The problem with poo: a millennium of manure

Welcome to the History Extra podcast, fascinating historical conversations from the makers of BBC History magazine. When did poo become a problem? Why was manure so important in the medieval economy and why don't we have vacuum-powered sewers? All these questions, and more, are answered in this brief history of both animal and human manure, in which David Musgrove puts the questions to the University of Leicester's Dr. Richard Jones.

Before we start, though, I just wanted to mark your cards that, if you're interested in the history of toilets and the social and cultural stories that go with them, we have an entire podcast series, Toilets Through Time, waiting for you. If you're a History Extra member, you can access the whole series and we've just dropped three brand new episodes on prehistoric, Viking and Anglo-Saxon and early modern toilets. Subscribe to History Extra Plus or head to the History Extra app to access all these episodes, including existing instalments on Roman, Medieval, Tudor and Victorian loose. For now though, it's over to David and Richard for that conversation about manure.

I am delighted to be joined on the podcast by Dr. Richard Jones, who is a landscape historian and an expert in a very interesting topic, manure. We are going to try and do a short history of manure. So Richard, welcome to the podcast. How are you today?

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