Following the origins of sugar takes us around the world, through 10,000 years of sweet but sticky history. Sugar was like oil or gold for a while - so in-demand that people in power got greedy and the powerless suffered as slavery expanded.

On the sweeter side, listen out for Dad’s best bad Dad jokes yet! Do let us know (via Facebook/Twitter/Instagram) why it is particularly Norwegians who like to put sugar on their pillow – and listen all the way to the outtakes for bonus jokes!

How are some questions to see how well you understood today’s episode:

1. Which country near Australia is where we think sugar cane first grew?
2. Which Persian leader discovered sugar in India and then kept how it was made a secret?
3. Who took sugar to America in the 1590s?
4. Who invented marzipan?
5. Explain what impact sugar had on slavery
6. Why do you think Olaudah Equiano is famous?

Read industry reviews of Dad’s World War II novels, A Chance Kill and The Slightest Chance, at paulletters.com. Available on Kindle, as well as in paperback. Dad’s first wartime novel, A Chance Kill, is a love-story/thriller based on real events in Poland, Paris, London and Prague. The Slightest Chance follows the remarkable true story of the only escape from Japanese imprisonment by a Western woman during World War II.

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Podcast cover art by Molly Austin

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