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Welcome to the History Extra podcast. Today we're launching the latest of our Sunday series

and this time around we're going to be focusing on the Black Death. Emily Briffitt will be joined by Thomas Asbridge, author of The Black Death

A Global History, over the next three weeks, kicking off with today's first episode.

The Black Death is remembered as one of the most devastating catastrophes in human history.

A pandemic that swept across continents and killed millions.

But where did this deadly disease come from?

How did it travel so quickly through towns and countryside?

And did people at the time understand just how transformative the terrifying

illness that was unfolding around them would be? I'm Emily Briffitts and I'm joined by historian

Thomas Asbridge. In this first episode, we'll be tracing the origins and spread of the black death.

Exploring the moment, it erupted onto the medieval stage.

...