To my esteemed listeners - forgive me for not keeing you updated better. I am in the process of moving and setting up a new studio. As any of you who have attempted a remodel -- especially recently -- know, it is an involved and protracted process.  

The new studio should be set and ready to go, and my next episode released, on the weekend of April 9-10, 2022.  I apologize for the delay, and appreciate those of you who have reached out to let me know how much you look forward to our next program.

The next few episodes should be very amusing, so stay subscribed and I will be back in April.

Today we cover the story of Charles Whitman, the erstwhile normal and successful young scout, altar boy, and marine sharpshooter who, in the course of 24 hours, killed his mother and wife, climbed the tower at UT Austin, and sniped at innocent civilians for an hour and a half. After he was killed, his autopsy revealed, possibly, a structure that might or might not bear on one of the biggest mysteries about humanity -- are we free to choose our own actions, or are our actions decided by factors outside our voluntary control? A somewhat disturbing story about the evil perpetrated by one very disturbed young man, so caveat auditor. 

https://youtu.be/Q1uTdkQwsBk

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A late entry into the worst people ever compendium, Tomas de Torquemada, the first and greatest Grand Inquisitor of The Spanish Inquisition.  A man who began with a broad national mandate to root out heretics and insincere converses, and ended so loathed by everyone in Spain that he needed armed escorts wherever he went. A zealot so intransigent that the Pope tried to find a way to get rid of him.   This is the story of Torquemada and the beginnings and glory days of The Spanish Inquisition.  Our last episode on the Inquisition, and good riddance to it!  

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In this episode we conclude our series on the inquisition with the story of Joan of Arc with her three "trials:" 1. The Examination at Poitiers (link to a summary: https://www.jeanne-darc.info/trials-index/the-examination-at-poitiers/) 2. The 1431 Trial of Condemnation before the Inquisition (link to fulll transcripts: https://www.jeanne-darc.info/trial-of-condemnation-index/) 3. The Trial of Nullification in the 1450s (link to full transcripts: https://www.jeanne-darc.info/trial-of-nullification/)  

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Here it is: the pious childhood, the voices, the missions, the uncanny miraculous insights, the fearless warring, the taunting and threatening, the temper, the visions and prophesies, and the prodigious feats of the Maid of Orleans.   According to Twain, this was far and away the most amazing human being to ever live, and that is saying an awful lot.  Wherever she stands on the ladder of greatness, Joan was a force wholly new and utterly unique in nature. One for the Ages. This is her life.

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In this episode we set the stage for the story of Joan of Arc, one of the most enigmatic and fascinating people in history.  To understand Joan we have to understand the Hundred Years' War, the festering quagmire into which she was born, and which she helped put an end to. Herein are dragons and whirlwinds, blood-soaked Vikings, slaughtered monks, broken treaties, lunatic kings, conquering dukes, glorious victories and crushing defeats, assassinations and treachery, conniving men and women, and war, war, war. In short, it was the last world you would expect a peasant girl to rise to greatness in.  But rise she would...  

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They are one of the two most implicated groups in the history of conspiracy theories. But their real history is, if less mysterious and ominous, just as unsettling.  From a humble beginning, to becoming the richest order in Christendom, to being imprisoned, tortured, persecuted and executed. This is the story of the Knights Templar.

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We continue our series on the Inquisition with the campaigns to suppress the Waldensians. These "Poor Men (and Women!) of Lyon" were known for their sandals and their beards; but mostly for their Christian piety, humility, and charity.   So of course they had to die. And die they did, in the tens, hundreds, and thousands.     

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In this episode we begin a full immersion experience into that most infamous of offices, The Inqusition.  From the forces at play in the persecution society where it began, through a few early burnings, to the papal bull that started it all, we refuse to shrink from staring it in all its repressive sanctimony. We also cover some of the early heretical movements and groups that caught the -- very unwanted -- attention of the ecclesiastical inquisition.  Finally, the Albigensian Crusade gets off to a brutal and sadistic start, as the Pope calls another crusade, this time against the Cathars -- in what historians call the first ideological genocide in history. Artwork by Ian Armstrong

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In this episode Steve Rathje, social psychologist specializing in social media and political polarization, explains to us why we are prone to conspiratorial thinking, and how we got into the state we find ourselves in Western societies.  Virality, engagement, fake news, motivated reasoning, negativity bias, and much more are covered the way only Steve can explain them. A long overdue episode 24 of HBH. But hey, it's summer, and we can finally travel, so it's better late than never.            

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