About this episode

This episode explores the intersections of family folklore, DNA, and the art and science of history with guest Henry O’Keeffe.

What do a moth in a Harvard computer, Irish family folklore, and Oscar Wilde’s salon have in common? In this episode of History for F***k's Sake , host Sarah Dowd is joined by Henry O’Keeffe, a retired Doctor of Mathematics, lifelong IT boffin, amateur archaeologist, raconteur, and self-proclaimed debugger of life’s glitches for an inquisitive journey into how we remember, misremember, and ultimately try to correct the “bugs” in our histories. Kicking off with the tale of the world’s first literal computer bug, Henry and Sarah explore the intersections of rigorous scientific thinking and the wonderfully messy business of family stories, oral traditions, and the changing standards of “evidence”. History as science, history as art, and history as accidental fiction: this is an episode for the curious, the sceptical, and anyone who suspects their family tree might have a few broken branches. Here are the highlights: The story of the world’s first “computer bug” and its role as metaphor for history’s glitches  Henry’s journey from mathematical rigour to the ambiguities of the humanities  Why proving things in family history is (almost) impossible and why that’s okay&nbsp…

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