We use a recent controversial murder case as a way to reconsider recent world events--such as war in Europe and the return of Trump--from the perspective of the epistemological crisis and the decline of trust in Truth, Facts, and Reality. CHAPTERS: 0:00:20 – Intro & Disclaimers 0:11:45 – The Great Witch Hunt: overview 0:28:25 – The Great Witch Hunt: midwives & caregivers 0:45:10 – The Lucy Letby Case: narrative 1:15:55 – The Lucy Letby Case: analysis 1:44:10 – The Lucy Letby Case: reactions & aftermath 1:51:25 – Defensiveness & the epistemic house of cards 2:08:00 – The partisanization of knowledge 2:20:40 – The trials of the expert class 2:38:40 – Lessons of World War I 2:46:30 – The threat to democracy is the presidency 2:55:50 – The “economy” 2:59:10 – Conclusions: Notre Dame restored Image: 18th-century farmhouse on eroding cliff's edge, Trimingham, Norfolk, England, April 2024. Audio version of my 2022 article, "In the American Tempest: Democracy, Conspiracy, and Machine" -- https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/article-in-the-american-tempest-democracy-conspiracy-machine Jeffrey Friedman's 2023 article, "Post-Truth and the Epistemological Crisis" -- https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08913811.2023.2221502 Please sign up as a patron to hear patron-only lectures, such as on the Epic of Gilgamesh -- https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632

We trace Venice's remarkable flowering between the 1300s and 1500s, in which it astonished Europe as a center of commercial and imperial power, learning, and art, as well as its repeated struggles -- with the bubonic plague, the Ottoman Turks, the rival Italian states, and the Catholic Church -- that forced Venice to give up its empire, and to transform into a pleasure-ground of music, theater, sex, and revelry -- arguably becoming the world's first tourist attraction -- before finally losing its long-treasured independence and becoming a pawn of modern powers. Image: Painting by Canaletto, 1730s, showing the Sensa festival fleet and the Bucintoro returning to San Marco after the marriage to the sea ceremony. Thank you to Sarai Cole for permitting use of an exceprt of her rendition of Vivaldi's "Filiae Maestae Jerusalem" / "Sileant Zephyri" -- https://soundcloud.com/sarai-cole-freericks/sileant-zephyri-from-filiae-maestae-jerusalem-vivaldi Suggested further reading: Ferrarro, "Venice: History of the Floating City"; Madden, "Venice: A New History"; Morris, "The Venetian Empire: A Sea Voyage" Please sign up as a patron to help keep the pod coming, and to hear patron-only lectures, including the recent series on the Epic of Gilgamesh -- https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632

We trace the tortuous path by which a scattering of villages in a marshy lagoon, founded by refugees from violence and political breakdown, forged their own stable and cohesive independent republic which would last for a thousand years, and with it a splendrous city where East and West mingled, a sprawling trade network linking Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and finally a waterborne empire that was the forerunner of the modern European colonial states. Image: Detail of a woodcut illustration showing a view of Venice, by Reuwich & Schoffer, 1486. Suggested Further Reading: Morris, "The Venetian Empire: A Sea Voyage"; Madden, "Venice: A New History"; Ferrarro, "Venice: A History of the Floating City." Please sign on as a patron to hear patron-only tracks, such as the series on the Epic of Gilgamesh: https://www.patreon.com/c/user?u=5530632

A randomly-chosen sample from the deepest most thorough analysis that you can find anywhere of the profoundly ancient Epic of Gilgamesh, on patreon for patrons only for one year: We examine the Epic of Gilgamesh as a piece of literature, for its strange dream-like style and form, its points of similarity to Biblical and ancient Greek and European mythology, and finally, its deep levels of psychological and political allegory, ultimately revealing the love between Enkidu and Gilgamesh as a parable of the fraught relationship between civilization and the wild. Please sign up as a patron at any level to hear both of the patron-only lectures on Gilgamesh: https://www.patreon.com/posts/myth-of-month-24-114591189 Image: Gilgamesh grappling with Enkidu; illustration by Wael Tarabieh. Our previous lecture on the discovery of the Library of Ashurbanipal, where the Epic of Gilgamesh was rediscovered: Historiansplaining – Unlocked-the-great-archaeological-discoveries-pt-3-the-library-of-ashurbanipal The SOAS's recordings of scholars reading Akkadian texts: https://www.soas.ac.uk/baplar/recordings Suggested further reading: George, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; N.K. Sandars, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; Heidel, "The Epic of Gilgamesh and Old Testament Parallels"; Stephen Mitchell, "Gilgamesh"; Michael Schmidt, "Gilgamesh: The Life of a Poem"; Rivkah Scharf Kluger, "The Archetypal Significance of Gilgamesh."

Two randomly selected excerpts from Myth of the Month 24, on the Epic of Gilgamesh: He is the earliest human being whose name and life story are known to history. We examine the origins and contents of the most ancient narrative ever found anywhere on Earth, and trace how it has been rediscovered, re-used, and re-translated in the modern world, becoming a living and evolving text in a time of anxiety over the fate of civilization. Please sign on as a patron at any level, to hear this lecture and many others: https://www.patreon.com/posts/114062724 Image: Sumerian bas-relief sculpture of a man subduing a bull, possibly representing Gilgamesh slaying the Bull of Heaven, 2200s BC. Our previous lecture on the discovery of the Library of Ashurbanipal, where the Epic of Gilgamesh was rediscovered: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/unlocked-the-great-archaeological-discoveries-pt-3-the-library-of-ashurbanipal Suggested further reading: George, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; N.K. Sandars, "The Epic of Gilgamesh"; Heidel, "The Epic of Gilgamesh and Old Testament Parallels"; Stephen Mitchell, "Gilgamesh"; Michael Schmidt, "Gilgamesh: The Life of a Poem."

Unlocked after 1 year for patrons only: We consider the turbulent history and politics of the country most often blamed for the outbreak of the First World War -- Germany. The youngest of all the combatant nations in World War I, The German Reich's deep class, regional, and religious divides drove Kaiser Wilhelm and his inner circle to seek national aggrandizement abroad as a source of unity at home--which inadvertently led them to unite their rivals against them and dragged them into a war not of their making. Suggested further reading: Christopher Clark, "Iron Kingdom: The Rise and Downfall of Prussia"; Mary Fulbrook, "A Concise History of Germany." Image: Hand-Colored Photograph of Kaiser Wilhelm II in Tangier, Morocco, 1905 Please sign up at any level to help keep this podcast coming and to hear all patron-only lectures: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

We examine the complex and tumultuous history of the lands around the Caribbean basin, including the rise of the massive sugar-plantation colonies of Jamaica and Saint Domingue, which depended upon an enormous traffic in enslaved African workers, the emergence of distinctive creole languages and spiritual practices, the flourishing of piracy amidst inter-imperial wars, and the long struggle of resistance by slave rebels and defiant Maroons which eventually culminated in the catacylismic upheaval known today as the Haitian Revolution. Image: Women at a linen market, Dominica, by Agostino Brunias, ca. 1780. Our previous lecture on Creating the Caribbean: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/creating-the-caribbean-the-colonial-west-indies-pt-1-1496-1697 Suggested further reading: Richard Dunn, "Sugar and Slaves"; Trevor Burnard, "Master, Tyranny, & Desire: Thomas Thistlewood and His Slaves"; John Sensbach, "Rebecca's Revival"; Marcus Rediker, "The Slave Ship"; Rediker & Linebaugh, "The Many-Headed Hydra"; Christopher L. Brown, "Moral Capital: Foundations of British Abolitionism." Please support to keep this podcast coming and to hear patron-only lectures including on the Dead Sea Scrolls: https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

We examine the tumultuous history--from the Portuguese Inquisition to the American Revolution to modern-day multi-million-dollar legal fights--surrounding a pair of rare colonial Jewish ceremonial artworks called "rimonim" or Torah finials. We consider the unique life and career of the Jewish silversmith who made them, and the symbolism that they encode, centering on life, hope, and regeneration. Please support this podcast! -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 See my latest video on “Red, White & Royal Blue” on youtube: https://youtu.be/MoaQXcLhkx4 – or without ads on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/110423206 Suggested further reading: Laura Leibman, “Messianism, Secrecy, and Mysticism: A New Interpretation of Early American Jewish Life”; Guido Schoenberger, “The Ritual Silver Made By Myer Myers,” Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, Sept. 1953.

Sign up as a patron at any level to hear this full lecture on the Dead Sea Scrolls, on patreon for patrons only: https://www.patreon.com/posts/doorways-in-time-109054869 The most massive and momentous manuscript discovery of modern times, the Dead Sea Scrolls blew the lid off of the long-mysterious world of messianic and apocalyptic ferment before the destruction of the Second Temple—yet it took decades of conflict and struggle to bring them to public light. We trace why the scrolls became the object of a long international struggle, what they actually say, and what they reveal about the roots of the Bible, Christianity, and modern Judaism. Suggested further reading: Lim, “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Very Short Introduction”; Collins, “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A Biography”; Shanks, ed., “Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls: A Reader from the Biblical Archaeology Review”; Eisenman & Wise, “The Dead Sea Scrolls Uncovered”; Wise, Abegg, & Cook, eds., “The Dead Sea Scrolls: A New Translation.” Image: The Great Isaiah Scroll from Cave 1 as displayed in the Shrine of the Book

Exploring whether the outbreak of WWI was unavoidable, the podcast traces combat beginnings in 1914, examines causes like naval rivalry and revanchism, and discusses the transformation of sovereignty leading to a global war. Delving into early stages of combat, causes of the war, myths of public enthusiasm, failures of the European Left, elite networks' role, and factors contributing to the war outbreak, the podcast offers a comprehensive analysis of the events surrounding the Great War.