Advertise on podcast: Human Resources

Human civilization only began about 6,000 years ago. As author Emma Dabiri writes in her 2021 book, cheekily titled ‘What White People Can Do Next’, in the grand scheme of things, human beings are babies. A speck on the face of time and space. The thought puts into perspective how *new*, parts of society are, that seem entrenched from day dot: religion. Gender… Race. Featuring writer and historian Subhadra Das. Written by Moya Lothian MacLean Editor and Producer - Renay Richardson Researchers Arisa Loomba and Dr. Alison Bennett Production Assistant - Rory Boyle Sound Designer - Ben Yellowitz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Hippocratic Oath isn’t universal. But in the 18th century, the Oath began to be more widely used in medical schools across the British Empire and Europe. The Enlightenment was pushing medical developments along at a fast lick. But concurrently, chattel slavery was in full swing. And a dividing line quickly emerged, between who doctors saw as ‘patients’ and who they viewed as ‘guinea pigs’. Featuring Anna Arabindan-Kesson, an assistant professor at Princeton University in African American studies.  Written by Moya Lothian-MacLean Editor and Producer - Renay Richardson Researchers - Dr. Alison Bennett and Arisa Loomba Production Assistant - Rory Boyle Sound Designer - Ben Yellowitz Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

At the centre of the system of chattel slavery, was the body. Not the mind, not the soul but the physical vessel necessary to carry out backbreaking labour. And break backs it did... Featuring historian of the Caribbean and the Atlantic, Stephanie Hunt Kennedy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Women made up 40% of slaveowners across the Caribbean – and although historians have had to dig even harder to pull together a picture of their lives, it’s out there. Featuring Assistant Professor of Atlantic World History at Yale and US College in Singapore and author of Jamaica Ladies, Christine Walker Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the last episode, we looked at the women in Jamaica who owned slaves, both British colonists and the formerly enslaved women who codified their freedom through subjugating others. But there were also the women who didn’t stay, ones who never set foot in Britain’s slave colonies – the absentee owners. Featuring historian Dr. Hannah Young, who specialises in gender and absentee slave ownership. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode we’re venturing onto the bustling city streets of 18 century London, trying to uncover the traces of the Black individuals who became part of the working class communities – and sometimes elite society – of the British capital, the seat of power that directed the trade that has usually brought them to these shores in the first place. Featuring PhD researcher at the University of Birmingham, Montaz Marché. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I love fitness. I love sports. I go to the gym, I walk, I run, I cycle. In my youth, I played team games. And everyone said I was good at sports because of my heritage. My Jamaican ancestry. As a child, this confused me - my white British mother was as sporty as my father, representing her county at tennis in her teen years. But my sporting ability - which is enthusiastic rather than particularly gifted - is always attributed to the half of me that’s Black. It feels - and I’ll just say it - racialised, an echo of the ideas that saw things like superhuman strength and endurance attributed to Black people. Featuring senior lecturer in American Studies at the University of Manchester, Natalie Zacek Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Why do we swim?  It’s not new, we’ve been swimming for 10,000 years… apparently. But why? We don’t live in the water and so what draws us to it? In this first episode of the podcast we explore the history of humans in the water to get an idea of why we do it. Hosted by Rebecca Achieng Ajulu-Bushell. Featuring Bonnie Tsui, Why We Swim Listen to the full series here  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Like Scotland, Ireland was another notch on England’s colonial bedpost, ruled from England continuously since the Tudors re-established the Kingdom of Ireland in the 16th century and made sure it was subordinate to English political authority. But this isn’t a podcast about what England did to Ireland – many of those exist and tell the story far better than I could. This is a podcast about Britain's slaving past. Featuring researcher Giselle Gonzalez Garcia.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In southwest London, there is an area that plays an outsized role in British history. Today, if you walk through Clapham, you will be greeted by formerly grand black and white manor houses, now playing home to the likes of popular coffee chains. So why are we in the verdant, growing suburb of Clapham today? To examine the congregation of a particular site of religious worship, the Holy Trinity Church. Featuring Dr. Katie Donnington, senior lecturer in Black Caribbean and African history at the Open University. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Most people know the basics of this moment. Josiah Wedgewood made some pottery, William Wilberforce made some speeches, John Newton wrote Amazing Grace, and boom! Britain’s narrative arc of national moral redemption was complete and slavery was abolished. Or at least – that’s what we’re told. Featuring Historian of the Caribbean, Diana Paton. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the last episode, ‘Abolition, Now part 1’,  I was talking with Historian Diana Patton about the real timeline of Aboliton and what Abolition really meant for those previously enslaved. Towards the end of the episode we began speaking about Apprenticeships and how those previously enslaved were then forced to work for the people who formerly owned them. Should they not want to work, the punishments were fast and brutal. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices