Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and Grimm and Mild from Aaron Manky.

Listener discretion advised.

Before we start, just a quick announcement, next summer, I will be leading a trip to the English Cotswolds, to walk, to write, and to talk about my favorite book, truly, I think my favorite book,

The Remains of the Day by Kazua Ishiguru.

If you haven't read The Remains of the Day, even if you're not interested in this trip at all,

go read it immediately.

It will change your life.

It's also a great movie, but the book is extraordinary.

And next July, with an amazing program called

Common Ground, I will be leading, they call it a pilgrimage, but what that basically means is we all

stay together in a beautiful old mansion in the Cotswaltz. We meet every morning. We talk about the

book. We talk about our own writing. And we go on long walks thinking about important questions that the book raises.

This is the third trip that I've done with this program.

It just is an incredible experience.

And so if this interests you at all, there's a link in my Instagram bio.

You should absolutely sign up.

I think there's still a few spots left.

Go check it out.

I'm so excited to do that.

So I just wanted to let Noble Blood listeners know because it seems like it might be up your alley.

It was a crisp morning in February 1548 when a pale nobleman in his early 30s stepped out of a church in Venice.

Lorenzino de Medici was originally from Florence, a member of the vastly powerful

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