Podcasting “Against The Great Forces of History”

What Ada Palmer’s University of Chicago Papal election LARP can teach us about our own future.

‘Cesare Borgia oath of Fealty.’ from the 2019 Papal election LARP. Photo by Ada Palmer. Used with permission.

This week on my podcast, I read my latest Medium column, “Against The Great Forces of History,” in which I describe how Ada Palmer’s pedagogic techniques as a Renaissance historian at the University of Chicago has changed my view of how the world works.

https://doctorow.medium.com/against-the-great-forces-of-history-4946651f2f80

Palmer specializes in banned information during the Inquisitions, specifically in Florence. She’s an authority on how the Inquisitions dealt with witchcraft, homosexuality, pornography, heresy and banned science. You should read her blog!

https://www.exurbe.com/

Every year, Palmer takes a group of students through a LARP that re-enacts the election of the Medicis’ Pope in 1490. Students are assigned to role-play real cardinals from the powerful families of the day over a period of weeks.

https://history.uchicago.edu/news/papal-election-here-campus

The climax is a conclave, held in the Neo-Gothic Memorial Chapel, in full costume (Palmer has a Google Alerts for theater companies selling off their wardrobe). The cardinals, having…