Shows / Calm Bedtime History
Calm Bedtime History
Long, calm history to fall asleep to. Every day: a new 3 – 4 hour narrated journey through medieval Europe, ancient empires, and forgotten ages. Paced for drifting minds. No hooks. No shouting. Just history, a fireplace, and a good night's sleep.
Episodes
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Entire Story of Ancient Egypt, 3100–30 BC | Calm Bedtime History
At dawn in the Nile Delta, around 3100 BC, a new kingship begins to bind Upper and Lower Egypt into one realm. Three thousand years later, in Alexandria on 12…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Wars of the Diadochi and the Division of Alexander’s Empire, 323–281 BC | Calm Bedtime History
In June 323 BC, Alexander died in the royal palace at Babylon after a decade of conquest. Around him stood commanders, queens and soldiers who still possessed…
Calm Bedtime HistoryAlexander Before Asia: Philip, Macedon and a Young King's Rise, 356–334 BC | Calm Bedtime History
In the spring of 334 BC, Alexander stood beside the Hellespont with a Macedonian army and the unfinished plans of his dead father. Behind him lay Pella, Aegae…
Calm Bedtime HistoryAlexander’s Persian Campaign: From Granicus to Persepolis, 334–330 BC | Calm Bedtime History
In May 334 BC, Alexander’s army crossed the Granicus River in north-western Asia Minor and began the campaign that would break Achaemenid power. Over the next…
Calm Bedtime HistorySargon of Akkad and the Rise and Unravelling of the World’s First Territorial Empire, c. 2334–2154 BC | Calm Bedtime History
At Uruk, in the middle of the twenty-fourth century BC, the army of Sargon of Akkad defeated Lugalzagesi and brought the southern city-states beneath a new…
Calm Bedtime HistoryAlexander the Great: Eleven Years from Macedon to the Indus | Calm Bedtime History
In the spring of 334 BC, Alexander crossed the Hellespont with the army his father Philip had prepared, leaving Europe behind for the Persian satrapies of…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Fever Code: How WICKED Built the Maze | Calm Bedtime History
In the years before the first lift rose into the Glade, Thomas and Teresa lived inside WICKED’s research complex in an Alaskan forest. There, among classrooms…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Fremen of Arrakis: Life Beneath the Desert | Calm Bedtime History
Before dawn, in the years of Harkonnen rule over Arrakis, a Fremen community prepares to leave its sietch and cross the open desert. In the cool darkness…
Calm Bedtime HistoryLeto II and the Golden Path: The God Emperor of Dune | Calm Bedtime History
On Rakis, formerly Arrakis, roughly three and a half thousand years after Paul Atreides seized the Imperial throne, Leto II presides over a quiet court in a…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Rings of Power and the Last Alliance of Elves and Men in the Late Second Age | Calm Bedtime History
In S.A. 1600, beneath the red slopes of Mount Doom, Sauron forged the One Ring while the Elves of Eregion concealed the Three Rings they had made. Over the…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Second Rebellion of Panem: Propaganda, Civil War, and the Search for a Republic | Calm Bedtime History
In the autumn of the seventy-fifth year after the first rebellion, Katniss Everdeen entered the clock-shaped arena of the third Quarter Quell. Within hours…
Calm Bedtime HistoryHollow City: Jacob Portman and the Peculiar Children in Wartime Britain, 1940–1941 | Calm Bedtime History
On 3 September 1940, ten peculiar children leave their island home while London waits beneath the threat of air attack. Miss Peregrine, trapped in the body of…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe First Age of Narnia: From Charn to Aslan’s Creation | Calm Bedtime History
In an Edwardian London attic, Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer are drawn into Uncle Andrew’s dangerous experiment with enchanted rings. Their journey leads…
Calm Bedtime HistoryTime Loops and Ymbrynes in Ransom Riggs’s Peculiar World | Calm Bedtime History
On the Welsh island of Cairnholm, before dawn on 3 September 1940, Miss Peregrine’s house waits for the same day to begin again. Beyond its garden, the Second…
Calm Bedtime HistoryWeirdmageddon: The Final Three-Part Crisis of Gravity Falls, 2015–2016 | Calm Bedtime History
On 15 February 2016, Disney XD broadcast the final instalment of Gravity Falls, in which the Pines family and the town's scattered residents gathered at the…
Calm Bedtime HistoryFëanor and the Silmarils in the Years of the Trees | Calm Bedtime History
In the final Years of the Trees, the Noldor gathered in Tirion beneath the alternating silver light of Telperion and the gold of Laurelin. There Fëanor…
Calm Bedtime HistoryPaul Atreides' Rise as Muad'Dib on Arrakis | Calm Bedtime History
In the year 1965, Frank Herbert's novel places Paul Atreides on Arrakis just after the Harkonnen assault has destroyed his house. Beneath the cold stars of the…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Library of Souls and the Rescue of the Peculiar Children, 2015 | Calm Bedtime History
In the fictional London of Library of Souls, published on 22 September 2015, Jacob Portman and Emma are hiding after the destruction of their refuge. Their…
Calm Bedtime HistoryPrince Caspian and the Return of Old Narnia During the Telmarine Conquest | Calm Bedtime History
In the forests of Narnia, during the reign of King Miraz, Prince Caspian rides away from the court beneath a gathering storm. The kingdom has been ruled by…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe First Wizarding War: Voldemort's Rise, the Order, and Godric's Hollow, 1970–1981 | Calm Bedtime History
On the night of 31 October 1981, in the wizarding village of Godric's Hollow, Lord Voldemort entered the hidden home of James and Lily Potter. Before dawn, the…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Tenth Hunger Games and the Making of Coriolanus Snow | Calm Bedtime History
In the Capitol, ten years after the Dark Days war, Academy students prepare to mentor the tributes of the tenth Hunger Games. Among them is eighteen-year-old…
Calm Bedtime HistoryJournal 3: Dipper Pines and the Hidden Mystery of Gravity Falls, 2012–2016 | Calm Bedtime History
On 15 June 2012, Dipper and Mabel Pines arrived in the wooded Oregon town of Gravity Falls to spend the summer at their great-uncle Stan’s Mystery Shack…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Kill Order: The First Days of the Solar-Flare Crisis | Calm Bedtime History
New York City, on the last day before a school holiday, is beginning its journey home beneath an ordinary sky. In the subway below the streets, Mark and Trina…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Maze Runner: Thomas's First Trial in the Glade and Maze, 2009 | Calm Bedtime History
In October 2009, readers first entered the Glade with Thomas, a boy who wakes inside a rising metal Box with only his name intact. Around him, adolescent…
Calm Bedtime HistoryNarnia Under the White Witch: The Hundred-Year Winter | Calm Bedtime History
In the winter of the Pevensies’ wartime evacuation, Lucy steps through an old wardrobe in a country house and finds a lamppost standing among snow-covered…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Rise and Downfall of Númenor, Second Age 32–3319 | Calm Bedtime History
In the year 3319 of the Second Age, a vast Númenórean fleet gathered in the eastern harbours of the island and turned west towards Aman. Behind it lay nearly…
Calm Bedtime HistoryHaymitch Abernathy and the Second Quarter Quell, 50th Hunger Games | Calm Bedtime History
On the morning of his sixteenth birthday, Haymitch Abernathy stands in District 12’s square as the Capitol prepares the fiftieth Hunger Games. In this Second…
Calm Bedtime HistoryBeren and Lúthien: A First Age Quest from Doriath to Angband | Calm Bedtime History
In the First Age, beneath the dark northern skies of Beleriand, the mortal wanderer Beren entered the hidden realm of Doriath and saw Lúthien dancing beside…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Marauders at Hogwarts: Friendship, Werewolves, Animagi, and the Making of the Map | Calm Bedtime History
In the early 1970s, a train leaves King's Cross carrying James Potter, Sirius Black, Remus Lupin, and Peter Pettigrew towards their first year at Hogwarts…
Calm Bedtime HistoryTom Riddle’s Early Life and Hogwarts Years, 1926–1945 | Calm Bedtime History
On a cold London evening in December 1926, a boy named Tom Marvolo Riddle was born to a dying witch and a Muggle father who would never meet him. Seventeen…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Music of the Ainur: Tolkien’s Creation of Arda Before the First Age | Calm Bedtime History
Before the First Age, in the timeless halls beyond the world, Eru Ilúvatar gathered the Ainur and gave them a great theme. Their music became a vision of Arda…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Horcruxes: Voldemort’s Hidden Means of Survival, 1943–1998 | Calm Bedtime History
In the summer of 1997, Albus Dumbledore and Harry Potter crossed a dark stretch of sea towards a cave where a small locket waited beneath a basin of poisonous…
Calm Bedtime HistoryArrakis and the Spice: Ecology, Economy, and Power Before Paul Atreides | Calm Bedtime History
On Arrakis, shortly before the Imperial transfer of the planet to House Atreides, spice harvesters prepare their machines beneath a pale desert dawn. Beyond…
Calm Bedtime HistoryKatniss Everdeen and the Seventy-Fourth Hunger Games | Calm Bedtime History
On reaping day in District 12, Katniss Everdeen stands among the children of the Seam as the Capitol selects its tributes for the seventy-fourth Hunger Games…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Voyage of the Dawn Treader: Caspian’s Eastern Sea | Calm Bedtime History
In the eastern waters of Narnia, during the reign of King Caspian, the Dawn Treader leaves the Lone Islands to search for seven vanished lords. The voyage…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Dark Days: How Panem Built the Hunger Games | Calm Bedtime History
In the years after the Dark Days, the Capitol rebuilt its authority over a ruined North American nation and twelve dependent districts. Beneath new roads…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Pevensies' Golden Age in Narnia: The Four Rulers of Cair Paravel | Calm Bedtime History
At Cair Paravel, after the White Witch's defeat, Peter, Susan, Edmund, and Lucy sit upon the four thrones of Narnia. Their reign begins in the spring that…
Calm Bedtime HistoryStanford and Stanley Pines: The Hidden History of Gravity Falls | Calm Bedtime History
In Gravity Falls, Oregon, on a summer night in 2012, a concealed machine beneath the Mystery Shack opens and Stanford Pines steps back into the world. The…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Society of the Blind Eye: Gravity Falls’ Forgotten Memories | Calm Bedtime History
On October 27, 2014, viewers entered the Oregon town of Gravity Falls through Disney XD’s seventh episode of its second season, where a museum concealed a…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Death Cure: The Final Choice Against WICKED | Calm Bedtime History
In the late aftermath of the Scorch, Thomas is held inside WICKED’s clinical headquarters while the surviving subjects await their final examination. The…
Calm Bedtime HistoryBill Cipher and the Journal Mysteries of Gravity Falls | Calm Bedtime History
In the summer of 2012, Dipper and Mabel Pines arrived at the Mystery Shack in Gravity Falls, Oregon, and found a journal hidden in the forest. Its pages…
Calm Bedtime HistoryHenry IV and the Walk to Canossa, 1056–1106 | Calm Bedtime History
In January 1077, Henry IV reached the snowbound Apennines and stopped beneath Canossa Castle, where Pope Gregory VII was staying with Matilda of Tuscany. The…
Calm Bedtime HistoryCnut the Great and the North Sea Empire, 1016–1035 | Calm Bedtime History
In October 1016, on the ridges of Essex, the army of King Edmund Ironside met the Danish forces of Cnut after months of siege, marching, and attrition. Within…
Calm Bedtime HistoryFrederick Barbarossa and the Sleeping Emperor Legend, 1152–1190 | Calm Bedtime History
On 10 June 1190, beneath the hot mountains of Cilicia, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa approached the Saleph River with the army of the Third Crusade. For nearly…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Teutonic Knights and the Making of Prussia, 1226–1410 | Calm Bedtime History
On 15 July 1410, beneath a warm summer sky near the villages of Grunwald and Tannenberg, the Teutonic Order met the armies of Poland and Lithuania. Its…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Byzantine Golden Age: Basil II and the Empire at Its Peak, 976–1025 | Calm Bedtime History
On a summer morning in 1014, Byzantine soldiers moved through the mountain passes near Kleidion while Basil II directed the long war against Tsar Samuel of…
Calm Bedtime HistoryRagnarök: The Norse Vision of the End and Rebirth of the World, c. 800–1100 | Calm Bedtime History
In an Icelandic hall during the long winter nights of the Viking Age, a poet recites the prophecy of a seeress who has seen the gods’ final battle. Her vision…
Calm Bedtime HistoryHarun al-Rashid and the Golden Age of Baghdad, 786-809 | Calm Bedtime History
In the year 786, a new caliph took his place in the Palace of the Golden Gate at the exact centre of Baghdad's perfect circle. Harun al-Rashid, not yet twenty…
Calm Bedtime HistoryMedieval Paris Under Philip II Augustus, 1180–1223 | Calm Bedtime History
In the autumn of 1180, a young man of fifteen years rode through the muddy streets of Paris to be crowned king of France. His name was Philip, son of Louis…
Calm Bedtime HistoryOdin the Wanderer: The All-Father in Norse Mythology, c. 800–1100 | Calm Bedtime History
Somewhere in Iceland, around the year 1000, a poet sits by a long fire in a dark hall. Outside, the autumn wind carries the smell of sulfur from the hot…
Calm Bedtime HistoryFrederick II: The Wonder of the World, 1194-1250 | Calm Bedtime History
In the hill town of Jesi, near Ancona on Italy's Adriatic coast, a boy was born on the day after Christmas in 1194. His mother, Constance of Sicily, was forty…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Hanseatic Merchants of Bruges, 1300–1450 | Calm Bedtime History
In the autumn of 1340, a Lübeck merchant named Hinrich Wittenborg ties his cog at the quay of Bruges, where the Zwin estuary still runs deep enough to float a…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Fall of Constantinople, 1453: The Last Night of the Eastern Roman Empire | Calm Bedtime History
It is late May in the year 1453. On the heights above Constantinople, the campfires of an army eighty thousand strong flicker against the darkened land walls…
Calm Bedtime HistoryCharlemagne and the Frankish Empire, 768–814 | Calm Bedtime History
It is the year 802 in the Frankish royal palace at Aachen. The octagonal chapel has stood for barely a year, its pale stone still sharp against the grey sky of…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Varangian Guard: Norse Warriors in Byzantine Service, 988-1204 | Calm Bedtime History
In the Great Palace beside the Bosporus, Emperor Basil II prepares to receive a bodyguard of six thousand Viking axe-men sent by Vladimir of Kiev. The year is…
Calm Bedtime HistoryJustinian and Theodora: Rebuilding the Roman Empire, 527-565 | Calm Bedtime History
It is January 532, in the imperial box above the Hippodrome of Constantinople. Below you, thirty thousand spectators chant the name of their favourite chariot…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Abbasid Caliphate: Baghdad at the Height of the Islamic Golden Age, 750-900 | Calm Bedtime History
The Tigris River winds through the flat plain of Mesopotamia, its waters brown with summer silt. On the eastern bank, workmen from every province of the new…
Calm Bedtime HistoryEleanor of Aquitaine: The Queen Who Ruled Two Kingdoms, 1137–1204 | Calm Bedtime History
In the ducal palace at Poitiers, on the first day of April in the year 1204, Eleanor of Aquitaine lies in her final illness. She has outlived two husbands…
Calm Bedtime HistorySaladin and the Recapture of Jerusalem, 1174–1193 | Calm Bedtime History
In the spring of 1193, in a modest stone chamber in the Citadel of Damascus, Salah ad-Din Yusuf ibn Ayyub lay dying. He was fifty-five or fifty-six years old…
Calm Bedtime HistoryThe Plague of Justinian, 541-549: The First Pandemic and the End of the Ancient World | Calm Bedtime History
In the harbour of Constantinople, beneath the walls of the imperial capital, Egyptian grain ships have begun to dock. It is the year 542, and the Emperor…