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Four Horsemen – Famine

This entry is part 2 of 4 in the series Four Horsemen

Four Horsemen

“Famine” is part 2 in our Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse series. We discuss the Russian Famine of 1601, The Irish Potato Famine, the Holodomor, the Great Leap Forward, and more. Plus: what does it feel like to starve to death? Double plus: the ‘famine food’ pop quiz. Triple plus: which is the lesser of two evils, being inflicted with famine or pestilence?

Music: “Everybody Eats When They Come To My House” by Cab Calloway

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OlbsKQs1RVc#t=566s

Series Navigation<< PestilenceFour Horsemen: War >>

21 Responses

  1. Thanks for posting an ep over the festive period, guys. 🙂 Out of interest, though, should it appear in the iTunes feeds soon? Haven’t noticed it yet (several hours after you posted this blog post).

    Thanks!

  3. The new design of the site is very nice. Thanks for all you effort putting out the podcast, I appreciate it.

  4. I feel that Joe and Kevin are overlooking some things about desperate sickness. A symptom of MANY diseases is nausea. Another is lack of appetite. Yet another is raving madness.
    I’d rather waste away dreaming of sugarplums, than be repulsed by them, or worse, debating with them.

  5. I nearly starved due to celiac disease when I was a teenager. It was HORRIBLE. The gluten, which had built up all over my bowel caused the cilia to no longer function. I could eat anything and 10 minutes later it would pass undigested. Chewed, but undigested. It was like a Greek mythological curse- eat whatever you want and still starve to death. I was hospitalized when I passed out while simultaneously shitting (actually squirting) and puking at the same time. A biopsy diagnosed the celiac, and I’ve been on the hellish gluten free diet ever since.

  7. Interregnum: from the Latin, I’m guessing, inter = between, regnum = to do with king(s). Only halfway through but fascinated, revolted and horrified so far.

  8. I reckon this has to be my winner so far for most horrifying episode (and not just for Toren’s baby jokes, though they sure contributed 😉 ), for sheer numbers (min 2.5m dead in the Ukraine and 10m+ in China) of those killed by it but also for the manner of death. Just so awful! That said, I think dying of Ebola (bleeding out of all of my orifices) and ergotism (convulsions and cramping from fungus on the wheat that lead, ultimately, to the Salem witch trials) for a month sounds pretty unappealing (pestilence covers a lot of symptoms, Kevin).
    Btw, with regard to the Ukraine, didn’t Kevin mention that Hitler called it the breadbasket of Europe and wanted to grab as part of his rantings in Mein Kampf? That being the horrible irony of the famine there.
    Great ep for such a terrible topic.

  10. Holy shite… I think that this episode, more than any, really bummed me out. The kid tearing off pieces of his own body to eat? Eff, that was messed up.
    On a related note, how about the North Korean famine (I believe it was in the 80s)? It’s rumoured that people ate their own children in order to survive.

  14. Pestilence over famine? Really? But… every disease… every STD, leprosy… no one would want to be within 100 feet of you. You must have had some pretty amazing soup.

  16. Been looking everywhere for this anthony bourdain cuba starving children being beaten video on youtube, where is it?