Think of King Arthur and the medieval romance and a huge number of images and tropes and clichés spring to mind: knights in shining armour and damsels in distress, castles and chivalry and courtly love, heroic quests and fierce dragons. Camelot, Merlin, the Knights of the Round Table, the Holy read more…
History
Ep 55: A History of Dragons
Dragons have been around for a very long time. They are one of the very few mythological creatures that have become absolutely central to popular culture; everyoneknows what a dragon is. There are other important and well-known mythological creatures, but none are as ubiquitous as dragons, which can be found read more…
Ep 54: Underwater Civilizations & Homo Aquaticus
There is a complex and fascinating relationship between humans and the ocean. How do people and cultures across the world know and understand the sea, whether through myths and legends, trade or fishing, exploration or entertainment? This episode explores one particular aspect of all this: our relationship with the undersea, read more…
Ep 47: Alternate History
In one sense the alternate history tale is a very specific kind of story: a type of speculative fiction in which a certain, often key, moment of history has been changed. In another sense, though, alternate history has a much broader appeal. We are all curious, we all think about read more…
Ep 43: Lost Books
There are countless great works of literature we have tantalising glimpses of, works we know exist but, as far as anyone can tell, have been lost to history. Huge swathes of ancient Greek literature, a vast Chinese encyclopedia, a lost Shakespeare play based on the story of Don Quixote. And read more…
Ep29: Travels in Four-Dimensional Space
We have no problem thinking mathematically about four-dimensional space. Where a 3-d cube has 8 vertices, a 4-d hypercube has 16 vertices. Where a cube has 6 faces, like a dice, a 4-d hypercube has 24 faces. The problem is imagining what that actually looks like. We live in a read more…
Ep28: Pulp Fiction (Amazing Stories of the Sisters of Tomorrow)
If you want to understand how we ended up with anything from Star Wars to Star Trek, Superman to Batman, intergalactic travel to microscopic worlds, profound meditations on the nature of being human to thrilling tales about Martian princesses, you have to look at pulp fiction magazines. Argosy, Blue Book, read more…
Ep 26: Unwrapping the Egyptian Mummy
In the 19th century, a very popular form of entertainment was the mummy unwrapping party. You could go to a private or public event at which an ancient Egyptian mummy would be unrolled and examined. Bandages would be passed around, touched and smelled, ancient jewellery would be admired, and a read more…
Ep25 – Dinosaurs: Palaeontology To Pyjamas
In 1842 a Victorian anatomist looked at some unusual fossils and, noticing they had something in common, he decided we needed a word to describe these strange creatures. He called them dinosaurs. Cut to the present day and there are dinosaur films, TV shows, books, songs, toys, and anything else read more…
Ep 24: Words To That Effect Live at Liberty Hall
Words To That Effect is back! Episode 24 is a recording of September’s live show for the Dublin Podcast Festival. This episode is a story about a long-forgotten nervous disease. But it’s also a story of science and culture, psychology and mental health, feminism and creativity, war and masculinity. It’s read more…
Episode 22 – Book Clubs: Revolution, Politics, Wine, and Cheese
Book Clubs: Literary Salons to Online Communities The Rick O’Shea Bookclub is Ireland’s largest bookclub. It has 17,000 members and is growing fast. Book clubs have never been more popular. But where did they begin, and what role have they played in literary history? Well, quite a large one, it read more…
Episode 21: The Invention of Time
Time in the Victorian Era Time, as we understand it today, was only really invented in the Victorian era. We take it for granted today that our phones and watches and other devices are accurate to the second. That time zones are clear and fixed – when it’s 3pm in read more…
The Influence of Thomas Malthus [Article]
Malthus is one of those cardinal figures in intellectual history who state definitely for all time, things apparent enough after their formulation, but never effectively conceded before [. . .] Probably no more shattering book than the Essay on Population has ever been, or ever will be, written’ – H.G. read more…
Episode 12: The Horrifically Complicated History of Zombies
The History of Zombies from Haiti to Hollywood Whether we like it or not, the zombies are coming for us all. Films, books, computer games, comics and TV shows. From historical and mythical zombies to claims to have proven the scientific truth behind zombification. From the gruesome, cannibalistic monsters of read more…
Episode 8: A Lawyer, an Author, and a Murderer – The Trial of William Edward Hickman
“The most horrible crime of the 1920s” The case of William Edward Hickman went to trial in Los Angeles in 1928. The accused was charged with the gruesome murder of a 12-year-old girl, and he faced the death penalty. The trial was reported all across the U.S. because it was read more…