This is the audio track of my latest video:
"Red, White & Royal Blue: A Historian's Analysis, pt. 1: "We Really Need to Get You a Book on English History" -- The Historical Context of RW&RB"

We start our detailed analysis of the recent gay romcom, Red White & Royal Blue, by considering the expansive historical background that gives meaning to the fictitious love affair between a British prince and a son of the US President -- from the constant scrutiny of royals' bodies and love lives, to the political symbolism of royal marriages, to the reactions to homosexuality in the palace, to the awkward and paradoxical role of the American presidency and the so-called "first family," and finally to the shifting and fraught diplomatic relationship between Britain and America in the two World Wars. We conclude with a comparison between RW&RB and its post-war forerunner, "The Americanization of Emily."

See an edited version of this video on youtube (with ads) here -- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eAWtgmGyk-w

See this video in full without ads here --https://www.patreon.com/posts/103674430

Watch the introductory video of this series ("I know I Owe You an Explanation") here -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/red-white-royal-98784602

music: J.S. Bach, "Shafe Konnen Sicher Weiden," performed by Marco Cera. Marco Cera's youtube channel:  https://www.youtube.com/@marcocera993

Audio from video -- "Red White and Royal Blue" pt. 1 -- The Historical Context of RWRB

Why do humans have most of our hair on our heads, not our bodies? Why do we have so many varieties of hair color, thickness, and curliness? Dr. Tina Lasisi is a biological anthropologist whose work explores these evolutionary mysteries. In this episode, she shares her research into&nbsp;why humans have scalp hair as well as her insights on why curly hair is uniquely human.&nbsp; Links to learn more:       - research paper  Origin Stories is a project of The Leakey Foundation, a nonprofit organization dedicated to human origins research and education. Donate to support the show. Your gift will be quadruple-matched! ! This episode was produced by Ray Pang. Our editor is Audrey Quinn. Theme music by Henry Nagle, additional music by Blue Dot Sessions and Lee Roservere. &nbsp;

The Story of Human Hair

Unlocked after one year on Patreon for patrons only:

What is "culture"?  And how did a metaphor from gardening invade social-science discourse in 19th-century Germany and America and then take the world by storm?  We consider the myriad, often contradictory, ways that "culture" is deployed in current rhetoric, usually to sneak in hidden value judgments; then we trace how an ancient Latin term for gardening came to refer to the "cultivation" of good character, then to the shaping of society by high art and refined customs, and then ultimately, under the influence of German and American imperial politics, to a purportedly unified, organic whole encompassing the sum total of all learned behaviors in a given society.
However you define it, I make the case that it is the defining myth of our time, and that we should get rid of it.

You can also play this episode on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/posts/myth-of-month-22-82746773

Image:  "Old New York" diorama, Museum of Natural History, New York

music:  "Fandango," by Scarlatti or Soler, early 18th cent.; Midi version by El Gran Mago Paco Quito

Suggested further reading:
--Michael A. Elliott, "The Culture Concept: Writing and Difference in the Age of Realism"
--Hammersley, "The Concept of Culture: A History and Reappraisal."

Myth of the Month 22: Culture

Jim Orson interviewed by Paul Merchant An Oral History of Farming, Land Management and Conservation in Post-War Britain, British Library, catalogue reference C1828/07/22. © British Library Board.

This clip was played at the National Life Stories symposium 30 June and 1 July 2023 and features in Oral History vol. 52 number 3, 2024 - online special issue.

Transcript:

I remember my father – we had a group of farmers came round to our farm – and he felt ashamed about all the wild flowers in his permanent pasture, particularly buttercups. And, now of course, you know, people value those wildflowers tremendously [...] but in those days it was very much production-orientated agriculture, nobody thought of the value of plants for biodiversity or anything, not at all.  
How did you know that your Dad was ashamed on that occasion? 
He told me. Yes. [laughs] In fact, it was, his comments were in the local paper, the Melton Times. Yes. But – because, this group of people – and my dad said there was far too many – I think he used the word ashamed, that they saw the farm when there were a lot of what were then classified as weeds in the grassland.

Jim Orson on past view of wildflowers as agricultural weeds

We review the diplomatic landscape of Europe on the eve of war in the summer of 1914—and then follow the dizzying cascade of events that followed after the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. We trace on the ensuing crisis that ricocheted through embassies, banquet halls, and barracks all across Europe, and plunged all the great powers of the continent into a war that soon spread around the world.

Suggested further reading: Christopher Clark, “The Sleepwalkers: How Europe Went to War in 1914”; Margaret MacMillan, “The War That Ended Peace: The Road to 1914”; Barbara Tuchman, “The Guns of August.”

Image: Photograph of nine kings (George V of Britain seated, center; Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany standing, in red), at Windsor, for funeral of Edward VII of Britain, May, 1910.

Sign up here to listen to the entire lecture, as well as lectures on Germany, Japan, and Bosnia & the Assassination:  https://www.patreon.com/posts/105028218

Update & Teaser: Origins of the Frist World War -- The July Crisis & The Outbreak of War

We consider the rich, often mysterious, and fraught history of Bosnia -- a longtime borderland of East and West, disputed between rival empires, religions, and civilizations -- and trace how the politics of this small, mountainous Slavic country set the stage for the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914, and in turn, the outbreak of a global war.
Image:  interior of the "Painted Mosque," Travnik, Bosnia
Please sign on at any level to hear patron-only lectures, including on Germany, Japan, and the July Crisis --https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

UNLOCKED: Origins of the First World War, pt. 4 -- Bosnia & the Assassination

ლია სტურუა, „ტყეს, რომელიც მიყვარს“. 
მთარგმნელი ბაჩანა ჩაბრაძე. 
კითხულობენ: ქართულად - ლია სტურუა. ფრანგულად - ბაჩანა ჩაბრაძე. 
ჩაწერილია მწერალთა სახლის პოდკასტის პოეზიის თარგმანების სერიისთვის.

Lia Sturua, "Au bois que j’aime". 
Traduction française par B. Chabradzé. 
Lecture en géorgien par Lia Sturua, lecture  en français par B. Chabradzé. 
Enregistré à l'initiative de la Maison des écrivains de Géorgie pour la Collection sonore de Traduction de poésie.

Au bois que j’aime, Lia Sturua, trad. B. Chabradze

მწერალთა სახლის ლიტერატურული პოდკასტი: პოეზია, თარგმანები, დიალოგები. 
Writers' House podcast on literature: poetry, translations, dialogues.

Au bois que j’aime, Lia Sturua, trad. B. Chabradze

Writers' House Georgia

Related tracks