The Ethos of Historiansplaining
So much of what we learn in a standard history class, and in the culture around us, are just cliff-note narratives, crafted to explain how things appear, rather than how things actually came to be.
Peel back the layers of time and place with this thoroughly researched, deep-dive podcast with over 175 episodes that uncover the forgotten forces that shaped – and that are still shaping – our world today.
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What Fans Are Saying
Supremely well researched with the rigour of an academic historian & woven into a compelling narrative. I cannot stop listening!
CGGrady21
In-depth, well organized and easily consumable…I didn’t realized how much I enjoyed and missed these lectures until Sam allowed me to revisit my passion from an earlier life.
Mstepheng
It’s very easy to follow and compelling, detailed but never overwhelming, and Sam’s voice has a very neutral and relaxing but clear and direct cadence…
Henry032995
Primary Playlists
Installments of Historiansplaining are divided up into 7 main playlists, each with Quick Samples of their most popular episodes:
These are deep-dive installments into the largest misnomers that make up western history, from the myth of Anglo-Saxonism, to misconception of secularization, to perception of the modern state – to the myth of “the West” itself – accompanied by explorations of what we actually know about the larger then-life characters of Shakespeare, Robin Hood, King Arthur, and more…
Explore the Playlist
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The unexpected-but-stupendously-meaningful archeological discoveries that have changed our understanding of the past, and reveal long ago civilizations that otherwise have been almost completely forgotten to time…
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In this series centered around serendipitously found objects, Dr. Sam dives into the unwritten record of the land today we call the United States, painting a picture of the people and places that came before, and still shape it today, as best as we can determine…
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An in-depth exploration of the forgotten forces and underlying events that shaped the ‘western’ world of today, from the rapid rise of new political systems and social orders in Europe to their immediate counter-reactions and lasting legacies…
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Trace the origins of some of the worlds largest religions and sacred texts, examining what we know about how they came to be, and how they spread – and, most importantly, examining what they are not…
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While it’s easy to think of the Middle Ages as just the time between the fall of western Rome and flourishing of the Renaissance – a commonly perceived age of ignorance and isolation in Europe – But in fact the Middle Ages were a dynamic time, which saw cultures migrate, interact, and grow…
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Installments on specific peoples, events, places and modern-day power structures across the globe – too unique for any one playlist – these are expertly researched deep-dive explorations into worlds old and new, from the beginnings of human history in Africa and later in China, India and in Europe, to the modern-day observations when traversing the Great Britain of today… to the origin of policing and the eighty years of Jim Crow laws in America to the modern saturation of money in American politics, plus the peoples left out of most history text books like the Roma “Gypsies”, the British & Irish “Travellers”, and the peoples of Pre-Columbian America, and the peoples of central Asia…plus the origins of World War I by region, along with a comprehensive history of Florida, from ancient indigenous civilizations to the colonial power struggles to present day…
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And Wait, There’s More…
In addition to the 7 main playlists, Historiansplaining boasts full-video lectures on western architecture, guest interviews, commentary on current events, and critiques of recent books, film & television, plus our Most Popular Episodes and Hot Off the Presses lists – all with Quick Samples of featured episodes:
- Full-Video Lectures: Western Architecture
- Special Guest Conversations and Interviews
- History As It Happens: The News in Historical Context
- Books, Film, and Television
- Most Popular Episodes
- Hot Off the Presses!
Things You Don’t Know
Hot Off the Presses
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
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…
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…
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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…
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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, part 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…
Hot off the presses
History of the United States in 100 Objects #21:
The Braddock/Washington Pistol
We consider the complex history and symbolism of an elaborately decorated sidearm weapon, originally made in Bristol, England, possibly intended as a dueling pistol, which came across the ocean to America with General Edward Braddock, witnessed the catastrophic events in the Ohio valley that sparked the Seven Years’ War, and which then became a prized possession of George Washington, symbolizing his relationship with the ill-starred general as well as America’s fraught relationship with Britain.
Special thanks to the Bristol Archives and to Eric Gabbitas, a direct descendant of the gunsmith William Gabbitas.
Hot off the presses
The Vikings, pt. 2
Into Distant Realms
They rained terror and destruction on Christian lands across Europe as far as Spain and Constantinople, before turning their attention away from raiding towards permanent settlement and the founding of new societies, from Ukraine to Normandy to Greenland. There has never been an explosion of exploration and aggression quite like the Viking expansion of the early Middle Ages…
Special Guest Conversations:
Uncovering the Medieval Slave Trade
A conversation with
Hannah Barker
Before Columbus had even set foot in America, medieval Europe and the Islamic Middle East already had a long history in trading and exploiting slaves…
Beyond Plymouth Rock: The Deep Beginnings of
New England
A Conversation with
Michael J. Simpson
The long history of contact, exchange, violence, disease, and acculturation among indigenous and European peoples…that created a complex creolized world before any Puritans were even on the scene…