Deeper Lore: 316 (118, 166, & 212)

This episode of Lore is about poison—specifically, the history of using food and drink as a delivery system for deadly substances. The host, Aaron Mahnke, introduces a new episode titled "A Spoonful of Sugar," which explores a "baker's dozen of killer confections." To help listeners dive deeper, he recommends three older episodes from the archive that pair thematically with the new one, each focusing on a different angle of the poison story: the art of poison in France, the use of poison as a tool, and the folklore surrounding arsenic.

The first recommended episode is Episode 118, "Ambition." This episode examines the French mastery of poison, a skill they cultivated for centuries. The French were "very, very good for a very long time at the art of poison," and this left behind a trove of "amazing stories." The episode focuses on the ambition that drove people to use poison as a political or personal weapon, often in the highest circles of power. The implication is that poison was not just a crude tool but a refined, almost artistic, method of eliminating rivals, and the French court was a particularly fertile ground for such plots.