Hello friends, it’s Clio here. I wanted to share with you a story from last year that I recently discovered. It’s the story of David Boder, a psychologist who interviewed holocaust survivors in France. Recordings from his interviews were restored and scholars have been able to hear the songs his interviewees sung. The article in the link includes the audio of two of those recordings. 

Boder was originally from Latvia and so I’ve included some pictures from my own visit to Latvia. These were taken in the Jewish ghetto in Riga, a holding center for deported Jews from as far away as Berlin, Germany. The wall panels are covered in the names of people who were imprisoned there. 

Today we remember them.

Hello friends and listeners, it’s Clio. Thanks for your patience on this latest episode. While you’re waiting for it to air, I thought I would leave you with some fun information. Rissa pointed out that in my excitement for this colloquium I forgot to name the sources I was quoting from. So when you hear me reading direct quotes, they’re from the following books:

The Great Caliphs: The Golden Age of the Abbasid Empire by Amira K. Bennison

The House of Wisdom: How the Arabs Transformed Western Civilization by Jonathan Lyons

Medieval Robots: Mechanism, Magic, Nature and Art by E.A. Truitt

Two books I also enjoyed reading in preparation for this episode were:

When Baghdad Ruled the Muslim World: The Rise and Fall of Islam’s Greatest Dynasty by Hugh Kennedy

Islam in Historical Perspective by Alexander Knysh

If you’re wishing like us that someone would make a museum exhibit out of all these cool inventions then check out the 1001 Inventions youtube channel and their website full of even more information.