In Season 1, Trade Winds, we consider how trade and migration across the Indian Ocean transformed our world. Here’s the season overview. Click here to listen to the trailer.
Mary-Rose Abraham 0:08
This is Scrolls and Leaves, a podcast featuring stories from the margins of history, science and cultures. Please wear your headphones to listen in 3D sound .
Gayathri Vaidyanathan 0:20
2000 years ago, on the southwest coast of India is an ancient port that’s at the heart of global trade. In this land called Muziris, the ocean roars like drums. There is more grain than people need. It’s cosmopolitan. People from 40 different cultures live here.
And see there on the horizon? Those ships? They are from Roman Egypt, and they’re bringing to the kingdom boatloads of gold. In exchange they want spices jewels, ivory…
Mary-Rose Abraham 0:51
Not many people know of Missouri’s or for that matter, many other places and histories from the majority world, where 80% of all people live. We will tell you some of these stories in Season 1, Trade Winds. Each episode tells a story set on the Indian Ocean as global civilizations connect with South Asia. This was once the thriving heart of global trade.
We’ll start with Muziris and visit the excavations attempting to locate it in modern day Kerala.
Gayathri Vaidyanathan 1:23
Then we’ll travel to the 17th century to the wilds of Persia and Afghanistan, where a King aspires to establish a dynasty that spans all of Asia.
Mary-Rose Abraham 1:33
Onward then to Northwest India, in the 1800s where a fierce Sikh dynasty stands as the final bulwark against the British. We contemplate the power of rhetoric and science to spread Empire.
Gayathri Vaidyanathan 1:49
Next, we’ll explore a historic pandemic that redefined our notions of borders and changed how we travel forever..
Mary-Rose Abraham 1:57
and travel across the seas with indentured laborers from India, seeking a new life at the turn of the 20th century, in far flung British colonies. It’s a search for home.
Gayathri Vaidyanathan 2:09
Next, we’ll tell you how modern medicine stands on the shoulders of indigenous knowledge.
Mary-Rose Abraham 2:14
And to cool off we’ll dive into the waters off Sri Lanka to go on a treasure hunt with science fiction writer Arthur C. Clarke.
Gayathri Vaidyanathan 2:23
Throughout the episodes will ask, what stories to objects in museums around the world tell us about our past? To whom should treasure belong? Whose histories persist, and how did our current world order arise?
Mary-Rose Abraham 2:36
The episodes feature binaural sound, so please keep your headphones handy as we begin our journey into histories from the margins.
Welcome to Season One, Trade Winds of Scrolls & Leaves
