In this episode, we follow the trail of one of history’s most prized spices — nutmeg — from its remote birthplace in the Banda Islands to its central role in the expansion of European empires. We begin with the Portuguese conquest of Malacca in 1511 and their first voyages to the Banda Islands, the only source of nutmeg and mace at the time. Along the way, we encounter Enrique of Malacca — a Malay man who sailed with Magellan’s expedition and may have been the first person linked to a global circumnavigation.

We also explore the unique biogeography of Wallacea, a biodiverse crossroads identified by Alfred Russel Wallace, where Asian and Australasian worlds meet. The episode begins to trace the formations of the British and Dutch East India Company, the brutal struggle for monopoly over the spice trade.

explore some links...

Banda Islands — History & Spice Trade (Wikipedia) . Banda Islands (History)Nutmeg — Production & Global Trade Context (Wikipedia) — Covers the uniqueness of nutmeg, its source in the Banda Islands, and European efforts to monopolise it. Nutmeg (History and Trade)
Spice Migrations: Nutmeg (AramcoWorld) — Long-read article on Bandanese mariners, Portuguese, Dutch, and English struggles for control, and the Treaty of Breda. Spice Migrations: Nutmeg (AramcoWorld)European Discovery & Conquest of the Spice Islands (World History Encyclopedia) — Scholarly overview of how the Spice Islands were incorporated into global networks and the VOC’s later dominance. European Conquest of the Spice IslandsEnrique of Malacca (Wikipedia) — Verified entry on the Malay man taken by Magellan, his role in the expedition and the debate around possible early circumnavigation. Enrique of Malacca (Explore)Alfred Russel Wallace — The Malay Archipelago (Royal Geographical Society summary) — Information on Wallace’s observation of distinctive faunal boundaries (Wallace Line). Wallace, The Malay Archipelago (Summary)
Wallacea https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wallacea

Stay Tuned...this podcast covers seasons following Trade and empathy, Ecstasy and empathy, the empathy evolution of man and much, much more...it's going to be a wild ride. What's more, start with these links above and see where they take you!

Disclaimer
This podcast explores history, chemistry, cultural belief, and speculation.
It does not provide medical advice or advocate drug use.
Nutmeg contains the compound myristicin, which is not MDMA.
Historical medicinal claims reflect beliefs of their time, not modern science.
Some ideas presented are interpretive and are examined critically throughout the series.

Nutmeg. A forgotten spice at the back of the cupboard… or the hidden key to how our world really works?

In this episode, we follow the spice routes not just across oceans, but deep into the human psyche. From ancient trade networks and espionage to modern wars, global trauma, and the fragile mechanics of empathy, nutmeg becomes a lens through which everything sharpens into focus.

As MDMA re-emerges as a tool for healing the mind, we ask unsettling questions:
What links a fragrant seed, empathy, and the cycles of violence we keep repeating?
Is trade the antidote to war—or its quiet architect?
And what happens when confidence, self-worth, and compassion disappear from the exchange?

Through Trad’s riddles, lost histories, Portuguese conquests, Sumerian proverbs, and a journey that threatens to unravel the storyteller himself, Trauma and Trade reveals an uncomfortable truth: follow the trade routes, and you follow the trauma.

This isn’t just the story of nutmeg.
It’s the story of us—and why we keep returning to the same crossroads.

-Adams Smiths 1776 ’s An inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of nations.

chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://www.rrojasdatabank.info/Wealth-Nations.pdf

— Evidence of ancient spice presence (cloves) outside Southeast Asia as early as ~1700 BCE (Terqa archaeological finds) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terqa

— Archaeological spice trade insights across Asia and the Near East (PMC) — https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10361603/

— Overview of spice trade networks linking Asia, Arabia, and Europe (Britannica) — https://www.britannica.com/topic/spice-trade

— Arab maritime spice routes pre-European voyages — https://samplecontents.library.ph/wikipedia/wp/s/Spice_trade.htm

— Early Portuguese sea route to India (Vasco da Gama) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_discovery_of_the_sea_route_to_India

— Portuguese contact with the Spice Islands (Moluccas) — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_expedition_to_the_Moluccas

— Malacca Sultanate pre-Portuguese spice hub — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malacca_Sultanate

Stay Tuned...this podcast covers seasons following Trade and empathy, Ecstasy and empathy, the empathy evolution of man and much, much more...it's going to be a wild ride. What's more, start with these links above and see where they take you!

Disclaimer
This podcast explores history, chemistry, cultural belief, and speculation.
It does not provide medical advice or advocate drug use.
Nutmeg contains the compound myristicin, which is not MDMA.
Historical medicinal claims reflect beliefs of their time, not modern science.
Some ideas presented are interpretive and are examined critically throughout the series.

Layer upon layer. Nutmeg reveals itself in history; the closer we look, the more we see that its story is a metaphor. Trad says the original metaphor. We look at how the Western world, starting with why and how the Portuguese started to look for the source of Nutmeg, hidden for millennia, on the other side of the world...

Myristica fragrans
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myristica_fragrans

Myristica fragrans https://www.inchem.org/documents/pims/plant/pim355.htm

Pliny the Elder
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus:text:1999.02.0137

History of India: Trade Relations
https://www.britannica.com/place/India/Trade-relations

History of China: Foreign Trade https://www.britannica.com/place/China/Foreign-trade

Banda Islands https://www.britannica.com/place/Banda-Islands

Austronesian Peoples https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Austronesian_peoples

Peter Bellwood (abstract) — Austronesian Expansion
https://www.jstor.org/stable/2847094

Constantinople https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constantinople

Bosporus Strait https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bosporus

Fourth Crusade https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fourth_Crusade

Republic of Venice https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Republic_of_Venice

Fall of Constantinople (1453) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fall_of_Constantinople

Ottoman Empire https://www.britannica.com/place/Ottoman-Empire

Black Death https://www.britannica.com/event/Black-Death

Miasma Theory https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miasma_theory

Prince Henry the Navigator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince_Henry_the_Navigator

Caravel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caravel

Age of Discovery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_Discovery

Vasco da Gama https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vasco_da_Gama

Christopher Columbus https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Columbus

Stay Tuned...this podcast covers seasons following Trade and empathy, Ecstasy and empathy, the empathy evolution of man and much, much more...it's going to be a wild ride. What's more, start with these links above and see where they take you!

Disclaimer
This podcast explores history, chemistry, cultural belief, and speculation.
It does not provide medical advice or advocate drug use.
Nutmeg contains the compound myristicin, which is not MDMA.
Historical medicinal claims reflect beliefs of their time, not modern science.
Some ideas presented are interpretive and are examined critically throughout the series.