[Note: A revised version of this episode dropped on October 12, 2024. Link.]

Introduction to the Columbian Exchange introduces listeners to the extraordinary consequences of the interhemispheric transmission of diseases, food crops, populations, cultures, and technologies in the years after Columbus’s famous First Voyage. That transmission is now known as the “Columbian Exchange,” a term invented in 1972 by the famous biological historian Alfred W. Crosby Jr. of the University of Texas at Austin. The episode focuses on the impact of diseases and crops that moved from one hemisphere to the other following 1492. It is replete with interesting factoids!

Selected references for this episode

Alfred W. Crosby, Jr., The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492, 30th Anniversary Edition

Charles C. Mann, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created

Noble David Cook, Born to Die: Disease and New World Conquest, 1492-1650

Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian, "The Columbian Exchange: A History of Disease, Food, and Ideas"

Benjamin M. Schmidt, "The History BA Since the Great Recession"

University of Zurich, "Syphilis May Have Spread Through Europe Before Columbus"

Columbian Exchange (Wikipedia)