Photo, above:  globalization: transfers and commingling.   Potatoes and tomatoes are from the New World; when they became important crops elsewhere, local economies and populations shifted dependencies.

From 1845 to 1852 in Ireland there occurred the Great Famine, a period of mass starvation, disease and emigration. Mostly outside Ireland, it's called as the Irish Potato Famine because one-third of the population was then solely reliant on this cheap crop for a number of historical reasons. In the Irish language it is called an Gorta Mór ("the Great Hunger") or an Drochshaol, "the bad life"). During the famine approximately one million people died and a million more emigrated from Ireland, causing the island's population to fall by between 20% and 25%. The proximate cause of the famine was a potato disease known as potato blight.  See Hour 4, 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C Mann.

“No Potatoes, No Popery!” was an English election slogan in 1765.

JOHN BATCHELOR SHOW

Hour One

Saturday 16 November  2013 / Hour 1, Block A: JFK, Conservative by Ira Stoll (1 of 4)

Saturday 16 November  2013 / Hour 1, Block B: JFK, Conservative by Ira Stoll (2 of 4)

Saturday 16 November  2013 / Hour 1, Block C: JFK, Conservative by Ira Stoll (3 of 4)

Saturday 16 November  2013 / Hour 1, Block D: JFK, Conservative by Ira Stoll (4 of 4)

Hour Two

Saturday 16 November  2013 / Hour 2, Block A: Flight of the Eagle: The Grand Strategies That Brought America from Colonial Dependence to World Leadership by Conrad Black  (1 of 8)

Saturday 16 November  2013 / Hour 2, Block B: Flight of the Eagle: The Grand Strategies That Brought America from Colonial Dependence to World Leadership by Conrad Black  (2 of 8)

Saturday 16 November  2013 / Hour 2, Block C: Flight of the Eagle: The Grand Strategies That Brought America from Colonial Dependence to World Leadership by Conrad Black  (3 of 8)

Saturday 16 November  2013 / Hour 2, Block D: Flight of the Eagle: The Grand Strategies That Brought America from Colonial Dependence to World Leadership by Conrad Black  (4 of 8)

Hour Three

Saturday 16 November  2013 / Hour 3, Block A: Flight of the Eagle: The Grand Strategies That Brought America from Colonial Dependence to World Leadership by Conrad Black  (5 of 8)

Saturday 16 November  2013 / Hour 3, Block B: Flight of the Eagle: The Grand Strategies That Brought America from Colonial Dependence to World Leadership by Conrad Black  (6 of 8)

Saturday 16 November  2013 / Hour 3, Block C: Flight of the Eagle: The Grand Strategies That Brought America from Colonial Dependence to World Leadership by Conrad Black  (7 of 8)

Saturday 16 November  2013 / Hour 3, Block D: Flight of the Eagle: The Grand Strategies That Brought America from Colonial Dependence to World Leadership by Conrad Black  (8 of 8)

Hour Four

In the 1870s, the British government, worried about its rubber supplies, offered to buy every rubber seed that could be smuggled out of Brazil. People didn’t ask what this would mean for Laos — why would they? But 140 years on, the chain of events they set off has brought social upheaval and the threat of ecological collapse to this remote corner of the world. There is nowhere to hide from globalization.

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Saturday 16 November  2013 / Hour 4, Block A: 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C Mann (1 of 4)

Saturday 16 November  2013 / Hour 4, Block B: 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C Mann (2 of 4)

Saturday 16 November  2013 / Hour 4, Block C: 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C Mann (3 of 4)

Saturday 16 November  2013 / Hour 4, Block D: 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created by Charles C Mann (4 of 4)

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Music

Hour 1:

Hour 2:

Hour 3:

Hour 4: