https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1YxS2eBh7rw

couple of things that immediately come to mind.

There are a number of variations on the david and goliath myth.
But the popular money is that david was not a kid at the time of the story. But a young man and already a warrior in the army.

Which makes a lot more sense than a random kid turning up on the battle field - for one thing, who was looking after his goats ?

I know you guys want to seperate this from slinging.org (well apart from this section lol) - but at least use the research that's already been done.

And maybe cut the length down to 40 minutes and keep it relevant to the particular topic.
It did seem to lose focus and branch out into numerous other topics towards the end there.

The slingers as light skirmishers - well partly, but that's not how the romans used them and they used more slingers in battle than just about anyone else.
A slinger was a multi purpose troop - and carried different length slings for different jobs.

But I have to say nooc and kick, you really do come over well.
Had no idea kick was so posh :whistle:

How scripted are these talks ?

Thanks CA
I’m glad you enjoyed it!
There’s plenty of discussions on here already about David and Goliath and whether it’s real or a myth. We limited the discussion to analyzing the story as presented in the Bible from the perspective of a slinger rather than going into all the half-baked conjectures about the “how it really happened”.  We were primarily addressing the question: “How does personal experience with a sling change your perspective on this classic story?” and the goal is to inspire more people to go out and try slinging… not to inspire more pedantry.

That being said, I am not a historian, have never claimed to be one,  and if I say something that is factually incorrect, I am open to corrections.  The comment about Roman use of the sling is a good point. They certainly were more prominent than your average skirmisher at least in some time periods in the 2,000 years of the Roman Empire.  Overall, I would encourage everyone to look into such things for themselves and not use me as a primary source of information about anything other than my own personal slinging experiences.

As far as the podcast format… we draw up some basic notes and then just have a discussion. It’s not very scripted beyond trying to hit some key points. We target 45-60 minutes generally which is fairly average for a podcast of this sort.

We were going on the Biblical tale which said that he was called straight from the fields so was very much a shepherd boy that found the armour and shield too heavy, because he wasn't a man yet. I doubt a lot of things about the "original story" but that's the thing it has been interpreted so many different ways so we went with what the Bible says. We have basic plans for the episodes but we don't want scripts. Conversational is best  ;)

lol - well there is no such thing as 'the bible'.
Just thousands of different versions and interpretations.
I believe david and goliath would be old testament. Which is essentially just a collection of apocraphyl (lmao I have no idea how to spell that) tales and teachings.

There is no hard historiacl evidence that the 'philistines' ever actually existed. 

So like any old text that was copied out by hand for a housand or so years and change. Take it with a large pinch of salt :-)

Ludek (aussie) was our forum expert and probably read and analysed more david and goliath myths than most people alive.

So, you know, if you have acces to that kind of 'already done' research.
Can't hurt to look at it :-)

It depends on what goals you are aiming for.
If it's just two lads chatting about slinging in an interesting manner - great, you've got that nailed :thumb:

But if you actually want to pass on some hard info, then do the research and make notes of point to include.

Going straight down the holloywood d&g - wouldn't have been my choice, but throw in a few caveats and no reason not to do it that way.

The Philistines definitely existed. They descended from the Peleset who partook in a huge migration of "Sea Peoples" that invaded the Near East and contributed to what is known as the Bronze Age Collapse. The Philistines had many interactions with the Egyptians and other peoples who wrote records concerning them. Most scholars believe they came from the Aegean but nobody knows exactly where they came from. The common belief is that they came from Crete. You should definitely look into it. It's very interesting!

Here's two comprehensive videos that talk a lot about them. Both include numerous sources in the description:

Philistines: Biblical Archaeology
https://youtu.be/pRHdqOR72Yc

Who were the Philistines? (History of the Philistines explained)
https://youtu.be/S3eLWgy2jus