Hey, welcome back to the channel. Another interview today, I am joined by archaeologist and historian

AJ Dare, whose current research looks at the mental health of rulers from the past, including

our friend Henry VIII. With a background in archaeology in the southeastern U.S. and a lifelong

passion for European history, AJ has been exploring how psychology and history intersect.

In this conversation, we talk about the challenges of looking at a king like Henry through a modern

psychological framework, how his childhood, health, and even accidents, jousting accidents,

shaped him, and what we can learn when we reconsider

famous rulers, not just as monarchs, but as actual people. So just to note, AJ is one of our

TudorCon 2025 speakers. So this is a little preview of her talk that she'll be giving at TudorCon.

You can, of course, still get a couple of in-person tickets are left. Not a lot, but a

couple. And you can always come from anywhere in the world through TudorCon from home. So

Englandcast.com slash TudorCon from home to learn about those streaming tickets.

Englandcast.com slash TudorCon to come in person. All right. Let's get into it with me

asking A.J. about her background in

archaeology and how she got into looking at the mental health aspects of rulers.

Well, I'm mostly an archaeologist since my day jobs.

And so, of course, I've always really been into history.

I love, I mostly am colonial, but I do love European history.

I'm a little bit more self-taught in that area.

But the tutors have always been like a first love for me.

Henry is a little bit of my obsession.

So I feel like I've spent a lot of time reading about him,

...