A better Black Death story

Unexplainable

Vox

Life Sciences, Science, Natural Sciences

4.6 • 2.4K Ratings

🗓️ 13 May 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What happens when researchers reexamine some of the basic facts about the Black Death? They start rewriting history and rethinking blame. Guests: Hannah Barker, professor at Arizona State University; Ulf Büntgen, professor at the University of Cambridge; Martin Bauch, historian at the Leibniz Institute for the History and Culture of Eastern Europe For show transcripts, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unxtranscripts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠For more, go to ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/unexplainable⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠And please email us! ⁠⁠⁠unexplainable@vox.com⁠⁠⁠We read every email.Support Unexplainable (and get ad-free episodes) by becoming a Vox Member today: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠vox.com/members⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Thank you! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	With Finn, we've built the number one AI agent for customer service.
0:03.3	It solves up to 90% of queries for businesses, tops all the performance benchmarks in the G2 Leaderboard, and it comes with a million dollar guarantee.
0:12.0	Check it out at fin.aI.
0:14.0	Support for this show comes from Odu.
0:18.0	Running a business is hard enough, so why make it harder with a dozen different
0:22.6	apps that don't talk to each other? Introducing Odu, it's the only business software you'll
0:28.1	ever need. It's an all-in-one fully integrated platform that makes your work easier, CRM, accounting,
0:35.3	inventory, e-commerce, and more. And the best part, O-DU replaces multiple expensive platforms for a fraction of the cost. That's why over thousands of businesses have made the switch. So why not you? Try O-D-Frey at O-D-O-O-O-O-com.
0:58.4	Uh, Noam.
0:59.4	Are you ready?
1:00.7	Yes.
1:01.2	Hello.
1:02.0	Hi.
1:02.3	Hello.
1:03.0	I have you here today to talk about the Black Death.
1:09.3	Fun!
1:10.9	Yeah. Well, kind of, actually, though. Fun! Yeah.
1:11.8	Well, kind of, actually, though.
1:14.1	Like, interesting, at least.
1:16.8	You got a fun take on the Black Death?
1:19.5	Well, I got interested in the Black Death.
1:23.3	Because this paper came out last year about sort of climate and the black death in Europe.
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in 6 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Vox, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Vox and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.