I Time Traveled to Talk to Medieval Yokels about Economics

The Political Orphanage

Andrew Heaton

Politics, Comedy, News

4.9 • 1000 Ratings

🗓️ 28 January 2026

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What did people in the Dark Ages think about economics? Why did poverty exist, and how do you alleviate it? To find out, I took my time machine to 1282 and 1314, to speak to barflies and a priest.

Fr. Richard Kirby is a fourteenth century prior of Whitby Abbey and formerly the sacrist of St. Mungo's. He is a specialist in Just Price Theory, and joins the show to discuss how his fellows in the Dark Ages approach economics.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, everybody, Lord Uncle Heaton here.
0:02.6	Today, we are going to hop into my time-traveling 13-foot fiberglass camper
0:07.6	and head to the distant year 1965 to meet Mancour Olson,
0:14.4	who popularized the concept of collective action problems.
0:18.3	It's going to be a fun economics episode today. Let me just put in the
0:22.5	coordinates. Uh-oh. Okay, we just passed 1965. If you see Nixon outside the window, do not let him in.
0:35.4	And we're accelerating.
0:39.4	Okay, the throttle seems to be stuck.
0:40.1	You okay, Wallace?
0:40.7	Uh-huh.
0:42.6	No, Wallace, don't chew on the flux capacity. Uh-huh.
0:43.5	Uh-huh.
0:48.3	Uh-huh.
0:53.6	Lute music.
0:55.3	Well, that's just great.
0:57.1	I hate lutes.
0:58.9	Let's check out the chronometer.
1:01.6	1282.
1:02.9	I hate the 1280s.
1:05.0	Too many lutes.
1:06.7	Also, let's check the humidity.
1:09.0	80%.
	...

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