#24 A Survivor Sharing His Story & A Hermit Redeemed After 300 Years (Zigi Shipper & Benjamin Lay)

Welcome back to Mostly Unsung the weekly comedy history podcast hosted by women, where Annie and Andrea bring you two bite-sized biographies of the forgotten people, overlooked heroes, and wonderfully strange true stories history somehow left out of the textbooks.If you love funny history podcasts, revolutionary history, social justice stories, and fascinating historical characters, you’re in exactly the right place.This week, Annie tells the remarkable story of Zigi Shipper, a young Jewish man whose life was shaped by the horrors of the Second World War and the Holocaust. Surviving persecution, displacement, and unimaginable upheaval, Zigi later dedicated himself to sharing his experiences with future generations. It’s a powerful story of survival, resilience, and remembering history through personal testimony.Then Andrea introduces the gloriously uncompromising Benjamin Lay, an 18th-century Quaker, abolitionist, and professional thorn in the side of polite society. Long before abolition became mainstream, Lay was loudly and dramatically campaigning against slavery in both Britain and colonial America often using bizarre public protests to make his point. Think fake blood, theatrical speeches, and absolutely no patience for hypocrisy. It’s a fascinating tale of abolition history, social activism, and one man determined to make people uncomfortable for the right reasons.Expect revolutionary ideas, social history, moral outrage, and plenty of laughs as we explore two lives that challenged injustice in very different ways.If you enjoy history podcasts, forgotten heroes, Holocaust history, abolitionist history, and true stories about people who changed the world, Mostly Unsung is your new favourite weekly listen.For this episode Andrea used these sources:https://www.quakersintheworld.org/quakers-in-action/61/Benjamin-Layhttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Layhttps://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-42640782For this episode Annie used these sources:https://hmd.org.uk/resource/zigi-shipper-hmd-2017/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jan/27/holocaust-memorial-day-zigi-shipperAnd her own memories of one of his talks!Where you can find us:https://www.instagram.com/mostlyunsung/https://www.facebook.com/share/16J4vuMy1h/https://www.tiktok.com/@[email protected] you next Wednesday!