What did a run of terrible Caribbean hurricanes have to do with American independence?
How did a volcano in Indonesia help give us Frankenstein?
And, why were so many of the people fighting for civil rights also fighting for the planet?
In the next part of The Earth Transformed, Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch follow the storms, eruptions and campaigners that changed the course of history.
Why Europeans didn't just build their plantations in West Africa, and how mosquitoes helped draw the line between America's North and South. Hurricane-wrecked islands desperate for food, rope and wood, and American merchants furious that London decided who they could sell to. Then the year without a summer: Mary Shelley's rain-soaked holiday at Lake Geneva, soldiers home from the Napoleonic Wars with no work, and the massacre at Peterloo. Plus a jumbo jet that flew into volcanic ash, Frankenstein at Cold War disarmament talks, and why Coretta Scott King, Rachel Carson and Greta Thunberg belong in the same story.
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[0:00] Hurricanes, volcanoes and the women who fought for the planet
[1:49] Founding mothers, and history without the weather
[3:34] Why not build plantations in West Africa?
[9:29] The hurricanes behind American independence
[13:07] Frankenstein and a gothic childhood
[14:22] Mount Tambora and the year without a summer
[18:02] A jumbo jet, an ash cloud and nuclear winter
[23:38] Civil rights and the climate
[26:55] Rachel Carson and Silent Spring
[27:57] Why women led the fight
Stay connected with Legacy:
Instagram: @originallegacypodcast
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Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:
Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.
legacy.supportingcast.fm
Stay connected with Legacy:
Instagram: @originallegacypodcast
TikTok: @legacy_productions
Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com
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