Millions of Africans spent months imprisoned in slave ships before even making it to the Americas. The devastating conditions on board, including lack of sanitation and personal space, contributed to countless deaths during the horrific transatlantic crossings.
This podcast episode discusses the horrid Arab slave trade that was happening alongside the transatlantic slave trade. The conversation also touches on how ancient people were able to build structures that have stood the test of time without the cost of labor.
Anthropologist Wade Davis explains the process of making zombies in Haitian culture, which involves capturing an individual's soul and using tetrodotoxin to create a state of suggestibility and fear, and also talks about the distinction between the soul that creates one's personality and the one that all sentient beings share.
The queen bee is responsible for laying up to a million eggs in her lifetime, up to 1,500 per day, to keep the colony's population going. While she is essential to the hive, the other bees ultimately decide when it's time for a new queen to be born.
The speaker discusses the importance of reflecting on one's life like a historian and using past experiences, including moments of fear and embarrassment, to grow and improve as a person.
The chaos at shore during the D-Day invasion was apparent as people died both quickly and slowly, some wounded and struggling to stay alive, while others drowned trying to help their comrades. Heads and limbs of the newly slain bobbed in the water and the first assault waves floated stiffly like logs.