In this episode, I’m thrilled to be joined by historian Dr. Ruby Lal.

When I first started thinking about this interview more than a year ago, I read Ruby’s book Vagabond Princess: The Great Adventures of Gulbadan. I was swept away by the book, which is a history biography of Princess Gulbadan in the early decades of the Mughal Empire. Ruby is also the author of Empress: The Astonishing Reign of Nur Jahan, another remarkable narrative about a remarkable woman in the Mughal Empire. But before I had a chance to interview her, Ruby came out with another project: Tiger Slayer, which she describes as an illustrated remix of Empress for a young adult audience. I can’t tell you how excited I was to talk about all of these projects, and how Ruby brings these narratives from hundreds of years ago to life in such vibrant, enchanting books.

Dr. Ruby Lal is a professor of South Asian History at Emory University. In addition to the books I’ve already mentioned, she is also the author of two academic books, Domesticity and Power in the Early Mughal World, and Coming of Age in Nineteenth Century India: The Girl-Child and the Art of Playfulness. And as you’ll hear in the episode, she thinks deeply and beautifully about crafting historical narrative and the stakes of bringing these stories to readers of all ages.

Stephanie Gorton is a writer, editor, and journalist whose work has been published in a range of outlets including The New Yorker, Smithsonian, and Paris Review Daily. She has worked in editorial roles at several independent presses, and her first book came out in 2020, titled Citizen Reporters: S. S. McClure, Ida Tarbell, and the Magazine that Rewrote America. Her second book, which came out in November, is The Icon and the Idealist: Margaret Sanger, Mary Ware Dennett, and the Rivalry that Brought Birth Control to America. It’s a fascinating dual biography that brings to life two complicated leaders of the birth control movement in the early 1900s, and the lasting impact of their actions and interactions. We spoke early this year, and I loved getting to hear more about Stephanie’s research and writing process, especially how she thought about narrative structure and revising with feedback.

In this episode, I’m joined by Dr. Padraic Scanlan. Padraic is an associate professor at the University of Toronto. His research focuses on the history of labor in Britain and the British empire. He’s the author of three books, including Freedom’s Debtors: British Antislavery in Sierra Leone in the Age of Revolutions and Slave Empire: How Slavery Made Modern Britain. His newest book, out this year, is called Rot: An Imperial History of the Irish Famine, and it offers a reinterpretation of the Irish Great Famine of the mid-1800s that shows how massive income inequality, debt, housing prices, precarious employment and more contributed to the disaster. I spoke with Padraic about how he thinks about writing for a general audience, his work with a developmental editor and why he loves editors, and his writerly inspirations.