This week on the Lectures and History podcast, The Mystery of the Roanoke Colony's Disappearance.

In 1587, English settlers established a colony on Roanoke Island, off the coast of present-day North Carolina, only to vanish without a trace soon after.

Gettysburg College professor Timothy Shannon explores what we

know about the lost colony, the people who lived there, and the theories behind one of early America's

greatest mysteries. More in a moment.

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Well, thank you all for being here today.

We are going to be talking about the Roanoke colonies today.

Notice that I use the plural there.

Typically we hear about Roanoke, but there are actually two different Roanoke colonies

and there were kind of two different enterprises too, so it tells us something about how the English approach colonization.

And I think those differences will become more

apparent to you as we move along here. You've heard the phrase the definition of

insanity is X right the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over

again and expecting different results that could be kind of the bumper sticker for the Roanoke and Jamestown colonies.

I think that will become apparent to you this week.

There's also that famous movie that I imagine most of you have seen,

Monty Python and the Holy Grail.

Yes, there's one of my favorite scenes in that is the father. famous movie that I imagine most of you have seen Monty Python in the Holy Grail? Yes.

There's one of my favorite scenes in that is the father who's talking to his son about taking

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