“Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.“  Samuel Johnson

Paul and Mikey serve up more juicy morsels, answer questions from listeners, and dig out a couple of extra maps!

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“The only reason a warrior is alive is to fight, and the only reason a warrior fights is to win, otherwise why be a warrior? It is easier to count beads.” Miyamoto Musashi 

Well, the Japanese navy was certainly not “counting beads” when it took on the Russians in 1904-5. In this episode Paul and Mikey look at the ‘Wild East’: Russian expansion, Japanese expansion and a naval battle that changed the world.

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“Antarctica has this mythic weight. It resides in the collective unconscious of so many people, and it makes this huge impact, just like outer space. It's like going to the moon.” Jon Krakauer 

The race to the South Pole was always going to throw up some Heroes, maybe a few Howlers too - but who should really get the credit for discovering the Seventh Continent? Paul and Mikey wrap up warm to take a look.

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“Rather fail with honour, than succeed by Fraud” Sophocles 

If only Gregor McGregor had spent more time studying the Classics. This week Paul and Mikey go hunting for a Scottish rogue and find themselves marooned on Central America’s Mosquito Coast.

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“As for all your latest Mayan discoveries and poems, I want to hear every word of it.” Jack Kerouac, Letters to Allen Ginsberg

The Americas were home to many fascinating nations and cultures, long before the Europeans arrived. And they did pretty well on the fruit and veg front too. In this episode, the boys take an in-depth look at the Maya, and see what Heroes and Howlers Meso-America might have to offer.

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“The past alone is truly real: the present is but a painful, struggling birth into the immutable being of what is no longer. Only the dead exist fully.” Bertrand Russell, On History

Paul and Mikey dish up titbits galore, and answer listener questions from episodes 4-6. Time to close out Season 4 and enter a New Year in style.

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“If a man were called upon to fix that period in the history of the world during which the condition of the human race was most happy and prosperous, he would, without hesitation, name that which elapsed from the death of Domitian to the accession of Commodus.“  Edward Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire

Paul and Mikey serve up more juicy morsels, answer questions from listeners, and dig out a couple of extra maps!

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"England was merry England, when Old Christmas brought his sports again.

'Twas Christmas broach'd the mightiest ale; ‘Twas Christmas told the merriest tale;

A Christmas gambol oft could cheer, The poor man's heart through half the year." 

Walter Scott - Marmion 

Paul and Mikey are unwrapping presents for everyone early this year. They’ve got Wars on Christmas, Coke bottle Santas, and drunken sleigh rides across New England. Sign off 2021 in style with the last of this season’s episodes. 

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“Like the English in New Holland, we live only on the shores of a continent even yet, and hardly know where the rivers come from which float our navy” Henry David Thoreau 

Captain Cook was the first to admit that the Dutch had been mapping New Holland decades before he set sail on The Endeavour. Could the Chinese have travelled that way too? The Spanish? The Portuguese? Paul and Mikey weigh anchor to find out.   

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This week, Mikey is revisiting Treasure Fleet as Paul is still in the UK. Enjoy! We will be back with new episodes shortly.

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