Hosted by Lydia Wilson
Directed by Mikey Andreasson
Script Supervised by Mindi Roscoe
Produced by Mindi Roscoe & Ola Salem
How did a humble kitchen spice become a force that shaped the modern world? Once worth its weight in gold, pepper was the most coveted commodity globally. Like the pepper’s vine, the complex threads of early globalization intertwined as it drove global exploration, financed empires and transformed trade routes from India’s Malabar Coast to the courts of Europe.
Lydia Wilson follows the spice’s trail through languages and landscapes — from the Sanskrit “pipli” to the Arabic “filfil,” from Arab traders to Portuguese merchants — uncovering how the pursuit of “black gold” redrew maps and bound worlds through commerce and conquest.
Read the full story by Anthony Elghossain here: https://newlinesmag.com/essays/a-story-of-pepper