Welcome to the first episode of Short and Interesting – the podcast that reads to you short excerpts from old, weird, interesting books. This week is the first taste of Charles MacKay’s 19th century classic, “Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds.” We’re reading a selection of stories from the section on alchemists. Specifically: Geber; Alfarabi; Artephius; and Pietro d’Apone.

Download this public domain book for free from Project Gutenberg: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/24518

Music by Dan Mason. Check out and buy his music at https://danmason.bandcamp.com. For this podcast we’re using clips of three tracks from hi ...