Hot off the presses

Myth of the Month 23:
UFOs

The UFO has been called a “technological angel” and the central mythic symbol of the modern age; we examine some of the extraordinary stories, from throughout history, of strange lights and objects seen flying through the sky, from medieval Italy to modern New Mexico, and consider carefully the problems that they present — for historians, as well as for government, and for ordinary people who want to fit the strange and anomalous into our understanding of the world…

I came here a skeptic and I’m still one (extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and all that) but this was so well presented that, contrary to my usual reaction to this subject, I did not even once feel compelled to roll my eyes during the listen, and I say that in the most sincerely complimentary way…Well done!

Kevin M. on Patreon

Hot off the presses

Origins of the First World War pt. 7 –
Belgium & Luxembourg

Although more often remembered only as a bloody battleground, Belgium – along with its smaller neighbor, Luxembourg – was critical to the strategic landscape of Europe, and played a pivotal role in spreading the war in 1914 beyond the European Continent, making it into a true World War. Both created as independent states in the nineteenth century, Belgium and Luxembourg were linchpins in the delicate balance of power, as well as crucibles of the new social divides in a secularizing and industrializing Europe…

Hot off the presses

Origins of the First World War pt. 6 –
Germany

We consider the turbulent history and politics of the country most often blamed for the outbreak of the First World War – Germany. The youngest of all the combatant nations in World War I, The German Reich’s deep class, regional, and religious divides drove Kaiser Wilhelm and his inner circle to seek national aggrandizement abroad as a source of unity at home – which inadvertently led them to unite their rivals against them and dragged them into a war not of their making…
Currently available to patrons only. Become a patron at any amount to keep commercial free.

Hot off the presses

Third Full-Video Lecture –
A Survey of Western Architecture pt. 3:
The Renaissance & Baroque Eras

In the third installment of our Survey of Western Architecture, we will follow the rise of Renaissance geniuses like Alberti, Bramante, & Michelangelo, their efforts to recover Roman grandeur and dignity in the basilica, the church, and the urban palazzo, followed by the outbreak of baroque extravagance from the streets of Palermo to the halls of Versailles, and then the gradual return to classical balance and understatement in the English country house…

Hot off the presses

History of the United States in 100 Objects #22:
The Makauwahi Stone Mirror /
Kilo Pohaku

We examine the significance of a kilo pohaku, or “stone mirror” – a small volcanic stone disk used for viewing reflections – discovered deep inside the ancient Makauwahi Cave on the island of Kaua’i. This extremely rare specimen encapsulates the great mystery of Hawaiian archaeology, which relies on reconstruction from rare stone, bone, and shell objects, and also the threats facing the historical sites and artifacts of ancient Hawaii in a time of natural disaster and rapid development…

Hot off the presses

Origins of the First World War pt. 5 –
Russia

We examine the geography and history of Russia, from the origins of the Kievan Rus in the Early Middle Ages, to the tumultuous time of industrialization, emancipation, and radical subversion at the start of the Twentieth Century. We try reconstruct the circumstances and mindsets that led the Russian state to back up their allies in Serbia, in order to maintain their tenuous foothold in the Balkans and their pretenses of leading and protecting the Slavic world….

Unlocked after 1 year:

Myth of the Month 20:
Conspiracy Theories

Where do conspiracy theories come from? Why do people believe them? What do they mean? Did the CIA drug people with LSD against their will? Is Queen Elizabeth a reptilian? We consider the merits and pitfalls of conspiracy theories, trace the history and evolution of the conspiratorial tradition from rumors about lepers in the 1300s to Alex Jones and Q-Anon, and examine the biases and double standards built into the very concept of “conspiracy theories.” This is it: the most thorough, fair, and impartial examination of conspiracy theories that you will ever find anywhere…

Hot off the presses

Doorways in Time:
The Great Archaeological Finds #7:
The Antikythera Mechanism

A stunningly complex piece of mathematical craftsmanship, the world’s earliest known analogue computer, and the so-called “scientific wonder of the ancient world” – the Antikythera mechanism was discovered by chance in 1900, by Greek sponge divers who stumbled upon the wreckage of an ancient ship that foundered on its way from Greece to Rome…

Hot off the presses

Origins of the First World War pt. 4 –
Bosnia & the Assassination

We examine the unique and complex history of Bosnia, at once a borderland and a world unto itself, and the only Slavic country in which Islam has ever been the majority faith. With the help of readings from the classic novel, “The Bridge on the Drina,” we trace how Bosnians’ confused search for a national identity and a national destiny led ultimately to the fateful assassination that triggered a world war…
Currently available to patrons only. Become a patron at any amount to keep commercial free.

Hot off the presses

Origins of the First World War, pt. 3 –
Austria-Hungary

At the height of their power in the Baroque Age, the Habsburgs aspired to rule the entire world; by the end of the ninetheenth century, they strove merely to maintain control over the volatile lands of the upper Danube valley. We trace how the Habsburgs’ domains evolved from a messy collection of local duchies into an absolutist empire, and finally into a complex military-industrian state, the home of artistic modernism, which was nonetheless threatened with destruction by a welter of nationalist movements and by the rising power of Serbia and Russia…

Hot off the presses

Second Full-Video Lecture –
A Survey of Western Architecture pt 2:
The High Middle Ages to the Renaissance

Dr. Sam continues the epic history of Western architecture by tracing how medieval builders and their patrons revived the art of building in stone once more, and used it to craft monumental edifices into intimate, atmospheric spaces in the Romanesque age, before reaching for the heavens with soaring Gothic vaults and spires, and then returning once more to earth with the simple, balanced dignity of the Renaissance…

Hot off the presses

Guest Conversation:
Interpreting Solomon’s Temple

The center of every sacred mystery, the Temple at Jerusalem is the most famous building on earth, even though it has not existed for almost 2000 years and no one knows precisely what it looked like. We join with Michael of “Xai, how are you?” podcast to discuss Solomon’s Temple – both the real historical building as it can be reconstructed from ancient texts and archaeology, and the symbol that has been endlessly appropriated to represent humankind’s relationship to the cosmos…

Unlocked after 1 year:

Doorways in Time –
The Great Archaeological Discoveries #4:
The Library of Ashurbanipal

One moonlit night in 1853, an Iraqi excavator named Hormuzd Rassam and his team snuck into the hills outside of Mosul and began to uncover the massive palace of the last ancient Assyrian emperor, Ashurbanipal. Inside the palace was the largest trove of surviving documents from the ancient world that has ever been found…

Hot off the presses

Origins of the First World War, pt. 2:
Serbia

We consider the history and explosive politics of the often-forgotten Eastern European nation that set the events of the First World War in motion: Serbia. We examine the country’s emergence and brief flowering as an Eastern Orthodox kingdom in the high Middle Ages, its fall to the Ottoman advance… through to its long-frustrated quest to fulfill its purported destiny of reunifying the Southern Slavs, which led a militant and conspiratorial secret society to murder their own country’s king and to smuggle teenage assassins across the border to kill their rivals’ crown prince…

Hot off the presses

Myth of the Month 22:
Culture

What is “culture”? And how did a metaphor from gardening invade social-science discourse in 19th-century Germany and America and then take the world by storm? Am I doing “podcast culture” right now? However you define it, I make the case that it is the defining myth of our time, and that we should get rid of it…
Currently available to patrons only. Become a patron at any amount to keep commercial free

Hot off the presses

Origins of the First World War
pt. 1 –
The Ottoman Empire

For over a century, scholars, politicians, and pundits have debated the supposed causes of the First World War, from German naval provocations to the rising global tide of nationalism. All of these explanations tend to ignore the simple fact that the war began in eastern Europe, triggered by regional feuding and violence in what had previously been the Ottoman provinces…

Hot off the presses

India – pt. 3:
The Rise of the South & the Islamic Conquests

We follow the dramatic evolution of Indian civilization after the fall of the Gupta empire, tracing from the spectacular rise of trade, art, and new religious movements in the southern kingdoms, through the tumult and fragmentation of the northern statelets and the cataclysmic invasions of raiders from Central Asia, and finally to the creation of Islamic states in the subcontinent just in time for the arrival of the first European ships in Indian ports…

Hot off the presses

First Full-Video Lecture!
A Survey of Western Architecture, pt. 1:
Antiquity & the Early Middle Ages

Dr. Sam explores the methods that builders, from Egypt to Rome to medieval Europe, have used to create grand structures and to enclose beautiful spaces, whether by reaching outward across the landscape or upwards toward the sky, in order to enthrall the senses and to inspire emotions from terror to tranquility…