Episode

Don’t eat your deadly greens

Podcast
Stories in Colour
Published
Jun 17, 2025
Duration seconds
3626
Processing state
not_requested
Canonical source
https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcast
Audio
https://episodes.captivate.fm/episode/d09df000-fb5a-4653-9ae0-10f8b4df10a0.mp3
JSON
/v1/public/podcasts/stories-in-colour-7344920/episodes/don-t-eat-your-deadly-greens
Markdown
/podcast/stories-in-colour-7344920/don-t-eat-your-deadly-greens.md

Actions

  • POST https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/stories-in-colour-7344920/episodes/don-t-eat-your-deadly-greens/transcription-requests
    Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode.
  • GET https://stenobird.com/podcast/stories-in-colour-7344920/don-t-eat-your-deadly-greens.md
    Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource.

Summary

Why does the colour green remind you of poison and radioactivity? We're telling the story of two toxic green pigments to find out. Their stories interact with artists like Berthe Morisot, Dante Gabriel Rossetti and William Morris, as well as the less likely figure of Napoleon Bonaparte. And we go for a very good nosy around Victorian libraries.  Join cultural historian Kassia St Clair and National Gallery host Beks Leary to ask just how deadly these historic pigments really are!  Kassia is the author of books including 'The Secret Lives of Colour', 'The Golden Thread' and 'Liberty: Design. Pattern. Colour'. She specialises in telling stories about the overlooked and every day.  ----- Watch the full episode on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9PIn-7FesV8 You can email us with any questions via [email protected] Find out more about the podcast on our website: www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcast ----- To take our short survey about the podcast please visit: https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/podcast   ----- Paintings mentioned: Camille Pissarro, ‘The Côte des Bœufs at L'Hermitage’, 1877. The National Gallery, London https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/camille-pissarro-the-cote-des-boeufs-at-l-hermitage    Edouard Manet, ‘Music in the Tuileries Gardens’, 1862. The National Gallery, London https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/edouard-manet-music-in-the-tuileries-gardens    Dante Gabriel Rossetti, ‘Veronica Veronese’, 1872. The Delaware Art Museum © Delaware Art Museum / Samuel and Mary R. Bancroft Memorial / Bridgeman Images https://emuseum.delart.org/objects/321/veronica-veronese    Berthe Morisot, ‘Summer’s Day’, about 1879. The National Gallery, London https://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings/ber…