Stories of seafaring, shipwreck, mutiny and murder have long held a fascination, particularly for dwellers of this island nation and in his latest investigative piece of narrative non-fiction, David Grann has a tale that grips from first page to last. The Wager was a vessel shipwrecked in the 1740s, its crew presumed lost, until a group of survivors washed up on the coast of Brazil. Their story of survival would have been incredible enough except for a second group of survivors to appear in Chile with stories of mutiny, murder and even cannibalism. What follows is not so much a question of who is telling the truth, but of who gets to tell the story that will become the truth. A court martial of individuals but also the idea of Empire itself. We sat down to talk about the pursuit of truth, human survival and the power of stories to endure.

Ask this episode

“What did the council decide on item 42?” — answered with the speaker and the moment.