SPLANCHNICS: The Society for the Preservation of Literature, the Arts, Numinosity, Culture, Humor, Nerdiness, Inspiration, Creativity & Storytelling

Hannah takes the "reigns" for part 1 in a series about the kings and queens of England. Because royalty in England just cycled through the same three names over and over, today we learn about two kings named Henry:
Henry II: the highlights of his reign were murdering his best friend in a cathedral, getting whipped within an inch of his life in the same cathedral, and giving a gorgeous castle to a six year-old out of spite.
We talk about several movies: Becket (1964, starring Peter O'Toole as King Henry II), The Lion in Winter (1968, starring...Peter O'Toole as King Henry II again!) and Robin Hood, about vagabonds causing trouble for Prince John in England whilst his brother Richard I (the "Lionheart") is galavanting around the Holy Land.
Henry III: Basically, he was pretty lame. He fled the battlefield, got captured, and had to be rescued by his son. Also, his brother-in-law called him a simpleton, which is worse than all that other stuff.
References:
Online: Historic UK has many excellent articles on the history of the British monarchy, including this comprehensive summary, "Kings and Queens of England & Britain" by Ben Johnson.
Print: The Kings and Queens of England by Ian Crofton. (Note: affiliate link. Thank you for your support!)
Video: Britain's Bloodiest Dynasty -- a 4-part documentary about the Plantagenet kings.
Music: "The Battle of Agincourt," by The Twilight

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Theme music: “Splanchnics Riff” composed and performed by Clare T. Walker

In this breakfast chat, Clare shares a truly embarrassing story from a fellow veterinarian. Names and locations have been changed to protect those involved from further shame.
This episode may be troubling for more squeamish listeners, as it contains terms like: uterine horn, testicles, castration, cervix, and litter-bearing animals. Also, Hannah ate spaghetti throughout this recording.

For more funny vet stories, have you ever read All Creatures Great and Small by James Herriot? This is one of Clare’s favorite books. The author was a country veterinarian in the Yorkshire dales of England. His semi-autobiographical books take place in the years just before and during World War II. This book series is one of the reasons Clare became a veterinarian. She even made use of Herriot’s stories in her clinical practice! Stay tuned for another funny vet story...

Support the show

We provide these resources to help you find and enjoy the things we talked about on this episode! Note that some of these may include “affiliate” links to books and other products. When you click through and purchase, the price of the item is the same for you. In fact, most of the time you’ll get a discount! But the company gives us a little somethin’ somethin’ to say “thanks” for sending you their way! This helps you enjoy the website and the podcast EVEN MORE by eliminating intrusive advertisements. Thanks for clicking!

Theme music: “Splanchnics Riff” composed and performed by Clare T. Walker

Clare and Hannah talk about the positive effects of handcrafts, gardening, cooking, and building your own home! 

Clare and Hannah review some classic anime like Akira and Princess Mononoke, try to say "my hovercraft is full of eels" in Japanese and, as an all-powerful wizard once did, ask, "what's the point of living if I can't be beautiful?" We are certainly not experts on the subject of anime, but as always, we talk about it with great enthusiasm!

Clare and Hannah had so much to say about the Martian Chronicles, we decided to record another episode about it. We talk almost exclusively about Hannah's favorite story in the book, and we manage to sneak a C.S. Lewis reference in there, too. This one gets pretty existential (which it usually does if you let Hannah talk for too long).