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#38 Newton the Alchemist - Ep 1 Was Newton the last of the Magicians?
The short answer to the question, ‘was Newton the last of the magicians?’ is, yes …. And also … no. Newton and alchemy turn out to be ‘a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.’ We toss a coin and take a heads-and-tails approach. In this podcast we argue that the alchemical experiments he undertook had nothing to do with magic. Newton’s alchemy now looks to historians like good science (although he would have called himself both a natural philosopher and a chymist). It was well conceived and measured and drew on the work of his contemporaries and of many men before him. And Newton was certainly not the last person in Europe to practise alchemy of this kind. Within fifty years of his death it would simply evolve into modern chemistry.
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#05 Forcing Britain 'to her knees' - Ep 5 Who really won the Battle of Britain?
25:17|The Battle of Britain was never as close as the popular story has it. The RAF was too well organised and supplied. But is that why the Luftwaffe switched to bombing London? Or was there another reason? (R)#4 More than a double bluff - Ep 4 Who really won the Battle of Britain?
32:09|Churchill talks up the threat of invasion, even though it looks impossible. ‘I might as well send my men straight into a sausage machine,’ writes the German Chief of Staff. But invasion preparations still go on. Who is bluffing who? (R)#03 'Always carry pepper to throw in their eyes' - Ep 3 Who Really won the Battle of Britain?
25:02|Britain is gripped by fear of invasion. Government leaflet 'If the Invader Comes' calls for pepper and ‘a sharp knife to kill them if necessary.’ Churchill goes on BBC and says ‘we await undismayed by the impending assault. Perhaps it will come tonight.’ So why in private is Churchill saying he doubts the invasion would ever take place? (R)#02 A battle for air superiority? - Ep 2 Who really won the Battle of Britain?
29:38|Was the Battle of Britain a fight for Luftwaffe air superiority in order to enable an invasion? The Luftwaffe itself did not think so. It had another agenda altogether. (R)#01 Waterworld Flotilla - Ep 1 Who really won the Battle of Britain?
25:02|The Germans make extraordinary preparations for the immense task of invading Britain in 1940. Why bother when neither Hitler nor any senior German officer wanted to do it or thought it was possible?#118 'She will be called a man' (Jerome) - Ep 6 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church
39:45|Church Father, Jerome, wrote this about women who took vows of chastity for God. ‘When she wishes to serve Christ more than the world, then she will cease to be a woman, and will be called a man.’ What now survives from the Roman Empire – and the Church in particular - only tells one, heavily redacted, medieval version of the past.#117 The Rich man and Melania - Ep 5 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church
36:18|By AD400 all it took to be bishop was to be stratospherically wealthy. There was no demand that bishops even knew their bible until AD787.#116 Chariot races in church - Ep 4 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church
40:29|Chariot races in church. How did we get there? 3rd Century climate change.#115 The Missing Women - Ep 3 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church
38:52|What happened to the women? Until the late second century committed, educated women and men who perhaps space in their own homes led informal house churches. But once church leadership became a paid, public role, they were taken by the men. This was not theology. It was the way of the world.