In his recently published book “Cannabis; A Global History,” Prof. Borougerdi presents his readers with the remarkable, complex, millennia-spanning history of how humans discovered, investigated, cultivated, employed, cherished, and even worshiped with species of Cannabis plants.
This week’s most noteworthy podcast episodes take up the subjects of the histories of significant plants, access to the commons in England, and a famous medical illustration.
When you or I read “The Hobbit,” or “The Dragon Riders of Pern,” or even perhaps “The Apocalypse of John,” it’s rather unlikely that we think of the dragons depicted therein as objectively real creatures – either in the distant past or in the present (well, at least it is for me). That’s because in our post-modern world, we divide the things we can prove or at least think can be proven from those that we deem to exist exclusively in human imagination. However for those living in the British Isles a millennium ago – give or take a few centuries – such creatures as dragons were unquestionably as real as the person sitting next to you in the mead hall.
Most of us likely first heard the name Isaac Newton when we were in primary school. For some, it may have been in a classroom; for others it may have been while viewing a television program – most likely a cartoon. However, in most all instances, I’d be willing to wager that the name was […]