Poisons and Pestilence

In this episode, I interview Professor Alastair Hay about his work as a toxicologist related to the prohibition of chemical weapons.         

Karl Dewey (2022) Poisonous affairs: Russia’s evolving use of poisons in targeted killings https://kclpure.kcl.ac.uk/portal/en/publications/poisonous-affairs-russias-evolving-use-of-poisons-in-targeted-kil   https://twitter.com/KarlDewey1     Audio credit: Clip BBC 

A history of the foundation of the French BW programme. You can find a list of Etienne's publications here: https://irfu.cea.fr/Pisp/etienne.aucouturier/

In this episode, we examine the western gunpowder revolution and consider ideas for poison weapons which were outlined at this time in numerous military manuals.  I am very grateful for the input from:  the stupendous Seth Carus, the amazing Anna Roessing, the unbelievable Una Jacob, the awe-inspiring Alexander Samuel, the terrific Tonio Andrade, and the remarkable Rainer Leng.   Show notes: https...

In this episode we examine preparations by the US in the advent of Operation Desert Storm (2003) for dealing with what was believed at the time to have been a large Iraqi CBW capability- with Al Mauroni.  Further reading:  A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja (2007) https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poisonous-Affair-America-Gassing-Halabja/dp/0521876869 Al Mauroni publications: htt...

The latest installment- covering the spread of gunpowder west, via the Mongols.  Show notes available at: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wIibQJYobwyhFNC-OhjnLYkOwVizIjuJ?usp=sharing  

You can check out Glenn's book here: Dirty War: Rhodesia and Chemical Biological Warfare 1975-1980 - Glenn Cross - Google Books   We didn't have time to cover the smaller and largely exploratory BW aspect of this programme but hopefully we will in s future episode.    Audio clip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FrD4XJcOw4  

You can find a link to Simon's work on this subject over at https://simonjoneshistorian.com/2019/08/27/first-air-dropped-cw/  

Image and sound from the US national archives.    Check out Reid's website over at Military Historian - Reid Kirby

In this episode we examine the impact of the development of gunpowder on chemical and biological warfare. We focus on China in the 9th -16th centuries. Next week we follow the spread of gunpowder west.    Show notes are available here: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wIibQJYobwyhFNC-OhjnLYkOwVizIjuJ?usp=sharing      

In this episode Dan discusses his work examining the life of Edmund Tilly. After WW2 Tilly interrogated those involved in the German chemical warfare programme- which was the first to develop and produce a nerve agent ' Tabun'- on a large scale.    Sound Credits:  This clip is from the 1963 film, Nerve Agents, available at the national Archives.  Video found on this amazing Youtube channel. https:...

During World War II, the Polish resistance movement used chemical and biological weapons (CBW) against the Third Reich. The use of CBW against the Third Reich most likely originated in a secret Polish biological-weapons program, which existed in the 1930s and went underground after the September 1939 German invasion. Between 1940 and 1942, a unit of the Polish resistance movement named WKZO (Wielk...

Won't be long until we are back looking at poison arrows, toxic smoke, water poisoning and the laws of war from the 13th to the 18th century.  Drop me a line if you have ideas for the show! 

In this episode, we look at transitions in Chemical and Biological defence in the British army between the tail end of the Cold War and the Gulf War. We talk about noddy suits- and I didn't make a joke about being cold once. Be sure to say hello to Gareth on Twitter ( especially if you like tanks)    I do not own the media clips, they can be found here: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLsUcz2Bh1...

Hello! And welcome to episode 7 of the poisons and pestilence podcast- If you buboe me by now. Now I had a great time putting together the last two specials- and I hope you enjoyed them. However, it is high time we returned to our trundle through the history of biological and chemical warfare. As you will recall, in earlier episodes, we have been covering some pretty vast time periods. But we are...

You can check out the Declassified MOD film on the Lyme Bay Trials here (a clip of this appears in the show audio) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OTwQJ1ASyws&t=302s     You can also check out various documentaries and excerpts of  press coverage of the Zinc Cadmium and Lyme Bay Trials produced when these issues first hit the headlines over at https://www.youtube.com/user/experimentsrus/featured...

Welcome to the first-ever bonus episode of the poisons and pestilence podcast!   This episode is the first in a two-part special on large area biological weapon simulant trials, carried out in the UK during the Cold War. In this episode, we focus on work carried out by scientists from Porton Down up until the mid -1960’s- which involved the spread of zinc cadmium sulphide over vast swathes of the...

This episode we're going to be looking at the time- period between roughly 1 AD and 500AD.  As we continue our trundle through the history of chemical and biological weapons and warfare   You can check out the show notes here:    https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wIibQJYobwyhFNC-OhjnLYkOwVizIjuJ?usp=sharing

In Episode 3, we examine the history of biological and chemical warfare from 1000BC to 1AD   You can check out sources and show notes at:   https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wIibQJYobwyhFNC-OhjnLYkOwVizIjuJ?usp=sharing  

In Episode 2, we continue our discussion of pre-historic biological warfare Check out the show notes for this episode here   https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wIibQJYobwyhFNC-OhjnLYkOwVizIjuJ?usp=sharing    

The first episode covers the pre-history of poison arrows- check out the show notes here:   https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1wIibQJYobwyhFNC-OhjnLYkOwVizIjuJ?usp=sharing

Hello! Welcome to The Poisons and Pestilence Podcast!