There is a long, brutal history behind the circus. One look at the hideous, powdery artificial visage of a circus clown and you know that deep down in your nightmare heart. The classic circus that we know today has its roots in English horse riding exhibitions – people doing fancy tricks on horses. It could be […]
The story of LA as a major world city really starts in ernest with the arrival of the aqueduct. How the city acquired the water and what happened afterward is the stuff of legend. The story has been dramatized and mythologized through the years. A lot of information has been mixed up or made up. […]
Here is a playlist of all our episodes on plague so far. In these videos I discuss how plague infects a human host and how it spreads, the Plague of Justinian, the Black Death, the organized response to the Black Death, and the third wave of plague that hit in the 19th century.
Now that the Ebola videos are all wrapped up, I thought I’d compile them all here in one easy post. In this first video, I talk about how the disease is transmitted. Next, I talk about what the disease does to the body. And finally, I talk about the reasons for the current outbreak. I […]
Here is my most recent history video on plague. This time it’s about the Black Death, the plague that we all know and love. This is a very important event that helped to shape Europe and the rest of the world. I talk about the impact of plague on society here:
The sixth century was a time of extreme crisis and extraordinary survival for the Eastern Roman Empire. Justinian I’s reign is the height of this empire. This is his story.
Knowing the history of infectious disease epidemics and pandemics like plague, smallpox, cholera, etc. is important when it comes to understanding whatever new disease comes our way. In this video, I discuss how the plague thwarted Justinian’s efforts to make the Mediterranean a Roman lake again in the middle of the sixth century.
Around four years ago, I got the idea to write a show about bubonic plague. Not on just one or two outbreaks or something, but an entire stage show where I just talk about bubonic plague for three hours. Any takers? No? Huh. As a fan of history, I really felt that the story of plague […]
Terrifying World 