Suzannah Lipscomb Instagram – Taking Perspective From History
It’s clearly a challenging time, with wars in Europe and the Middle East, the cost of living crisis, the climate emergency and political instability home and abroad. Having a sense of anxiety about the current state of affairs is both understandable and commonplace.
And yet, without in any way belittling anything that people are currently going through around the world, you can find some solace by looking to the past. When Professor Suzannah Lipscomb told me that when she is asked what period of history she would choose to live in, and her answer is now – it is somewhat reassuring.
As she points out – we don’t have the plague every 16 years, as well as things like influenza and syphilis. We don’t starve when the harvests fail, as they frequently did. It wasn’t that long ago that infant mortality was through the roof, with 1 in 4 children dying before the age of one. A very high proportion of mothers died in childbirth too, plus for a few hundred years there was a fascination and trend in torturing and murdering ‘witches’. So, in many ways, humanity has never had it so good.
As Suzannah put it, history can provide both a sense of perspective and empathy. She is this week’s guest on the Life Lessons podcast, in which she also shares some of her own nuggets, not least about focus, digital minimalism and getting in flow – as a prolific author (seven books and counting), TV broadcaster and host of the Not Just the Tudors podcast from @historyhit
Have a listen – and feel free to give it a share.
LINK – https://podfollow.com/tllp | Posted on 11/Dec/2023 15:17:01
