Medieval Techno-Optimism with Jennifer Jahner

This episode we talk about Roger Bacon, maybe not perfect for Instagram but not far off. There’s some medieval science (and using data to understand the medieval world), some alchemy, and some antichrist. Peter Thiel even gets a mention, but only briefly. 

Guest

Jennifer Jahner is a Professor of English at Caltech, where she has worked since 2012. Trained in literature, she has migrated over time into histories of law, science, and rhetoric. Her current research examines the prehistory of “data science,” asking how medieval thinkers organized and aggregated large amounts of information and made inferences about the future. Find her on Instagram at jajahner. 

Credits

• Host & Executive Producer: Matthew Gabriele. Find him on Bluesky @profgabriele.com or his homepage profgabriele.com 
• Editor: Julia Schifini
• Music: “Sleeping Bags” by OTE
• Art: Ulysses Gabriele
• Multitude: https://multitudeshows.com/ 

Find American Medieval Online

• Website: AmericanMedieval.com 
• Patreon: patreon.com/AmericanMedieval 
• Insta: instagram.com/americanmedieval 
• YouTube: youtube.com/@AmericanMedieval 
• Bluesky: bsky.app/profile/americanmedieval.bsky.social 

About Us

American Medieval is a podcast about the Middle Ages, but with an American twist. Each week, joined by expert guests, we’ll explore either some fascinating part of the medieval world, or some way Americans have used this period to help them understand themselves. 

After all, if America has never been modern, it’s because we’ve always been slightly medieval.

Sponsors

Want to become a sponsor of American Medieval? Head over to https://www.multitudeshows.com/ads 

• As supporters of my Patreon know, I’m a big fan of cocktails. That’s why I’m happy to tell you about Shaker and Spoon. Shaker and Spoon is a subscription cocktail experience kit, each box including 3 original recipes from award-winning bartenders, with enough ingredients for 12 (or more) drinks. Well, except the alcohol – or non-alcohol, because everything is adaptable to zero-proof. If you’ve ever been interested in trying cocktails but didn’ t know how to start, Shaker and Spoon is great because it teaches you how to shake, stir, build flavors, and garnish. You’ll learn about bitters, syrups, and aromatics with handy recipe cards and notes on how to start thinking like a mixologist. Start now and get 10%. Just head over to shakerandspoon.com and use the code “AMM” at checkout to get 10% off. You’ll be “drinking with historians” in no time.

American Medieval is delighted to be partnering with Roundtable, at the 92nd street Y, in New York City, to offer a brand new online course – “The Medieval European Mind, in History and Literature.” The course will be entirely online and run for 4 sessions over 4 weeks, beginning on Thursday July 9. Live class sessions on Zoom will be from 2-3pm, but all sessions will be recorded. Each week, we’ll together think with an iconic medieval text, to talk about some aspect of the medieval - from the monsters of BEOWULF, to the monsters of the crusaders in Usama ibn Munqidh, to courtly love and King Arthur in Marie de France and SIR GAWAIN AND THE GREEN KNIGHT.  And if that isn’t exciting enough, if you sign up now, you can get 30% off the registration price. Just head to roundtable.org and enter the code “MEDIEVAL30” at checkout. Do it quick as space is limited.

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