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As has become our tradition around Columbus Day, we speculate on various might-have-beens – for example, what if Columbus had sailed for a different monarch? – and some of the consequences of Columbus’s voyages for humanity writ large. This episode has been revised and re-recorded from those of previous years, and includes some thoughts on “Indigenous Peoples Day,” offered by some jurisdictions (and this year as a Presidential proclamation) as a counterpoint.
The image for this episode on the website post is of maize growing in Africa.
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Selected references for this episode
Samuel Eliot Morison, Admiral of the Ocean Sea: A Life of Christopher Columbus
Alfred W. Crosby, Jr., The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492
Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian, “The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas”
Charles C. Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created
Noble David Cook, Born To Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492–1650
I really enjoyed your episode on Columbus counterfactuals. If you haven’t read it already, let me recommend to you Orson Scott Card’s Pastwatch. It is a fun read and I won’t spoil anything, but it has a counterfactual regarding the discovery of the Americas that is absolutely wild.
I have read it! Great alt-history science fiction.