San People, Viking Board Games
A People in Flux
Guest: Bob Hitchcock, Professor, Anthropology, University of New Mexico
The San people of Southern Africa are one of the most studied on the planet, and have a deep respect for and understanding of nature.
Viking Board Games
Guest: David Petts, PhD, Associate Professor of Archaeology at Durham University and Member in the Institute of Medieval and Early Modern Studies
A crowdsourced dig team unearthed a board game piece on the Holy Island of Lindisfarne in the United Kingdom, connecting early Christianity with Vikings through archaeology.
The Strategic Importance of Guano Islands
Guest: Daniel Immerwahr, Associate Professor, History, Northwestern University, and author, "How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States"
Guano Islands are just what they sound like--tiny rocks in the ocean covered with bird droppings. And nothing more. But nations fought over them, or at least diplomatically elbowed each other. Because they were worth enormous amounts--for fertilizer. Guano was a powerful natural source of nitrogen. This is the story of how America built its guano island empire.