Episode 59: Celebrating Columbus Day

“These people are very unskilled in arms... with 50 men they could all be subjected and made to do all that one wished.”
— Christopher Columbus
“Gold is a treasure, and he who possesses it does all he wishes to in this world, and succeeds in helping souls into paradise.”
— Christopher Columbus

As Columbus Day concludes its 78th year of official celebration as a federal holiday in the United States, we should consider its broader legacy, the man it honors and his impact on America as a result of his actions. With increasing disapproval and protest from groups of indigenous cultures, we wanted to examine the holiday more closely and consider both sides of the debate.

*As a crucial note, I refer to "Native American language" used by code-talkers during WWII. This was an error on my part, when there are numerous and varied languages belonging to different Native American cultures. I apologize for the mistake - Kip

Episode 58: Leprosy in the Middle Ages

“Throughout its history, leprosy has been feared and misunderstood. For a long time leprosy was thought to be a hereditary disease, a curse, or a punishment from God. Before and even after the discovery of its biological cause, leprosy patients were stigmatized and shunned.”
— "History of Leprosy" - Stanford

There are vast swaths of history often untouched and glossed over by most of us. This week we welcome Nick Rogers, who wrote his thesis on leprosy in Medieval Europe, one such topic. We discuss some of the approaches to the disease at the time, curious details and misconceptions surrounding it, medical practices in the Middle Ages and how we might learn from this historical period.

Episode 57: College as a Small Community

“The simple truth is that you can understand a town. You can know and love and hate it. You can blame it, resent it, and nothing changes. In the end, you’re just another part of it.”
— Brenna Yovanoff
“Living in a small town...is like living in a large family of rather uncongenial relations. Sometimes it’s fun, and sometimes it’s perfectly awful, but it’s always good for you. People in large towns are like only-children.”
— Joyce Dennys, Henrietta Sees It Through: More News from the Home Front 1942-1945

This week we take a much more personal approach than usual. Zac Caputo returns as a guest and we discuss our experience at Kenyon College, a small, liberal arts school in rural Ohio. Specifically, we examine the impact student body size has on our social, personal and emotional lives. What are the benefits and drawbacks of small communities respectively? Does this experience distort our reality? Does it help to clarify elements of our lives?

Episode 56: Black Mirror, Part I

“You pull a face and poke it towards the stage and la-di-da we sing and dance and tumble around and all you see up here, it’s not people, you don’t see people up here, it’s all fodder. And the faker the fodder is the more you love it because fake fodder’s the only thing that works anymore, fake fodder is all that we can stomach — actually not quite all. Real pain, real viciousness, that we can take.”
— Bing to the judges, Episode 2, Fifteen Million Merits

As technology progresses in new, often fascinating and liberating ways, it is worth considering the role it has in our lives. Several works of science fiction have shown these advances and our reactions to them to be somewhat predictable. Black Mirror, a satire and dark comedy made by the BBC, offers many such conclusions in the form of troubling television episodes reminiscent of the Twilight Zone. In this conversation, we discuss the first season of the show. We will be examining the second season later in November. As a warning, we do cover various crucial plot points in our review. If you would like to watch the show, please do not listen to this first. 

Episode 55: Our First Anniversary

“You are never too old to set another goal or to dream a new dream.”
— C. S. Lewis
“The discipline you learn and character you build from setting and achieving a goal can be more valuable than the achievement of the goal itself.”
— Bo Bennett

It's been a year since we set out on this journey and started Stride and Saunter. We've learned a lot about podcasting, our world and our ever-growing audience. But we've also been fortunate to learn more about ourselves in the process - our ambitions, our capacities and new-found skills. We continue to thoroughly enjoy every aspect of this project and we hope the show continues to please and develop with time. We're very excited with upcoming plans and episodes and we can't wait to share them with you. 

With sincere gratitude,  

Kip Clark, Caroline Borders and Hector Marrero