The Dirty Secret of Early Modern Capitalism with Kees Boterbloem

06/10/21 • 50 min

For this episode, I talk with Dr. Kees Boterbloem, a history Professor at the University of South Florida, about his book, The Dirty Secret of Early Modern Capitalism. In it, Kees shows how the Dutch accumulation of great wealth was closely linked to their involvement in warfare. By charting Dutch activity across the globe, the book explores Dutch participation in the international arms trade, and in wars both at home and abroad. In doing so, Kees ponders the issue of how capitalism has often historically thrived best when its practitioners are ruthless and ignore the human cost of their search for riches.

Kees Boterbloem, Ph.D. is a history Professor at the University of South Florida where he teaches courses on Russian and Soviet History, Dutch History, and Cultural, Social-Economic, and Military-Political History of European Empires.

Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzz

Audio by TwistedLogix

Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzz

Audio by TwistedLogix

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Surfing and Consumer Practices with Tom Wilson

Tom Wilson, the Founder of Wave Changer, a Sydney, Australia-based nonprofit organization talks about his organization's vision to “create a carbon neutral, waste-free surf industry that's respectful to nature, yet retains the innovation, high performance and excitement we all expect from surfing.” In this episode, we also chat about Wave Changer’s mission to enable the surf community to embrace sustainable solutions and reduce its environmental impact and how Tom and his team are going about making this mission and vision a reality.

Environmental Initiatives and Consumer Behaviours in the Australian Surfing Industry

Artwork by Nacer Ahmadi: IG @x.filezzz

Audio by TwistedLogix

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Surflore and Ireland's Surf Culture with Frederique Carey

In this episode, I chat with my friend and colleague Frederique Carey about her research on Ireland’s surf culture and its links to identity formation through storytelling, something that draws from the country’s ancient bardic traditions, popular culture, and poetry.

Frederique Carey is a lecturer and a researcher at the University of Rennes 2, France, where she teaches courses in International Trade, Marketing and Management, as well as surf economics.

Her PhD research weaves together Celtic sea folklore and myths, anthropology, surf photography and film work analysis to offer an ethnographic study of surfing in Ireland as well as a mythopoetical interpretation of surf narratives and iconography and a market-oriented examination of the place of surfing in the Irish cultural and economic landscapes.

In association with Irish films production company Pockets Full of Water, she is currently working on a documentary series project that is supported by multidisciplinary academic research and structure. Her podcast series “Daoine na Mara – Tales from the Green Shores” was launched in March 2019; it is meant to be a platform for storing and sharing the stories she has collected from surfers along the coast of Ireland, and aims to root the development of a distinct Irish surflore.

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