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In this episode of A Book with Legs, Cole Smead, CEO and Portfolio Manager at Smead Capital Management, and Chairman and Chief Investment Officer Bill Smead sit down with Lydia Towns to discuss her book, “In Search of Trade and Fortune: John Cabot, Christopher Columbus and the Opening of the Atlantic.”

Lydia Towns is an assistant professor of world history at Stephen F. Austin State University in Nacogdoches, Texas. She earned her PhD in Transatlantic History from the University of Texas at Arlington, where her dissertation on England’s transatlantic activities under Henry VIII won the George Wolfskill Dissertation Award. She served six years as Executive Secretary of the Society for the History of Discoveries and has published on Henry VIII’s planned 1521 Atlantic voyage and the history of the Grand Banks fishery. “In Search of Trade and Fortune” is her first book, drawing on archives in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

The conversation starts in 986, with a Norse trader blown off course who sights North America and simply keeps sailing. From there, it traces five centuries of Atlantic activity before 1492. Topics include Norse expeditions driven by timber and iron rather than adventure, butternuts at L’Anse aux Meadows that prove contact with the St. Lawrence River Valley, and a 2021 discovery in Milan showing that knowledge of lands west of Greenland had reached the Mediterranean. Towns also covers the Black Sea slave trade that shaped Cabot’s world and why the fall of Constantinople did not, by itself, push Europe west.

Through a business and markets lens, Cole and Bill dig into how these voyages were actually structured and financed. They compare Genoa’s entrepreneurial family networks with Venice’s state-run merchant galleys, which were auctioned each year and helped give rise to the joint venture. They also discuss how the Crown carried almost no risk while entrepreneurs carried all of it, and why the investors behind Columbus simply transplanted the sugar plantation model they already owned in Madeira and the Canaries. Other topics include who really financed 1492 and Columbus’s demand for a one-eighth co-investment right in every voyage. Towns’s takeaway for investors: great reward comes with great risk, and there is no reward without taking it.

“In Search of Trade and Fortune: John Cabot, Christopher Columbus and the Opening of the Atlantic,” published by Reaktion Books, is available now: https://reaktionbooks.co.uk/work/in-search-of-trade-and-fortune

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As the Second World War in Europe entered its final weeks, the outcome was no longer in doubt – but the fighting continued with extraordinary intensity. From the Allied crossing of the Rhine and the German defence of their homeland to the liberation of Belsen and the final bombing raids, the last days of the war were marked by courage, confusion, brutality and tragedy.

In this episode of the Aspects of History podcast, Max Hastings joins Phil Craig to discuss his new book, Plunder. They explore why so many German soldiers continued to fight when defeat was inevitable, the persistence of the Nazi killing machine, the liberation of Belsen, and the difficult encounters between Allied troops and those emerging from the camps and prisoner-of-war system.

Max also discusses the extraordinary individual stories he uncovered while researching the final weeks of the war and the importance of bearing witness – and why, even after a lifetime of writing about the Second World War, there are still stories that deserve to be better known.

Episode Links

Plunder: The Last of the War in Europe, 1945

Max Links

Max ⁠⁠online⁠⁠

Phil Links

Phil ⁠online⁠

Phil on ⁠⁠⁠⁠The Scandal Mongers⁠⁠

Phil on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter /X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

Phil on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠

Aspects of History Links

AoH ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠online⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

AoH on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Twitter /X⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

AoH on ⁠Instagram⁠⁠

AoH on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠

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Sam Harris speaks with Dara Horn about antisemitism, Jewish identity, and the failure of institutions. They discuss Horn's new book, why Jews predate the categories of religion and nationality, antisemitism as a lie rather than an ordinary form of bigotry, why DEI failed Jewish students, the history of anti-Zionism, whether the word "Zionism" is still useful, Horn's time on Harvard's antisemitism advisory group, Nazi influence in the Arab world, and other topics.

If the Making Sense podcast logo in your player is BLACK, you can SUBSCRIBE to gain access to all full-length episodes at samharris.org/subscribe.

Education outcomes have been getting worse across much of the world, with reading and math scores falling to historic lows. The U.S. has seen some of the steepest declines in decades.

But, why does Mississippi look so different?

Mississippi education reformer Rachel Canter has been at the forefront of the state’s dramatic improvement in reading and math over the past few decades. Today, Derek is joined by Rachel to discuss the so-called “Mississippi miracle” (a name she says misses the mark!). Together they break down how years of policy changes and implementation transformed the state’s schools and how other states can replicate their success.

Subscribe to our YouTube channel here:
https://www.youtube.com/@PlainEnglishwithDerekThompson

If you have questions, observations, or ideas for future episodes, email us at [email protected].

Host: Derek Thompson

Guest: Rachel Canter

Producer: Devon Baroldi

Additional Production Support: Ben Glicksman

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In the early 16th century, Venice confined its Jewish population to a restricted quarter on an island in the city. It was the first settlement to bear the name 'ghetto' – a word that would go on to shape the history of Jewish persecution and segregation.

Alexander Lee explores this history in his book The First Ghetto, which is a finalist for the 2026 Cundill History Prize, and in this episode he talks to Emily Briffett about what life was like within its walls – from its vibrant culture to fragile relationship with the Venetian authorities.

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GO BEYOND THE PODCAST

With the Inquisition active throughout much of Europe, the first half of the 16th century was a perilous time for Jewish people. Andreé Aelion Brooks explores how the fabulously wealthy Doña Gracia worked tirelessly to protect her community: https://bit.ly/4xMFmq5

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When the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh in April, 1975, they immediately declared 'Year Zero' - a ruthless ideological crusade to reset history, and forge Pol Pot's vision for a communist utopia. Over the next four years, the regime carried out a genocide that killed nearly two million people - almost a quarter of Cambodia's population.

Dan Snow is joined by Ben Kiernan, author of 'How Pol Pot Came to Power' and 'The Pol Pot regime'. Together, they trace how the turmoil of the Vietnam War fuelled the rise of the Khmer Rouge, detailing the horror of their reign and their eventual downfall in 1979.

Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Tim Arstall.

Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.

You can also email the podcast directly at [email protected].

Dan Snow's History Hit is a History Hit podcast.

History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™.

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Today we talk with the editor of the Financial Times’ Alphaville blog, Robin Wigglesworth. Robin is the author of A Fabulous Debt - the Epic Story of How Bonds Built the Modern World. He tells the story of the bond market’s beginnings in Venice and how the ability to issue and trade bonds was an essential aspect of its rise to power. Robin explains why historically bond markets and democracy have gone hand-in-hand. Innovations in how bonds are structured and traded also have the ability alter market fundamentals and he explains how this happened with the US junk bond market pioneered by Michael Milken. We talk about likely future innovations and finish with a discussion of current bond market turmoil and the implications for both the Fed and Treasury.

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50 YEARS OF TREND FOLLOWING BOOK AND BEHIND-THE-SCENES VIDEO FOR ACCREDITED INVESTORS - CLICK HERE

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IT’s TRUE ? – most CIO’s read 50+ books each year – get your FREE copy of the Ultimate Guide to the Best Investment Books ever written here.

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Episode TimeStamps:

00:00 - How junk bonds changed the market

00:56 - Introducing Robin Wigglesworth and A Fabulous Debt

03:39 - Why ignorance can actually help you understand history

07:50 - How Venice accidentally invented the bond market

12:55 - How bonds helped strengthen democracy and accountability

17:31 - How Britain turned bonds into a global reserve asset

24:43 - Why strong bond markets often create stronger countries

28:56 - Could Europe ever create a true Eurobond market?

32:19 - How the modern international bond market was born

39:39 - Michael Milken and the rise of junk bonds

44:21 - How Milken changed the market he was studying

48:51 - Tokenization and the next evolution of fixed income

49:28 - Why bond ETFs may have actually improved liquidity

55:24 - What Treasury buybacks are really trying to achieve

57:33 - Why Robin thinks the buybacks won’t solve the problem

Copyright © 2025 – CMC AG – All Rights Reserved

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Humanity is merely one species out of millions living on Earth, but we have a disproportionate impact on the rest of the biosphere. Recent transformations have accelerated that impact, but in fact it stretches back to the earliest days in human history. In his new book The Last Animal: Human History and the Fate of Life on Earth from the Ice Age to the Sixth Extinction, historian Kyle Harper traces how humans have impacted the rest of the planet, from extinction events to much more subtle changes.

Blog post with transcript: https://preposterousuniverse.com/podcast/2026/10/19/371-kyle-harper-on-how-humans-have-shaped-life-on-earth/

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Kyle Harper received a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University. He is currently the G.T. and Libby Blankenship Chair in the History of Liberty, Professor of Classics and Letters, Senior Advisor to the President, and Provost Emeritus at the University of Oklahoma, and an external faculty member at the Santa Fe Institute. Among his honors are the Award for Excellence in Historical Studies from the American Academy of Religion and the PROSE winner for best book in the history of science, technology, and medicine.

• University of Oklahoma web page
• Google Scholar publications
• Amazon author page
• Wikipedia