Leif Erikson

You're Dead to Me

BBC

Comedy, History

4.7 • 10.9K Ratings

🗓️ 6 September 2024

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Greg Jenner is joined in the eleventh century by Dr Eleanor Barraclough and actor Kiell Smith-Bynoe to learn about legendary Viking explorer Leif Erikson. Leif was possibly the first European to reach the Americas, nearly half a millennium before Christopher Columbus landed in the Caribbean. According to the stories told about him, he was a lucky explorer with a murderer for a father and a fearsome warrior for a sister, who travelled in his longship across the Atlantic to the coast of North America. But we only know about him from two Norse sagas, written in the centuries after his death – so did he exist at all? This episode explores the saga narrative before delving into the archaeological evidence for a Viking presence in Canada, to discover what we can know for sure about this legendary adventurer.

You’re Dead To Me is the comedy podcast that takes history seriously. Every episode, Greg Jenner brings together the best names in history and comedy to learn and laugh about the past. Hosted by: Greg Jenner Research by: Jon Norman Mason Written by: Jon Norman Mason, Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow, Emma Nagouse, and Greg Jenner Produced by: Emmie Rose Price-Goodfellow and Greg Jenner Audio Producer: Steve Hankey Production Coordinator: Ben Hollands Senior Producer: Emma Nagouse Executive Editor: James Cook

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	How did the richest people on the planet make their fortunes?
0:05.0	I'm Simon Jack and I'm Zing Singh.
0:08.0	Join us for good bad billionaire.
0:09.0	Each episode we pick a billionaire and we find out how they made their money like the comedian Jerry
0:14.5	Seinfeld the financier George Soros the golf star Tiger Woods then Simon and I
0:19.6	have a decision to make do we think they are good, bad or just another billionaire?
0:24.3	Good bad billionaire. Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:27.8	BBC Sounds, music radio podcasts.
0:36.0	Hello and welcome to your dead to me, the Radio 4 comedy
0:38.7	podcast that takes history seriously.
0:40.6	My name is Greg Jenner.
0:41.8	I'm a public historian author and broadcaster, and today we are braving the brisk waters of the North Atlantic and following in the wake of Leif Erikson, the medieval Norseman who might have been the first European to visit America.
0:52.8	He probably was.
0:53.8	And to help us, we have two very special guests.
0:56.7	In History Corner, she's a historian writer and broadcaster based at Barth's Bar University
1:00.6	by she's senior lecturer in environmental history.
1:03.0	Her research focuses on the cultures,
1:04.8	literatures and languages of the medieval north,
1:07.0	particularly Viking history and the Old Norse sagas.
1:09.6	She's the author of various books including a new one,
1:11.9	Embers of the Hands, Hidden Histories of the Viking Age.
1:15.0	It's Dr Eleanor.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

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

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