A farmer holds a handful of crushed poppy pods in Khan Neshin, Afghanistan. It's estimated nearly 80 percent of the farming community of Khan Neshin is either directly or indirectly involved with poppy farming, opium or narcotics production. (Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)

OK, so it’s last week in history podcasts — HowStuffWorks was out Thursday and Friday enjoying our families and our turkeys (or vegetarian options, as the case may be).

On Monday’s podcast, Sarah and I talked about the Opium Wars. We realized we’d been on Western streak, so we’re branching out. And if you’re into Chinese history, be on the lookout for a podcast on the Taiping Rebellion coming out soon.

To understand the First and Second Opium Wars (1839-1842 and 1856-1860), you have to have a little background. The British had been trying to open up the Chinese market for years, to no avail. The Chinese were uninterested in the goods the British had to offer. The British, however, were importing tons of tea, along with silk, candy, spices and porcelain. This created a trade imbalance — lots of imports for the British, no exports. But they finally discovered something the Chinese did want: opium.

Opium addiction became an overwhelmingly huge problem. The Chinese emperors did what they could to stop it, but the British were growing opium in India and smuggling it to China, now paying for their Chinese tea with opium and cotton. The trade imbalance shifted, leaving China trying to save its people from drug addiction and also control the Brits in their own country.

Matters came to a head when imperial commissioner Lin Zexu forced British merchants to give up their opium, which he destroyed. So how did this war play out? And why is it still important to understanding relations with China today? Listen to the podcast and find out.

It was also brought to our attention (nicely) by listener Chris that we mispronounced Guangzhou (the last syllable should be said like “joe”) and the city of Canton. The accent should go on the second syllable (can-TAWN), instead of the way we said it, like the city in Ohio. Thanks, Chris!

Wednesday’s podcast was about the first Thanksgiving. Sarah and I got to use Candace’s research for her first Thanksgiving article, so we are grateful to her. I threw out some random facts over the weekend when I ran into friends on a Pilgrim pub crawl.

Did your Thanksgiving dinner involve a lovely roasted swan? Perhaps a dish of eel? A scrumptious eagle? No? Then your feast didn’t accurately reflect its origins!

The first Thanksgiving dinner didn’t even involve Pilgrims — they were separatists (British Protestants who broke from the Church of England), while the term Pilgrim refers to both separatists and non-separatists. And this first meal with the Wampanoags was a harvest celebration, without the religious tone that we often associate with the holiday.

What else didn’t you know about the first Thanksgiving? Listen to the podcast.

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