Please note that this episode contains mentions of racial trauma, slavery and violence.
The most feared ship in Britain’s West Africa Squadron, His Majesty’s Black Joke was one of a handful of ships tasked with patrolling the western coast of Africa in an effort to end hundreds of years of global slave trading. Once a slaving vessel itself, only a lucky capture in 1827 allowed it to be repurposed by the Royal Navy to catch its former compatriots.
A.E. Rooks is an expert in this little-discussed facet of the transatlantic slave trade. Rooks joins Dan on the podcast to chronicle this history of the daring feats of a single ship - whose crew and commanders would capture more ships and liberate more enslaved people than any other in the Squadron.
Hidden in bedside tables or proudly displayed on mantelpieces, wherever you keep them (if you do), sex toys have come a long way since the first phallic-shaped object was found around 30,000 years ago.
But before they were arriving through our post boxes in unmarked, tracked packages, what did s...
Whether talking about shell shock, war neurosis, combat trauma or PTSD; the impacts of war zones on those who fight in them or encounter them have long been discussed. With increasing understanding, however, definitions and treatments continue to change.
In this episode, James is joined by Dr He...
Part one of this comprehensive trilogy covering the Wars of the Roses left the Yorkist lords attained and in exile.
From this point, the 15th century civil wars were transformed into a bitter procession of dynastic clashes between the rival houses of Lancaster and York - the result of which wou...
