Noble Blood - The Life and Prophecies of Nostradamus

Episode Date: May 6, 2025

Nostradamus's names and predictions are famous, centuries after his death. But the man behind the predictions is still largely unknown. Was he a true believer, or a savvy opportunist? Support Noble Blood: — Bonus episodes, stickers, and scripts on Patreon— Noble Blood merch— Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Vodam. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. Woo, woo, woo, woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot.

But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, The cat, just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck.

Listen to Thanks, Dad, on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to Noble Blood, a production of IHeart Radio and grim and mild from Aaron Manky. Listener discretion advised. France, 1564, and the country is, to be perfectly honest, a bit of a mess. 14-year-old King Charles the 9th has just formally ended his regency, but the young monarch has no real interest in governing. After all, he's just 14 years old. His ineptitude means the former regent, his mother, Catherine de Medici, continues to be the dominant power in French politics. Before the regency's official dissolution, Catherine managed to address the country's.

increasingly violent religious conflict, by brokering the edict of Embois, which ended the first stage of the French Wars of Religion and brought on a brief period of official peace between the Hugonauts or French Protestants and Catholics. In an effort to enforce the edict and to rally support for the crown in the wake of the unrest, Catherine and Little Charles set out in March of 1564 for a two-year grand tour of France. The tour took the pair and their roughly 20,000 person entourage across the country, from Paris to Provence, Brittany to the Bourbonnet. Each stop on the tour was carefully planned to strengthen loyalty in the provinces,

but there is one stop designated for the king and queen mother's personal agenda. In October, the tour reached the quiet southern town of Salon de Provence, home of the famed physician and occultist, Nostradamus. That iconic name is likely known by a majority of modern listeners, but even at the time of the royal visit, Nostradamus's infamy had already spread throughout the country and beyond its borders. In fact, the validity of his predictions had become another point of contention in the religious conflict. Protestants were arguing he was a fraud. Catholics believed he had a divine gift. Catherine, a devout Catholic, came to Salon seeking a message from the stars, delivered through Nostradamus. Later, writing to

the Constable of France, Catherine happily recounted that the astrologer, quote, promised all kinds of good things to the king, my son, and that he shall live as long as you. That prediction would come true, but not in the way Catherine brightly anticipated. Today, more than four centuries after Nostradamus's death, his prophecies continue to be a subject of discussion. Have they predicted major world events? or are they simply vague enough to be easily applicable to any number of situations? But there's one more question, perhaps most interesting of all, were his prophecies even original?

For all of this debate, the man behind the predictions remains to many a mystery. I'm Dana Schwartz, and this is Noble Blood. The famous future astrologer was not born Nostradamus the great and powerful, or Olnostic, if you've been listening to the Rain Recap series over on the Noble Blood Patreon. Instead, his parents called him Michelle de Nostradam, when he was born in 1503 in Saint-Rémy-D-Provence. Michelle was only the second generation to be born with the last name Nostradam, his paternal grandfather had been a Spanish Jew, forced to convert and take a Christian name around 1455 due to hostile new edicts. So his grandfather, Guy Gassonne, became Pierre de Saint-Marie before settling on Pierre de Nostradam, the surname meaning Our Lady. Michelle Nostradam's Jewish heritage will come up

later in debate surrounding his legitimacy, so remember that point. It's traditionally believed that Michelle started his education young, taught by his maternal great-grandfather who was a physician. Those early studies are said to have focused on Latin, and yes, some astrology, which at the time was a respected scholarly tradition with a long history. Although the Renaissance period saw increasing skepticism of astrology, and those who practiced it. Later in life, Nostradam would claim to still treasure the Astrolabe he inherited from his great-grandfather. Sometime between the ages of 14 and 16, Michelle left for the nearest major city, Avignon, where he sought higher education at the local university. In Nostradamus's

day, university curriculum consisted of the trivium, which was grammar, rhetoric, and logic, followed by the Quadrivium, Geometry, arithmetic, music, and astrology. However, our young scholar never got the chance to advance to the Quadrivium's astrology lessons because in 1520, a plague outbreak forced the university to close its doors. COVID-era students, I'm sure, can relate. In a later diary entry, Nostradamus reflected on life-fifference. following the university closure. Quote, I spent most of my young years on pharmaceuticals and the knowledge and study of natural

remedies across various lands and countries, constantly on the move to find out the source and origin of plants, involved in the purposes of the healing art. That is a long sentence to say he became a self-taught traveling apothecary. Perhaps he was inspired by his close encounter with the plague, or maybe he was following in his great-grandfather's footsteps. By 1529, schools had reopened their doors. We know this because 1529 was the year Michelle enrolled in the university at Montpellier to study for his medical doctorate. His written enrollment confirmation, penned in shaky Latin, remains. in the university's library to this day. Though this may be a point of pride for that university now,

the reception Nostradamus received at the time was quite different. In fact, he was expelled shortly after arriving. The confirmation of his expulsion also still exists in library records, reading, quote, he whom you see crossed out here has been an apothecary or quack. and through the students we have heard him speak ill of doctors." This was the first but certainly not the last time Nostradamus would be called a quack. While being an apothecary was deemed inferior to being a doctor, it was also forbidden for university students to have practiced a, quote, manual trade. Academic snobbery and Nostradamus's over-combe.

confidence were a bad mix. So Nostradamus returned to the life of a traveling apothecary for the next few years, following Hippocratis's famous advice to, quote, seek out old wives, or alternative remedies. In 1531, he settled into a stationary life in Asgen, where he was invited to be the personal apothecary of a famed scholar he had befriended. There, he married his first wife, Henriette, with whom he had two children. His time there, as his time had been in Avion and Montpellier, was once again destined to be brief. By 1534, Michel Nostradam faced the triple loss of his wife, son and daughter, all to another plague outbreak. The mortality rate of the 16th century plague epidemics was still lower than that of the black

death in the 14th century, but the effects were still devastating. Known treatments were ineffective, and a famous piece of advice at the time for doctors was, quote, get out fast, stay well away, come back late. I don't remember that part of the Hippocratic Oath, but I am no doctor. If you can't find a doctor, you might as well turn to a less respected professional. After two years spent as the aid to a prominent physician, a Montpellier alum, no less, in Marseilles, Nostradamus's service were procured by the city of Exxon-Provance. Our apothecary was likely motivated to aid, where others fled.

for a number of reasons. A chance at renown, certainly, but also the chance for medical discovery. Almost certainly, the chance to fight the same disease that took his family away. It was there that he treated residents with his would-be-famous rose pill. I wouldn't recommend trying this at home,

but if you're curious as to how a rose-pill is made, you can turn to Nostradamus's 1555 best selling medical cookbook, wellness influencers pumping out a book, tale as old as time. The rose pill formula calls for, quote, one ounce of the sawdust shavings of cypress wood as green as you can find, six ounces of Florentine iris, three ounces of cloves, three drams of sweet calamus, and six drams of aloeswood.

Next, take three or four hundred infolded, red roses, fresh and perfectly clean and gathered before dewfall. From there, the concoction is to be shaped into a lozange and left to dry. But as a bonus, he notes that the mixture may also be made into a perfume. Quote, add as much musk or ambergris as you either can or wish. If these two are added, I do not doubt that you will produce a superbly pleasant perfume. This same cookbook part of a rapidly growing genre of recipe books often called books of secrets marketed to DIY-minded readers many of them women also includes formulas for teeth whitening hair coloring and a love tonic so powerful that Nostradamus

claimed a few drops placed in a woman's mouth while kissing her would trigger a burning passion when describing the road Rose pill, Nostradamus dedicates time to recounting the horrors he witnessed in X as the plague tore apart families and graveyards overflowed, but he notes that his concoction provided relief, protecting its users from infection. We can't say for certain or with any likelihood that the pill was an actually effective preventative measure, but as in many cases, what mattered was that people believed in it. That rose pill was the catalyst that set Nostradamus on the path to fame, and he soon became known as the Plague Doctor. In reality, it appears that the X-Plag

naturally subsided after around nine months, which was a typical timeline. While his prowess may have been exaggerated, Nostradamus rightfully deserves credit where it's due for staying, where many doctors fled, and for trying what hadn't been tried, he continued to help a number of other cities over the next few years before settling in the town that he would call home for the rest of his life, Salon. By this point, he was in his early 40s, and alongside his new success, it appears he sought another chance at a stable family life. On November 11, 1547, he married. He married. He married, his second wife, a wealthy widow named Anne Ponsard. It was in the years following his second marriage that Nostradamus became interested in the occult.

He hadn't formally studied astrology since childhood, but the field was becoming increasingly more popular as well as more controversial. His major influences included 1550s Book on the Nature of the Times and Their Changes, which used planetary patterns to define the world by cycles, the last of which would conclude with a predicted and notably inaccurate apocalypse, as well as the rising success of annual almanacs, which provided predictions and warnings for the year ahead. Though they were first introduced about a century earlier,

almanacs were now so popular that two to three dozen were being popular. published every year. With the country's increasing religious tensions as well as economic and political strife, it was no wonder that people sought guides to the future. Nostradamus wrote his first almanac in 1550 and would continue to write one every year until his death. It was in his first almanac that we see the pen name Michel Nostradamus as opposed to Nostradam. In rating his French surname for a Latin one, he aligned himself with the great thinkers of antiquity, a practice adopted by many scholars of the Renaissance. No copies of his first publication have survived, but the predictions it contained were

recorded by his secretary. One reads, throughout Gaul, meaning France, there shall be certain uprisings which shall be appeased by stern counsel. Fairly vague, but pretty predictably likely. Another report, quote, In the autumn, heavy rains, which shall be the cause of many setbacks, shall even confound some very great enterprises. A third prediction claims,

At this time, whether in wars or in illness, love, honor, and fear shall be the reason why people shall not be oppressed, but shall live in peace. Those are all decidedly short, vague, and reliable. Rain in autumn, groundbreaking. But as the years progressed, we'll see his predictive style change. Predictions will become wordier, heavier, and increasingly grounded in the movements of the planets.

His almanacs sold well, but they didn't particularly stand out compared to the many other, successful almanacs. His more lucrative source of income was a new practice, horoscope readings for wealthy clients. As opposed to other astrologists, however, he did not draw up these charts himself, instead asking the client to provide the material. His apothecary practice also continued, but you wouldn't be wrong to wonder where the shift from medicine to occultism came from. After his childhood studies, Michelle hadn't shown an interest in astrology for his entire young adult and adult life. But now in middle age, he was a practicing astrologist with visions of the future? This transition wasn't something Nostradamus wrote about in his journals, so we're left to analyze for ourselves.

There's the cynical angle that he saw the field becoming more looping, and wanted a piece of the pie, and there's also the more optimistic angle that he was an inherently curious person, constantly seeking new ways to understand the world around him. I would argue it's probably a mixture of both, and indeed many scholars of the time saw medicine and astrology as intertwined. 1555 would be the year Nostradamus began to see real success. in his new practice. For the 55 almanac, Nostradamus had the idea to write his predictions in verse, which not only set him apart from his contemporaries by calling back to the voices of ancient prophets, but poetic language also helped keep things open to interpretation. It's also

in the 1555 edition that Nostradamus first claims to be divinely inspired. Quote, By divine spirit, soul filled with prophecy, war, famine, plague, and upheaval shall come by. Floods, droughts, while blood shall stain both land and sea. Peace packs. Pray let's be born and princes die. He does not explicitly state his predictions came from God. That would be a step too controversial in certain circles. but any reader who wanted to believe that could certainly sense the true intent behind his words. Besides religious wars, lightning strikes, and crocodiles, yes, Nostradamus predicted an incident involving a mysterious crocodile,

one particular prediction stood out among the others that year. The king, he wrote, at the time still referring to Catherine Di Medici's husband, Henry II, quote, shall beware of some one or many of his court, lest they seek to do what I dare not put in writing, as the stars, in accordance with occult philosophy, demonstrate. A few years later, the astrologer Laurent Vidal, who ironically taught the subject at Avignon, where Michelle was forced to abandon his studies,

before he reached the astrology courses, published a scathing indictment of Nostradamus, in which he questioned that very prediction. Quote, you say that you dare not declare what would happen that year. Why did you resort to such ruses, if not so that you should be sent for from the court? You knew perfectly well the king would want the truth. In other words, you're only being coy so the king will summon you. Whether or not Vidal was right about Nostradamus's intentions, he was wrong about one thing in particular. It was not the king whose attention he caught, but rather the Queens. In the summer of

1555, Nostradamus received the Queen's summon to attend court in Paris. According to the contemporary chronic Leonese, he apparently, quote, feared greatly that hard, would have been done to him, for he said himself he was in great danger of having his head cut off. Evidently, it was not his head Nostradamus had to worry about, but his feet. He was only at court a short amount of time before he was bedridden with a bad flare-up of gout. As later reported by his son, Cesar, Nostradamus actually read the charts of eager nobles right there from his bed. In a letter, Nostradamus wrote, quote, As a fine reward from the court, I became ill there.

The queen paid me 30 crowns. And there's a fine sum for having come 200 leagues. Having spent 100 crowns, I made 30. This may seem an oddly irreverent tone from a man who was highly respected by the queen, but that letter was written to a man to whom Nostradamus owed money. and so he sought to downplay his wealth. He does, however, make sure to tell the man how much he sung his praises to Catherine.

According to a later account from Nostradamus' son, the seer's duty on that first trip was to examine the birth charts of the three princes who would become Francis II, Charles the 9th, and Henry III. The queen was evidently pleased, and Nostradamus's son later, reported that his father returned to Ceylon a hero, heralded by the people as, quote,

the most famous prophet in all of France. The next project for this most esteemed Frenchman was his magnum opus, the prophecies, released in three volumes from 1557 to 1558. Rather than predicting a single year's events, as was the task of his almanacs, he would predict thousands of years' events. He was certainly not the first to attempt such an undertaking, but he would be the first to do so in French, the language of the people. It was such a major project, in fact, that upon publication,

it included a dedicatory letter to King Henry II. Published treatises during this time were frequently dedicated to existing or potential patrons by addressing his work to Henry. Nostradamus communicated his lofty ambitions to both the king and to his readers. He was making the inaccessible ancient art of prophecy accessible, and I mean that in a more literal sense as well. He was essentially translating the existing work of the ancients into French, as described by Peter Le Mousier in his biography, The Unknown Nostradamus, Michelle's writing directly reflected the major events and developments,

first told by ancient prophets and later reproduced in 1522's Mirabilis Liber, which was a popular collection of predictions from numerous Christian saints and diviners. In Latin, of course. In his book's preface, Nostradamus writes that his prophecies can concerned future events, quote, about which the divine being has granted me knowledge by means of astrological cycles. He contradicts himself in the same preface, however, writing, quote, even though my son, I have used the word prophet, I have no wish to attribute myself a title of such lofty sublimity at present. Here at present means in the present work.

In his biographer's words, the material was, quote, certainly not Nostradamus's copyright, only in the matter of detail of the who and where and when was his own hand evident. Even then, his predictions relied on the expectation that history would repeat itself. For example, he wrote numerous times that Europe would be invaded from the east and south by massive Muslim forces. There are passages fully plagiarized from historical sources, including Livy, Plutarch, and other classics. This all sounds rather scandalous to our modern ears. Revealed, Nostradamus plagiarized his predictions. But this was actually a very common practice at the time,

seen more as paying homage to the greats than infringing on their intellectual property. In one quatrain that would become particularly famous, Nostradamus mirrors the deposition of the Byzantine Emperor Isaac II Angeles. It reads, in Nostradamus's standard verse style, quote, The young lion shall surmount the old on Marshall Battlefield in a single duel. His eyes he'll put out in a cage of gold, two forces joined, and then a death moment.

most cruel. Nostradamus was right that history would repeat itself, but in a way no one could have expected. In 1559, a tournament was held honoring the marriage of Henry II and Catherine's daughter Elizabeth to King Philip II of Spain. King Henry was an avid jouster and decided to participate in a festive triple joust with his captain of the Scottish Guard, Gabriel of Montgomery. In the third round, Gabriel's lance splintered and pierced Henry's eye so severely it penetrated his brain. Despite their best efforts, the royal doctors found there was nothing to be done, and the king died ten days later. There are some clear parallels to Nostradamus's verse. For example, both jousters had lions as their emblems.

While Marshall Battlefield isn't exactly the same as a celebratory joust, Henry did lose his eye wearing a gilded helmet. And suffering in agony for ten days before finally succumbing to brain damage, I would certainly qualify that as a death most cruel. At the time, however, those parallels were not drawn. Instead, some people wondered why Nostradamus failed to predict anything about the death of a king. In the letter at the beginning of his book addressed to Henry, Nostradamus even described the king as, quote, most invincible. While Nostradamus had his fair share of denouncers,

mainly fellow astrologists who saw him as a hack, this snafu wasn't enough to hinder his rise. Even in England, diplomats discussed quatrains referencing the ascension of Queen Elizabeth and the marriage between Mary Queen of Scots and Henry's young successor, Francis. Nostradamus mania officially swept the country. Foreign ambassadors were reporting back to their home countries that it was becoming difficult to conduct any business in France, for the country's collective mind was fixated on one thing. International clients were also rolling in,

including the crown prince of Ville, Vienna, and a prominent Duke of Savoy. Catherine herself became a regular client, asking for readings for the new king, Francis, and for his younger brother, Charles. Nostradamus's 1560 almanac allegedly predicted the early death of King Francis II, which occurred in December of that year. If you recall this episode's introduction,

the early years of Francis's younger brother Charles V. the Ninth's Regency saw the country on the brink of civil war. In the end of 1561, Nostradamus wrote to a friend that the troubles had reached Salon and that he and his family had been forced to rent a safe house in Avignon as his famed mysticism made him suspect. In the chaos, Michelle failed to get the required license from a bishop for the publication of his 1562 almanac, and he was thrown into prison at the castle of Marnying.

The governor of Provence left his sentencing to Charles 9th, and Nostradamus was freed. Thus began his reputation era. He always had his detractors, but upon his release from prison, the movement against him gained more traction than ever. A famous published critique called him, and I will be adding this phrase to my personal vernacular, a 24-carat liar. Another pamphlet sought to discredit him on account of his Jewish origins,

while additionally framing him as something of a court jester. I who was there, meaning court, at the time know perfectly well that there was nobody there who was not convinced, that you had come there expressly in order to receive by way of reward all the mockery that all your poor little treatises and fantastic statements richly deserved. That's such a good take down, you know the guy who wrote that would have killed on Reddit. But the heart of this entire revived debate was between Protestants and Catholics. After Pierre de Ronsard, a Catholic poet with royal patronage, composed a flattering portrait of Nostradamus,

a Protestant pamphlet was published, denouncing Ronsard by appealing directly to Queen Catherine. It read, Ronsard, you fool, how dare you take to heart, this damned Nostradamus and his art, calling him true and for a maniac's word, betray the revelation of the Lord. As a brief aside, takedowns being written in verse feels like the 16th century forbearer of rap battles. Catherine, as we know, paid those detractors no mind, and she soon embarked on her trip with King Charles to Salon, where we began this episode. Michelle's son, Cesar, was only 10 at the time, but he would recount that visit in his later years. Apparently, Nostradamus asked to examine Charles' younger brother, Henry, to assess his future prospects. He pronounced that, according to the placement of the moles on his body, he would not only become king, but rule for a long time.

When the young prince did ultimately succeed to the throne, it said he would often recall the occasion with amusement. As for Nostradamus's other prediction that Charles would live as long as the Constable of France, that also came true, albeit bleakly. He died three years later in his 70s, and King Charles only lived for another seven years, dying at just 23. Years before Charles's death, however, Nostradamus was called upon to bless the proposed union between the new French king and Queen Elizabeth of England, who was twice his age. Whether or not Nostradamus saw a bright outcome,

it appears he had no choice but to say he did. The proposal was sent to England with a copy of Charles's birth chart and Nostradamus's commentary. Elizabeth delicately refused the proposal and is said to have replied, quote, My lord is too great for me and yet too small. Still, Nostradamus had gained enough acclaim with Catherine de Medici that he was appointed privy counselor and physician in ordinary to the king and awarded a grant and pension. The Spanish ambassador, reporting the, quote,

lunacy of what is going on here to his king, wrote, quote, He has all the guile in the world and only ever says what is pleasing to whomever it may be. The ambassador continues, quote, The queen said to me today, Do you know Nostradamus assured me that in 1566, a general peace would reign across the world

and that the kingdom of France would be the most peaceful and that the situation would settle down? And while saying that she had an air of earnestness as if somebody had been quoting St. John or St. Luke at her. and quote. Despite what outsiders thought of him, though, Nostradamus had made it to the top. But not long after arriving,

his chronic gout became increasingly more painful. In a December 1565 letter to a colleague, he wrote, quote, at Arl recently, a fiery arrow was seen, a kind of falling star. He believed this meant varied woe, were to plague the land, including invasions, drought, and famine. But maybe he should have been looking inward. In his final surviving letter, he wrote an update to Catherine, predicting a vastly

different future than the falling star, foretold. Quote, I find by various celestial patterns drawn up in this place that all shall be in peace, love, union, and convalued. concord, even though there shall be some great contradictions and differences. But in the end, everybody shall return content of mouth and heart. Perhaps he simply forgot to mention the invasions, drought, and famine that the falling star had told him about. But really, a prediction of peace, love, and concord is pretty safe, because if you say that everything will be okay in the end, and things are.

aren't okay yet, it just means the end hasn't come. Nostradamus completed his final almanac for 1567, only a fortnight before his end came, in the beginning of July 1566. He did not predict his own death, but November 1567's entry was posthumously edited by his secretary to fit the circumstances of his past. That's the life of Nostradamus, but keep listening after a brief sponsor break to hear a bit about how his prophecies have been interpreted in modern times. What's up, everyone? I'm Ego Vodom. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live, and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had a lot of. lunch with them one day and I was like and dad I think I want to really give this a shot. I don't know what that means but I just know the groundlings I'm working my way up through and I know it's a place they come look for up and coming talent. He said if it was based solely on talent I wouldn't worry about you which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes but there's so much luck involved. And he's like just give it a shot. He goes but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down,

It would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. What's up, everyone?

I'm Ago Vodem. My next guest, you know from Step Brothers Anchorman, Saturday Night Live and the Big Money Players Network. It's Will Farrell. Woo. Woo. My dad gave me the best advice ever. I went and had lunch with him one day. And I was like, and Dad, I think I want to really give this a shot.

I don't know what that means, but I just know the groundlings. I'm working my way up through. And I know it's a place that come look for up and coming talent. He said, if it was based solely on talent, I wouldn't worry about you. Which is really sweet. Yeah. He goes, but there's so much luck involved. And he's like, just give it a shot.

He goes, but if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there. Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to Thanks Dad on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

There are numerous. events in more recent history that people believe had been predicted by Nostradamus, including the French Revolution, the death of Princess Diana, and the rise of Adolf Hitler. The latter is a particularly interesting one, as Nostradamus became a figure of government propaganda. Astrology was gaining popularity again in 1930s Europe, and publishers were putting out multiple Nostradamus books a year. The New York Times reported that men and women of all social stations, including officers at the front, were turning to Nostradamus's prophecies for insight. One of his quatrains stands out, quote, Beasts wild with hunger shall swim the rivers.

Most of the host shall move against Easter. He'll have the great one dragged in iron cage when the child the German Rhine surveys. Ister, spelled Hister in the old French, was referring to another name for the Danube River. But the 20th century mind saw a clear reference to the name, Hitler. On the eve of war, France's propaganda agency sought to publish a favorable interpretation of Nostradamus. centuries after he was sought out by Catherine, Nostradamus was once again tasked with predicting a hopeful future for France. Seeing the effectiveness of that strategy, the Nazis began to publish their own interpretations of Nostradamus's quatrains, and Hitler himself was interested in astrology.

That didn't stop the Allies from using him and their propaganda. In fact, their new plan was to make Nostradamus a movie star in the U.S. with MGM producing short films about the Sear. As said by the studio's production supervisor, the vision was to, quote, make a given verse

say what you wanted it to say, in terms of the times and in terms of the interest and in terms of the dramatic value of your interpretation. It's something to keep in mind when you see people making grand predictions on the internet, people reading into clues and symbols and signs, that throughout

history, vague enough predictions have been used as propaganda, and we've always been looking to the stars for answers. Noble Blood is a production of IHeart Radio and Grim and Mild from Aaron Mankey. Noble Blood is hosted by me, Dana Schwartz, with additional writing and research by Hannah Johnston, Hannah Zwick, Courtney Sender, Amy Height, and Julia Milani. The show is edited and produced by Jesse Funk with supervising producer Rima Il Kali, and executive producers Aaron Manky, Trevor Young, and Matt Frederick. For more podcasts from IHeartRadio, visit the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.

What's up, everyone? I'm Ago Vodom. My next guest, it's Will Ferrell. My dad gave me the best advice ever. He goes, just give it a shot. But if you ever reach a point where you're banging your head against the wall and it doesn't feel fun anymore, it's okay to quit. If you saw it written down, it would not be an inspiration. It would not be on a calendar of, you know, the cat. Just hang in there.

Yeah, it would not be. Right, it wouldn't be that. There's a lot of luck. Listen to thanks dad on the IHeart Radio ad. Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.