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Unexplainable

A better Black Death story

5/13/202632 min

What happens when researchers reexamine some of the basic facts about the Black Death? They start rewriting history and rethinking blame.

Guests: Hannah Barker, professor at Arizona State University; Ulf Büntgen, professor at the University of Cambridge; Martin Bauch, historian at the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe

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Clips

Proving Black Death Was Plague
Beyond Rats: Unexpected Carriers
Debunking The Catapult Myth
From Warfare To Tragedy
Grain As The Trojan Horse
Why Catapult Corpses Don’t Track
Source Sleuthing Shifts History
Rethinking Blame In History

Transcript preview

First 90 seconds

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  11. Noam Hassenfeld· Host1:00

    [clears throat] Sorry.

  12. Byrd Pinkerton· Host1:01

    Are you ready?

  13. Noam Hassenfeld· Host1:01

    Yes. Hello. Hi.

  14. Byrd Pinkerton· Host1:03

    Hello. I have you here today- Mm-hmm ... to talk about the Black Death.

  15. Noam Hassenfeld· Host1:09

    Fun.

  16. Byrd Pinkerton· Host1:11

    Yeah. Well- Wow ... kind of, actually, though. Like, i- interesting, at least.

  17. Noam Hassenfeld· Host1:17

    You had a fun, you had a fun take on the Black Death?

  18. Byrd Pinkerton· Host1:20

    Well- [laughs] ... I got interested in the Black Death. [laughs] [laughs] 'Cause this paper came out last year- Uh-huh ... about sort of climate and the Black Death in Europe,

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