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Episode summary:
This is a personal, behind-the-scenes episode on why Tudor England became the setting for The Bedlam Series: the whiplash of religious change, the evolving Tudor monarchs, and how “madness” was understood, feared, and controlled—especially around Bethlehem Hospital (“Bedlam”). Along the way, Anne Marie threads careful parallels to current U.S. events and the emotional toll of living through political instability.

Content note: This episode references political violence, immigration enforcement, protest, and a personal medical experience.

In this episode

• Why Tudor England feels like a pressure cooker (faith, law, identity, survival)
• Religion as “weather”: shifting doctrine, shifting danger
• Tudor power and insecurity: Henry VIII → Edward VI → Mary I → Elizabeth I
• Bedlam as symbol and setting: who gets labeled, who gets confined, who gets believed
• Modern parallels: competing “official narratives,” public meaning, labels that flatten human lives
• “We must cultivate our garden” (Voltaire) as a grounding practice in hard times

Rough timecode outline (edit once you have final audio)

• 00:00 Show open + what the podcast is
• 00:35 Personal note: this week, mental health, “cultivating our garden”
• 03:10 Bedlam Series orientation + how to get the prequel
• 04:30 Tudor religion as a changing tide
• 08:00 Tudor royals + insecurity-driven power
• 11:30 “Madness” as label + Bedlam’s role
• 15:20 Borders, sovereignty, Greenland parallels
• 18:00 Closing reflection + how to get the prequel + May release reminder

Get the prequel (free) + follow the series

• Get The Sum of Broken Rooms free when you join the email list (official download page): link at top of page https://www.amcannon.com/
• Explore The Bedlam Series hub. 
• Armchair Historians on A.M. Cannon’s site. 
• Main site / signup landing page. 

Mentioned in the episode (current-events context)

• Reporting and video updates around Renée Good’s fatal shooting by an ICE officer in Minneapolis, protests, and disputes over official framing vs. public footage. 
• Greenland rejecting U.S. takeover talk; NATO / sovereignty concerns. 
• Reuters coverage on Nicolás Maduro saying he was “kidnapped” amid U.S. charges (referenced as a “foreign president kidnapped”). 

Tudor + Bedlam background (learn-more links)

• English Reformation (1527–1590) overview (The National Archives). 
• Reformation Parliament overview (UK Parliament). 
• From Bethlehem to Bedlam (Historic England). 
• Bethlem Royal Hospital background (Museum of the Mind). 
• Bedlam and “theatre of madness”

Support the show

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Support Armchair Historians:
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/armchairhistorians
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