The most recent episodes from across all of the playlists

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We consider the complex history and symbolism of an elaborately decorated sidearm weapon, originally made in Bristol, England, possibly intended as a dueling pistol, which came across the ocean to America with General Edward Braddock, witnessed the catastrophic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…

Hot off the presses
Doorways in Time:
The Great Archaeological Discoveries #6:
Early Audio Recordings
In the second half of the nineteenth century, many of the most brilliant and ambitious minds in both Europe and America were bent upon solving the problem of capturing sound waves from the air and playing them back. Most of their efforts, including the earliest “phonautograms” from more than a decade before Edison’s invention of the phonograph, were either forgotten or lost to decay and degradation. In the past fifteen years, however, scientists and engineers, including the First Sounds collective, have located the surviving remnants…revealing much of the auditory world of the nineteenth century and the pathways by which the now-ubiquitous technology of audio recording came into being.
Currently available to patrons only. Become a patron at any amount to keep commercial free.

Unlocked:
History of the United States in 100 Objects # 18:
Jesuit Brass Medallion with Image of Ignatius Loyola
A small brass religious medallion found in the house of a French fur trader inside a fortress on the remote Straits of Mackinac shows the immense power of small numbers of merchants and missionaries to control sprawling networks of diplomacy and trade, stretching from Europe all the way into the deep interior of North America, and to sway the course of wars and imperial power struggles…

Hot off the presses
The Vikings, pt. 1 –
In the Norsemen’s World
We have all seen images of axe-wielding Vikings raining destruction upon the shores of medieval Europe — but who were these berserking Norsemen and where did they come from? What society produced them? How did the Scandinavians of the Viking age understand the world and their place in it? We examine the Norsemen’s complex and mysterious cosmos described in the poems and prophesies of the Eddas, and compare it to the realities of survival, trade, kingship, politics, warfare, art, gender, and the family in Scandinavia from the eight to eleventh centuries, as reconstructed from surviving documents and the latest archaeology.

Hot off the presses
2022 in Historical Context –
How Do You Like Your New Gilded Age?
We consider some of the major events of this year in light of their historical roots, from the abortion ruling to the Ukraine war; in particular, we consider the Twitter controversy in light of the history of media monopolies beginning with the telegraph, and the crisis over railroad labor in light of the railways strike of 1922, exactly one century ago.
First video segment of my appearance on the Katie Halper Show.

Hot off the presses
Myth of the Month 21:
The Old West
“Cowboys and Indians.” For most Americans, the words evoke a sinister game, representing a timeless enmity between the forces of civilization and savagery. In actual historical fact, cowboys and Indians were symbiotic trading partners, and many cowboys were Indians themselves; but the image of the cowboy as a conqueror and as the bearer of civilization into the “Wild West” has become central to the American national myth…

Hot off the presses
Monarchy, Honours, and the Molding of Modern Society – A Conversation with Tobias Harper
I speak with historian Tobias Harper about about the evolving and growing role of the British crown as the head of the voluntary sector in a neoliberal, atomizing, and celebrity-driven society. We examine both the “magic of the royal touch” and the hard-nosed bureaucratic calculations that it can serve to obscure, as captured in Toby’s book, “From Servants of the Empire to Everyday Heroes: The British Honours System in the Twentieth Century”…

Hot off the presses
History of the United States in 100 Objects:
Silver Beaker with Devil & Pope Figures, 1750
A silver beaker engraved with figures of Satan, the Pope, and the “Young Pretender” (also known as “Bonnie Prince Charlie”) shows how French, Dutch, German, and English colonists in colonial New York united around fear of Catholicism and the Jacobite menace…
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Unlocked:
Myth of the Month 18: Robin Hood – pt. 2: Capturing the Fugitive
Released to the public after one year for patrons only on Nov 4: What is the significance of Robin Hood as an outlaw – a person declared legally dead – who lives in the greenwood, where life is constantly renewed? Why does Shakespeare heavily allude to Robin in his Henry IV plays? And most significantly, was there a real Robin Hood, or is he a pure creation of myth and folklore? We consider the possibilities and scrutinize the evidence…

Hot off the presses
James II and the “Glorious Revolution” 1685-88
James II was Britain’s shortest-reigning monarch of the entire early modern age – yet his brief rule caused a dramatic rupture, which in turn opened the door to the transformation of the kingdom into the constitutional, commercial, imperial state that we know as modern Britain… We consider the complex life and personality of the ill-fated king, as well as the class conflicts and ideological shifts that let to the so-called “Glorious Revolution” and the beginnings of the modern state…
Also see Imbalances of Power: 10 Episodes on English Political Revolution and Evolution

Hot off the presses
Doorways in Time:
Gobekli Tepe
We examine the so-called “zero point of history,” the “first temple,” the “world’s oldest building,” the massive and deeply ancient complex of stone-age megalithic monuments on a hilltop in Turkey, which since being uncovered in the 1990s, has dramatically overturned received ideas about the beginnings of civilization…

Hot off the presses
Myth of the Month: Conspiracy Theories
Where do conspiracy theories come from? Why do people believe them?…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.”
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The seven primary playlists of Historiansplaining:
And Wait, There’s More…
In addition to the 7 main playlists, Historiansplaining boasts guests interviews, commentary on current events, and critiques of recent books, film & television, plus our Hot Off the Presses list – all with Quick Samples of featured episodes:
- Special Guest Conversations and Interviews
- History As It Happens: The News in Historical Context
- Books, Film, and Television
- Hot Off the Presses


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