90 Second Narratives

“In the spring of 1816, the weather in New England turned suddenly chilly. A distant volcanic eruption of Mt. Tambora in Indonesia in 1815 had expelled sulfur dioxide particles into the atmosphere in such quantity that they reduced the amount of solar energy that could reach Earth’s surface…”

So begins today’s story from Emma C. Moesswilde.

For further listening:

Climate History

For further reading:

J. Luterbacher and C. Pfister, “The Y...

“In mid-twentieth-century Latin America, an intellectual movement that changed the region, the world, and the global economy emerged. The members of the movement were called cepalinos…”

So begins today’s story from Dr. Margarita Fajardo.

For further reading:

The World That Latin America Created: The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America in the Development Era by Margarita Fajardo (Harvard University ...

“Dietrich Bonhoeffer was one of the most significant theologians of the twentieth century. To this day, large audiences are still drawn to his important writings including The Cost of Discipleship, Life Together, and Ethics. But Bonhoeffer is even more widely-known for his remarkable and tragic biography…”

So begins today’s story from Dr. Sky Michael Johnston. 

For further viewing:
Dr. Victoria Barnett, “From Harlem to Berlin: Di...

This special episode combines all the stories from Season 9…

“Becoming a Friend of God in Eighteenth-Century North Africa” – Dr. Zachary Wright, Associate Professor of History and Religious Studies at Northwestern University in Qatar

“Posthumous Friendships between Jesuit Brothers” – Dr. Ulrike Strasser, Professor of History at the University of California San Diego

“Life’s Seasons and the Friendships of Frederick the Great” – Dr. Sky...

“Today a flight from Prague to Guam covers an aerial distance of over 7,100 miles and takes about 15 hours. The journey may seem far, long, and cumbersome to many travelers. Yet today’s challenges pale when compared to those faced in 1678 by Augustinus Strobach…”

So begins today’s story from Dr. Ulrike Strasser.

For further reading:

Missionary Men in the Early Modern World: German Jesuits and Pacific Journeys by Ulrike Strasser (Amste...

“As enshrined on the door of the U.S. Supreme Court Building in bronze, John Marshall and Joseph Story were friends. But what was it that earned this pair of friends the most prominent place on these monumental seventeen-foot doors? It was this: their association with the 1803 Supreme Court case Marbury v. Madison. That was the case that established the principle of judicial review, giving the federal courts power to declare legisl...

“I want to tell you about the friendship between two women, nearly two centuries ago, that’s had a very long tail in Mexican history. On February first, 1840, shortly after arriving in Mexico City, Fanny Calderón de la Barca – the Scottish wife of the new Spanish ambassador – met doña María Ignacia Rodríguez de Velasco…”

So begins today’s story from Dr. Silvia Marina Arrom. 

For further reading:
La Guera Rodriguez: The Life and L...

“‘The true scholar,’ the 18th-century North African Sufi master Shaykh Ahmad al-Tijani told his disciples, ‘is the one who gives form to what is clear, and clarifies what is ambiguous, and this from the strength of his knowledge, the breadth of his understanding, the soundness of his spiritual vision (naẓr) and his verification (taḥqīq)’…” 

So begins today’s story from Dr. Zachary Wright.

For further reading:
Realizing Islam: The...

“Historians point to the year 1648 as a watershed moment in the development of religious tolerance in Europe. In that year, the Peace of Westphalia brought an end to the Thirty Year’s War—one of Europe’s grimmest chapters of religiously-inflected violence…”

So begins today’s story from Dr. Sky Michael Johnston.

For further reading:
Michael Warren Murphy, “‘No Beggars amongst Them’: Primitive Accumulation, Settler Colonialism, and...

“Historians like to say, everything has a history. Recently, the history of animals, has seen some development. The history of dogs, living closely beside humans for millennia as guards, workers, hunting aids and companions, illustrates a relationship with nature over time and sheds light on how our species has understood our role on our planet as owners, custodians, or exploiters of the natural world, and it includes ambiguous fri...

This special episode combines all the stories from Season 8…

“A Black Woman’s Spiritual Journey to the City” – Dr. J. T. Roane, Assistant Professor of African & African American Studies at Arizona State University

“Cotton: Connecting the Atlantic World” – Dr. Anna Arabindan-Kesson, Assistant Professor in the Department of African American Studies and the Department of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University

“Soju: A Liquor’s G...

"What factors do you take into consideration before going on a journey? Do you have any sense of when is a good time for a journey? Or, a good time for a specific type of journey? In sixteenth-century Germany, people had a way of systematizing the good and bad times for many of life’s activities, including travel…"

So begins today’s story from Dr. Sky Michael Johnston.

For further reading:
Der Bawren Practica oder Wette...