Chelsea Olivia Follett

I recorded a fabulous conversation with @chellivia Chelsea Follett on her new book, which I cannot overstate how important it is to be reminded of just how good life is for us today. A few of the dozens of quotes I highlighted: "Giving infants alcohol served a double purpose: to provide extra calories and to drug the poor infants into crying less." "Some historians have argued that the main motivation for married women committing infanticide in the premodern period was the desire to limit family size." "Females could marry when they reached their twelfth birthday. The age for males was 14....a girl knew that unless she married before she was 21, society would consider her useless, fit only for the nunnery, or, in England, the spinning wheel (a 'spinster')." "Many households also turned to attempts at magic to defend against thieves and monsters using...amulets, ranging from horse skulls to jugs known as 'witch-bottles'." "Many of our ancestors did not use latrines of any kind. Urinating in the fireplace, even when lit, was a common practice across social classes...residents dumped their waste each night after 10 o'clock, hurling it out of windows at the sound of a drum, but only after warning passing pedestrians by shouting 'Gardy-loo'." Baited meat was higher priced that non-baited meat, meaning blood sports like bull and dog fighting "tenderize the meat and, inexplicably, to improve the beef's nutritional quality." "Public executions were considered a wholesome amusement for all ages, with entire families often gathering for the show." "In the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, the maximum life expectancy at birth was about 40 years, and it fell significantly during times of plague and famine."