First historian Herodotus knew the power of story

This is a CBC podcast. The directness of his voice sometimes feels like he is speaking directly to you. I am obliged to record the things I am told, but I am certainly not required to believe them. I'm Nala Ayed. Welcome to Ideas, ideas featuring the wit, whimsy, and wisdom of the ancient Greek historian Herodotus.

Throughout this history it's my underlying principle that I must write down precisely what people tell me. So it is my eyes, my judgment, and my searching that speak these words to you. He shows how we can become blind to our own cultural lenses in ways that go far beyond the obvious. We live in this moment of enormous crisis and challenge, and I think Herodotus is showing how people can cooperate and understand each other across difference and fail to understand each other and fall into conflict across difference. Writing in the 5th century BCE,

Herodotus understood the power of a good story. His mammoth-sized opus has a deceptively simple title, The History, but it's profoundly complex, and teems with vivid story upon story upon story upon story. Furthest to the south of all the world is Arabia. Where bushes grow frankincense, which are guarded by tiny winged snakes. The east part of Libya is full of wild beasts, monstrously large snakes and lions, besides dog-faced beasts and headless ones that have eyes in their chests.

We already have this episode, so unlocking it is cheap and permanent: the full transcript (54 minutes, 8,231 words), segment and word-level timestamps, and .txt, .srt, .vtt and word-level JSON downloads, as many times as you like, forever.

No account needed, we create one from your checkout email. With credits it is 1 credit; packs start at 5 episodes for $3.49, and monthly plans are cheaper still.