Podcasts by Dig: A History Podcast
Four women historians, a world of history to unearth. Can you dig it?
Further podcasts by Recorded History Podcast Network
Podcast on the topic Gesellschaft und Kultur
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Islam and the Frankish “Wall of Ice”: Contingency and the Battle of Tours, or Poitiers, or Whatever… from 2023-11-27T01:00
5 Cs of History. Contingency. Episode #4 of 4. It’s October 10, 732 and the Umayyad armies commanded by Abd al-Rahman are facing the Franks led by Charles Martel. The battle is bloody and chaotic. ...
ListenHow the Homophile Movement Could Have Been Intersectional and Antiracist, But Wasn’t: Magnus Hirschfeld and Li Shui Tong’s Love and Loss Story from 2023-11-20T01:00
5 Cs of History: Contingency #3 of 4. In spring 1931, Li Shui Tong [Lee Jow Tong] met Magnus Hirschfeld when the latter was giving a public lecture in Shanghai. Li was a medical student with a deep...
ListenRise and Fall in the Queen City: Contingent Moments in Buffalo, New York from 2023-11-13T01:00
Five Cs of History. Contingency. Episode #2 of 4. At the turn of the 20th century, Buffalo was - to borrow a phrase from historian Mark Goldman - a city on the edge. Perfectly situated on Lake Erie...
ListenCrappy Healthcare is Not Natural: the U.S. Health System is Contingent on a Lot of Bad Decisions from 2023-11-06T01:00
5 Cs of History, Contingency #1 of 4. The U.S. healthcare system is the way it is because of decisions made by people at various points in the last century. America’s healthcare issue is the result...
ListenChinese Medicine: The Complex Balance of Individual, State, and Cosmos from 2023-09-25T00:00
5Cs of History, Complexity: #4 of 4. During the Tang dynasty in the mid 8th century, a military leader named Li Baozhen was frustrated with his aging body. He had achieved much military glory and m...
ListenPuerto Rican Citizenship: A Complex Status from 2023-09-18T00:00
5 Cs of History. Complexity. Episode #3 of 4. Puerto Rico is a territory of the United States, and its residents are considered United States citizens. However the island’s political status remains...
ListenVaudevillian, Countess, Spy, Activist: The Complicated Life of Josephine Baker from 2023-09-11T00:00
5 Cs of History: Complexity, #2 of 4. Josephine Baker’s life story - both what we know and what we don’t/can’t know - is fascinating. For our purposes today, her life story is a perfect case study ...
ListenThe History of Fat: The Complex Attitudes Toward Fatness in the Pre-Modern West from 2023-09-04T00:00
Complexity Series. Five Cs of History. Episode #1 of 4. The dominant narrative- and the story that many of you expect to hear today- is that fatness used to be less stigmatized; that plump women we...
ListenFeminisms: The Interconnected Rights Revolution from 2023-07-17T00:00
Change over Time Series. The Five Cs of History. Episode #3 of 4. The Rights Revolution movements of the twentieth century were deeply connected to one another, with activists known for their work ...
ListenThe History of America's Changing Political Parties from 2023-07-10T00:00
5 Cs of History. Change over Time. Episode #2 of 4. In recent years, America’s two party system has seemed more intractable than ever: Democrats vs. Republicans. Now, we have a clear idea of each p...
ListenIrish Hero, Queer Traitor, Gay Icon: Roger Casement Over Time from 2023-07-03T01:52:48
Five Cs of History. Change Over Time #1 of 4. Roger Casement has been a subject of fascination - and controversy - for over a century. During his lifetime, he was an internationally-recognized cham...
ListenThe Equal Rights Amendment: Gender Equality?Nah... from 2023-05-29T02:05
5 Cs of History. Causality Series #4 of 4. Despite the fact that eighty percent of Americans believe the U.S. Constitution prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex, it does not. That is because...
ListenThe Fall of Rome: Debating Causality and the Collapse of the Western Empire from 2023-05-15T00:00
5 Cs of History: Causality Series. Episode #2 of 4. There was a sense, among very learned folks, that Rome had been something great that had been lost. In their grief, Renaissance scholars pored ov...
ListenThe Controversial Life and Legacy of Margaret Sanger from 2023-03-20T00:00
The 5 Cs of History: Context, Episode #3 of 4. There are few individuals in American history with as divided a legacy as Margaret Sanger. For many, she was a pioneer of women’s health, an important...
ListenAnne Moody: Context and Conflict in Coming of Age in Mississippi from 2023-03-13T00:00
Context Series. Episode #2 of 4. Published in 1968, Anne Moody’s autobiography Coming of Age in Mississippi details her journey from a cotton plantation in the deep south to becoming a leader in th...
ListenThe Women’s War of 1929: Igbo and Ibibio Resistance to British Colonialism from 2023-03-06T01:40:47
5 C's of History: Context Series, #1 of 4. On December 16th, 1929, thousands of Igbo [ee-bo or ibo] women gathered outside the colonial government compound in Opobo. They were there to demand the e...
ListenNina Otero-Warren: Suffrage and Strategy in New Mexico from 2022-11-21T01:00
Surprise Series! #3 of 4. Spanish American Nina Otero-Warren (1881-1965) was a suffragist, Progressive educator, woman's club member, public health and social welfare board member, and writer. She ...
ListenLittle Laborers: Child Indenture in 18th- and 19th- Century America from 2022-11-14T00:50
Surprise Series. Episode#2 of 4. There was once a young, deaf Black man, and I’m not going to tell you his real name because those records are private, so we’ll just call him Levi. Levi lived on a ...
ListenA Spot of Tea: Empire, Commodities, and the Opportunities in Britain’s Tea Trade from 2022-11-07T01:00
Guess the Theme Series, #1 of 4. Tea, it turns out, is a bottomless commodity history. As historian Erika Rappaport notes, at various times over the last two thousands years, “In Asia, the Near Eas...
ListenOmm Sety and Bridey Murphy: A History of Reincarnation and Past Lives in Britain and America from 2022-09-26T00:00
Spiritualism Series. Episode #4 of 4. You might think that the story of Pharaoh Sety I of Egypt's 19th Dynasty ends with his death. But you’d be wrong, at least according to one 20th-century Britis...
ListenAnna Howard Shaw: Doctor, Reverend, Suffragist Leader from 2022-09-19T00:00
Spiritualism Series. Episode #2 of 4. The years 1896-1910 of the American woman’s suffrage movement are sometimes referred to as the doldrums because of an apparent lack of progress during the year...
ListenThe Kingdom of Matthias: Sex, Gender and Alternative Belief in the Second Great Awakening from 2022-09-13T00:00
Spiritualism Series. Episode #2 of 4. Elijah Pierson was the embodiment of early 19th century Christian masculinity. So how did he end up, just a few years later, shambling along the streets of New...
ListenSpectacle and Spiritualism in the Lives of Maggie and Kate Fox from 2022-09-05T00:45:10
Spiritualism Series, #1 of 4. The Fox sister’s story has been told hundreds of times, in autobiography, newspaper stories, biographies, histories of Spiritualism, Victorian entertainment, women’s r...
ListenGhosting the Patriarchy: Spiritualism and the Nineteenth-Century Women’s Rights Movement from 2022-08-01T00:00
Spiritualism Series, Episode # 4 of 4. When Ann Braude published her groundbreaking book Radical Spirits in 1989, critics did not like that Braude prominently linked the women’s rights movement, pa...
ListenPlastic Shamans and Spiritual Hucksters: A History of Peddling and Protecting Native American Spirituality from 2022-07-25T00:00
Spiritualism, Episode #3 of 4. In the late 20th century, white Americans flocked to New Age spirituality, collecting crystals, hugging trees, and finding their places in the great Medicine Wheel. M...
ListenCheesecloth, Spiritualism, and State Secrets: Helen Duncan’s Famous Witchcraft Trial from 2022-07-04T00:00
Spiritualism Series, #1 of 4. Helen Duncan was charged under the 1735 Witchcraft Act, but her case was no eighteenth-century sensation: she was arrested, charged, and ultimately imprisoned in 1944....
ListenDomesticity and Depression: Kentucky Coal Mining, Song, and Organizing During Bloody Harlan from 2022-06-27T00:00
This is a special episode researched and written by one of our interns, Olivia Langa. Intern Episode! #2 of .... To find out more about the everyday lives of women in coal mining families we must l...
ListenOne Medicine: Animal Experiments and the Making of Modern Medical Science from 2022-05-23T10:35
Animals Series. Episode #4 of 4. The interplay between human and veterinary medicine was incredibly common by the second half of the 19th century. While human medicine and veterinary medicine were ...
ListenCanary in a Coal Mine - Literally from 2022-05-16T01:06:12
Animals Series. Episode #3 of 4. The term “canary in a coal mine” is ubiquitous for any early warning signal. Like our fictional vignette of a miner carrying a canary into the coal mine, canaries w...
ListenRemember Rutterkin? Witch’s Familiars, Religious Reformation, and Sexy Beasts in Early Modern Europe from 2022-05-09T00:27
Animals, Episode #2 of 4. Toads, dogs, cats, ferrets, rats, and occasionally even butterflies were depicted in the 16th and 17th centuries as “witch’s familiars” throughout Europe. A servant of the...
ListenWar Elephants from Ancient India to World War II from 2022-05-02T00:00
Animals Series, #1 of 4. In mid-March of 2022, a video spread virally across social media platforms: an elephant with its trunk wrapped around the top bar of its enclosure, its eye casting an anxio...
ListenRace in 1920s America: Hellfighters, Red Summer, and Restrictive Immigration from 2022-03-28T00:51
Race Series. Episode #4 of 4. In today’s episode we’re going to explore race in the 1920s and dig into a few key moments and movements to see how race and ethnicity played a key role in shaping the...
ListenThe Long History of Abolition in America from 2022-03-14T00:00
Race #2 of 4. We’ve discussed the end of American slavery many, many times here on DIG. We’ve talked about abolition in the context of Reconstruction, in the context of refugees sometimes called “c...
ListenThe Windrush Generation and the Mystique of British Anti-Racism from 2022-03-07T01:00
Race #1 of 4. Over the last five years the British government has been reckoning with more recent expressions of the anti-immigration and anti-Black sentiments among its elected officials. The “Win...
ListenRosa Parks: Myth&Memory in the American Civil Rights Movement from 2021-12-26T17:00
Bad Women Series, #4 of 4. The popular image of Parks is one of quiet, and demure respectability. When we were in elementary school, we were taught that Parks was a tired old woman, whose feet hurt...
ListenTituba, The "Black Witch" of Salem from 2021-12-20T01:00
Bad Women Series. Episode #3 of 4. Anyone who's read or seen Arthur Miller's play The Crucible likely remembers Tituba, the enslaved woman who sets off the 1692 witch panic in Salem, Massachusetts....
Listen“La lengua”: Malintzin, the Spanish Conquest of Mesoamerica, and the Legacy of the Translator in Mexico from 2021-12-14T00:46:31
Bad Women Series #2 of 4. Malintzin is by far the most controversial figure of the 1519 Mexican invasion. Was she a traitor, or a feminist national hero? Was she the mother of Mexico, or the Eve-li...
ListenDragon Lady of the South China Sea: Cheng I Sao, Woman Commander of China's Pirate Confederacy from 2021-12-07T01:00
Bad Women Series in collaboration with Hallie Rubenhold's new podcast Bad Women: The Ripper Retold . Episode #1 of 4. The life story of Shih Yang, known to history by her married name Cheng I Sao (...
ListenAunt Jemima: American Racism on Your Grocery Shelf from 2021-11-14T17:00
BONUS EPISODE! Tuck into this episode by our badass intern Carly Bagley, a student at St. Mary's University in Texas. She wrote, recorded and produced this episode as a companion episode to Sarah's...
ListenWerewolves, Vampires, and the Aryans of Ancient Atlantis: The Occultic Roots of the Nazi Party from 2021-10-18T01:01:12
Occult Series #3 of 4. Whether we’ve ever really given it any study, we’re all at least a little familiar with the link between the Nazi party and the occult. Movies like Captain America and Hellbo...
ListenMizuko: The History behind Vengeful Aborted Fetus Hauntings in 1980s Japan from 2021-10-11T02:55
Occult Series. Episode #2 of 4. In 1980s Japan, mizuko spirit attacks, or hauntings by the spirits of aborted fetuses, were on the rise among middle school and high school girls. Listen to one Japa...
ListenThe Demonologist and the Clairvoyant: Ed and Lorraine Warren, Paranormal Investigation, and Exorcism in the Modern World from 2021-10-03T16:00
Occult #1 of 4. In the 1970s, Lorraine and Ed Warren had a spotlight of paranormal obsession shining on them. In the last decade, their work as paranormal investigators--ghost hunters--has been the...
ListenNone of Woman Born: Cesarean Birth before 1900, A Pre-History from 2021-08-22T12:00
Birth Series. Episode #4 of 4. In his occupation as a swineherd, Jacob Nufer had performed countless genital surgeries on his pigs. He was an expert gelder. He was convinced he could deliver his ch...
ListenA History of Childbirth in America from 2021-08-16T00:00
Birth Series #3 of 4. Childbirth is such a routine part of life that in some ways it can become invisible, especially historically. History, people often assume, is made up of major events, politic...
ListenBirth of a Nation: Everyday Racism in 20th-Century America from 2021-08-09T00:00
Birth Series. Episode #2 of 4. The 1915 silent-film The Birth of a Nation is one of the most popular and controversial films ever made. It’s success catapulted director D.W. Griffith into stardom w...
ListenObstetric Violence: Childbirth and Symphysiotomy in Catholic Ireland from 2021-08-02T00:00
Birth Series, Episode #1 of 4. Symphysiotomy. Probably not a word you’ve heard before - and if you have, I’m sorry? Symphysiotomy is an obstetric procedure in which a person’s pubic symphysis carti...
ListenFrance's League of Nations Mandate in Syria and Lebanon from 2021-06-28T00:43:51
Border Series. Episode #4 of 4. In 1919, the idealistic American President Woodrow Wilson brought with him to the Paris Peace Conference his 14 Points. Among these points were the doctrine of self-...
ListenLULAC, Adela Sloss-Vento, and the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement from 2021-06-21T00:00
Borders #3 of 4. If we look for women of color in national women’s rights organizations before the 1970s, we don’t see very many. Once it was assumed that women of color did not participate in twen...
ListenGender, Psychiatry, and Borderline Personality Disorder from 2021-06-14T13:50:09
Borders Series. Episode #2 of 4. In popular media, borderline personality disorder has become linked in particular to beautiful, unstable, and ultimately dangerous white women, most famously Glenn ...
ListenLost! Cabeza de Vaca Stumbles Through Southwestern North America in the "Age of Exploration" from 2021-06-07T00:00
Borders #1 of 4. Like many of the Spanish conquistadors who made their way to the Americas, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca joined an expedition to explore “Florida” in search of glory and, ideally, an ...
ListenEarly American Family Limitation from 2021-04-26T00:00
Bodies Series. Episode #4 of 4. Birth control and abortion are constant flash points in contemporary politics, and they’re often described as signs of a rapidly changing society. But women have alw...
ListenBodies of Evidence: Modern Policing, Sex, and the Intricacies of Authorized Crime and Deception from 2021-04-19T00:00
Bodies Series, Episode #3 of 4. While police investigations have adapted to new technologies, the basic premises of investigative police work have been pretty consistent since the 1880s in the UK, ...
ListenThe OG Vaccine: Smallpox, Cowpox, and the Procedure that Changed the World from 2021-04-12T00:00
Bodies Series. Episode #2 of 4. At the tail end of a pandemic (we hope!) vaccines are in the news. There are huge disparities in COVID-19 vaccination rates marked by class, race, and geography. Cri...
ListenA History of Racial Passing in the United States from 2021-04-05T00:43:29
Bodies Series, Episode #1 of 4. Late in 2020, a number of white academics were revealed to be passing as people of color, making the concept of racial passing a matter of national conversation. For...
ListenAmerican Exceptionalism at Its Most Disturbing: The "1776 Report" from 2021-02-09T00:52:30
Sarah leads Elizabeth, Marissa, and Averill through a discussion and examination of the 1776 Report. Spoiler alert: it's complete garbage. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com...
ListenYes! Same-Sex Marriage and History-Making in Ireland from 2021-01-24T22:49
Elections Series #4 of 4. On May 24, 2015, Ireland became the first country in the world to codify marriage equality through a popular vote. Significantly, the popular vote enacted a constitutional...
Listen1968: A Tumultuous American Year from 2021-01-18T01:00
Elections Series. Episode #3 of 4. 1968 was an extremely turbulent and painful year in the United States of America. The Vietnam War was in full swing, as well as the protest movement against it. G...
ListenRace, Politics, and Chaos in the Capitol: The Election of 1876 from 2021-01-07T16:59
Election Series, Episode #2 of 4. The consequences of 1876 were enormous. To end the the election limbo, Democratic and Republican politicians worked out a shadowy deal in which Rutherford Hayes wa...
ListenThe Papal Election of 1492: Rodrigo Borgia and the Conclave that Made him Pope Alexander VI from 2021-01-04T01:00
Elections Series. Episode #1 of 4. On the morning of August 11, 1492, Rodrigo Borgia was elected Pope, taking the name Alexander VI and yelling “I am Pope! I am Pope!” The throngs of Romans in the ...
ListenMother’s Little Helper: Psychiatry, Gender, and the Rise of Psychopharmaceuticals from 2020-11-23T01:00
Drugs Episode #4 of 4. For centuries, psychiatrists searched for the cure to mental illness, frustrated that medical doctors seemed to be able to find the “magic bullet” medications to fight diseas...
Listen"More like a dust heap than a nose": The Global History of Smokeless Tobacco from 2020-11-16T00:36
Drugs Series. Episode #3 of 4. Tobacco smoking is definitely the default way to consume tobacco. But in certain times and places, smokeless tobacco- such as snuff, chew, or tobacco tea- have found ...
Listen“The Americans Can Fix Nothing without a Drink”: Alcohol in Early America from 2020-11-09T01:35:16
Drugs Series. Episode #2 of 4. Today we’re going to discuss alcohol consumption in early America. Alcohol was very important to early Americans and it flowed freely through the colonies. Adults and...
ListenThe Sacred Bark: A History of Quinine from 2020-11-01T17:00
Drugs, Episode 1 of 4. Quinine, the alkaline derived from the bark of the quina-quina tree, would prove the most effective treatment for malarial fever and infection in human history. In the decade...
ListenW.I.T.C.H.: Women's International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell from 2020-09-28T00:00
Witches Series. Episode #4 of 4. On a brisk autumn day in New York City, 1968, roughly 13 women spent the morning of October 31st dressing in black cloaks and dresses. They stuck feathers, leaves, ...
Listen“Wicked Practises and Sorcerye”: Cunning Folk, Witch Trials, and the Tragedy of Joan Flower and Her Daughters from 2020-09-22T01:12
Witches Series, #3 of 4. In 1618, the Earl of Rutland and his wife accused three women of bewitching their family. They believed that bewitchment was the cause of death of their first son, and the ...
ListenBoth Man and Witch: Uncovering the Invisible History of Male Witches from 2020-09-14T00:00
Witches Series. Episode #2 of 4. Since at least the 1970s, academic histories of witches and witchcraft have enjoyed a rare level of visibility in popular culture. Feminist, literary, and historica...
ListenDoctor, Healer, Midwife, Witch: How the the Women’s Health Movement Created the Myth of the Midwife-Witch from 2020-09-07T00:00
Witches, Episode #1 of 4. In 1973, two professors active in the women’s health movement wrote a pamphlet for women to read in the consciousness-raising reading groups. The pamphlet, inspired by Our...
ListenSlavery&Soul Food: African Crops and Enslaved Cooks in the History of Southern Cuisine from 2020-07-27T00:00
Food Series. Episode #4 of 4. In June 2020, Quaker Oats announced they were revamping their famous (infamous?) brand of breakfast products, Aunt Jemima. From the late 19th century to the late 1980s...
ListenThe Black Panther Party and the Free Breakfast Program: Feeding a Movement from 2020-07-19T16:00
Food Series #3 of 4. The Black Panthers are often misrepresented or their significance is minimized in popular thought and opinion. The everyday organizing is often lost and an overemphasis on the ...
ListenA History of Medicinal Cannibalism: Therapeutic Consumption of Human Bodies, Blood, and Excrement in “Civilized” Societies from 2020-07-13T00:00
Food Series. Episode #2 of 4. Cannibalism gave imperial powers compelling justifications for their colonial endeavors; indigenous Americans and Australasians were backward, uncivilized, savage, and...
ListenHot for Chocolate: Aphrodisiacs, Imperialism, and Cacao in the Early Modern Atlantic from 2020-07-05T16:00
Food Series, Episode #1 of 4. When the Spanish conquered Mesoamerica, they conquered cacao. Mixing the bitter cacao seeds with sugar and other spices - spices that were often also obtained through ...
ListenSex&Soldiers: Combating Sexually Transmitted Infection in the US Military from 2020-06-01T00:00
Commemorative Sex Series. Episode 4 of 4. Wherever you have a military, you will have sex. Whether it’s an occupied city, an encampment in a theater of war, or a military base here in the United St...
ListenSteaming the “Nefarious Sin”: Bathhouses and Homosexuality from the Victorian Era to the AIDS Epidemic from 2020-05-24T16:00
Commemorative Sex Series: Episode 3 of 4. When and where public baths have been popular, they’ve meant different things to different cultures. They might be sites for socializing, religious purific...
ListenRecogimiento: Virginity, Enclosure, and Female Virtue in Colonial Latin America from 2020-05-18T00:00
Commemorative Sex Series: Episode 2 of 4. Today’s show is focused on the Hispanic concept of recogida and the accompanying system called recogimiento. Roughly translated into English, recogida mean...
ListenHoneymoon in Niagara Falls: Heterosexuality and Place from 2020-05-11T00:00
Commemorative Sex Series: Episode 1 of 4. It's our 100th EPISODE!!! Welcome to the start of another glorious SEX series. This episode on the Honeymoon in Niagara Falls is our 100th episode, and to ...
ListenThree Years DIGGING! Live Recording from 2020-05-04T16:00
This is a special episode, a recording of a live Anniversary episode in which we answer questions from listeners. We hope you enjoy! Thank you for listening to and supporting our show, and to those...
Listen79 and Counting: Women of Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising from 2020-03-30T00:00
Violence Series #4 of 4. Though they’re rarely at the fore of the story, the women of Ireland’s 1916 Easter Rising were essential to the rebellion. They carried messages and supplies, provided cove...
ListenBlood on the Ravenstone: Judicial Torture, Penal Violence, and Capital Punishment in Early Modern Europe from 2020-03-23T00:00
Violence Series. Episode #3 of 4. This week we're delving into penal violence in early modern Europe. For most people, we suspect, their familiarity with torture, corporal punishment, and execution...
ListenHonor, Manhood, Slavery: Political Violence from Alexander Hamilton to John Brown from 2020-03-17T00:00
Violence Series, #2 of 4. Dueling seems crazy to us today. Two men take ten paces, turn to face each other, and stand still while they shoot to kill, all the while following strict rules. But while...
ListenAnti-Mexican Mob Violence in the Borderlands: A Lynching in Rocksprings, Texas from 2020-03-08T18:00
Violence Series. Episode # 1 of 4. Today we are examining violence and lynching towards ethnic Mexican people along the Texas Mexico border during the early twentieth century. Particularly we are d...
ListenSlave, Contraband, Refugee: The Complicated Story of the End of Slavery in the United States from 2020-01-27T01:00
2020 Series #4 of 4. Just over one month after the first shots of the Civil War were fired, three enslaved black men got into a row boat and paddled across the James River from mainland Virginia to...
ListenBittersweet: Sugar, Slavery, Empire and Consumerism in the Atlantic World from 2020-01-20T01:00
2020 Series #3 of 4. What happens when you build an empire on sugar? Since the 18th century, sugar has been one of the most demanded commodities in the West. By the 1700s, technological advancement...
ListenFrankenstein's Monster: Science, Revolution and Romanticism in the Age of the Enlightenment from 2020-01-13T03:00
2020 Series. Episode #2 of 4. To escape what came to be known as The Year Without a Summer, a small group holed up in a Swiss villa and challenged each other to pass the time by telling the best gh...
Listen100 Years of Woman Suffrage from 2020-01-06T01:00
2020 Series. Episode #1 of 4. The 19th Amendment, however, was the first federal piece of legislation that guaranteed women the right to vote everywhere in the US. At the time, it’s passage was not...
ListenLa Petite Mort: Investigating the History of Orgasm, aka The Little Death from 2019-12-09T01:00
Death Series, Episode #4 of 4. If you were fluent in French and mingling at a French dinner party and your snooty acquaintance Genevieve likened the champagne she was sipping to la petite mort, you...
ListenAmy Robsart, Lady Dudley: The Death that Launched a Thousand Rumors from 2019-12-02T01:00
Death Series. Episode #3 of 4. Today, as a part of our Death series, we are digging into a particular death, one that scandalized the Elizabethan court, provided fodder for decades of court intrigu...
ListenThe Black Death: Dancing with Death in the Medieval World from 2019-11-24T15:33:30
Death Series. Episode #2 of 4. The Black Death raged across Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia in the mid 14th century. Families were thrown into chaos, the Catholic church faced dissension ...
ListenCult of the Dead: Anglo American Death Practices, Spiritualism, and Speaking with the Dead from 2019-11-18T01:00
Death Series. Episode #1 of 4. Today we delve into the new book, Speaking with the Dead inEarly America, by historian and friend-of-the-pod Erik Seeman, where he explores the history of Protestant ...
ListenFor Heart and Hearth… and the Rights of Women: Radical Christianity in Pursuit of Conservative Ends in the Nineteenth Century from 2019-10-21T00:00
Radical Religions Series #4 of 4. Join us as we highlight the religious underpinnings of the women’s reform movement of the late nineteenth century in America, with particular emphasis on the Woman...
ListenDancing Toward Wounded Knee: The Hope and Tragedy of the Ghost Dance Religion from 2019-10-14T00:00
Radical Religions Series. Episode #3 of 4. In the 1880s, when the buffalo were all but extinct, droughts and over-grazing meant famines, and the promised rations from the government shrank, a new r...
ListenDuggie Mack, the Jamaican Delegation to Ethiopia, and the Rastafarian Movement from 2019-09-30T00:00
Radical Religions #2 of 4. Duggie Mack was one of three young Jamaicans who traveled with a delegation to Ethiopia in 1961 searching for a way to move all of his people “back to the Promised Land.”...
ListenWound Worship, “Enthusiasts" and "Sodomites”: A History of Radical Moravians from 2019-09-23T00:00
Radical Religions Series. Episode #1 of 4. They stoked rebellion in enslaved Africans in Suriname, they possessed an unhealthy obsession with blood, gore, and the genitals of Jesus Christ, they all...
ListenWhat’s In a Name? : North American Naming Conventions and the “Death” of Patrilineal Lines from 2019-08-26T00:00
Bodies in Blue Series #4 of 4. Imagine a piece of furniture, part cupboard, part chest of drawers -- decorated with patterns of hearts, pinwheels, and intricate floral imagery -- emblazoned on the ...
ListenMasculinity, Magic&the Meaning of Impotence in Patriarchal Societies of the Past from 2019-08-19T00:00
Bodies in Blue. #3 of 4. Sexual impotence has been a problem since at least the beginnings of recorded history and, since then, people have been striving to cure it. However, the cultural meanings ...
ListenPapa Can You Hear Me? Fatherhood in 19th century US and Britain from 2019-08-12T00:00
Bodies in Blue, Episode #2 of 4. Like all things, “fatherhood” has a history. From the enslaved men of the Anglo-American Atlantic to the middling sort to working class daddies and "their chairs," ...
ListenPatriarchs, Brawlers, and Gentlemen: Manhood in the Civil War Era from 2019-08-05T00:00
Bodies in Blue Series. #1 of 4. In 1864, young Daniel Folsom was institutionalized for something that we might consider PTSD. In a letter home to his sister, he promised her, “I shall try and be a ...
ListenSecret Societies of Sapphos: Faro Ladies, Bluestockings, and Gendered Insults of Women’s Societies in 18th- and 19th-Century Britain from 2019-07-08T00:00
Secret Societies&Clubs #4 of 4. London was a colorful place in the 1790s, full of vices that the Victorians took great pains to either criticize or euphemize in their histories of England: alcoholi...
ListenFragile Masculinity, Playing Indian, and Mechanical Goats: Fraternal Orders in the 19th Century US from 2019-07-01T00:00
Secret Societies and Clubs. 3 of 4. The Odd Fellows, the Masons, the Knights of Pythias: all ancient, secret, solemn orders full of the pillars of the community, right? Then what do we make of so...
ListenWho Else but the Illuminati? Conspiracy Theories, French Revolutions, and Historian Heroes from 2019-06-24T00:00
Clubs #2 of 4. If the internet is to be believed, the Illuminati are everywhere, controlling everything. They killed JFK and Tupac, they made Lindsay Lohan famous, they stole antimatter and blew up...
ListenOrder of Assassins: Myth&Memory of the Nizari in Medieval Iran and Syria from 2019-06-17T00:00
Secret Clubs and Societies. 1 of 4. Deadpool, Boba Fet, James Bond, Jason Bourne, Winter Soldier and Kill Bill... from the Assassin's Creed video game to the John Wick series, professional assassin...
ListenLife Unworthy of Life: The Nazi Programs to Kill People with Disabilities from 2019-05-20T00:00
Eugenics, Episode #4 of 4. At the beginning of the 20th century, eugenics - the belief that the human population could be manipulated through selective breeding - was on the cutting-edge of modern ...
ListenChoice, Sterilization, and Eugenics in Twentieth Century Puerto Rico from 2019-05-13T00:00
Eugenics 3 of 4. In 1968, researchers found that one-third of all Puerto Rican women of childbearing age were surgically sterilized. This ignited the U.S. reproductive rights movement and the polit...
ListenAt the Crossroads of Modernity: Japan, the Blood-Type Fad, and Eugenic Science in the 20th Century from 2019-05-06T00:00
Eugenics #2 of 4. If you are stumbling on this episode because you are someone obsessed with Japanese culture, then you probably already know about the blood-type fad that leaves poor Type-Bs at th...
ListenEugenics in the Making: Human Typologies, Population Hygiene, and Racial Science in the 18th Century from 2019-04-29T00:00
By the 19th Century, the European public had been engaging in scientific debate for decades, gathering exotic curiosities, and energetically pursuing the secrets of life. At the same time, they ens...
ListenSeduction, Prostitution, Bastardy, and Child Abandonment in Georgian London from 2019-04-01T00:00
Georgian London was the epicenter of urban pleasure culture. Harlots leveraged their assets, rakes indulged in licentious sex, and brothels, molly-houses, taverns and bawdy houses were scattered al...
ListenAnthony Comstock: Sex, Censorship, and the Power of Policing the Subjective from 2019-03-25T00:00
Sex 2.0: Episode #3 of 4. Today’s episode is part of our sex series 2.0 and a continuation of one of our earliest episodes, Selling Sex: 19th Century New York City Prostitution and Brothels. In th...
ListenRape and Race in Early America from 2019-03-17T16:00
In the age of #MeToo, rape and sexual assault have been consistently in the news. Debates abound about what counts as rape, whose testimony we should believe, and too often, men with power and pri...
ListenLocked Up and Poxxed: THE Venereal Disease and Women who Sold Sex in the Victorian British Empire from 2019-03-10T16:00
Sex Series #1 of 4. Have you been tested? Averill and Elizabeth take a look at the long history of Europeans blaming women for sexual transmitted diseases, and the gendered and racially charged Bri...
ListenMiscarriage in Nineteenth Century America from 2019-02-11T01:00
Bodies Episode #4 of 4. Shannon Withycombe'sLost: Miscarriage in Nineteenth-Century Americaputs miscarriage at the center of the study of nineteenth-century science, medicine, and women’s ...
ListenSkull Collectors: Race, Pseudoscience, and Native American Bodies from 2019-02-04T01:00
Bodies #3 of 4. In 1996, two college students stumbled upon some skeletal remains in the Columbia River in Washington. The body, it turns out, was the oldest ever found in North America. In order t...
ListenSyphilis: Origin Story. Or, Early Modern Europeans Don’t Know Where It Came From, Current Scholars Don’t Know Where It Came From, and a Lot of Poxy Penises and Vulvas Suffered in Between from 2019-01-27T17:00
Bodies Episode #2 of 4. From whence came the poxiest of poxes? Averill and Marissa dive into the debates surrounding the origin of syphilis, with historians, paleobiologists, forensic anthropologis...
Listen“Walking Corpses”: Life as a Leper in Medieval Eurasia from 2019-01-20T17:00
Bodies #1 of 4. In this week's episode, we are going medieval. Conventional narratives tell us that medieval lepers were pariahs who lived out their days as rejected invalids, rotting away in decre...
ListenHearts of Darkness: Victorian Imperialism and Travel of the African Continent from 2018-12-30T17:00
Frontiers, Episodes #4 of 4. Find the transcript and complete show notes at digpodcast.org. Victorian-era European imperialism was facilitated by the thousands of missionaries, businessmen, soldier...
ListenBlack Cowboys: People of Color in the American West from 2018-12-17T01:00
Frontiers #3 of 4. Black cowboys made up at least one third of the cowhands that drove cattle along the long trails from Texas to mid-western and northern points in the middle of the 19th century. ...
ListenThe Final Frontier: History, Science, and Space Exploration from 2018-12-10T01:00
Frontiers Series, Episode #2 of 4. Is space the new frontier? What are the links between the so-called “age of exploration,” the conquering of the American West, and the United States space program...
ListenFur Trading and Frontier Life in French Canada from 2018-12-02T17:00
Frontiers #1 of 4. Fur trading and frontier life in French Canada. As frontiers typically are, the story of the French Canadian wilderness has been a gendered one since its earliest iterations. If ...
ListenCannibalism, Frostbite, and The Quest for the Northwest Passage from 2018-11-05T01:00
Creepy, Occult, and Otherworldly Episode #4 of 4. Get a complete transcript of this episode at digpodcast.org. Today we are discussing the bone-chilling fear that comes from knowing that all hope i...
ListenHaunted Slavery: The Lalaurie Mansion from 2018-10-29T00:00
Creepy, Occult, and Otherworldly Episode #3 of 4. Get a complete transcript of this episode at digpodcast.org. The Lalaurie Mansion in New Orleans, Louisiana, is said to be one of the most haunted ...
ListenWitches Brew: How the Patriarchy Ruins Everything for Women, Even Beer from 2018-10-21T21:00
Creepy, Occult, and Otherworldly Episode #2 of 4. Get a complete transcript and the show notes for this episode at digpodcast.org. An old woman with a pointy hat, cauldron, broom, cat, and smelly b...
ListenForensic Pathology and the History of Death Investigation from 2018-10-14T16:00
Creepy, Occult, and Otherworldly Episode #1 of 4. Get a complete transcript and sources for this episode at digpodcast.org. Instagram accounts like @Mrs_Angemi and @CrimeSceneCleanersInc boast hund...
ListenRebel Slaves and Resistance in the Revolutionary Caribbean from 2018-09-17T00:00
Slavery #4 of 4. complicated story. Enslaved people in the Caribbean resorted to active resistance much more often than their North American and South American counterparts. Haiti (known then as St...
ListenSlavery and Freedom in New York City from 2018-09-10T00:00
Slavery #3 of 4. Show Notes and a complete transcript available at digpodcast.org. Today, we’re really excited to have an extra special episode for you. We’re honored to present this episode in con...
ListenSlave Codes, Black Codes&Jim Crow: Codifying the Color Line from 2018-09-03T00:00
Slavery #2 of 4. In today’s episode we are discussing some laws in the United States that governed the bodies and lives of enslaved people and follow how those laws changed, or didn’t change, throu...
ListenDev?irme: The Tribute of Children, Slavery and the Ottoman Empire from 2018-08-26T16:00
Slavery #1 of 4. Get the Show Notes or read the full transcript at digpodcast.org. Between 1522 and 1536, the second most powerful man in the Ottoman empire was Ibrahim Pasha.The most surprising th...
ListenThe Age of Crime! Civil War Veterans and Crime in America from 2018-08-05T22:04:56
Original Research #4 of 4. Get a complete transcript and see the show notes at digpodcast.org The nation first had to truly grapple with the extraordinary expenses of war was after the American Civ...
ListenThe United States Children's Bureau: An Attempt to Curb Infant Mortality from 2018-07-30T00:00
The death of a young child was a very real and emotional experience for many families during the American Progressive Era. However, at the dawn of the twentieth century many Americans came to expe...
ListenQueer Politics: The Dublin Castle Scandal of 1884 from 2018-07-22T16:00
Original Research #2 of 4. Get Show Notes and Transcripts at digpodcast.org. The case of the Dublin Castle Scandal was no ordinary trial, because this one included sex between men. Like most crimes...
ListenEmployment Agencies in 18c London... and Boobs from 2018-07-16T00:00
Original Work #1 of 4. Employment agencies and classified job ads have a much longer history than you might think. Join us for a brief history of early modern employment agencies. Stick around for ...
ListenUnderwear: A History of Intimate Apparel from 2018-06-25T00:00
Fashion #4 of 4. Underwear, the unseen garments which sit in close proximity to genitals, skin, and all sorts of unmentionable orifices, are the most poorly-documented garments in history yet they ...
ListenStruggle for the Breeches: Pants, Women, and Power from 2018-06-17T16:00
Fashion #3 of 4. Get Show Notes&a complete transcript at digpodcast.org. Who wears the pants in this relationship? If someone asks you this question, you probably understand what they mean. Who is ...
ListenSuit Up: Class, Economics, Manhood, and Menswear from 2018-06-11T00:00
Fashion #2 of 4. The suit has been the standard of Western men’s fashion, with some slight alterations, since at least the late 1600s. Not only that, but since the 1970s, even women, when they nee...
ListenThe Labor of Fashion: Shirtwaists and the Labor Movement in the Early 20th Century from 2018-06-04T00:00
Fashion #1 of 4. The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire is one of the most horrendous industrial catastrophes in American history. In all, 146 people, mostly women and children, died in the fire. It shocked ...
ListenTuberculean Chic: How White Plague Shaped Beauty Standards in the 18c&19c from 2018-05-27T16:00
Fashion Re-Release. Marissa and Sarah discuss Georgians’ and Victorians’ love affair with Tuberculosis and the tuberculean aesthetic in fashion and art. In Georgian London, some diseases started to...
ListenTrees that Fight Back: Shinto&the Environment in Japan from 2018-05-20T16:00
Environmentalism #4 of 4. Shinto - In Japan, recognizing the spirit of all things - from trees to mountains to interestingly shaped rocks - is part of Shinto. Older than writing in Japan, Shinto is...
ListenMt. Tambora&The Year Without a Summer from 2018-05-14T00:00
Environmental history #3 of 4. The 1815 volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora changed history. The year following the eruption, 1816 was known in England as the “Year without a Summer,” in New England...
ListenNational Parks in America: Health, Manhood, and Wilderness from 2018-05-07T00:00
Environmental History, #2 of 4. Sarah and Elizabeth discuss the conservation movement and the creation of Americas National Parks in the late 19th and early 20th century. Find the Show Notes and a ...
ListenThe Rise of Natural History Museums from 2018-04-30T00:00
Environment #1 of 4. Many natural history museums, in America and in the western world, were developed during the nineteenth century. These museums are both places to view and understand nature, t...
Listen“No peace, No p*ssy”: Sex Strikes and the Recent History of Global Feminist Protest from 2018-04-15T16:00
Womyn #4 of 4. Sex striking is a method of passive resistance, a form of peaceful protest, and something attempted by American Indians in the early modern era, First Wave feminists in Europe and Am...
ListenVictoria Woodhull: Free Love, Feminism&Finance from 2018-04-08T16:00
Womyn, #3 of 4. Victoria Woodhull was an advocate of free love, an outspoken advocate for women’s rights and suffrage, a Spiritualist medium, a stockbroker, maybe a sex worker, an all-around force ...
ListenMarriage in America: A Brief History from 2018-04-01T16:00
Womyn, #2 of 4. Marriage - the word alone is loaded. Marriage is the butt of jokes, the “old ball and chain,” the end of fun. Marriage can also bring up images of fear, of abuse, of control. And m...
ListenKing Ahebi Ugbabe: Sex, Gender, and Power in Colonial Nigeria from 2018-03-25T16:00
Womyn, #1 of 4. King Ahebi Ugbabe was unique among the men of Igboland in colonial Nigeria. There weren’t many kings in Igboland at all. But the infrequency of kingship is not what set Ugbabe apar...
ListenAuburn System: Prisons&Punishment in 19c U.S. from 2018-03-11T16:00
Law Series #4 of 4. Ever wonder how the modern prison system came to be? Join us for a discussion of 19th century prisons, their history, evolution and the intended reforms they were intended to p...
ListenNuremberg Laws and Nazi Discrimination against Jewish Germans from 2018-03-04T17:00
Law Series #3 of 4. In Germany in the 1930s, the state passed law after law to isolate, disenfranchise, and break down Jewish Germans. It is shocking how easily the German parliamentary government ...
ListenCoverture: Married Women and Legal Personhood in Britain from 2018-02-26T01:00
Law Series #2 of 4. The doctrine of coverture deprived married women of legal status, merging her legal personhood with her husband’s. Today we’ll get into the complex ways that the doctrine of cov...
ListenFourteenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States from 2018-02-18T17:00
Law Series #1 of 4. Studying the Fourteenth Amendment is like taking one thread of American history since the mid nineteenth century and following it through all of the major events of the period s...
ListenJane Roe and The Pill from 2018-02-11T17:00
Bonus Episode #6 of 20. In the third episode in our series on women's reproductive rights in America, Jane Roe& the Pill, we finally get to two of the most important turning points in our story...
ListenSuitcase Murder: Abortion, Mystery and Murder in 20th Century America from 2018-02-05T01:00
True Crime Series #4 of 4. On September 21, 1905, a suitcase floated to the water’s surface in Winthrop Harbor, a shallow six-foot deep man-made channel, about three miles north of Boston Harbor. S...
ListenCelia, A Slave: The True Crime Case that Rocked the American Slave Power from 2018-01-28T19:24
True Crime Series #3 of 4. Today, we’re talking about a very real murder that was committed by a very real woman who lived in Missouri in the 1850s. But while this murder had all the elements that...
ListenChild Abuse, Murder&Execution in Georgian London: Case of Elizabeth Brownrigg from 2018-01-21T06:00
True Crime Series #2 of 4. Most societies are fascinated by women murderers. On September 14, 1767, a massive crowd gathered round the road to Tyburn, thronging around the hangman’s cart, throwing...
ListenBrutal Murder of Bridget Cleary in 1895 Ireland from 2018-01-14T06:00
True Crime Series #1 of 4. After Michael Cleary murdered his wife Bridget Cleary, he wandered the Tipperary countryside in his best suit, telling everyone he met that he was going to reclaim her fr...
ListenCharles Dickens and Scary Winter Stories from 2017-12-18T00:00
Winter Series #4 of 4. Charles Dickens may have capitalized on telling ghost stories at Christmas with A Christmas Carol, but this practice stretches well beyond the famous Victorian novelist. Join...
ListenGreat White Hurricane of 1913 from 2017-12-11T00:00
Winter Series #3 of 4. During the hey-day of Great Lakes shipping, when ships crossed these huge lakes loaded down with cargo, a fall storm could be – and often was - deadly. You might be familiar ...
ListenHeating and Illuminating Homes in Victorian Britain from 2017-12-03T15:55
Winter Series #2 of 4. The warmth - and light - of the houses of 19th century Britain were a characteristic of Victorian life. While open coal hearths continued to dominate home heating, the Victor...
ListenLittle Ice Age: Weird Weather, Witchcraft, Famine&Fashion from 2017-11-27T00:00
Winter Series #1 of 4. Today we are discussing the ways the theoretical Little Ice Age impacted the people who lived through it. The study of past climates is highly politicized. Historical climato...
ListenDeath, Religion, and Euro-Native Encounters from 2017-11-12T16:00
Creepy, Occult&Spooky Series #4 of 4. People are often surprised to learn that yes, even death has a history. In fact, death can be a powerful tool for unlocking the ways that people thought about...
ListenCock Lane Ghost: 18c London’s Haunting Hoax from 2017-11-05T17:00
Creepy, Occult&Spooky Series #3 of 4. There wasn’t a soul in London, much less the neighborhood of Smithfield market, who hadn’t heard of the Cock Lane ghost. In 1762, the narrow London street was...
ListenHalloween, Samhain, and Moral Panics in the 1980s from 2017-10-29T16:00
Creepy, Occult&Spooky Series #2 of 4. In 1978, John Carpenter created a horror film that would arguably change the genre, certainly led the way in slasher films, and all on a $325,000 budget, with...
ListenPhotos of the Dead: Victorian Postmortem Photography and the Case of the Standing Corpse from 2017-10-22T14:32
Creepy, Occult&Spooky Series #1 of 4. We commemorate and document life through photographs, and have been doing so since the 19th century. But photography has also been used to document death. In t...
ListenThe Lost Cause: Texas Independence, Slavery and Historical Memory from 2017-10-08T22:29
War, Conflict and Violence Series #4 of 4. Today’s discussion is about the creation of historical memory and how one war in particular, The Texas War of Independence, is remembered. But also how hi...
ListenGuerrilla Warfare: The American Civil War and Irregular Soldiers from 2017-10-01T12:51
War, Conflict and Violence Series #3 of 4. Dealing with the history behind why we have Confederate memorials and what they mean, but also talk about something fun: guerrilla warfare – the irregular...
ListenDeath, Mud&Guns II: Military Rev and Birth of Bureaucracy from 2017-09-25T00:01
War, Conflict and Violence Series #2.5 of 4. The military revolution changed every detail of military service, provided a profession for sons who were not their fathers’ heirs, sparked concerns ove...
ListenDeath, Mud&Guns I: Military Rev and Birth of Bureaucracy from 2017-09-25T00:00
War, Conflict and Violence Series #2 of 4. In early modern Europe—that’s about 1500 to 1800—warfare changed dramatically, mostly due to the rise of gunpowder weapons. The introduction of artillery ...
ListenGeorge McGovern and the Elusive Christian Left from 2017-09-17T16:00
War, Conflict and Violence Series #1 of 4. While today, press coverage treats Christianity’s alignment with political conservatism as a foregone conclusion, there is a larger milieu of liberal and ...
ListenPuritan Sex: The Surprising History of Puritans and Sexual Practices from 2017-09-11T00:00
Sex Series, Episode #4 of 4. Get a complete transcript and bibliography at digpodcast.org. We have an image of puritans as cold, severe, hyper-strict and religious people, and while that’s not enti...
ListenSelling Sex in 19th C. NYC from 2017-09-04T00:03
In 19th century New York City, sex was for sale and it wasn’t hard to find it. Commodified sex was everywhere and available for any price. The years between roughly 1850 to about 1910 were the yea...
ListenMarie Stopes’ Sex Guide for Marital Bliss from 2017-09-03T20:00
Sex Series, Episode #2 of 4. Marie Stopes was one of the most significant figures in the modern birth control movement. She founded 37 international family planning clinics and brought sexual knowl...
ListenSadism, Sex&the French Rev from 2017-09-03T15:41
Sex Series #1 of 4. The Marquis de Sade is a notorious figure in the history of the French Revolution. Some see him as a twisted, debauched lunatic who preyed on the bodies of women and children. O...
ListenVietnam Protest and the Buffalo 9 from 2017-08-28T00:02
Buffalo NY Series, Episode #2 of 2. The late 1960s were a tumultuous time in United States history - major political assassinations, riots, protests, and a deeply controversial war all added up to ...
ListenCommunism and Uteruses from 2017-08-21T00:00
Bonus Episode #3 of 20. There is something fascinating about the history of reproductive rights, contraception, and abortion in every country and ideology that we've looked at in our women's reprod...
ListenFounding of AIDS Project of the Ozarks from 2017-08-13T05:00
Bonus Episode #1 of 20. Averill and Sarah deliver a much-needed update and revision to an early episode about the founding of AIDS Project of the Ozarks (APO), an AIDS service organization that ope...
ListenBlack Athena and the Battle of Historians from 2017-08-13T05:00
Bonus Episode #2 of 20. In 1987, a historian of modern China wrote a book that was way outside of his field - a historiographical work about the classical world, which argued that argued a racist a...
ListenBlack Athena and the Battle of Historians from 2017-08-13T05:00
Bonus Episode #2 of 20. In 1987, a historian of modern China wrote a book that was way outside of his field - a historiographical work about the classical world, which argued that argued a racist a...
ListenWar of 1812 and the Burning of Buffalo from 2017-08-13T05:00
Buffalo NY Series, Episode #1 of 2. Most American history books devote a page at most to the War of 1812. It is often referred to as the forgotten war. However, scholarship on the war has exploded ...
ListenFounding of AIDS Project of the Ozarks from 2017-08-13T05:00
Bonus Episode #1 of 20. Averill and Sarah deliver a much-needed update and revision to an early episode about the founding of AIDS Project of the Ozarks (APO), an AIDS service organization that ope...
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