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Scrolls & Leaves

History Podcasts

Scrolls & Leaves features stories from the margins of history. Global events are usually explained through a mainstream gaze, and lack perspective from other societies and experiences. Our hosts, Mary-Rose Abraham and Gayathri Vaidyanathan, meander through little-known tales from history, science and cultures to contextualize our present. The podcast is an immersive audio experience and best experienced using headphones.

Scrolls & Leaves features stories from the margins of history. Global events are usually explained through a mainstream gaze, and lack perspective from other societies and experiences. Our hosts, Mary-Rose Abraham and Gayathri Vaidyanathan, meander through little-known tales from history, science and cultures to contextualize our present. The podcast is an immersive audio experience and best experienced using headphones.

Location:

United States

Description:

Scrolls & Leaves features stories from the margins of history. Global events are usually explained through a mainstream gaze, and lack perspective from other societies and experiences. Our hosts, Mary-Rose Abraham and Gayathri Vaidyanathan, meander through little-known tales from history, science and cultures to contextualize our present. The podcast is an immersive audio experience and best experienced using headphones.

Language:

English

Episodes

Chatroom 13: The Case of the Severed Breasts on the Windowsill

3/3/2021
On July 1, 1800, the appearance of a pair of severed breasts on Don Cayetano’s windowsill leads to a twisting journey into the history of crime and policing in Guatemala City.

Duration:00:12:37

Chatroom 12: The Evolution of Indian Blues, or Bidesia

2/17/2021
In the late 1800s, the British took Indians to Fiji to work on plantations. There, they would sing bidesia, lamenting for a lost homeland.

Duration:00:13:29

Chatroom 11: When Technology Meets Ayurveda

2/3/2021
The influx of technology such as pocket watches beginning in the 1860s transformed India’s traditional medical systems

Duration:00:10:31

Chatroom 10: Encounters with India's Maneaters

1/20/2021
We are increasingly sharing space with predators and wild animals. We learn how to co-exist from Nayanika Mathur

Duration:00:15:20

Chatroom 9: Disease Goddesses and Scapegoats

1/6/2021
In India, a rich tradition of Disease Goddesses assigned a female deity to each illness. She was believed both to cause and protect from the disease.

Duration:00:10:23

Chatroom 8: A disease sleuth in Bangalore

12/16/2020
We follow British scientist Ronald Ross as he stops a cholera outbreak in 1895 Bangalore.

Duration:00:13:12

Chatroom 7: An Ancient Pandemic Story

12/2/2020
A Sanskrit scholar narrates a tale from one of the oldest Ayurvedic texts, Charaka-samhita, that has surprising resonance with our current lives

Duration:00:11:51

Chatroom 6: You're being tracked: Pandemic Capitalism

11/18/2020
A public health vacuum left by governments over decades is being filled by tech companies, which have stepped up surveillance

Duration:00:23:02

Chatroom 5: Ayurveda & Science

11/4/2020
Can the great divide between traditional and allopathic medicines ever be bridged? We talk with biologist Annamma Spudich about Ayurveda

Duration:00:18:59

Chatroom 4: The water carriers of Calcutta and other matters

10/21/2020
Colonial cities lack proper water and sanitation -- and sometimes employ water carriers. We speak to Pratik Chakrabarti

Duration:00:32:24

The Most Ancient Medicine (Chatroom #3)

10/7/2020
Folk Healing is the most ancient form of medicine. G. Hariramamurthi has visited more than 12,000 villages across India to document folk medicine practices

Duration:00:23:18

Healing Plants

9/25/2020
Season 1, Episode 2 Healing Plants Use headphones for immersive audio We know plants are healers, of course. But they’re also so much more. They have shaped our history. Just a few centuries ago, they drove exploration, started wars, transformed economies. Today, they are the bedrock of big pharma and traditional medicine empires. We can’t fault the modern life-saving drugs that Western medicine has given us. But we wonder if something effervescent doesn’t get lost when plants become pills?...

Duration:00:35:59

When Plague Hit Bombay (Chatroom 2)

9/16/2020
An old draconian law from 1897, when plague hit Bombay, has been reinstated for Covid-19. Interview with historian Tarangini Sriraman

Duration:00:35:51

Medicine at the Border (Chatroom #1)

9/2/2020
What should nations do, other than shut down borders, when a pandemic hits? We speak to historian Alison Bashford

Duration:00:24:25

Pandemics and Borders

8/25/2020
Season 1, Episode 1 Pandemics & Borders Use headphones for immersive audio We are policing ourselves and our neighbors these days… our governments are certainly tracking us! States are closing national borders. We stay at home waiting for permission to leave. We mull over the loss of civil liberties under the guise of the pandemic. And to understand these responses, we learn about a devastating pandemic from the 1800s. In 1817, cholera broke out in Bengal and became a pandemic. Millions...

Duration:00:37:13

Trailer

7/22/2020
Season 1 Trailer Visit Muziris, a port on the Malabar coast, described by ancient poets and captured in a trade document called the Muziris Papyrus. Then, hear the co-hosts describe Season 1. Resources Transcript Share Trailer Twitter Facebook WhatsApp

Duration:00:03:07

Trailer

7/18/2020
Visit Muziris, a port on the Malabar coast, described by ancient poets and captured in a trade document called the Muziris Papyrus. Then, hear the co-hosts describe Season 1.

Duration:00:03:07