Dan Lefebrve has a popular podcast — Based on a True Story — in which he asks an expert how well a given Hollywood film matched up to historical reality. I joined him recently to talk about the Golden Age Pirates — subject of my history, The Republic of Pirates — and Disney’s depiction of them in the Pirates of the Caribbean films. The short answer is: not very well, particularly after the first film. But there are some themes and references that do parallel reality and may, in part, explain the resonance of the series.
Hope you enjoy the segment, available here and wherever you find your podcasts.
COLIN WOODARD is a New York Times bestselling author and award-winning journalist. He is the author of six books that have been translated into a dozen foreign languages and inspired an NBC television drama. He is currently Director of Nationhood Lab at the Pell Center for International Relations and Public Affairs at Salve Regina University. As State and National Affairs Writer at the Portland Press Herald and Maine Sunday Telegram he won a 2012 George Polk Award and was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2016. He is a contributing editor at POLITICO and his work has appeared in The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Economist, Smithsonian and dozens of other major publications.