Shows / History Shorts
History Shorts
Dive into the past with award-winning historian Peter Zablocki in this captivating daily podcast! Uncover hidden stories you never knew existed. And don't miss Friday Conversations where Peter teams up with top experts for riveting, in-depth discussions that bring history to life.
Episodes
History ShortsAn American Journalist, a German Serial Killer, & Paris on the Eve of WWII, w/ Mark Braude
In this interview episode, I'm joined by author Mark Braude to dive into his latest book, The Typewriter and the Guillotine: An American Journalist, a German…
History ShortsCarville: U.S.' Forgotten Leper City
Hidden behind iron gates along the Mississippi River stood a place most Americans never wanted to acknowledge, and many pretended didn't exist. For nearly a…
History ShortsBiblical Monsters
The Bible is often read as a book of law, prophecy, and moral teaching, but woven through its pages are creatures that feel more at home in myth and nightmare…
History ShortsThe Great Depression Serial Killer of Cleveland
In the depths of the Great Depression, Cleveland became the hunting ground for a killer the newspapers struggled to name, and the police couldn't catch…
History ShortsSultana: Civil War's Last Forgotten Disaster
In the spring of 1865, just days after the Civil War ended and President Lincoln was laid to rest, one final tragedy struck a nation desperate to move on. On…
History ShortsWhen Bloodletting was the Cure
For more than two thousand years, one medical treatment dominated Western medicine: bloodletting. From ancient Greece to the 19th century, physicians believed…
History ShortsWWII's Battle Against Venereal Disease
During World War II, the U.S. military fought enemies on beaches, in jungles, and in the skies, but it also faced a quieter, deeply embarrassing crisis within…
History ShortsWhy History Matters, with David McCullough
In this interview episode, I'm joined by Dorie McCullough Lawson and Michael Hill, the editors behind History Matters, a powerful collection drawn from the…
History ShortsJFK's Hidden Health Crisis
To the American public, John F. Kennedy embodied youth, energy, and vigor—a president who promised a New Frontier and appeared to stride confidently into…
History ShortsThe Teenager Who Invented the Television
Television reshaped the modern world, but its invention did not begin in a laboratory funded by a major corporation. It started in a plowed field. As a…
History ShortsBigfoot: America's Most Enduring Legend
Long before grainy videos and blurry photographs flooded the internet, stories of a mysterious, human-like creature roaming the forests of North America were…
History ShortsWhat is the Secret to Happiness? Harvard's 80 Year Old Study's Findings
In the late 1930s, Harvard researchers began an unprecedented study: tracking hundreds of people across their entire lives to answer a deceptively simple…
History ShortsThe Forgotten Kingdom of Man and the Isles
Long before modern borders carved neat lines across the Irish Sea, there existed a maritime realm so unusual, so strategically placed, that its rulers…
History ShortsKilling George Washington
In the summer of 1776, just as the ink of independence was drying and the Continental Army staggered under inexperience, disease, and desertion, a silent…
History Shorts'The Greatest Generation' OR 'The 'Wounded Generation'? w/ David Nasaw
In this episode, Peter speaks with Dr. David Nasaw, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, about his new book, The Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War…
History ShortsThe Freemasons
For centuries, the Freemasons have stood at the crossroads of fact and myth, secrecy and symbolism. Presidents, revolutionaries, artists, and ordinary…
History ShortsNapoleon's Missing Penis: A History No One Asked For
History remembers Napoleon as the iron-willed conqueror of Europe, the architect of empire, the man who crowned himself. But beneath the legend lies a…
History ShortsSacagawea: Beyond the Myth
She has been cast as the smiling guide, the willing helper, the gentle symbol of American westward expansion. But the real Sacagawea was more than a footnote…
History ShortsBelleau Wood: The Battle That Made the Marines
June 1918. A choking forest. Gas, machine-gun nests, and a German advance cutting toward Paris. Into that hell marched a fighting force the world barely knew…
History ShortsKilling Che Guevara
Few figures of the 20th century are as mythologized, or as polarizing, as Ernesto "Che" Guevara. To some, he was the heroic doctor-turned-revolutionary who…
History Shorts'The Conqueror' Movie Curse
In 1956, Hollywood set out to make an epic. Instead, it created one of the most cursed productions in film history. The Conqueror, starring John Wayne as…
History ShortsConversations: Life and Legacy of King James VI and I, w/ Clare Jackson
Dr. Clare Jackson, Honorary Professor of Early Modern History at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and a renowned expert on 17th-century Britain, joins us to discuss…
History ShortsJesse Strang & the Kingdom Hidden Inside America
In one of the most extraordinary and almost forgotten chapters in American history, a man named James Jesse Strang crowned himself king on U.S. soil. This…
History ShortsActium: The Battle That Shaped the Roman Empire
The Battle of Actium was the moment the ancient world pivoted. On September 2, 31 BCE, in the waters off western Greece, two colossal visions for Rome…
History ShortsThe Silk Road: Inside the World's First Global Network
For over two thousand years, the Silk Road shaped the destiny of continents. More than a single road, it was a vast web of caravan routes stretching from the…
History ShortsVietnam War's Secret Phoenix Program
The Phoenix Program remains one of the most controversial and least understood operations of the Vietnam War, a shadow war fought in the alleys, jungles, and…
History ShortsThe Short-Lived Fascist Republic of Salo
In the final, collapsing chapter of World War II, Benito Mussolini re-emerged, not as the iron-fisted dictator who once ruled Italy, but as a puppet leader…
History ShortsMiracle Mike: The Headless Chicken
In the summer of 1945, a small farm in Fruita, Colorado, became the stage for one of the strangest true stories in American history. This is the tale of Mike…
History ShortsConversations: Why the Year 1776 Still Matters Today, w/ Edward J. Larson
What did America really declare in 1776, and why does it still matter today? In this episode of History Shorts, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Edward J…
History ShortsHow Mata Hari Became the World's Most Famous Spy
She danced her way into the halls of Europe's elite, captivated generals and diplomats, and became the most infamous alleged double agent of World War I. But…
History ShortsThe Forgotten World of House Detectives
Long before private eyes stalked dimly lit alleys in pulp novels, America had a different kind of detective, one who didn't chase murderers or mobsters, but…
History ShortsHow the Normans Changed the World
In this episode, we explore how a small band of Viking descendants from Normandy reshaped medieval Europe forever. From William the Conqueror's seismic victory…
History ShortsThe Final Days of Napoleon
He ruled Europe with an iron will, crowned himself emperor, and reshaped the modern world, but in the end, even Napoleon Bonaparte couldn't conquer fate. In…
History ShortsWeekend Show #2: History of the 'Weekend'
Welcome to the second episode of the History Shorts Weekend Show, a soon-to-be weekly Patreon-exclusive variety series offering a lighter, more reflective…
History ShortsConversations: Three Roads to Gettysburg, w/ Tim McGrath
In the pivotal summer of 1863, three extraordinary paths converged on a small Pennsylvania town, forever altering the course of the American Civil War. Petert…
History ShortsEddie Slovik: The Only American Killed for Desertion in WWII
In this gripping episode, we tell the haunting story of Private Eddie Slovik, the only American soldier executed for desertion during World War II among tens…
History ShortsConversations: How the American Revolution was a Global Conflict, w/ Richard Bell
In this engaging episode, Peter speaks with author and historian Richard Bell about re-framing the American Revolution in the context of a global conflict…
History ShortsThe Lost Labyrinth of Egypt
Long before the pyramids captured the world's imagination, ancient writers described a structure so vast, so mysterious, and so extraordinary that even the…
History ShortsThe Madness of Emperor Caligula
In the year 37 CE, Rome welcomed a new emperor who was young, charismatic, and adored by the people. Within months, that same emperor, Caligula, descended into…
History ShortsThe Woman Spy Who Outsmarted Hoover's FBI
In the late 1940s, as America entered the paranoid dawn of the Cold War, a brilliant young Justice Department analyst named Judith Coplon was accused of…
History ShortsThe Labor Revolt that Shook America (Pullman Strike)
In 1894, a company town outside Chicago erupted into one of the most explosive labor battles in American history. When workers at the Pullman Palace Car…
History ShortsHistory Shorts Weekend Show #1
Welcome to the very first episode of the History Shorts Weekend Show: a soon-to-be weekly Patreon Exclusive, but for now, offered as a full public preview…
History ShortsConversations: The Nazi and the Psychiatrist - the Book Behind the film 'Nuremberg' w. Jack El-Hai
In this episode of History Shorts, I sit down with acclaimed author Jack El-Hai to explore the extraordinary true story behind his book The Nazi and the…
History ShortsThe Katyn Massacre
In 1940, deep within Poland's Katyn Forest, thousands of Polish officers vanished, erased by Stalin's secret orders. For decades, the truth was buried beneath…
History ShortsConversations: Why the U.S. is Not a Nation State (But a Federation of Stateless Nations), w/ Colin Woodard
Today on History Shorts, we're joined by acclaimed journalist and historian Colin Woodard, the author of Nations Apart: How Clashing Regional Cultures…
History ShortsWhy We Can't Look Away from the Girl With a Pearl Earring
She's been called the Mona Lisa of the North, a girl frozen in time, her gaze both intimate and unreachable. In this episode of History Shorts, we uncover the…
History ShortsAkhenaten: The Pharaoh Who Tried to Erase History
Long before modern dictators rewrote the past, one Egyptian pharaoh tried to rewrite the very gods. In this episode of History Shorts, we uncover the…
History ShortsThe Real Conjuring (The Story of Ed & Lorraine Warren)
Before Hollywood turned them into ghost-hunting legends, Ed and Lorraine Warren were real people, devout Catholics, self-taught demonologists, and the most…
History ShortsWhen the EPA Erased a Whole Town from Existence
In the early 1980s, a small town along the Meramec River in Missouri vanished, not from flood or fire, but from poison. This episode of History Shorts uncovers…
History ShortsThe British Woman Who Fell in Love With Hitler
In this episode of History Shorts, we trace the curious and troubling story of Unity Mitford, a young British socialite born into privilege, and her…
History ShortsBenjamin Franklin Goes to France
Before America won its independence, one man crossed the ocean to secure its future. In Paris, Benjamin Franklin used wit, charm, and sheer diplomacy to turn…
History ShortsConversations: When maps seize being tools and become narratives, w/ James Cheshire
Peter speaks with James Cheshire, whose captivating new book, The Library of Lost Maps: An Archive of a World in Progress, unearths a hidden collection of…
History ShortsTODAY IN CONTEXT: The Penny Retires Into History (& What That Means for Us)
TODAY IN CONTEXT BONUS: After more than 200 years in our pockets, cash drawers, and couch cushions, the U.S. penny has finally been retired. But ending the…
History ShortsWhen Women Went to War: Women's Overseas Hospital
When World War I tore Europe apart, a group of American women refused to stay home. They built and ran the Women's Overseas Hospital on the front lines, saving…
History ShortsSee It OR Skip It: Nuremberg (2025)
In this BONUS episode of History Shorts: See It or Skip It, Peter takes the stand to judge one of 2025's most talked-about historical dramas, Nuremberg…
History ShortsWhat Former U.S. Presidents Thought About the Civil War When It Was Happening
What happens when former U.S. Presidents live long enough to watch their country fall apart? During the Civil War, the men who once held the nation's highest…
History ShortsSo, You Want To Become a Knight?
Behind the shining armor was a brutal path of training, loyalty, and sacrifice. From childhood pages to battlefield warriors, this History Shorts episode…
History ShortsSee it OR Skip It: Netflix's 'Death By Lightning'
BONUS: Netflix's new hit series Death by Lightning dramatizes the shocking 1881 assassination of President James A. Garfield, but how much of it actually…
History ShortsMarcus Aurelius: The Philosopher Emperor
In an empire of ambition and conquest, one man ruled with philosophy instead of fear. This History Shorts episode explores the life of Marcus Aurelius, Rome's…
History ShortsThe Economist Who Predicted World War II
At the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, a young economist named John Maynard Keynes saw what few others could, that the Treaty of Versailles was not peace, but a…