Welcome to another bonus episode of Calm History, an extra treat for my Silk Plus members.

This episode provides related information to my prior episode about Marco Polo, which is Archive

Episode No. 6. In that prior episode, I summarized

the travels of Marco Polo and told you about the famous book he wrote all about his journey.

To be candid, I really figured his book was a snooze fest.

I walked a long distance. I saw a mountain.

I met some local people.

I hung out with Kubla Khan.

I bought a Mongo fridge magnet. Y yada, yada, yada.

Of course, I know it was a bestseller at the time,

but, come on, it wasn't exactly competing against Stephen King, Netflix, or Legend of Zelda.

Honestly, which would you have chosen if you had lived in 1300 AD,

to read Marco Polo's new book, or to brush your donkey all day.

Yeah, I'd be dropping that donkey brush and grabbing that book.

So, with some skepticism, I cracked open a translation of his book, and, shocker. It was quite interesting.

So, I've chosen a couple of sections to read to you. One section from Marco Polo's book

will be about the Mongol people,

such as how they lived, how they created mobile homes,

how they flaunted their wealth,

how the soldiers created a special food for long campaigns,

and how the armies defeated their enemies almost every time with the same simple trick.

Another section from Marco Polo's book will be about Kubla Khan,

...