifetime,” he said. “My grandkids. That's what we want for future generations.”

So why is the food history of a community so important? And can Durham's food history be applied to other places? Who owns land, who can grow food and make a living doing so, and who has access to food, any food, least of all healthy food? The answers are deeply influenced by historical policies and practices. These in retrospect, clearly exacerbated, supported, and even created food related calamities, the dual burden communities face of both food insecurity and diet related chronic diseases, such as diabetes and obesity. Understanding these practices is important in creating change. And in understanding that conditions imposed on neighborhoods rather than personal failings of residents explain what we see today. This is a story about Durham, North Carolina. These days, Durham is famous as one of the South's foodiest towns and known for its award-winning chefs, thriving restaurant scene, and reverence for even the most humble foods served with down-home charm. But Durham, just like the rest of North Carolina, like other states and other countries, has discouraging any high rates of food insecurity. This is juxtaposed to high rates as well of obesity, diabetes, and other diet-related chronic diseases. It is helpful of course, to know how things are now, but a more complex and highly important question is how we got here. Enter history. What can be learned from a detailed historical analysis, in this case of Durham, and how relevant is this information to other places?   The Duke World Food Policy Center worked with historian, Melissa Norton to write a report titled, "Power and Benefit On The Plate The History of Food in Durham, North Carolina". This recording is an abridged version of that report and features documented historical quotes from the relevant periods in history as read by contemporary voices.   Let's go back to the beginning. Durham, North Carolina is the ancestral home of the Occaneechi, the Eno, the Adshusheer and the Shocco indigenous peoples. Before European colonizers came, land was not something that people owned. Instead land and its natural resources were shared so that everyone could benefit.   “To our people land was everything, identity, our connection to our ancestors, our pharmacy, the source of all that sustained us. Our lands, were where our responsibility to the world was enacted, sacred ground. It belonged to itself. It was a gift, not a commodity. It could never be bought or sold.”  Robin Kimmerer, Potawatomi Nation.   Durham's tribes and clans supported themselves through hunting, foraging and communal farming. They managed the habitat for fish, fowl and other wild animal populations. They used controlled fires to clear land, had complex farming irrigation systems and created a network of roads for trade and exchange. When European settler colonists came into North Carolina life for indigenous people changed dramatically. At first, they taught colonists how to forage and clear land, what to plant and how to care for crops. The colonists came to North Carolina believed that they had the spiritual, political and legal blessing of Pope Alexander the sixth through the doctrine of discovery. This decree labeled indigenous peoples as subhuman because they were not Christian and treated their land as available for the taking.   “The Indians are really better to us than we are to them. They always give us rituals at their quarters and take care we are armed against hunger and thirst. We do not do so by them, generally speaking, but let them walk by our doors hungry and do not often relieve them. We look upon them with scorn and disdain and think them little better than beasts in humane shape. Though if we're examined, we shall find that for all our religion and education, we possess more moralities and evil than these savages do not.” John Lawson, English settler colonist in North Carolina, 1709.   Settlers forced native people off ancestral homelands and took possession of the stolen land and its resources. As a result, many indigenous people left to join other tribes, some hid in order to remain in the area. And some were forced into assimilation programs or enslaved and shipped to the Caribbean.   Going back to the early colonial settlers, most were small scale farmers who grew corn, fruits and vegetables and commodities such as tobacco, wheat, and cotton for their own use or to barter. As farms grew from the 1500s through the 1800s, colonists brought West African people by force to use as free farm labor. West Africans brought seeds from their homelands and foods such as hibiscus, yams and sweet potatoes, watermelon and bananas and millet, okra and sorghum became a permanent part of the Southern food culture. Food was an essential connection to home, to community and resiliency. Indigenous and enslaved African people interacted and exchanged practical and cultural traditions.   “My name is Alex Woods. I was born in 1858. In slavery time I belonged to Jim Woods. My Missus name was Patty Woods. They treated us tolerable fair. Our food was well cooked. We were fed from the kitchen of the great house during the week. We cooked and ate at our home Saturday nights and Sundays. They allowed my father to hunt with a gun. He was a good hunter and brought a lot of game to the plantation. They cooked it at the great house and divided it up. My father killed deer and turkey. All had plenty of rabbits, possum, coons and squirrels.” Alex Woods   In 1854, the development of the North Carolina railroad transformed agricultural markets. The farming economy shifted from fruits, vegetables, and grains toward large scale cash crops, such as tobacco. The railroad stop in Durham became the center of the city. By the time the civil war began in 1861, nearly one out of three people in Durham county were enslaved. A quarter of the area's white farmers legally owned enslaved people. Cameron Plantation was the largest plantation in the state with 30,000 acres and 900 enslaved people.   To be self sufficient, create security and build wealth. People needed to own land. The federal government passed the homestead act of 1862 to create new land ownership opportunities. As a result in the west 246 million acres of native people's land were deeded to 1.5 million white families.   That same year, the federal government also passed the moral act. This established North Carolina State University in Raleigh as a land grant university to teach white students practical agricultural science, military science and engineering. 29 years later in 1891, North Carolina Agriculture and Technology University in Greensboro was established to serve black students, but the institutions were never funded equally.   In 1865, the civil war ended at Bennett Place in Durham with the largest surrender of Confederate troops. Reconstruction occurred in the subsequent years from 1865 to 1877. During this time, Durham struggled with its own political, social and economic challenges. One of which were the circumstances faced by formerly enslaved people who were freed with no land, no jobs, no money and no citizenship rights. Historians estimate that more than a million freed black people in the country became sick for malnutrition, disease and near starvation. And tens of thousands of people died.   Listen to the words of Martha Allen, a young black woman at the time.   “I was never hungry till we was free and the Yankees fed us. We didn't have nothing to eat, except heart attack and Midland meat. I never seen such meat. It was thin and tough with a thick skin. You could boil it all day and all night and it couldn't cook. I wouldn't eat it. I thought it was mule meat. Mules that done been shot on the battlefield then dried. I still believe it was mule meat. Them was bad days. I was hungry most of the time and had to keep fighting off them Yankee mans.” Martha Allen   In the years after the war, a few people had cash, but landowners still needed farm labor, poor farmers and families of all races struggled. Landowners began hiring farm labor through share cropping and tenant farm contracts.   “The Negros have as their compensation, a share of the crops that shall be raised one third part of the wheat, corn, cotton, tobacco, syrup, peas, sweet potatoes and pork. But the seed wheat is to be first passed back to the said Cameron, the hogs to be killed or pork shall be fattened out of the corn crop before division. The said Cameron is to have the other two thirds of said crops.” Cameron share cropping contract 1866.   Sharecroppers work plots of farmland, and then received a fraction of the crop yield for themselves as payment. For newly freed black people. Many of whom worked the same land, lived in the same housing and worked under the close supervision of the same overseers sharecropping felt like slavery under another name.   In 1868 and 1877 North Carolina passed the landlord tenant acts, which legalized the power imbalance between landowners and sharecropping farmers. For poor farmers there was simply no way to get ahead. And so-called black codes, laws enacted throughout the south in the 1860s and beyond denied black people the right to vote, to serve on juries or to testify in court against white people. With tenant farming, workers paid rent to landowners and kept all the proceeds from the crops.   “We lived all over the area because we were tenant farmers, very poor living on the land of the owner who was of course, white. We used his mules and he paid for the seed and the tobacco and the stuff that we planted. Of course, as I look back now, I know how they cheated us because we never had anything.” Theresa Cameron Lyons, 1868, on growing up in a black tenant farming family in Durham County.   North Carolina politics during this time was dominated by white supremacist ideology and by efforts to keep blacks from voting and from holding political office. In 1896, the US Supreme Court ruled that separate but equal treatment of blacks was legally permissible. This created the legal basis of racial apartheid known as Jim Crow. From 1896 to 1964 Jim Crow laws imposed racial segregation on nearly all aspects of life, including schools, transportation, and public facilities. These laws institutionalized economic, educational and social disadvantages for black and indigenous people, such court sanction exclusion combined with violence and intimidation from white people created severely hostile living conditions for North Carolina's black people. As a result, registered black voters in North Carolina plummeted from 126,000 in 1896 to only 6,100 in 1902.   As the year 1900 dawned, more than half of the US population were farmers or lived in rural communities. Durham County was still largely farmland, but there was incredible urban growth in the early decades of the 1900s. This too had an impact on Durham's food and the community.   Demand for tobacco and textile factory workers was growing in Durham. Although only white workers could work in the textile factories. Both black and white migrants found work in Durham's Liggett Myers and American tobacco factories. Black workers had the lowest pay, most backbreaking jobs in the factories and were paid less than the white workers.   Outside the factories black women had more job opportunities than black men, but as cooks and domestic servants. And they also held some administrative positions. As people traded farm life for the city, they had to adjust to a new way of life. This meant living off wages in the new cash economy and the crowded close quarters of urban living.   Textile mill owners in the East Durham Edgemont and West Durham areas built subsidized mill villages to provide housing for white workers close to the factories. Each mill village had its own churches, schools, recreation centers, and stores.   “Yeah, it was a complete store. They'd have very few wise work in the mills. They would have a man that went out in the morning, they'd call it taking orders. He'd go to all the houses and the woman of the house and tell him what she wanted. He'd bring it back in time to be cooked and served up for what they called dinner, which is of course lunch. And he'd go do the same thing in the afternoon. Have it back in time for a good supper.”  Zeb Stone, 1915, a white business owner from West Durham, North Carolina.   Many textile workers had grown up on farms and knew how to garden and raise chickens, pigs, or even cows in their yards. Families preserved extra garden produce and meals for the winter. Home canning became popular and increased during World War I and later in World War II, as food shortages meant rations for canned food. The federal government urged people to rely on produce grown in their own gardens called victory gardens and to share resources with neighbors.   Six predominantly black neighborhoods developed in Durham, along with black churches, schools and businesses, people form close relationships with each other. And even though the yards were often small, many black people also maintained gardens, kept chickens until the local government banned livestock in the city limits in the 1940s. Buying from black businesses meant investing in the whole black community. Community leaders preached how each dollar spent would flow in a wheel of progress throughout black Durham. Neighborhood grocers were owned by and for people who lived in black neighborhoods, here's what longtime Durham state representative Henry Mickey Michelle has to say about growing up in the Hayti area of Durham.   “We didn't have to go across the tracks to get anything done. We had our own savings and loans bank, our own insurance company, our own furniture store, our own tailors, barber shops, grocery stores, the whole nine yards.” Durham state representative Henry Mickey Michelle   Black and white farmers came to Durham's urban areas to sell fresh produce on street corners and created popup farm stands throughout the city. Many came to Hayti, Durham's largest black neighborhood and to the center of black commerce that was dubbed Black Wall Street. Durham established the first official farmer's market then called a curb market in 1911 to connect county farmers with urban consumers.   The federal government helped farmers stay informed of developments in agriculture, home economics, public policy, and the economy. The Smith Lever Act of 1914 launched cooperative extension services out of the land grant universities. In 1914 extension services for Durham County's white people began and services for black communities started in 1917, hoping to draw young people into farming.   Segregated schools in Durham offered agriculture training. Programs for the future farmers of America served white students and new farmers of America programs served black students.   By 1920 farmers comprised 50% of the population in Durham County outside the city core. Nearly half of these were tenant farmers. Arthur Brody, a black man who made his home in Durham had this to say about his family's experience.   “My granddaddy had 50 acres of land. They said he was working for this white family and the man took a liking to him. And back then land was cheap. And that man told him, Robert, what you ought to do is buy an acre of land every month. He gave him $12 a month. So he bought an acre of land a month, a dollar a month for a year. And he bought that farm with 52 acres of land in it. And he built his house out of logs. I remember that log house just as good I can.” Arthur Brody   Black families were beginning to acquire farmland. Although black owned farms were generally smaller and on less productive land than white owned farms. At its peak in 1920, 26% of farms nationally were owned by black farmers.   The shift to industrialized agriculture concentrated on just a few crops, created new pressures for farmers, especially small scale farmers who were already struggling with the depressed economy, depleted soil, outdated farming tools and the constant demand for cash crops, black and white farmers alike struggled with a lack of fair credit and chronic indebtedness. Here is what the Negro Credit Unions of North Carolina had to say about the farm credit system in 1920.   “Perhaps the greatest drawback to the average poor farmer, struggling for a foothold on the soil and trying to make a home for himself and family in the community is the lack of capital. If he buys fertilizer on time, borrows money or contracts to be carried over the cropping season, it is usually at such a ruinous rate of interest that few ever get out from under its painful influence. The man who owns a small farm as well as he who rents one has long been victimized by the credit system.” Negro Credit Unions of North Carolina brochure   In Durham, life still followed the seasonal cycles of farming. There were special times for communal rituals, such as berry picking, corn shucking and peach canning. Mary Mebane described growing up in a black farming community in Northern Durham County in this way.   “Berry picking was a ritual, a part of the rhythm of summer life. I went to bed excited. We didn't know whose berries they were. Nobody had heard about the idea of private property. Besides the berries wild, free for everybody. The grown people picked up high and the children picked low. We children ate them on the spot, putting purple stained fingers into our mouths, creating purple stained tongues while the grown people wiped sweat and dodged bumblebees.” Mary Mebane   Many black Durhamites joined in the great migration of black people to cities in the North and Western parts of the country. More than 6 million black people left the South between 1917 and 1970. Those who stayed found themselves caught between traditional farming culture and an increasingly modernized urban world and black farmers had the further burden of discrimination in federal farm lending programs, which hampered their ability to sustain, adapt and expand their farming.   In the 1930s, the country was grappling with a great depression and the dust bowl. The textile industry was hit hard by the reception and white textile factory workers struggled. Families survived on cheap fat back, flower beans and their own homegrown produce. Through bouts of unemployment or underemployment. Hunger was never far off. Durham's black working class occupied the bottom rung of the economic ladder even before the great depression. Poverty and food insecurity increased to such an extent that black Durhamites were six times more likely to develop pellagra than whites in 1930. Pellagra is a disease caused by niacin deficiency. It was the leading cause of death in the city after tuberculosis. Nurses counseled Durham's black residents to eat green vegetables and fresh milk, but they were told that economics not lack of knowledge led to poor eating habits.   As one black patient remarked: “We would like to do everything you say, but we just haven't got the money.”   During the great depression, the food situation became so desperate that the Federal Emergency Relief Administration and the Works Progress Administration and charities such as the Red Cross began distributing food relief. The supplies staved off hunger to some extent, but black and white residents were both complaining the food wasn't what they would normally eat. Here an unemployed white textile worker in East Durham described his family's struggle with the emergency relief rations during the great depression.   “I go around to the place that the WPA distributes commodities and the last time they gave me four packs of powdered skim milk, five pounds of country butter, three pounds of navy beans, 24 pounds of flour. That was grand flour to mix awful bread. I've tried every way I could think of to cook it. And it ain't been able to do anything with it yet. That stuff just ain't fitting for a dog to eat, but I have to use everything I get. One of the boys gets up early every morning and goes out and picks berries for breakfast. They with butter do make the flour eat a lot better. He wants to pick some for preserves, but we can highly get sugar for our needs right now. But there is something about us that keeps us hoping that in some way, the future will take care of itself.” Unemployed white textile worker in Durham during the Depression   Over time federal, state and local Durham aid efforts shifted toward training and getting people new jobs, but black men and women did not get the same opportunities as Durham's white residents. In 1933, the federal government passed the agriculture adjustment act later known as the farm bill. This legislation raised market prices and paid farmers to rest soils depleted from intensive farming. But this created new problems for small farmers already struggling to survive. Davis Harris reflects on the changes these policies caused in the black farming community of Northern Durham County.   “The federal government started paying farmers to put their soil in what they called the soil bank. At the time the US was producing more grain than they needed. So they asked farmers in order to preserve the land and soil, if they could just let the soil rest. And if you did that for 10 years, the people like me growing up who got public jobs, it was difficult to go back to the farm because you get accustomed to getting paid every month. And to go back to once a year was difficult, almost impossible. And then the farmer's equipment gets obsolete and the facilities get obsolete and there is no help. So I see that as a turning point because you've lost all your resources, your equipment, your facilities, and your workforce, and the farmers are 10 to 12 years older. So a lot of the farmers had to get public jobs so they can get enough credit to draw social security.” Davis Harris   Black land owners also contended with private property laws that put them at a very real disadvantage. Black families had little reason to trust institutions and were far less likely to have a will than white families. So when a property owner died without a legal will, their property passed to all their direct heirs as partial shares. A form of ownership transfer called heirs property. Over several generations property ownership became increasingly unclear as dozens or even hundreds of heirs could own a small share. Heirs were then more vulnerable to land speculators and developers through a legal process called partition action. Speculators would buy off the interest of a single heir. And just one heir, no matter how small their share, and this would force the sale of entire plot of land through the courts. Black farm ownership peaked between 1910 and 1920, and then dropped dramatically due to the changing farm economy, discrimination and coercive means. From 1910 to the 1930s, the total number of farms in Durham declined dramatically. But black farmers lost their land at more than twice the rate of white farmers.   Willie Roberts, a black Durham County mechanic and farmer was interviewed in the 1930s and had this to say about the tensions of the time: “We got some mean neighbors around here. They hate us 'cause we own, and we won't sell. They want to buy it for nothing. They don't like for colored people to own land. They got a white lady, Ms. Jones on the next farm to say that I attacked her. I hope to be struck down by Jesus if I said or did anything she could kick on, it's all prejudiced against a colored family that's trying to catch up with the whites. They hated my father because he owned land and my mother because she taught school and now they're trying to run us off, but we're going to stay on.”   In 1942, many young men were serving in world war II and black agricultural laborers were leaving farms as part of the great migration to Northern and Western states. So the federal government enacted the Bracero Program to address severe farm labor shortages. This allowed contract laborers from Mexico into the country to fill the labor gap. Where you live, determines where you buy food and what food is available. And Durham's black urban residents were grappling with Jim Crow laws and with segregation.   “In all licensed restaurants, public eating places and weenie shops where persons of the white and colored races are permitted to be served with and eat food and are allowed to congregate. There shall be provided separate rooms for the separate accommodation of each race. The partition between such rooms shall be constructed of wood, plaster or brick or like material, and shall reach from the floor to the ceiling…” The code of the city of Durham, North Carolina, 1947, C13 section 42.   Segregation and racial discrimination meant that opportunities for home ownership, loans, and neighborhood improvements favored white people, discriminatory policies and practices also impacted access to nutritious foods and to restaurants and resentment was building.   A black woman recalls her childhood experiences during this time: “When I was a child, the Durham Dairy was a weekly stop on Sunday evenings as part of our family drive, we would park, go into the counter and then return to the car with our ice cream. After my father finished his, we would drive around Durham while the rest of us finished our ice cream. I had no idea as a young child that the reason we took that ice cream to the car was because the Durham Dairy was segregated and being an African American family we were not allowed to eat our ice cream on the premises. I was shocked to learn as an adult how my parents had been so artful in sparing this ugly truth from me and my younger siblings.”   As early as the 1920s, Durham's white homeowners had to agree to racial covenants on their suburban home and land deeds, such covenants explicitly prevented black ownership and restricted black residents in homes, except for domestic servants. This practice was legal until 1948. The National Association of Real Estate Boards code of ethics at that time directed real estate agents to maintain segregation in the name of safeguarding, neighborhood stability and property values. The industry practice known as steering remained in effect until 1950.   “A realtor should never be instrumental in introducing in a neighborhood members of any race or nationality whose presence will clearly be detrimental to property values in the neighborhood…” National Association of Real Estate Boards code of ethics   The great depression stimulated the country's new deal, social safety net legislation, including the social security act of 1935, which offered benefits and unemployment insurance. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 set a national minimum wage and the National Labor Relations Act of 1935 created the right for workers to organize. However, agricultural and domestic workers positions held predominantly by black people during the 1930s were specifically excluded from these programs, losing out on both fair pay and labor protections.   Historian Ira Katznelson wrote extensively about the impact of these policy decisions on the country's African Americans: “Southern legislators understood that their region's agrarian interests and racial arrangements were inextricably entwined. By excluding these persons from new deal legislation it remained possible to maintain racial inequality in Southern labor markets by dictating the terms and conditions of African American labor.”   The federal government also recognized home ownership as one of the best ways to stabilize the economy and expand the middle class. The homeowner's loan corporation, a government sponsored corporation created as part of the new deal developed city maps and color coded neighborhoods according to lending risks, these maps became the model for public and private lending from the 1930s on. In Durham and elsewhere, red lines were drawn around black, mixed race and the poorest white neighborhoods, the effects of redlining now close to a century old had profound effects that are still felt to this day. Over time these maps discourage investment in home ownership and also business development in these areas ringed in red and encouraged and supported these things in white neighborhoods.   By defining some areas as too risky for investment lending practices followed, poverty was exacerbated and concentrated and housing deserts, credit deserts and food deserts became a predictable consequence. Redlining maps also shaped lending practices for the GI Bill Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944. The GI Bill made mortgages available to World War II veterans with little or no down payment. And with very low interest rates. The aim was to create financial stability and the accumulation of generational wealth for those who would serve the country through home ownership. However, most homes were in suburban neighborhoods, primarily financed by the federal government. Between redlining lending practices and real estate covenants restricting black buyers, home ownership simply wasn't possible for the vast majority of the 1 million plus black World War II veterans. Between 1935 and 1968, less than 2% of federal home loans were for black people. The GI Bill also did not issue home loans on Indian reservations, which excluded many Native American veterans.   In the late 1950s, Durham received federal money for a local urban renewal program to clear slums and blighted areas through the Housing Act of 1949. The city chose to demolish a large section of the Hayti area, the city's largest and most prominent black neighborhood and home to most black owned businesses. This changed everything. City officials cited the poor physical conditions of Hayti as the reason for demolition. The land was then used to build North Carolina highway 147, a freeway connector.   Louis Austin editor of the Carolina Times wrote in 1965: "The so-called urban renewal program in Durham is not only the biggest farce ever concocted in the mind of moral man, but it is just another scheme to relieve Negroes of property."   Hayti's destruction included a significant part of the neighborhood's food infrastructure, such as grocery stores and restaurants. What was once a thriving and resilient food economy where wealth remained in the community became a food desert.   Nathaniel White, formerly a Hayti business owner in Durham had this to say about the destruction of the Hayti neighborhood: “Well, I think we got something like $32,000 for our business. As I look back on it now, if you're going to drive a freeway right through my building, the only fair thing to do is to replace that building. In other words, I ought to be able to move my equipment and everything into a building. If they do it like that, you will be able to stand the damage. Now, the highway department has a replacement clause in their building, but the urban renewal had what they call fair market value, and that won't replace it. And that's where the handicap comes. Just say, you give them $32,000 that probably would've bought the land or whatever, but it wouldn't put the building back and everything like that.”   In the 1950s, Durham built federally funded housing projects for low income families. But by the late 1960s, public housing in the city was almost exclusively for black people and clustered in existing black neighborhoods. This further reinforced patterns of residential segregation, Durham's lunch counters and restaurants became rallying points during the civil rights movements. North Carolina's first protest was at Durham's Royal ice cream restaurant in 1957.   Virginia Williams, a young black woman at the time was a member of the Royal Ice Cream Nine who staged the protest: “None of it made any sense, but that had been the way of life. And that's the way the older folk had accepted it. And so I guess I was one of them who thought, if not us, who, if not now, when. So the police officers came and they asked us to leave. I remember one of them asking me to leave and I asked for ice cream. And he said, if you were my daughter, I would spank you and make you leave. And then I said, if I was your daughter, I wouldn't be here sitting here being asked to leave.”   In 1962, more than 4,000 people protested at Howard Johnson's Ice Cream Grill in Durham. The struggle to desegregate eateries intensified in 1963, when protesters organized sit-ins at six downtown restaurants on the eve of municipal elections, hundreds of people were arrested and protestors surrounded the jail in solidarity. And in the weeks that followed more than 700 black and white Durhamites ran a full page ad in the Durham Herald newspaper. They pledged to support restaurants and other businesses that adopted equal treatment to all, without regard to race. The mounting public pressure resulted in mass desegregation of Durham Eateries by the end of 1962, ahead of the 1964 federal civil rights act that legally ended segregation.   Although civil rights wins brought about new political, economic and social opportunities for black people, desegregation didn't help black businesses. They suffered economically because black people began to explore new opportunities to shop outside their neighborhoods, but white people didn't patronize black owned businesses in turn.   In 1964, the federal government passed the Food Stamp Act as a means to safeguard people's health and wellbeing and provide a stable foundation for US agriculture. It was also intended to raise levels of nutrition among low income households. The food stamp program was implemented in Durham County in 1966. A decade later the program was in every county in the country.   From 1970 through the 1990s, urban renewal continued to disrupt and reshape Durham central city. As both white and middle class black residents left central Durham for suburban homes, banks and grocery stores disappeared. Textile and tobacco factory jobs were also leaving Durham for good. Thousands of workers became unemployed and the domino effect on home ownership, businesses and workplaces disrupted much of Durham's infrastructure and its community life.   From 1970 through the 1980s, the availability of home refrigerators and microwaves also changed how families stored and cooked their food. Durham already had higher numbers of working women than the national average. As a result, convenience foods, foods from restaurants, prepared meals at grocery stores and microwavable foods from the freezer were in demand.   Like many Americans, Durham residents had become increasingly disconnected from farming and food production, both physically and culturally. Food corporations now used marketing in the media to shape ideas about what to eat and why. The food system became dominated by increasing corporate consolidation and control. And by large scale industrial agriculture emphasizing monoculture. Corporations were fast gaining political and economic power and used their influence to affect trade regulations, tax rates, and wealth distribution.   In the 1980s, the federal government passed legislation that boosted free market capitalism, reduced social safety net spending and promoted volunteerism and charity as a way to reduce poverty and government welfare. These policies negatively impacted Durham's already historically disadvantaged populations. Nonprofit organizations began to emerge to deal with the growing issues of hunger and food insecurity and nonprofit food charity became an industry unto itself. More than 80% of pantries and soup kitchens in the US came into existence between 1980 and 2001.   The H-2A Guest Worker Program of 1986 allowed agricultural workers to hire seasonal foreign workers on special visas who were contracted to a particular farm, but workers did not have the same labor protections as US citizens.   That same year, the US launched the war on drugs to reduce drug abuse and crime. Low income communities were disproportionately targeted when Durham's housing authority paid off duty police officers to patrol high crime areas, particularly public housing developments. Hyper policing, drug criminalization, and logger sentencing for drug related offenses caused incarceration rates to rise steadily. Durham's jail and prison incarceration rates from 1978 to 2015 rose higher than anywhere else in North Carolina.   Here is an excerpt from an interview with Chuck Omega Manning, an activist and director of the city of Durham's welcome program. “Being totally honest, high incarceration rates for people of color is very detrimental to our health. Even in the Durham County Jail, you have a canteen that's run through a private company who only sell certain things like oodles of noodles that are not healthy. And then in prisons, you don't get to eat vegetables unless it's part of your dinner. And even then it's oftentimes still not healthy because of how it's cooked. But if you don't work in the kitchen, you don't get to decide, you just get it how it comes and you pray over it and eat it. But then over time, people get institutionalized in the system. And when they return home, they continue to eat the same way because they're used to it. And the financial piece only enhances that because you have individuals coming home, looking for employment, trying to do something different. And there are just so many barriers even with food stamps. So it almost feels like you're being punished twice. And it's very depressing.”   In the 1990s, Durham wanted more investment in the downtown area. Instead of the factory jobs of the past, the downtown area shifted to offer low paying service jobs and high paying jobs in research and technology. Wealthy newcomers were called urban pioneers and trailblazers and purchase properties in historically disinvested city areas.   Low wage workers today cannot afford new housing prices in Durham, in most cases, or to pay the increasing property taxes. Many people are losing their homes through when increases, evictions and foreclosures. Gentrification has also changed which food retailers exist in the local food environment. Sometimes this creates food mirages where high quality food is priced out of reach of longtime residents.   The North American Free Trade Agreement NAFTA of 1994 also changed Durham and North Carolina. Farmers from Mexico and Central America driven out of business by the trade agreement immigrated to places like North Carolina, looking for agricultural and construction jobs. Durham's Latino population grew from just over 2000 in people to 1990, to nearly 40,000 in 2014, one out of three Durham public school students was Latino in 2014. Today, 94% of migrant farm workers in North Carolina are native Spanish speakers.   In 1996, the federal government made changes to the nation's food assistance security net. It dramatically cut SNAP benefits, formerly known as food stamps and limited eligibility to receive benefits and the length of benefits. In Durham, SNAP benefit participation rate decreased by 14% between 1997 and 2001 despite a 2% increase in the poverty rate.   Durham's Latino Credit Union opened in 2000 at a time when three quarters of Latinos did not bank at all. Over the next 20 years, Latinos developed and operated restaurants, grocery stores and services across Durham. This provided the Latino population with culturally resident food, community gathering spaces and jobs.   Processed foods had become a central part of the American diet by the early two thousands. And the vast majority of food advertising promoted convenience foods, candies, and snacks, alcoholic beverages, soft drinks and desserts. In addition, companies did and still do target black and Hispanic consumers with marketing for the least nutritious products contributing to diet related health disparities, affecting communities of color.   During the great recession of 2007 to 2009, job losses, wage reductions and foreclosure crisis increased the number of people struggling to afford and access enough nutritious food. As a result, SNAP participation rose dramatically in Durham.   In 2008, the farm bill included language about food deserts for the first time. A food desert was defined as a census track with a substantial share of residents who live in low income areas and have low levels of access to a grocery store or to healthy affordable foods in a retail outlet. Today some scholars describe such places as areas of food apartheid. This recognizes the outcomes of past policy decisions that disinvested in disadvantaged populations and locations, the cumulative effects of living under food apartheid have profound impacts on the health, wellbeing, and life expectancy of people of color and the poor.   Here's an excerpt from an interview with Latonya Gilchrist, a Durham county community health worker: “I've suffered a lot in this body for a lot of people it's genetic, but I feel like, and this is my personal feeling based on what I've experienced and my whole family. It's the role of food deserts and the cost of food, not being able to have a community grocery store and what I'll say for Northeast Central Durham or the East Durham area where I grew up, we always had corner stores that sold everything we didn't need. And very little of what we did need. Back when I was a child growing up, potato chips cost 16 cents a bag, and you could get potato chips all day long and all night long, and people could get beer and wine in the neighborhood, but you couldn't find fruits and vegetables until my daddy started selling them on a truck. So diseases come about genetically, but it's increased or enhanced through living in poor poverty stricken neighborhoods.”   Durham foreclosure spiked during the great recession of 2008 and were disproportionately located in historically black neighborhoods. Owners in high poverty neighborhoods have been targeted for high cost subprime loans by lenders through a practice known as reverse redlining. As neighborhoods gentrify and longtime residents get displaced, there is an increasing spatial disconnect between services and amenities and those who utilize them and need them the most. Food, housing and retail gentrification are closely intertwined.   Here's an excerpt from an interview with Eliazar Posada, community engagement advocacy manager of El Centro in Durham: “Gentrification is affecting a lot of our community members and not just affecting the youth, but also the families, unless we can find ways to subsidize housing or find a way to make gentrification not so dramatic for some of our community members. The youth are not going to be staying in Durham if their parents can't stay.”   Durham's people of color and low income people overall have disproportionately high incidents of diabetes. In a 2016 survey in the Piedmont region, 16% of respondents with household incomes, less than $15,000 reported having diabetes compared to only 6% of residents with household incomes of more than $75,000. By 2017 black patients were 80% more likely than white patients to have diabetes in Durham.   In Durham County in 2019, the average hourly wage for food preparation and serving jobs was $10.83 cents an hour or $22,516 annually before taxes. Such wages are all been impossible to live on without government assistance. The fair market rent for a two bedroom housing unit in Durham in 2018 was $900 a month or about $10,800 a year.   Food inequality is a lack of consistent access to enough food for a healthy, active life is caused by poverty, the cost of housing and healthcare and unemployment and underemployment. It is also impacted by the interrelated forces of home and land ownership, political power, economic resources, structural racism, gender oppression, and labor rights. Durham's communities continue to build community solidarity and mutual aid as people lend money, time and other resources trying to make sure everyone can access adequate and healthy food.   In a remarkable feat of resilience the Occaneechi band of the Saponi Nation was awarded official recognition by North Carolina in 2002, following 20 years of organizing and sustained advocacy. They purchased a 250 acre plot of land just outside of Durham County and planted an orchard of fruit bearing trees for collective tribal use. This is the first land that the tribe has owned collectively in more than 250 years.   Durham's black farmer's market emerging from 2015 to 2019 is also a testament to community building through food. The market supports local black farmers and makes healthy eating attainable for individuals living in some of Durham's food apartheid areas. Market organizers are challenging social norms, classism and racism, and believe that healthy living should be possible for everyone.   So why is the food history of a community so important? And can Durham's food history be applied to other places? Who owns land, who can grow food and make a living doing so, and who has access to food, any food, least of all healthy food? The answers are deeply influenced by historical policies and practices. These in retrospect, clearly exacerbated, supported, and even created food related calamities, the dual burden communities face of both food insecurity and diet related chronic diseases, such as diabetes and obesity. Understanding these practices is important in creating change. And in understanding that conditions imposed on neighborhoods rather than personal failings of residents explain what we see today.   A few pieces of this history are specific to Durham, the role of tobacco and textiles, for instance, but most of the fundamental influences on the economic and food conditions are broad social attitudes and practices around race and poverty. And from federal, economic, agriculture and housing policies that have affected urban rural areas in every corner of the country, there is hope from local ingenuity to change food systems and from people in local, state and federal policy positions who are working to reverse inequality and to re-envision the role of food in supporting the physical and economic wellbeing of all people, learning from the past is really important in these efforts.

When European wines are under attack by a harmful little pest, who do they turn to save their butts? That's right....TV Munson from Dennison, Texas. What an interesting tale about how the Texas vines were the perfect solution for a European problem. We hope you grab your favorite glass of wine, sit back and enjoy listening to how the European wine industry has us to thank for their great wines.

Chiclets, how boiling plant sap leads to the discovery of chewing gum. One partner runs away. The other makes millions. How not to be blinded by the pursuit of the wrong objective. David Young: Welcome to the Empire Builders Podcast, teaching business owners the not so secret techniques that took famous businesses from mom and pop to major brands. Stephen Semple is a marketing consultant, story collector, and storyteller. I'm Stephen's sidekick and business partner, Dave Young. Before we get into today's episode, a word from our sponsor, which is, well it's us, but we're highlighting ads we've written and produced for our clients. So here's one of those. [Griffin Service Ad] David Young: Stephen Semple, when you told me that we were going to talk about the brand that we're going to talk about today, it instantly took me back, oh my gosh, 30 years or so to spring break in Mexico, where there were these little kids that would come up to you all day long as you walk down the streets and what they had in their hands was a box of Chiclets. And they were just trying to get you to buy some Chiclets from them. I always thought that was, that was cool. Little tiny entrepreneurs. Stephen Semple: Well, and what's also funny about it is there's a real Mexico tie in to this story about Chiclets. David Young: Oh, I believe it. I believe it. Stephen Semple: And this is a fun story. It covers Native Americans, the deposed Mexican President Santa Anna, a desire to make rubber, and Santa Anna wanted to return as president of Mexico. All of those things actually contributed to the creation of Chiclets gum. David Young: Oh, how cool is that? I can't wait to find out more. Stephen Semple: So if you're ready for the ride, Chiclets was originally founded in 1900 by Thomas Adams in New York. It's a pretty old brand. By 1962, the company had a bottom line income. This is a net income. This is not top line sales in 1962 dollars of just under $10 million. David Young: Holy cow. Stephen Semple: And at that time it was sold to Warner Lambert for 200 million bucks. So started in 1900, 1962 sold for $200,000,000 in 1962 dollars. So the founder did well. David Young: That's pretty amazing. Stephen Semple: The founder did well. It became a real empire just around Chiclets gum. But let's start at the beginning. When European settlers arrived in the New World, they found Native Americans were chewing spruce tree resin. And so, this seemed like a good idea. So they adapted the idea and the newcomers joined on the fun of chewing spruce tree resin. And this was actually such a good idea that in 1840, John Curtis developed the first commercial spruce tree gum by boiling the resin, cutting it into strips, and then coating it with corn starch so it wouldn't stick together. In the early 1850s, he constructed the first chewing gum factory in Portland, Maine. It became the first factory making chewing gum from spruces tree resin. Stephen Semple: But a couple problems turned out that it wasn't actually all that great tasting and it became really brittle when chewed. So all sorts of different players tried all sorts of different things to try to solve this problem such as adding paraffin wax and things along that lines. So now comes the second player in our story. The second player in our story is the exiled Mexican President Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. Now, Santa Anna brought with him Chiclet. Now, Chiclet is actually a plant. It's the resin from a plant that grows in Mexico. David Young: So it's not spruce. Stephen Semple: It's not spruce. David Young: Now this isn't the same Santa Anna from the Alamo. Stephen Semple: Yes, it is. David Young: Really? Stephen Semple: The same dude. He actually was President in Mexico for 11 non-consecutive terms over 22 years. He got deposed and exiled and all this other stuff, and he shows with this chicle,

When European naturalists saw a platypus for the first time, they found it so bizarre that they thought it was fake, and then argued about how to classify it for almost a century. This happened in tandem with similar discussions about another Australian animal – the echidna, or spiny anteater – and discussions of scientific taxonomy in general.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com

A doe and her twin fawns graze comfortably in WFDD listener Donna Jaffe's yard in Winston-Salem. Photograph courtesy of Donna Jaffe. Picture if you will a tranquil scene: two innocent, speckled twin fawns gently frolicking together on soft green grasses as their mother looks on protectively nearby. WFDD listener and Winston-Salem resident Donna Jaffe has front row seats to scenes like this one in her own backyard, and she's curious about something: “Do twin fawns stay friends or pals after they grow up?” For this week's Carolina Curious, WFDD's David Ford starts at the very beginning — and that's a very fine place to start. When European settlers first arrived here in the Piedmont, white-tailed deer were plentiful. But within a century those populations were practically wiped out from over-hunting. Today, about a million of the animals call North Carolina home, and they're so adaptable, they can be found in just about every type of habitat — including neighborhoods like the west side of Winston-Salem where Donna Jaffe and her husband live. “So, last year, I often saw a doe and twin fawns come into my yard and eat my vegetables and my wildflowers, and the fawns would play together,” says Jaffe. “And then later in the season I would see just the fawns. Mom told them you can go up there in that yard, but stay together, so they'd stay together.”   These days, that's about par for the course, according to North Carolina Wildlife Resources Biologist Jason Smith. Over the years, he's been getting more and more phone calls from urban-area homeowners complaining about deer eating their ornamental shrubs and other landscaping plants. He says the conflict is inevitable as the human population expands into what was once wooded deer territory “Deer are very generalist, and they learn to adapt especially if there's a good nutrition food source and they feel safe and secure in these urban areas,” says Smith. “And oftentimes urban areas don't have hunting. The cities that don't have that don't really have a good control mechanism to help keep the population sort of in check as in the more rural areas where you have hunting, and they're being harvested.” As the number of urban deer continues to grow, so does the strain on the animals' relationship with their two-legged neighbors — us. The maximum number of deer, or other animal species, that the human population will tolerate, forms what Smith calls the "cultural carrying capacity," and it varies from person to person. Thankfully for the deer family in Donna Jaffe's backyard, the only shots she's taking are photographs chronicling their development as the seasons come and go. “This year, I've started seeing two grown-up-size deer come in,” she says. “They seem to be together. They seem playful as if they're young. Maybe they're yearlings? Maybe they're last year's spotted fawns? But they seem to be playing together. One time I actually saw the two of them rear up on their hind legs and spar like boxers. It was an amazing thing.”   So, do twin fawns remain playmates after they're all grown up? According to Smith, it depends. He says fawns typically remain together with their mother throughout weaning — two to four months — and they continue to reside with the doe for the first year. “Where the difference is, is with yearling does and bucks,” says Smith. “Yearling bucks, they will disperse and leave the area and begin establishing their own home range. And this can be up to three to five or more miles from where they were raised. But for yearling does, they will generally stay in the area where they were born, and they can often form family groups.” Smith adds that while it's most likely that twins would be one buck and one doe, there is a possibility that there could be two doe fawns born together still residing in the same area. So, it's a potentially storybook ending for our twin fawns, playing together side-by-side in their own little deer herd in Winston-Salem. But the fun is relatively short-lived. Does typically survive in the wild for just three to six years. For bucks, it's two to five.  Story does not include AP content #deer #fawns #doe #carolina curious #winston-salem #populations #urban Environment Normal Tweet

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to the Kingdom Perspective. How should we respond to the cultural chaos we see all around? We should learn from earlier Christians, such as St. Patrick, and the churches that originated from him. When European civilization was overwhelmed by barbarian hordes, the recently converted Celtic tribes preserved, and then eventually reestablished, Christianity throughout the continent. In the words of Thomas Cahill, “the Irish…saved civilization” (see How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill). Most basically, they did this by starting and nurturing churches—essentially monastic-type communities that cared for every aspect of life. Jesus's Lordship redeems all of life, and they put this truth into practice. These Irish monasteries were different from the Roman ones. As one writer put it: “The…monasteries [in Roman Christianity] were organized to protest against and escape from the materialism of the Roman world and the corruption of the church; the Celtic monasteries organized to penetrate the pagan world and extend the church.” (see The Celtic Way of Evangelism by George Hunter). These Celtic Christian communities were not an escape from the “public square”, but a mission to it. Often these monasteries were set up at the gates of ancient cities, in order to minister the gospel to these cities. They were, in effect, a “new city” shining as a light within an existing city. For us, this means the redemptive community of the church must become all the more essential. How can we live together as a distinctively new society amid our existing society that is so full of fear and division? How can we love and care for one another, practically, in such a way that the watching world sees the truth of the gospel through our shared life in the church? All of these are very good question, and indeed… …something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective. “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God's people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” ~ 1 Peter 2:9-12 (ESV)

Before colonization, the relationships people had to land were completely different. When European colonizers arrived, they completely overhauled the way that people were allowed to think about the land. We're going to dig deeper into this culture clash and see how it played out today. Like, who owns the land? Who should own the land? And what does land ownership mean to Ojibwe and non-Ojibwe? This podcast series was written, edited, fact-checked, and produced by Anya Steinberg. Music by Val Dorr, St. Anthony Mann, and Dan Archibald.

Besides cotton, the timber industry generated more money and jobs in Mississippi during the early 20th Century than any other. When European settlers came to the territory, they found vast stands of virgin long-leaf yellow pine trees. But it took until the late 1800s before the technology was developed to harvest these giant trees for their high-quality lumber. By WWI, hundreds of sawmills covered the Piney Woods and their tree-cutting and turpentine camps often attracted a rough breed of men from around the country, drawn by the lure of plentiful work. Our storyteller for this episode helped build many of the sawmills and railroads used to process and transport this valuable commodity. 1976 - Charles Ainsworth was born in 1885 near Sontag, Mississippi. In this episode, he describes the hard, dangerous work of cutting timber in the Piney Woods. During the timber boom years, logging camps harvested trees from across the state. Charles Ainsworth remembers the men who worked these camps as “some of the meanest people in world.” As a young man, Ainsworth helped construct sawmills throughout the Piney Woods. He recalls earning the respect of the mill owner in D’lo through determination and hard work. Ainsworth moved to Hattiesburg in 1916 and began building houses. He recounts gaining a reputation for working smarter and saving his clients money in the process.  

When European powers carved political borders across the Middle East following World War I, a curious event in the international drug trade occurred: Palestine became the most important hashish waystation in the region and a thriving market for consumption. British and French colonial authorities utterly failed to control the illicit trade, raising questions about the legitimacy of their mandatory regimes. The creation of the Israeli state, too, had little effect to curb illicit trade. By the 1960s, drug trade had become a major point of contention in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and drug use widespread. Intoxicating Zion: A Social History of Hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel (Stanford UP, 2020) is the first book to tell the story of hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel. Trafficking, use, and regulation; race, gender, and class; colonialism and nation-building all weave together in Haggai Ram's social history of the drug from the 1920s to the aftermath of the 1967 War. The hashish trade encompassed smugglers, international gangs, residents, law enforcers, and political actors, and Ram traces these flows through the interconnected realms of cross-border politics, economics, and culture. Hashish use was and is a marker of belonging and difference, and its history offers readers a unique glimpse into how the modern Middle East was made. Haggai Ram is an historian of the modern Middle East at Ben Gurian University of Negev. His teaching and research focus on the social and cultural history of Iran, Palestine-Israel, and the Levant region. Lucas Richert is an associate professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He studies intoxicating substances and the pharmaceutical industry. He also examines the history of mental health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When European powers carved political borders across the Middle East following World War I, a curious event in the international drug trade occurred: Palestine became the most important hashish waystation in the region and a thriving market for consumption. British and French colonial authorities utterly failed to control the illicit trade, raising questions about the legitimacy of their mandatory regimes. The creation of the Israeli state, too, had little effect to curb illicit trade. By the 1960s, drug trade had become a major point of contention in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and drug use widespread. Intoxicating Zion: A Social History of Hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel (Stanford UP, 2020) is the first book to tell the story of hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel. Trafficking, use, and regulation; race, gender, and class; colonialism and nation-building all weave together in Haggai Ram's social history of the drug from the 1920s to the aftermath of the 1967 War. The hashish trade encompassed smugglers, international gangs, residents, law enforcers, and political actors, and Ram traces these flows through the interconnected realms of cross-border politics, economics, and culture. Hashish use was and is a marker of belonging and difference, and its history offers readers a unique glimpse into how the modern Middle East was made. Haggai Ram is an historian of the modern Middle East at Ben Gurian University of Negev. His teaching and research focus on the social and cultural history of Iran, Palestine-Israel, and the Levant region. Lucas Richert is an associate professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He studies intoxicating substances and the pharmaceutical industry. He also examines the history of mental health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When European powers carved political borders across the Middle East following World War I, a curious event in the international drug trade occurred: Palestine became the most important hashish waystation in the region and a thriving market for consumption. British and French colonial authorities utterly failed to control the illicit trade, raising questions about the legitimacy of their mandatory regimes. The creation of the Israeli state, too, had little effect to curb illicit trade. By the 1960s, drug trade had become a major point of contention in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and drug use widespread. Intoxicating Zion: A Social History of Hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel (Stanford UP, 2020) is the first book to tell the story of hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel. Trafficking, use, and regulation; race, gender, and class; colonialism and nation-building all weave together in Haggai Ram's social history of the drug from the 1920s to the aftermath of the 1967 War. The hashish trade encompassed smugglers, international gangs, residents, law enforcers, and political actors, and Ram traces these flows through the interconnected realms of cross-border politics, economics, and culture. Hashish use was and is a marker of belonging and difference, and its history offers readers a unique glimpse into how the modern Middle East was made. Haggai Ram is an historian of the modern Middle East at Ben Gurian University of Negev. His teaching and research focus on the social and cultural history of Iran, Palestine-Israel, and the Levant region. Lucas Richert is an associate professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He studies intoxicating substances and the pharmaceutical industry. He also examines the history of mental health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When European powers carved political borders across the Middle East following World War I, a curious event in the international drug trade occurred: Palestine became the most important hashish waystation in the region and a thriving market for consumption. British and French colonial authorities utterly failed to control the illicit trade, raising questions about the legitimacy of their mandatory regimes. The creation of the Israeli state, too, had little effect to curb illicit trade. By the 1960s, drug trade had become a major point of contention in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and drug use widespread. Intoxicating Zion: A Social History of Hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel (Stanford UP, 2020) is the first book to tell the story of hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel. Trafficking, use, and regulation; race, gender, and class; colonialism and nation-building all weave together in Haggai Ram's social history of the drug from the 1920s to the aftermath of the 1967 War. The hashish trade encompassed smugglers, international gangs, residents, law enforcers, and political actors, and Ram traces these flows through the interconnected realms of cross-border politics, economics, and culture. Hashish use was and is a marker of belonging and difference, and its history offers readers a unique glimpse into how the modern Middle East was made. Haggai Ram is an historian of the modern Middle East at Ben Gurian University of Negev. His teaching and research focus on the social and cultural history of Iran, Palestine-Israel, and the Levant region. Lucas Richert is an associate professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He studies intoxicating substances and the pharmaceutical industry. He also examines the history of mental health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When European powers carved political borders across the Middle East following World War I, a curious event in the international drug trade occurred: Palestine became the most important hashish waystation in the region and a thriving market for consumption. British and French colonial authorities utterly failed to control the illicit trade, raising questions about the legitimacy of their mandatory regimes. The creation of the Israeli state, too, had little effect to curb illicit trade. By the 1960s, drug trade had become a major point of contention in the Arab-Israeli conflict, and drug use widespread. Intoxicating Zion: A Social History of Hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel (Stanford UP, 2020) is the first book to tell the story of hashish in Mandatory Palestine and Israel. Trafficking, use, and regulation; race, gender, and class; colonialism and nation-building all weave together in Haggai Ram's social history of the drug from the 1920s to the aftermath of the 1967 War. The hashish trade encompassed smugglers, international gangs, residents, law enforcers, and political actors, and Ram traces these flows through the interconnected realms of cross-border politics, economics, and culture. Hashish use was and is a marker of belonging and difference, and its history offers readers a unique glimpse into how the modern Middle East was made. Haggai Ram is an historian of the modern Middle East at Ben Gurian University of Negev. His teaching and research focus on the social and cultural history of Iran, Palestine-Israel, and the Levant region. Lucas Richert is an associate professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He studies intoxicating substances and the pharmaceutical industry. He also examines the history of mental health. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/drugs-addiction-and-recovery

When European sailors began exploring the southern hemisphere, they compiled maps of the stars. Astronomers used those maps to create some new constellations. And one of those constellations moves low across the south on November nights: Grus, the crane. Grus was first featured on a celestial globe, in 1598. A few years later it was depicted in a famous star atlas, and it’s been around ever since. The crane’s “head” and several other stars were taken from Piscis Austrinus, the southern fish. But the head retained its “fishy” name: Aldhanab, from a longer Arabic phrase that means “the tail of the fish.” The star has passed the end of its “normal” lifetime, so it’s gotten much bigger and brighter. It’s more than four times wider than the Sun, and it emits almost four hundred times as much energy. It’s much hotter than the Sun, so most of its energy is in ultraviolet wavelengths, which are invisible to the eye. Grus’s brightest star is Alnair — “bright one of the fish’s tail” — in the crane’s body. It, too, is at or near the end of its normal lifetime, so it’s also hundreds of times brighter than the Sun. Grus hugs the southern horizon as night falls. From the northern half of the U.S., only its head and neck are visible. To see Alnair and the rest of the crane’s body, you need to be south of about Kansas City. And if you’re south of about Dallas, you can see its legs as well — the long legs of a celestial crane. Script by Damond Benningfield Support McDonald Observatory

The UK, France, and Germany are under renewed lockdowns until at least December - here's what that means for travel in and out. Plus - if you're a remote worker stuck under lockdown somewhere, we have some inspiration and tips for how to move abroad to a place like Costa Rica for lower taxes and a better climate, quality of life, and cost of living (without sacrificing access to healthcare).  What you'll learn:  Who can travel in and out of UK  What to do if you have travel booked to Europe in 2020 Details of the lockdowns in UK, Germany, and France - what's opened and closed/what's allowed and not allowed When European countries will reopen again The eight countries approved for travel to the Schengen Zone Benefits of moving from England to Costa Rica: Weight loss/healthier lifestyle Lower cost of living Lower taxes Access to healthcare  Why people live longer in "Blue Zones" like Costa Rica SHOW NOTES AND RESOURCES MENTIONED: Dubai Digital Nomad Visa: https://youtu.be/h3Kdu3C7Ixg Free Remote Jobs Guide: https://www.digitalnomadbootcamp.com/remote-jobs-guide  Blue Zone Costa Rica: https://www.bluezones.com/exploration/nicoya-costa-rica/ Reopen EU Travel Information: https://reopen.europa.eu/en Travel to Europe during Coronavirus Videos: Travel to Europe FAQs: https://youtu.be/XuEeBvArXQk EU Travel Ban Explained: https://youtu.be/Z3aOUWREyAw Countries Who Can Travel to Europe: https://youtu.be/7fRFK6GZX2g UK Lockdown Details:  https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/second-lockdown-boris-johnson-announcement-b1481913.html France and Germany Lockdowns: https://www.cnn.com/2020/10/28/europe/europe-new-lockdowns-announced-intl/index.html St. Augustine, Florida (oldest European settlement in the US): https://www.visitstaugustine.com/    Need help changing your travel plans? Contact fellow digital nomad, Fiona Brander, of Travel Pros: https://www.facebook.com/fiona.brander or Instagram @TravelwithFi https://www.instagram.com/travelwith_fi/  ........................................................................................................ money from anywhere in the world with Transferwise. Get a free transfer up to £500 at TravelingwithKristin.com/Transferwise.  ........................................................................................................ Thank you to en2PT for leaving this review on Apple Podcasts:  Aspiring Digital Nomad "Love this podcast! Straight up advice and raw conversations. I came across this podcast randomly." ........................................................................................................ WORK WITH ME Book a private consultation Join the Make Money Mentorship 6-week program (Special offer for podcast listeners $100 off) Relocate abroad with Orbis Relocation or Poker Refugees Support the Badass Digital Nomads Podcast: Become a Patron for $5 per month Leave a 5* Review: https://lovethepodcast.com/digitalnomad  Leave a voice message Submit a question or recommend a guest (feedback survey) Buy new Badass Digital Nomads Merch (Teespring.com/Stores/TravelingwithKristin) Connect With Me on Social Media:  Follow on Instagram Subscribe to Traveling with Kristin on YouTube  Subscribe to Digital Nomad TV on YouTube Join the Badass Digital Nomads Facebook Group Podcast descriptions may contain affiliate links of products and services we use and recommend at no additional cost to you. 

When European powers ruled the post-Ottoman Middle East, France was Britain’s junior partner and rival, concentrating on the northern part of the Levant - Syria and Lebanon. Following Lebanon’s independence in the 1940’s, France became more of a cultural than a political force – labeling the city of Beirut – Paris of the Mediterranean. While Syria, Israel, the United States had significantly more influence on Lebanese affairs - the horrendous blast in the port if Beirut on August 4th changed this balance, with President Emmanuel Macron visiting the Lebanese capital twice to demand of local leaders must needed political and economic reforms. Panel: - Jonathan Hessen, Host. - Amir Oren, Analyst. - Dr. Emmanuel Navon, Senior Fellow at the JISS and a lecturer at Tel Aviv University and IDC Herzliya. - Prof. Efraim Inbar; President of the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security. Articles on the topic: https://www.tv7israelnews.com/hezbollah-denies-role-in-beirut-blast/ https://www.tv7israelnews.com/world-support-for-lebanon-in-wake-of-blast/ https://www.tv7israelnews.com/turkey-issues-new-eastmed-threat/ #IsraelNews #tv7israelnews #newsupdates Rally behind our vision - https://www.tv7israelnews.com/donate/ To purchase TV7 Israel News merchandise: https://teespring.com/stores/tv7-israel-news-store Live view of Jerusalem - https://www.tv7israelnews.com/jerusalem-live-feed/ Visit our website - http://www.tv7israelnews.com/ Subscribe to our YouTube channel - https://www.youtube.com/tv7israelnews Like TV7 Israel News on Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/tv7israelnews Follow TV7 Israel News on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/tv7israelnews/ Follow TV7 Israel News on Twitter - https://twitter.com/tv7israelnews

But how did violin making come to Mexico and South America? When European instrument making met indigenous American hands, what sprang from this? Join Rozie & Jerry for an interview with Jaime Gabriel, Mexican luthier and recent transplant to the states. Special Guest: Jaime Gabriel.

When European explorers discovered the Polynesian island of Rapa Nui in the 18th century, the island's once-flourishing ecosystem had been ravaged nearly to the point of no return. So too had the tiny remaining population of a mysterious tribe. Please support the podcast (and our rescued kitty Tito during his cancer treatments!) at Patreon.com/HistoryObscura -- Thank you!Music by Fesliyan Studios--- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/historyobscura/support

The thought of doing yet another true crime story at a time where everyone is so stressed out was just too much for Jackson. Instead, he's taking a small detour from crime to history. When European settlers arrived in North America, they began a war that has lasted for nearly 500 years. SQUIRREL WAR! Find out how California enlisted hundreds of child soldiers to fight huge populations of ground squirrels.

The thought of doing yet another true crime story at a time where everyone is so stressed out was just too much for Jackson. Instead, he's taking a small detour from crime to history. When European settlers arrived in North America, they began a war that has lasted for nearly 500 years. SQUIRREL WAR! Find out how California enlisted hundreds of child soldiers to fight huge populations of ground squirrels.

Transcript: Hello, this is Pastor Don Willeman of Christ Redeemer Church. Welcome to a special-edition series of the Kingdom Perspective. What must we, as the church, do in response to the coronavirus? We must learn from Christians that have gone before us, such as St. Patrick and the Celtic Christians that followed and originated from him. When European civilization was overwhelmed by the barbarian hordes, the recently converted Celtic Christians preserved, and then eventually reestablished Christianity throughout the continent. In the words of author Thomas Cahill “the Irish…saved civilization” (see How the Irish Saved Civilization by Thomas Cahill). Most basically, they did this by starting and nurturing gospel communities (i.e. churches). These churches were not what we tend to think of today as churches, but were essentially monastic-type communities that cared for every aspect of life. They believed that the lordship of Jesus redeems all of life, and they put this truth into practice. However, these “monastic communities” were significantly different from much of what developed in Roman Christianity. As one writer put it: “The…monasteries [in Roman Christianity] were organized to protest against and escape from the materialism of the Roman world and the corruption of the church; the Celtic monasteries organized to penetrate the pagan world and extend the church?” (see The Celtic Way of Evangelism by George Hunter) These Celtic communities were not an escape from “Main Street” or the “public square”, but a mission to “Main Street” and the “public square”. Often these monasteries were set up at the gates of the ancient cities, in order to minister the gospel to these cities. They were, in effect, a “new city” within an existing city—a new society “in but not of” the existing society. For us, this means the redemptive community of the church must become all the more critical. How can we be and live like a distinctively new society in the midst of our existing society that is full of fear? How can we love and care for one another, practically, especially in times of crisis, in such a way that the watching world sees the truth of the gospel on display in each of our communities, through each of our churches? Something to think about from The Kingdom Perspective. We encourage you to continue to give regularly to support the work of the church. All the more in the face of growing needs in our community, we encourage you to give above and beyond your regular giving, by contributing to the church's Benevolence Fund. The Benevolence Fund is used in two main ways – 1) to help those with material needs within our church, and 2) to help those with need in the broader Upper Valley Community. For your convenience here are the links to giving online: Regular Giving to CRC The Benevolence Fund at CRC You may also give by mailing your gifts to Christ Redeemer Church, PO Box 5523, Hanover, NH 03755. To learn more about CRC's charitable work and financial giving policy, please visit us at: http://christredeemerchurch.org/home/resources/financial-contribution/

Julia and Geoffrey realize they totally forgot to discuss the Garfield’s Thanksgiving songs in the main episode for this week, so they start there before moving on to commercials and … other things. First, the opening theme.Because the more you eat, the more grateful you will feel… Next, the song that plays while they actually eat, “Thanksgiving Everyday”Geoffrey calls this a glurge. Julia points out that Dr. Liz is a terrible vet, because dogs should never eat corn cobs. They can’t digest them and end up with intestinal blockages. Image Description: Dr. Liz puts a corn on the cob on Odie’s plate. Is that a murderous gleam in her cartoon side-eye?One instance of Lasagna Cat, which, as Geoffrey notes, is kind of hard to explain. You can find more by searching Lasagna Cat on YouTube.And Julia also mentioned Garfield Minus Garfield, which led Geoffrey to bring up Square Root of Minus Garfield (though he didn’t quite remember the name).Of course this wouldn’t be After These Messages if we didn’t also watch commercials, so here’s the Peanuts MetLife Thanksgiving Commercial from 1989.Of course, half of the kids are dressed in appropriative Native American costumes, which is a shame, but also ever pervasive. If you want to read more about why this sort of dress up isn’t cool, here’s an article by a Native visual artist named Valerie Reynoso about costumes. It’s framed as a Halloween article, but the practice applies to this sort of situation as well. As Reynoso explains, “…appropriation trivializes the brutal history of colonization of the Americas and its legacy today. When European colonizers settled in the Americas, Native peoples of these regions were forced to assimilate into European cultures…” and, “[Appropriation] sustains the Western idea that Native attire is only acceptable when worn by a white person and when viewed under a colonial gaze.”Reynoso also highlights some Native designers and their work, which is pretty cool! Anyway, this commercial was basically a bunch of cartoon Peanuts characters singing a Thanksgiving song … which Geoffrey actually knew! Geoffrey called it “Harvest Home” though “Come Ye Thankful People, Come” may be the actual title. Julia had no idea this song was a thing. But this did lead Julia to reminisce about a song from a middle school winter concert called “Feast of Lights”, here performed by the Stanford Intermediate Chorus. Did any of those kids go home feeling like this was their favorite song of the winter concert?This then led to Julia and Geoffrey arguing about whether “O Come O Come Emmanuel” is a gorgeous song (Julia) or just the worst (Geoffrey). Who do you stand with on this, the most important issue of 2019?Other songs discussed include “Here Comes Santa Claus” (which Geoffrey says is too religious, while Julia apparently never actually paid any attention to the lyrics) and “Santa Baby” (whose utterly charming composer is Jewish, and also Julia’s mother met him once on a train).Okay, we know. You didn’t come here for the extended examination of holiday seasonal music. You came for the commercials! Here’s some commercials from Thanksgiving 1989, which featured a bumper Geoffrey remembered from the Muppet Babies! We watched through three commercial breaks (about 6 minutes and 20 seconds), which included Precious Places, a sweet Hot Wheels Car Wash, Honeycomb cereal, a Ghostbusters play set, and a commercial for the movie The Little Mermaid, which was in theaters! If you listened to this week’s main episode, you’ll understand why this excited us so much. Ursula the sea witch is Jon Arbuckle’s grandma!The kind of crab Geoffrey was thinking of was not a hermit crab, but a fiddler crab, by the way. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at thisiswhywerelikethis.substack.com/subscribe

Tiki: Modern Tropical CocktailsBy Shannon Mustipher Intro: Welcome to the Cookery By The Book Podcast with Suzy Chase. She's just a home cook in New York City, sitting at her dining room table talking to cookbook authors.Shannon: My name is Shannon Mustipher, and I am the author of Tiki: Modern Tropical Cocktails. When I'm not working on writing and developing cocktails, I'm the spiritual advisor, a.k.a. beverage director of Glady's Caribbean, which is a rum-focused bar in Crown Heights, Brooklyn. I also work as a consultant and educator on the spirit of topics and cocktails.Suzy Chase: This is the first cocktail recipe book written by a working, African American bartender and released by a major publisher in more than 100 years. When you decided to write this book, were you aware of that statistic?Shannon: Yeah, I was. Just a little background. I'm a big history buff, always have been, and I want to say maybe a decade ago, I became aware of a book called The Ideal Bartender by Tom Bullock, who published in 1919 and worked at the Pendennis Club in Louisville, Kentucky. He was the first and the last to publish this book, African American bartender to publish. There are a lot of bar books floating around, but that one, I just didn't ... I wasn't hearing of it, and my peers weren't reading it, and I just thought it was fascinating that it was like this little nugget of history. When I decided to write my book, it was five years ago, and I didn't know when it was going to be published based on the negotiations I was going through with my publisher, Rizzoli. For it to come out in 2019, a 100 years after Mr. Bullock's publication, just feels like there's something about it that was meant to be.Suzy Chase: I'm probably the only person in the world, but I never knew that Tiki was a huge category of cocktails. For some reason, I thought Tiki was like a vibe or a mindset. Talk a little bit about that. Shannon: It's all those. In regards to Tiki being a cocktail category, it's helpful to keep in mind that when Tiki came about in the late '30s, I mean the first Tiki bar was a spin-off of hinky dinks and that became Don the Beachcomber. Don the Beachcomber, his name was Ernest Gantt, was kind of a world traveler, rum aficionado. Came up with this idea of creating an escapist experience in his restaurant because this is at the end of the Great Depression, and people were looking for some relief from the day to day. The type of cocktails he came up with differed from every other in that you could blend a couple different spirits in one cocktail. That had never been done before. You could also blend a few different juices as opposed to most recipes that would have one or two at the most and various sweeteners and things of that nature. Those features of cocktail you're not seeing other styles of cocktail, and that's ... The recipes are like the core of what makes it different. Then there's other elements like the attention to vessels and presentation and things like fire and orchids and all this craziness that just not ... you're not seeing it in other styles of cocktail. From I would say a structural standpoint where the recipe concerned, there are some clear differentiations. Then of course in the presentation, you don't see that outside of Tiki. Suzy Chase: Last week Grub Street mentioned you saying you're a central figure in the Tiki renaissance in New York City. It's all about the appearances the element of surprise. Do you think this is a misunderstood tradition or a forgotten tradition or both? Shannon: I don't it's as misunderstood as it was when I got my start five years ago. I had to qualify in that on the west coast where Tiki originated, it never fully disappeared. Right? There was a moment where there was only a few bars that still had the authentic recipes. The reason for that was there was secrecy around those recipes, and they were coded because the restaurants and bars that served Tiki in the '40s were very popular, and the information regarding those products was considered propietary. It be like, think of the recipe or formula for Coca-Cola. That's proprietary. Right? When the people that created those recipes and worked in those restaurants retired, they didn't necessarily share the knowledge. This sort of knowledge begins to die off, and then add to that in the late '60s and '70s, American mixology in general was on the wane. It was associated with a generation that was a little bit older. Younger kids, the hippies so to speak, weren't interested in drinking cocktails like their parents did. They preferred recreational experiences. You know what I mean? Yeah, from the '70s through the '90s, there was no information really. You had Tiki tea in California and Los Angeles and Tonga Hut remained open, and there are other places. Outside of a handful of bars, people didn't really know the recipes anymore. The few that did, they weren't talking about it or giving out those recipes because that was just a culture, to keep them under lock and key. When Jeff Beachbum Berry began writing his book about 15, 20-odd years ago, he did the most extensive research into Tiki, went to all those bars, and looked for the rum bottles and scoured any document he could find and was able to reverse engineer and figure out what these drinks actually were. As his books became more popular, and people were more aware of what he was doing, then Tiki started to make a comeback. It wasn't reduced to oh, it's a sweet, tropical drink with an umbrella in it. People began to see the workings and the mechanics of this style of cocktail and understand and appreciate the level of craft that goes into taking eight or 10 ingredients and balancing it in a cocktail. Now, the cat's out of the bag. Right? We have the Jeff Beachbum Berry books. We have Smuggler's Cove, which does an excellent job of talking about not only the history of Tiki and showing us those recipes as well as Martin Cate's newer recipes. The information is out there now. Maybe there are people that still misunderstand it, but it just doesn't have to be that way anymore. Whereas 20 years ago, there just was scant means to educate yourself about it. Suzy Chase: Give us the short history of rum. Shannon: Yeah, sure. Rum is a byproduct of the sugar industry. When European powers began to colonize the Americas, the top priority was to find a cash crop or some other resource that would provide a large stream of revenue, big stream of revenue. Initially the thought was gold, and that didn't really work out. There was experimentation with various things, rice and cotton. Sugar was the one, especially in the Caribbean, that had the highest yield. Just some context, the kind of revenue that was coming out of just Barbados or Jamaica alone by the late 19th century, was on par with oil boom or the gold rush and what took place in Silicon Valley more recently. There had never been a moment in the history of the world where there was such a big shift in the economy. It's important to remember that rum is not just a style or a category of spirit that came about because that's what someone wanted to make. They had this idea in mind of a flavor profile and certainly wanted to craft. It's a byproduct and another way to add revenue to a sugar plantation, their operation. For who are less familiar, in order to produce rum you need molasses or you could use fresh cane juice, but rum as we know it in the Caribbean came about when planters were looking for a way to utilize molasses which was regarded as a waste product. They discovered that you could ferment it and then distill it. This began in earnest around 1705. Prior to that, in the earlier part of the 17th century, there was a little bit of rum production on the islands, but it was basically moonshine. It wasn't packaged. It wasn't bottled. People didn't regard it as a spirit category in the way that we look at spirits today. It was just, this is what we have to drink in terms of alcohol because we can't make beer here. It's too expensive to bring over wine. In fact, the wine doesn't really travel well in the heat. This all began to change, and rum started moving towards how we think of it in a modern sense in 1650 when Jamaica was taken by the British. The British adopted rum as the liquid that they will give out in their daily ration, which became a form of payment in addition to a supplement to the really poor diet that the sailors had on board. By 1750, the Navy had grown to such an extent that they could no longer source the rums themselves from the islands, but they hired an outside firm called [ED & Man 00:11:08]. This firm would source the liquid from various islands and then take them over to London. They created a proprietary blend, and they would age it there. Meanwhile, for those of you who don't know, brands the way we think of them today, they didn't exist back then. A distiller didn't have a face or a label. They didn't make liquid and put it in a bottle and sell it. They'd make liquid and sell it to brokers, and the brokers would create the brands and sell the products. At this time, there was a robust business around that in the scotch and port and sherry categories in London. These merchants caught on to the rum, and they realized that it was par on with single malt scotch, especially the rums from Jamaica which are highly prized, because they had a really special aroma and heavy body due to their production processes. By 1820s, this is when you start to see rum appear as a commercial product in Europe. To this day in the Netherlands and in Germany, the preference for rum [inaudible 00:12:23] Jamaica styles that haven't differed too much from that time. By 1860s, then you start to see rum become a big global business, do brands like Bacardi. Where we are today is we are getting back to looking at the earliest styles of productions of rum. We want what we consider to be more authentic expressions that haven't had sugar added and are made on stills or in facilities that have been operation for 200 or 300 years. It's a really great moment for the category, especially where Tiki is concerned, we can make the recipes the way they were intended. There was a moment in the '70s through the early '90s where the rums that were in the original recipes were not available in the U.S. You could attempt to make the drinks, but you were not really going to really hit it. Now, we can make those drinks again. Suzy Chase: In opinion, what's a good rum to start off with if you're not familiar with rum? Shannon: Well, here's the thing. Rum is a huge category. You can make it in over 90 countries. I compare it to wine in that ... Let's say you look at gin and whiskey. Sure, there are some variations and different brands and styles, but it's not such a huge spectrum of rum. You can get something that's like really light and dry and clean, or you can get really fruity or earthy and funky or on the sweeter side depending on how it's produced. To answer that question, I'd say you have start at least five, because if you are trying to pick out a starter, there's so many places to start. If you take one bottle or one style, you're not ... It doesn't really capture what rum is about. With that in mind, I would suggest picking up a spectrum of rums. Right? On one hand, you want to start with say a lighter rum. For that, I would suggest Rhum Barbancourt [bonk 00:14:33] from Haiti. It's made from fresh pressed juice. Has a little bit of a delicate gassiness and fuller element to it. You can sip it neat. You can put it in cocktails. It's really easy to work with and to enjoy. From there, I would suggest picking up a bottle of an un-aged overproof English style rum, and that would most likely be Jamaican rum. That could be Rum Fire or Wray & Nephew. If you're lucky enough to go to Grenada, I really love the River Antoine. What that bottle is going to do for you is you're not necessarily going to drink it by itself. If you want to have more intensity, then you'll need a rum like that. In terms of something that's just more like everyday drinking rum, cocktail or otherwise, I would suggest picking up a Barbadian rum or a Bajan style rum, because those strike a nice balance between being fuller bodied and rich, but also really clean and smooth and elegant and super easy. The drinking culture in the islands differ from the island to island. That's reflected in the styles. In Barbados, they have this pastime called liming, which means that you gather with your friends at a little shack called a rum shop, and you sip rum all day. Maybe you use mixers, but for them it's not ... rum isn't cocktailing. Rum is just spending time with friends. Right? Then from there I would suggest you would want pick up a rhum agricole from Martinique or one of the former French territories. Those are really cool. They're made from fresh cane juice like the Barbancourt I mentioned, but their standards of production, they have a DLC around it. They're very particular about what you're going taste in the glass because they want to highlight and emphasize the [tarare 00:16:27] of their respective geographic areas. There's also a lot of influence from Armagnac and Cognac production there. With the agricoles, you get to see a really high level of production and crafted. You don't typically associate with rums, but I think trying those will shift your perception around what you think rum is in a positive way. Lastly, some people prefer what they would call a smoother, rounder, richer type of spirit. I find that people that prefer whiskey have a tendency to enjoy Spanish-style rums which undergo more time in the barrel because the Spanish approach is more influence by wine and sherry where the base liquid is not what's emphasized, but what's emphasized is a barrel regimen and the house style and the skill of the blender. That's what they want you to taste in the end. Suzy Chase: Yeah. I read in the book that for example, Jamaican rums have kind of grassy notes, and that's something you wouldn't even think about with rum. Shannon: That's why I love it. Prior to opening Gladys and working in that program five years ago, I was into a pre-prohibition era cocktails and gin and whiskey and all that stuff. I still enjoy it on occasion, but if God came to me and told me that from here on out I was confined to only drinking one spirit category, I'd happily choose rum because there's one for everybody and for every mood or hour or what have you. If I want something that is really dry and light and crisp, I can find it in the rum category. If I want something that's big and bold and chewy or even smokey, I can find that in rum as well. If I just had gin for instance, the spectrum of options is limited. Suzy Chase: In Tiki, chapter one kicks off with foundational cocktails. What are those? Shannon: Where rum is concerned, there's what we call the holy trinity, which is rum, sugar, and lime. They just work really well together in the earliest rum drinks. The Navy grog, that's rum, sugar, and lime. The Caipirinha, it's made with Cachaça so it's not technically rum, but the Cachaça is sugar and lime. The same is true for the [Dakaiti 00:19:00], which rum, sugar, and lime. In those foundational drinks, we walk through those cocktails so that you can taste the different styles of rum and get a sense for how those rums behave. The underlying elements are more or less the same. Also, those drink a base template for others cocktails that follow, and so the bulk of Tiki drinks have those three elements and them build from there. Suzy Chase: There's a technique in the book called fat washing spirits. What does that mean? Shannon: It's an infusion. It was pioneered by Don Lee who is a partner in Existing Conditions currently and got his start at PDT. With fat washing, you take an oil. It could be derived from an animal. Don Lee's was smoked bacon fat. I do a lot of vegan fat washes, so I love coconut oil. Essentially you I guess steep or infuse the liquid with the oil for a 12-hour period at room temperature, and then you freeze it so that the solids separate. They come to the top. You skim it off. You strain it. What happens is that the liquid is now, it has those fat molecules in it. It takes on a different texture and a creamier mouth feel. Milk punches utilizes the same principle. They're very labor intensive. It requires multiple steps and a number of ingredients and a couple days to achieve that result. Yeah, milks punches which were popular in the 18th century, have made a little bit of a comeback in the modern bar, is where that idea is derived. Fat washing with oils is much faster and more consistent. Suzy Chase: You created a cocktail inspired by a reggae song. Tell us about that. Shannon: It's one of my favorite cocktails actually. It's called the Kingston Soundsystem. I was approached by Punch Magazine to pick a reggae song and make a cocktail. I really love Skylarking by Horace Man. It's a really chill, laid back, kind of lazy day kind of song. I was like, okay. There's a bird reference here. I love the Jungle Bird. I'm going come up with an unusual twist on it. The idea was kind of like a white angelonia. I wanted to make a white Jungle Bird. For those who are not familiar with the cocktail, they Jungle Bird has aged Jamaican rum. It has Campari, lime, and pineapple. I looked at each of those elements and went on the other end of the spectrum. Rather than aged Jamaica rum, I used an un-age higher proof Jamaica rum. It's call Rum Fire. Instead of Campari, I used a gentian liqueur called Suze. I love that stuff. A consumer right now, the American public is not too hip to it, but I think it's wonderful. I use it kind of in a way, a lot of people have used St. Germain in the past, which is elderflower liqueur, but way too sweet for my tastes. I want something dryer. That's stands in for the Campari. Rather than pineapple, I wanted to again reference Jamaica so I use Soursop. Soursop is a large fruit about the size of a big cantaloupe, and it has little prickles on it. Kind of think of it as a prickly pear. It has a really wonderful, delicate, floral aroma in the nose. It's delightful for those who have not tried it. Then again, not very sweet. Kind of tastes cross between a pear and an apple, but it has a really clean, dry finish on it. There's really nothing else like it. Then of course, there's a lime. The result is a drink that follows the Jungle Bird template, but takes it in a dryer, more herbaceous direction. Suzy Chase: Do you think we can find these ingredients in our local grocery store or liquor store/Whole Foods? Shannon: It depends on where you live. Soursop, you'll find it in Caribbean stores or Asian stores. If you can't find the juice, you can usually find it as a frozen concentrate. That would be Goya or [lafame 00:23:43]. Then where Suze is concerned, yeah, if you live in an area where you can get to a decent liquor store that has Craft products, you'll find it. Suzy Chase: As a bartender, what's the most annoying request you get the most?Shannon: I don't. I like bar-Suzy Chase: Nothing? Shannon: You know how some people are like, "Oh my God, you're ordering a Mojito now. It's busy." For me, I'm there to serve the guests and I'm delighted to do it. You're there to get what you want, and that's why I'm there, to give you what you want. Case in point. I was doing a pop-up, and it was Tiki drinks. Someone wanted a Martini. I was so excited because she was getting what she wanted. I made a her what I hoped was a really good Martini. I really enjoyed it and so did she. Suzy Chase: They're more than 60 beautiful color photographs in this book. You call Tiki a theater for the senses, and you get such a good feel for that with Noah Fecks' photos. Tell us about your friendship with him. Shannon: It's a beautiful one. We met through a mutual friend, Nicole Taylor. She's the author of the Up South cookbook. Suzy Chase: She's amazing. Shannon: Oh, God. I want to be her when I grow up. Suzy Chase: Me too. Shannon: I met her a decade ago. She's just so dynamic and has forged her own path. She's totally Nicole and just ... I don't know. I can't go on enough about her. I had a birthday party and she invited him to tag along. She predicted that we would quote unquote ride off into sunset together. We hit it off that night, and we're chatting. He approached me shortly thereafter about doing some test shoots at Gladys because he shoots a lot of food. He wanted to added some liquor and cocktail content to his book. The shoots went really well. I worked in the photo industry for the first five years of living in New York as a style and prop assistant. I knew procedures of how a shoot would go. It was really smooth and the images were beautiful. Shortly after that, he suggested that we do this book with Rizzoli. Suzy Chase: I don't know how long this book took you, but there is a full color photo with every cocktail in this book. I can't even imagine the work that went into that. Shannon: Well, I mean, had I know how much work was going to go into it, I don't know if I would have agreed to do it. Suzy Chase: I mean, just looking at it I just think, wow, that's a lot of work, but it's gorgeous. Shannon: I mean, to be fair, I believe that that work is not just what I did in the two years that I was writing it and producing a book, but in the years prior that I spent studying visual art and practicing as an artist, I went to [Ritzies 00:26:52], studied painting and art history. I started drawing when I was five. I was always making things. The book was really exciting in that not was I able to share my recipes and more importantly, my approach to flavors and ingredients, but also could indulge that part of me that wanted to create images. That was the intention behind the photography in the book. Now, you look at a lot of cocktail photography and it follows a formula. It's like, okay, here's a drink on a bar or against some kind of backdrop or what have you, and that's pretty much it. Because we're working in Tiki, we wanted to go beyond and create vignettes that would evoke a story. Suzy Chase: Well, you did it. It feels like it's a culmination of your fashion background and your mixology background. This is all of that in one book. Shannon: Oh, yeah. When I closed my studio shortly before I moved in New York 12 years ago, I had a lot of friends around me who were dismayed because, "You're so good. Why are you doing this?" I had various reasons. I didn't think that what I refer to as the art industry was for me. One of my biggest reservations around it was the accessibility of that work and the class issues around it. Right? Where do most people go to see art? They go to galleries. They go to museums. Museums are wonderful institutions, but there are a lot of people that can't afford to go to a museum, or culturally it's just not an inviting place for certain individuals. When you go deeper than that, when it's time to buy artwork, that's again confined to a class of people. Taken further, when a collector acquires a work, doesn't necessarily get seen. I think the statistic is that 70 to 80% of all the artwork is in storage. This idea of making this thing for a select few is probably just going to sit in a dark room. That's not where I wanted to put my energy, and that's not how I want to share what I had to say in the world. With that being said, being able to make a cocktail book where my creativity could be there and it was very accessible to people. I mean, a cocktail is like 10 or 15 bucks. Most people can do that every once in a while, was really gratifying. Suzy Chase: Now to my segment called my last meal. What would you have for you last supper, and what cocktail would you have with it? Shannon: I'm a pretty simple person. I would have ostrich steak. Suzy Chase: That's simple? I thought you were going to be, "I'll just have a taco." You say ostrich steak. That's so interesting. Shannon: It's so delicious. You ever had it? Suzy Chase: No. Shannon: It's going to change your life. Okay. Suzy Chase: Where do you get that? Shannon: Okay, so I had it in South Africa. I think that if you live in Africa or certain parts of the world, I mean, I think you can get ostrich here. The whole point is in South Africa, it's not a big deal. That's the meat that they have. Right? Like we have cows, they have ostrich. It's like a steak, but the texture ... I don't know. I can't even tell you why it was so good. I'd do that and pair it with a nice glass of wine. Suzy Chase: Not rum? Shannon: No. Suzy Chase: Wow. What kind of wine? You're just throwing me off today. Shannon: What kind of wine? Probably a Zen or ... No, that's too sweet. I don't know. Something kind of dusty, maybe [Linwood 00:31:00]. I used to work in wine. I still enjoy it. Yeah, I mean, rum's great, but I just don't if it would go that good with the steak. Suzy Chase: Where can we find you on the web, social media and in Brooklyn? Shannon: My website, Shannon dot ... shannonmustipher.com. It's not a dot. That's my email. On Instagram, same thing. Just Shannon Mustipher. I don't have an alias. I'm like, no ... I want you to find me. It's not like, what's her handle? Just my first, I say. Put it into Google. You'll find me. Suzy Chase: It's M-U-S-T-I-P-H-E-R for everyone out there. I also want to remind everyone that we're going to be doing a free live Tiki talk and book signing at Lizzyoung Bookseller in Cobble Hill in Brooklyn on Thursday, May 30th. Look for more information on my Instagram and Shannon's, and we we hope to see you there. Thank you so much, Shannon, for coming on Cookery By the Book Podcast. Shannon: Suzy, it was a pleasure. Thank you for taking the time, and I look forward to seeing you next Thursday. Outro: Follow Suzy Chase on Instagram at Cookery By the Book, and subscribe at cookerybythebook.com or in Apple Podcasts. Thanks for listening to Cookery By the Book Podcast, the only podcast devoted to cookbooks since 2015.

When European settlers first came to North America, they expected hardship from man and nature. They didn't expect the paranormal hell that awaited them. Lurking in the woods, lived an unspeakable horror. Not only could it mutilate and kill men, but psychologically manipulate them too. The native peoples were all too familiar, but the settlers had to learn the hard way.

The waters of the Missouri River roared wild and free over its valley for thousands of years before Omaha was settled. Even after pioneers gathered on Capitol Hill for a picnic to found Omaha City in 1854, the Missouri still whipped around, flooding the area, shifting its channel and moving willy-nilly. During this time, a little nest of water in East Omaha was created. When European settlers saw it, they called it Florence Lake. Support the North Omaha History podcast. Please go to Patreon.com/Omaha and become a patron for as little as $1 a month. We'll give your a free gift :) Visit Adam's North Omaha History blog and like his Facebook page for all kinds of great stuff. Shop for and buy Adam's books on Amazon

Download Episode Today we’re diving into the story of one of the most versatile fruits that has made its mark on countless cuisines around the world - the chili pepper. And yes, I said fruit. I’m not sure how the chili pepper escaped the heated fruit or vegetable debate that tomatoes are so famous for causing, but like the tomato, chilies may be treated like vegetables but are indeed the fruits of flowering plants. So where did chilies get their start, and how and when did they spread to become one of the most commonly used ingredients in the world? Today on Simmer - stick around as we unpack the story of the mighty chili pepper. Chili peppers come in hundreds of varieties, from smoky chipotle to flaming hot habaneros, sweet bell peppers and tiny but heat packed bird’s eye chiles. Other chilies you may have never heard of include wrinkle 273, the wonder hot, and mundu - all of which are types of red chilies produced in India. Speaking of India, chili peppers seem right at home in all sorts of asian cuisine, whether it’s ground into curry paste, chopped and sautéed in a noodle dish, or dried and used as pepper flakes. It’s hard to imagine then, that chilies have only been in the Old World since the 1500s. In case it’s been awhile since your last World History class, the Old World refers to Africa, Europe, and Asia, which were the parts of the world known to Europeans before contact with the Americas. The New World then - you guessed it - is referring to the Western Hemisphere, specifically the Americas. So, chilies have only been in Asia since the 1500s?! Crazy, right? It blew my mind, too. What did the cuisines of Asia possibly look like before Southeast Asia had the chili paste Sambal Oelek, or before kimchi incorporated red pepper flakes?! Before chilies started their worldwide journey, the main ingredients for spicy food were expensive spices such as black pepper and sichuan pepper - both species that are not related to the chili pepper. You might be wondering, why is both the spice and the fruit called a pepper, if they’re not even the same species?! More later on who to thank for the confusing linguistic mess of the pepper spice versus the chili pepper. We know that the chili pepper is from the Americas, but where and when did it start? And how did it make its way to global food fame? The chili pepper - known to many by its latin name capsicum - has been present in the New World pretty much as long as civilizations have existed. Botanists have pinpointed the origins of the chili pepper to be in the mountains of Brazil and Bolivia, although the exact location has yet to be determined. The first wild chilies were small, red, and round, preferred more by birds than humans. With the help of both birds and indigenous people, this wild predecessor to the domestic chili pepper spread throughout South and Central America. The wild chili pepper was domesticated as early as 3500 BCE at least five times by at least five different groups of people in South America, leading to the five original domesticated species of Capsicum. To give you some context, the Ancient Greek civilization emerged around 800 BCE, some 2300 years after. When European explorers began arriving in the Americas in the 15th century, so began the trade routes between the Old World and the New, and many foods became popular commodities overseas. Potatoes, squash, and corn are just a few examples of other New World crops that became integrated into Old World diets. Christopher Columbus may not have actually been the one to discover North America, but he is credited with introducing the chili to Europe, while the Portuguese trade routes played a big role bringing it to the rest of the Old World. In classic Christopher Columbus fashion, he attempted to draw a comparison with the black pepper from India and called capsicums “the pepper of the Indies.” When I was doing research for this episode I found a book with the title “Pepper,” which turned out to be a history of the black pepper plant, such has the confusion between these two different peppers lasted until today. Thanks, Christopher Columbus. The arrival of the chili in Europe and other parts of the world brought a much needed shift in the economics of spices. Until this time, spices were rare and expensive, largely coming from India and South Asia with the black pepper plant at the core of the luxury spice market. The use of the chili pepper was quickly adopted into cuisines all over the world as a much more affordable option than black pepper. The chili pepper truly was the spice of the people. By now, we have discovered where the chili came from, how it physically spread so quickly to the rest of the world thanks to trade routes, and that it was quickly adopted by many because of its affordability. But wait, there’s more. One of the other reasons the chili spread so rapidly was its medicinal properties and health benefits. English herbalist Nicholas Culpeper wrote in 1652 that cayenne was a violent fruit that could “help digestion, provoke urine, relieve toothache, preserve the teeth from rottenness, comfort a cold stomach, expel the stone from the kidney, and take away the dimness of sight.” Even today we still see cayenne being used for medicinal or health purposes - ever heard of the cayenne pepper and lemon cleanse? Yeah, it’s a thing. The magical compound that has given rise to the variety of uses for the chili pepper? It’s called capsaicin, and it is one of the most prominent health aspects of the chili pepper. Although it is an irritant that has wreaked havoc on anyone who has rubbed their eyes after chopping jalapeños, it is for the same reason that many enjoy chilies. The consumption of capsaicin releases endorphins, which explains the thrill we may feel when eating spicy foods. No wonder there are so many ridiculous spicy food challenges! Capsaicin is also often used in ointment and rubs used for muscle and joint pain associated with arthritis. This little miracle compound also has antibacterial properties, and food cooked with chiles has the potential to keep longer without spoiling! Chili peppers are also rich in vitamin C, and contain a variety of other essential nutrients. Today, a quarter of the world’s population in countries all over the globe enjoy chilies on a daily basis. Just let that sink in for a second - one person out of every four on the planet eats chilies every day. They are found in all sorts of cuisines including Mexican, Jamaican, Ethiopian, South African, Korean, Chinese, and many many more. India is currently the world’s largest producer, consumer and exporter of chilies. Although around 90% of India’s chilies are consumed in country, they still manage to export 80-100,000 tons of chilies per year. Chilies are packed with flavor, they created a cheaper way to spice up dishes, and they have a variety of health benefits and medicinal uses. It’s no wonder the chili pepper is so popular! Because there are so many varieties, there is a flavor and spice level for almost everyone! What are some of your favorite chili pepper dishes? Check out my list below. That’s all for today on Simmer, I hope you enjoyed the story of the chili pepper. Thanks for listening! If you like this podcast, share it with your friends! You can also head on over to itunes to rate Simmer, and leave a review while you’re there. Every review will help Simmer to grow. What food are you interested in learning about? Let me know on the contact page. Untiil next time, Simmer on! My favorite recipes with chilies: Kimchi stew Josh's (brother) Pulled Pork Tacos - Dishing Up Washington by Jess Thomson (sister) - blog here Butter Chicken Coconut Curry Noodle Soup Sources History http://www.foodtimeline.org/foodmexican.html#chile Bosland, P.W. 1996. Capsicums: Innovative uses of an ancient crop. p. 479-487. In: J. Janick (ed.), Progress in new crops. ASHS Press, Arlington, VA. https://hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/proceedings1996/V3-479.html#HISTORY http://www.chileplanet.eu/Origin-story.html http://www.legalnomads.com/history-chili-peppers/ Health Benefits http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/chili-peppers.html http://www.nutrition-and-you.com/chili-peppers.html India http://www.agrocrops.com/red-dry-chillies.php Are Chilies Fruits? http://www.pepperscale.com/what-is-a-chili-pepper/ Music: http://www.purple-planet.com

What does great fudge, the world’s longest porch, U.S. presidents and Hollywood have in common? Mackinac Island. World Footprints will take you on a journey to a little known crown jewel that sits in Lake Huron between Michigan’s Upper and Lower Peninsulas –Mackinac Island (pronounced “Mack –in-aw”). The island was named by Native Americans in the Straits of Mackinac region who said that the island resembled a turtle. They gave it the name "Mitchimakinak" meaning "big turtle". When European exploration began in the 17th century French settlers used a version of the original pronunciation: Michilimackinac and the British later shortened the name to Mackinac. Today’s show will explore the island’s rich history and how that is being carefully preserved as a National Historic Landmark. When Europeans landed, Mackinac Island served as a strategic position amidst the commerce of the Great Lakes fur trade. This led to the establishment of Fort Mackinac on the island by the British during the American Revolutionary War. Mackinac Island was also key in two battles during the War of 1812. In the late 19th century, Mackinac Island became a popular tourist attraction and summer colony but the island still maintains its Old World charm. It is well known for its numerous cultural events; its wide variety of architectural styles, including the famous Victorian-style Grand Hotel; the aforementioned fudge; and its ban on almost all motor vehicles. (Golf carts are allowed but only on the golf course.) Hollywood discovered the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island and they have been the setting of two feature films: This Time for Keeps in 1946 and Somewhere in Time, filmed at the Grand Hotel and various other locations on the island in 1979. Mackinac Island has been written about and visited by many influential writers including Mark Twain, Henry David Thoreau, Bill Bryson, Margaret Fuller, Herman Melville and Alexis De Tocqueville, among others. As we will hear, U.S. Presidents and politicians from around America and the world have enjoyed respites on Mackinac Island. The Grand Hotel has honored these visits by designing some staterooms with the assistance of a few former First Ladies. Today’s guests include: Dan Musser, President, Grand Hotel Ken Hayward, Executive Vice President, Grand Hotel Bob Tagatz, historian

The early 1600s saw the pre-Columbian tribes of what would become the Northeastern United States at the height of their civilization. Dozens if not hundreds of groups, each with their own culture and languages, competed for resources while at the same time maintaining a complex trading network that crossed hundreds of miles. When European fishermen […]

When European leaders resolved to finally solve the eurozone crisis, they swore that that a banking union would be a crucial part of the solution and that agreement would be in place by the end of this year. But with the latest negotiations bogged down, what's happened and does it pose a threat to financial stability in Europe? Patrick Jenkins, banking editor, and Alex Barker, Brussels correspondent, join Gideon Rachman to discuss. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

On my recent trip to Leavenworth, I had an unexpected opportunity to see a song and dance performance by the Colville Native American Indian tribe. As the salmon festival has expanded over the years, it now includes historical and cultural displays that are related to the salmon and wildlife of the Northwest. The Colville Indians, whose real name is the Shipwoyelpi, have a culture that is strongly tied* to salmon fishing. When European settlers came to this area, they gave the tribe the name of the river they were based by, the Colville. Salmon has always been an important part of their diet, and therefore, has deep cultural significance for them. I wasn't aware that any Indians at all would be at the festival. I walked around to see the different displays, taking with me a small group of children from the school that my son goes to. As we made our way* from one booth to another, we suddenly heard drums. We followed the sound until we came to a circular, sheltered area that was covered with pine tree branches. Underneath were displays of animal skins, antlers, bead work, and cultural posters. Inside the sheltered area was a large circle of earth where young men and women were dancing. They were very colorfully dressed, and had all sorts of bells and feathers on their costumes. One performance was just coming to an end as we sat down, so we settled down, and waited for the next. A different set of dancers from the troupe came into the circular area, and when the two singers started banging the drums  rhythmically and singing, they started to dance. One young man in particular caught my eye; he was dressed as some kind of bird. He danced slightly crouched over, with jerky, pecking movements. I couldn't take pictures fast enough. The singing was also impressive; the two male singers sang in a very soulful, high pitched manner that certainly kept my attention. I only wish that I knew what they were singing. One of them stood up afterwards and explained that he and his friend inherited their love of singing these cultural and historical songs, and had learned how to do so by listening to others, and with the help of* tapes. More school children started arriving, and filling up the seating area. But soon we had to leave because our bus was going to take us back to Wenatchee. I was anxious to hear and see another performance, and disappointed that we had to leave. However, the images and sounds of the Colville were, for me, the best part of the day, and, at the very least*, worthy of a podcast. Related vocabulary and expressions: at the very least, with the help of,to make your way , tied to. 1. At the very least, the famous sculptor deserves an impressive memorial. 2. With the help of podcasts, video clips from You-tube, and magazines, he became fluent in English! 3. We slowly made our way through the maze; it took a lot of time and concentration to get out. 4.His family is tied to the land; they have farmed here for generations. // //