Hey everybody, Patrick here.

Recently, I've been getting a lot of questions on the economic fallout of pandemics.

And because of that, I want to revisit an older episode from our back catalogue,

Europe after the Black Death.

So let's talk about how the Black Death, the changing climate, and war worked together to create a transitional world

and how that laid the foundations for what came after.

Thanks for joining me today and enjoy the show.

Horses hooves clop faintly down a rough gravel road, an icy wind howls.

It drowns out most of the sounds of the surrounding countryside.

There's a man with a horse, striving a cart.

He's wrapped up tight in a thick woolen scarf against the cold.

He's transporting barrels of ale.

Whether like this might freeze the ale's solid, he thinks.

He gives the ale a glance in the back of the cart and settles back against the cold.

It's late April of the year, 1440.

April's late for a harsh north wind like this one, but over the last few years, it's gotten more and more common.

The winters are longer than they used to be, the Carter thinks.

The summers aren't nearly as nice. The harvests are worse.

His old dad told him the same before he died a few years back.

As the horses trek slowly toward the nearby market town, the cart passes through a series of pastures.

Skinny sheep and sedate cows look up from the grass they're eating.

They watch the horses and the Carter as they pass, peaceful guardians of the field.

...