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News

Updates and Musings from Dr. Sam and Fans:

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First Full-Video Lectures!

First Full-Video Lecture

A Survey of Western Architecture, part 1:
Antiquity & the Early Middle Ages

This is the first full-video lecture from Historiansplaining, available on YouTube below. With the help of our new producer, Dan Rogers, Dr. Sam can peel back the layers of time & place with the visual treatment needed for the very optic-oriented topic of Western Architecture, bringing a whole new facet to the catalogue of Historiansplaining. This installment was filmed Live with questions from Historiansplaining Patrons – Thanks to all who participated!

Part 2 is available as well…

EXPLORE & Video Quick Sample >

Historiansplaining around the Internet:

Watch Dr. Sam’s Appearance on The Katie Halper Show
– A Year in Review

Katie and Sam look back on 2022, bringing a historical perspective to the year that was – from the tumult at Twitter and its echoes of the private-enterprise telegraphs of the 1800’s, to the government’s intervention into railroad-labor relations that continues a century-long pattern of dictating to railway workers what they must accept, to the war in Ukraine, the death of Queen Elizabeth II, and much more…

Watch on YouTube
Listen on Apple Podcasts
Listen on SoundCloud

And explore the companion Historiansplaining episode:
“2022 in Historical Context – How Do You Like Your New Gilded Age?”

Interview of Dr. Sam:

Historiansplaining The Bard

Listen to the in-depth interview of Sam on the Shakespeare authorship controversy and the research done for the Myth of the the Month 10, The Shakespeare Authorship Controversy, and on creating Historiansplaining in general – released on the “Don’t Quill the Messenger” Podcast, hosted by Steven Sabel…

Listen on DragonWagonRadio.com

Hitting the like button on your preferred podcast platform, or sharing the episodes you loved on social media, is always appreciated too!

Unlock the most content by becoming a supporter through Patreon. You choose the amount you want to contribute, and your support helps keep the podcast commercial free! Learn more

Use the Patreon App or Patreon website for the best listening experience of exclusive patron-only content…

Things You Don’t Know

page 1

page 2

page 3

page 4

page 5

Did Columbus really think that he was going to reach Asia?

Find out

Was there really an Exodus from Egypt like the one described in the Bible?

Find out

Does a single coin prove that Vikings came all the way to what’s now the United States over 800 years ago?

Find out

How – and why – did universities begin in the Middle Ages, long before the scientific revolution and the “Enlightenment”?

Find out

How did Tisquantum (popularly known as Squanto) already know how to speak English before the Pilgrims had even arrived?

Find out

Why is the dramatic 2019 fire at Paris’ Notre Dame actually a common occurrence for cathedrals around Europe, when looking across the centuries?

Find out

How is the growing field of genetics being used to sometimes tear down and sometimes reinforce the myth of people belonging to different ‘races’ today?

Find out

When pressed Why can no one agree on what “capitalism” actually is? And why does a lack of clear definition call into question so many other myths of the modern world?

Find out

Why don’t US citizens directly elect their President? Or have a more proportional Senate?

Find out

What did Netflix’s 2021 movie “The Dig”, with Ralph Fiennes and Carey Mulligan, leave out from the story of the great Sutton Hoo discovery? What can the highly-revealing Anglo-Saxon era treasure tell us about the significantly-obscured period of England during the “Dark Ages”?

Find out

How did so much of the Epic of Gilgamesh remain hidden and forgotten – but perfectly preserved – for over 2,000 years until being rediscovered in modern times?

Find out

What little do we actually know about Shakespeare, the person?

Find out

Why is it misleading to apply the word “religion” to Judaism and to Hinduism?

Find out

Why were cathedrals in southern Europe becoming more and more highly decorated and elaborately embellished in the 1500â€™s and 1600’s, while at the same time so many cathedrals in Northern Europe were being stripped of all of their ornamentation and symbolism?

Find out with Video

How can one mid-sized U.S. city – Tulsa, Oklahoma – serve as a microcosm of so much of the triumphs and tragedies of American history?

Find out

How might a series of volcanic eruptions in the Americas have spurred the earliest Viking raids and the creation of the Ragnarok myth in Scandinavia, halfway around the world?

Find out

How could have mountains on the Moon helped accelerate the end of the Earth-centric view of the universe?

Find out

What does the English Civil War of the 1640s tell us about the American Civil War, and about the political structures in place across much of the English-speaking world today?

Find out

Who were the Freemasons of the 1700s? How did they grow from a local Scottish fraternity to a global network?

Find out

Ever heard that Florida has no history? It actually has far more then you ever could have known…

Find out

Could all of British history have turned out differently if the winds on the English channel had shifted direction on just one particular day in 1066?

Find out

How did changes in the climate in the 1600s lead people to believe they were living in the Apocalypse? How did this help spur the creation of institutions and forces that are still shaping the modern world of today?

Find out

Why did nearly every Renaissance-era ruler in Europe feel compelled to have a court astrologer, usually as one of their most pivotal advisors?

Find out

On average, are people really becoming less religious than they used to be hundreds of years ago?

Find out

How were the lines between who was a cowboy and who was an American Indian far more blurred then the surviving myth of the Old West would have us believe?

Find out

How did accusing people of witchcraft further several political agendas of the time, both in Europe and in the Americas?

Find out

Things You Don’t Know

page 1

page 2

page 3

page 4

page 5

Did Columbus really think that he was going to reach Asia?

Find out

Was there really an Exodus from Egypt like the one described in the Bible?

Find out

Does a single coin prove that Vikings came all the way to what’s now the United States over 800 years ago?

Find out

How – and why – did universities begin in the Middle Ages, long before the scientific revolution and the “Enlightenment”?

Find out

How did Tisquantum (popularly known as Squanto) already know how to speak English before the Pilgrims had even arrived?

Find out

Why is the dramatic 2019 fire at Paris’ Notre Dame actually a common occurrence for cathedrals around Europe, when looking across the centuries?

Find out

How is the growing field of genetics being used to sometimes tear down and sometimes reinforce the myth of people belonging to different ‘races’ today?

Find out

When pressed Why can no one agree on what “capitalism” actually is? And why does a lack of clear definition call into question so many other myths of the modern world?

Find out

Why don’t US citizens directly elect their President? Or have a more proportional Senate?

Find out

How did so much of the Epic of Gilgamesh remain hidden and forgotten – but perfectly preserved – for over 2,000 years until being rediscovered in modern times?

Find out

What little do we actually know about Shakespeare, the person?

Find out

Why is it misleading to apply the word “religion” to Judaism and to Hinduism?

Find out

Find out with Video

How can one mid-sized U.S. city – Tulsa, Oklahoma – serve as a microcosm of so much of the triumphs and tragedies of American history?

Find out

How might a series of volcanic eruptions in the Americas have spurred the earliest Viking raids and the creation of the Ragnarok myth in Scandinavia, halfway around the world?

Find out

How could have mountains on the Moon helped accelerate the end of the Earth-centric view of the universe?

Find out

What does the English Civil War of the 1640s tell us about the American Civil War, and about the political structures in place across much of the English-speaking world today?

Find out

Who were the Freemasons of the 1700s? How did they grow from a local Scottish fraternity to a global network?

Find out

Ever heard that Florida has no history? It actually has far more then you ever could have known…

Find out

Could all of British history have turned out differently if the winds on the English channel had shifted direction on just one particular day in 1066?

Find out

Why did nearly every Renaissance-era ruler in Europe feel compelled to have a court astrologer, usually as one of their most pivotal advisors?

Find out

On average, are people really becoming less religious than they used to be hundreds of years ago?

Find out

How were the lines between who was a cowboy and who was an American Indian far more blurred then the surviving myth of the Old West would have us believe?

Find out

How did accusing people of witchcraft further several political agendas of the time, both in Europe and in the Americas?

Find out

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…

Quick Sample & More >

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…

Quick Sample & More >

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.

Quick Sample & More >

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…

Quick Sample & More >

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…

Quick Sample & More >

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…

Quick Sample & More >

Myth of the Month 20:
Conspiracy Theories

Unlocked after one year for patrons only: 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…

Quick Sample & More >

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…

Quick Sample & More >

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.

Quick Sample & More >

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…

Quick Sample & More >

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….

Quick Sample & More >

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…

Quick Sample & More >

Unlocked:
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…

Quick Sample & More >

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…

Quick Sample & More >

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

Quick Sample & More >

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…

Quick Sample & More >

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…

Quick Sample & More >

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…

Quick Sample & More >

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…

Quick Sample & More >

Contact

Comments

News

First Full-Video Lectures!

A Survey of Western Architecture, part 1: Antiquity & the Early Middle Ages

Historiansplaining around the Internet:

Watch Dr. Sam’s Appearance on The Katie Halper Show– A Year in Review

Things You Don’t Know

Share with the world!

A Survey of Western Architecture, part 1:
Antiquity & the Early Middle Ages

Watch Dr. Sam’s Appearance on The Katie Halper Show
– A Year in Review