In this episode we examine the earliest reference to poison arrows in accounts of European expeditions to the Americas in the 15th Century. This is the first part of a study which runs up untill around 1700. 

You can check out the show notes here: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wIibQJYobwyhFNC-OhjnLYkOwVizIjuJ?usp=sharing

Reid Kirby will be publishing his book in June. Follow him at: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rkirby/ 

Media Credits: ABC news.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-jA96JgD9U

In this episode Jessica Morris discusses her work on the evolution of British Gas Strategy during WW1. 

In this episode I discuss operational aspects of the destruction of declared Syrian CW stocks - with Jerry Smith. Recorded November 2024. 

You can check our more of Dr Zander's work over at The Trench – Challenging entrenched positions - Jean Pascal Zanders

This episode examines poisoning  renaissance Italy

You can check out the show notes here: 

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wIibQJYobwyhFNC-OhjnLYkOwVizIjuJ?usp=sharing

In this episode Nathan discusses WW2 ARP preparations for gas attacks on civilian centres. 

Media source: Have Your Gas Masks With You (1941-1946) (youtube.com) I do not own the rights to this clip, used under fair usage. 

In this bonus episode I am joined by Seth Carus, as we explore some of the earliest allegations of biological warfare- as well as the more recent modern developments, which transformed ancient fears, into Cold War era weapon systems.  

Do check out these two studies, I think they are great: 

Carus, W. Seth. "The history of biological weapons use: what we know and what we don't." Health security 13.4 (2015): 219-255.

Carus, W. Seth. "A century of biological-weapons programs (1915–2015): reviewing the evidence." The Nonproliferation Review 24.1-2 (2017): 129-153. 

And also thanks to Adrienne Mayor, who drew my attention to this work on the Caffa siege, and recent work on the spread of the Black Death in the 14th century more broadly. 

https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/711596 

https://hcommons.org/deposits/objects/hc:50220/datastreams/CONTENT/content 

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanmic/article/PIIS2666-5247(20)30176-2/fulltext

N.B my remarks on the ability of scientists to produce anthrax spores for the German programme in WW1 reliably has sparked some discussion. And I will return to this. Essentially, it is not currently clear if either purified / extracted/dried spores were employed- or else some form of wet suspension. The latter, which would have likely contained a mix of (likely denatured) vegetative b. anthracis and spores. Or else some form of purified spore suspension. I know right? 

In this episode I talk about Ian's experience as a Porton Down research volunteer as a serviceman during the 1980's. Ian is eager to contact other former veterans - please email be directly at Bwie20[@]bath.ac.uk. 

The most substantive publicly available report on this subject, which we are aware of, is published here:

[ARCHIVED CONTENT] Defence Internet | About Defence | Historical Survey of the Porton Down Servce Vounteer Programme 1939-1989 (nationalarchives.gov.uk) 

You can also find details of the cohort medical study here: The Porton Down Veterans Cohort Study | King's College London (kcl.ac.uk)