Shows / History Unplugged Podcast
History Unplugged Podcast
For history lovers who listen to podcasts, History Unplugged is the most comprehensive show of its kind. It's the only show that dedicates episodes to both interviewing experts and answering questions from its audience. First, it features a call-in show where you can ask our resident historian (Scott Rank, PhD) absolutely anything (What was it like to be a Turkish sultan with four wives and twelve concubines? If you were sent back in time, how would you kill Hitler?). Second, it features…
Episodes
History Unplugged PodcastThe Last Night on the Titanic: Overview of the 1,500 Passengers and Crew Who Lost Their Lives
On the night of April 14, 1912, in the last hours before the Titanic struck the iceberg, passengers in all classes were enjoying unprecedented luxuries…
History Unplugged PodcastANNOUNCEMENT: Special Series 'Last Night on the Titanic' Starts Next Week
An announcement for a forthcoming series coming to the History Unplugged Podcast called "Last Night on the Titanic." See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy…
History Unplugged PodcastLight-Horse Harry Lee: A Founding Father's Journey From Glory to Ruin
The history of the American Revolution is written by and about the victors like Washington, Jefferson, and Adams. But separating the heroes from the villains…
History Unplugged PodcastBad Puns and Dirty Jokes in Rome and Ancient Greece
"A student dunce went swimming and almost drowned. So now he swears he'll never get into water until he's really learned to swim." That was a decent dad joke…
History Unplugged PodcastWright Brothers, Wrong Story? Why Some Say Wilbur—Not Orville—Discovered Manned Flight
How did two brothers who never left home, were high-school dropouts, and made a living as bicycle mechanics figure out the secret of manned flight? The story…
History Unplugged PodcastWhen Danzig Became Gdańsk: What Happens to a City When Its Demographics Change Completely
What happens to a city when its demographics change completely in the space of a few years? To explore this question, we will take a look at the case of Danzig…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Revolution Before the Revolution: How 1776 Happened
In the 1760s, the American colonies were completely incapable of organized resistance. One's loyalty was to their state, as the idea of being an “American” was…
History Unplugged PodcastAn Active Neutrality: The WW2 Experiences of Switzerland, Portugal, and Turkey
Neutrality is not the same thing as passivity. Just ask the many nations who had to walk an extremely thin tightrope during World War 2 to stay out of the war…
History Unplugged PodcastKangaroo Squadron: The Tip of the American Spear in the WW2 Pacific Theatre
In early 1942, while most of the American military was in disarray from the devastating attacks on Pearl Harbor and the Philippines, a single USAAF squadron…
History Unplugged PodcastCommon Knowledge About The Middle Ages That Is Incorrect, Part 5: Crusades In The Renaissance
The Crusades are typically bookended between Pope Urban II's call to reclaim the Holy Land in 1095 and the fall of Acre and the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem in…
History Unplugged PodcastCommon Knowledge About The Middle Ages That Is Incorrect, Part 4: The Medieval Technological Explosion
The Middle Ages was not a thousand-year period of technological stagnation between the fall of Rome and Leonardo da Vinci. It was an incredible period of…
History Unplugged PodcastCommon Knowledge About The Middle Ages That Is Incorrect, Part 3: Witch Burnings
At the height of the witch burning craze, thousands people, largely women, were falsely accused of witchcraft. Many of them were burned, hanged, and executed…
History Unplugged PodcastCommon Knowledge About The Middle Ages That Is Incorrect, Part 2: Were Indulgences a Get-out-of-Hell-Free Card Or Something Else?
Was it really possible to buy your way out of hell in the Middle Ages? If so, how much did it cost? And what did the Catholic Church do with all this money? In…
History Unplugged PodcastCommon Knowledge About The Middle Ages That Is Incorrect, Part 1: Why the Middle Ages, Not the Renaissance, Created the Modern World
The popular view of the Middle Ages is a thousand-year period of superstition and ignorance, punctuated by witch burnings and belief in a flat earth. But the…
History Unplugged PodcastCivil War Barons: The Tycoons, Entrepreneurs, and Inventors and Visionaries Who Forged Victory and Shaped a Nation
The American Civil War brought with it unprecedented demands upon the warring sections—North and South. The conflict required a mobilization and an…
History Unplugged PodcastWomen Have Been Running For President Since 1872. Here Are 4 Of Their Stories
2016 was the first election in which a woman won the nomination of a major political party to be president of the United States. But women have been legally…
History Unplugged PodcastWar Animals: How 55 Birds, Dogs, and Horses Saved Thousands of Lives in World War Two
Did you know that in World War Two there were “para-dogs,” or dogs that parachuted along with paratroopers in anticipation of D-Day? Or that carrier pigeons…
History Unplugged PodcastHunting the President: Threats, Plots and Assassination Attempts, Part 5: Barack Obama
With the election of America's first African-American president in 2008, many feared that the presidency of Barack Obama would bring out the most reactionary…
History Unplugged PodcastHunting the President: Threats, Plots and Assassination Attempts, Part 4: Bill Clinton
Many tried to kill Bill Clinton during his presidency, including former military officers, white supremacists, and a little-known militant named Osama bin…
History Unplugged PodcastHunting the President: Threats, Plots and Assassination Attempts, Part 3: Ronald Reagan
After his presidency, a deranged man broke into Ronald Reagan’s California home and attempted to strangle the former president before he was subdued by Secret…
History Unplugged PodcastHunting the President: Threats, Plots and Assassination Attempts, Part 2: JFK
The only president to be assassinated in the last century was John F. Kennedy. What caused this failure in the Secret Service's typical protection procedures?…
History Unplugged PodcastHunting the President: Threats, Plots and Assassination Attempts, Part 1: FDR
In American history, four U.S. Presidents have been murdered at the hands of an assassin. In each case the assassinations changed the course of American…
History Unplugged PodcastUnderstanding the Rise of Islam Through Military History
How did an initially small religious movement envelope such enormous areas of the world? That is precisely what the community of believers under Muhammed did…
History Unplugged PodcastFugitive Slaves in America, From the Revolution to the Civil War
For decades after its founding, America was really two nations – one slave, one free. There were many reasons why this nation ultimately broke apart in the…
History Unplugged PodcastMoral Panics and Mass Hysteria: The Dancing Plague, Salem Witch Trials, and The Tulip Market Bubble
One person's psychosis can be easily dismissed, but how do we account for collective hysteria, when an entire crowd sees the same illusion or suffer from the…
History Unplugged PodcastHow a Researcher Discovered That Her Grandparents Were in the Nazi SS
How would you react if you discovered that your family were deeply embedded within the Third Reich? Today I'm talking with Brazilian-born American Julie…
History Unplugged PodcastTeaser: Ottoman Lives Part 7—The Outlaw
Subscribe today for access to all premium episodes! https://patreon.com/unplugged See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
History Unplugged PodcastJames Holman Traveled Over 250,000 Miles in the Early 1800s. He Was Also Completely Blind.
He was known simply as the Blind Traveler. A solitary, sightless adventurer, James Holman (1786-1857) fought the slave trade in Africa, survived a frozen…
History Unplugged PodcastThe History of Cannabis and Its Use By Humans
History is often looked at through the perspective of a very high-up official. We look at military history through the eyes of a general. We look at political…
History Unplugged PodcastBonus Q&A on the Civil War Series with Scott & James
Two weeks ago we finished the 25-part series on the 10 most important battles in the Civil War. Some of you had follow-up questions. We ran a poll to so which…
History Unplugged PodcastWhat Would the Real St. Nicholas Drink? Here's What an Ancient History Professor Thinks
Ever wondered what cocktail a fourth-century bishop from Asia Minor would order? That would be an obscure question to ask if the bishop in question weren't the…
History Unplugged PodcastHow Ancient Europeans Circumnavigated Africa, Explored Iceland, and Sent Goods all the Way to Japan
What is the greatest extent of classical European reach, and how did they affect or influence the culture of the known world in that period? In today's episode…
History Unplugged PodcastWhat if George Custer Had Survived the Battle of Little Bighorn?
George Custer, if he is remembered at all, is a cautionary tale of hubris. He grossly underestimated Sitting Bull's forces at the Battle of Little Big Horn and…
History Unplugged PodcastTeaser: Ottoman Lives Part 6—The Holy Man
Subscribe today for access to all premium episodes! https://patreon.com/unplugged See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 22: How the Civil War Lives on Today
In this very final episode, James and Scott discuss the lasting effects of the Civil War and why it is the single most important event in the history of the…
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 21: What Became of the Men Who Wore the Blue and the Grey
In this epilogue episode James and Scott talk about the Union and Confederate generals whom we've gotten to know so well after the war finished. They became…
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 20: The Naval War
The Civil War is now finished but our series is not. Scott and James discuss an aspect of the Civil War that for the most part didn't tie into our main…
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 19: African Americans in Uniform
As the Civil War came to an end, a big question remained for the North and eventually the reunited United States. What would become of its African-American…
History Unplugged PodcastTeaser: Ottoman Lives Part 5—The Peasant
Subscribe today for access to all premium episodes! https://patreon.com/unplugged See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 18: The Overland Campaign
We're nearing the end of our Civil War series. It's 1864. Lincoln is re-elected, and Sherman's March to the Sea obliterated the Confederacy's industrial base…
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 17: Sherman's March to the Sea
From November to December 1864, Gen. Sherman led over 60,000 soldiers from Atlanta to Savannah, Georgia in a scorched earth campaign to completely demoralized…
History Unplugged PodcastTurkey is Both a Bird and a Country. Which Came First?
It's no coincidence that the bird we eat for Thanksgiving and a Middle Eastern country are both called Turkey. One was named after the other, and it all has to…
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 16: The Battle of Atlanta
In the fall of 1864, the Union Army now had full momentum against the Confederacy, pushing deeper into the South than ever before. General Sherman overwhelmed…
History Unplugged PodcastTeaser: Ottoman Lives, Part 4—The Concubine
Subscribe today for access to all premium episodes! https://patreon.com/unplugged See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 15: Chattanooga
Following Union defeat at the Battle of Chickamauga, Union forces retreated to the railroad junction of Chattanooga, Tennessee. From November 23-25, 1863…
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 14: Chickamauga
The Battle of Chickamauga marked the end of Union Maj. Gen. William Rosencran's offensive into southwestern Tennessee and northwestern Georgia and the most…
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 13: The Battle of Gettysburg
The 1863 Battle of Gettysburg stopped Robert E. Lee's second invasion of the North. It was the deadliest battle of the Civil War, with over 50,000 casualties…
History Unplugged PodcastSeptember 1918: War, Plague, and The World Series
In the late summer of 1918, a division of Massachusetts militia volunteers led the first unified American fighting force into battle in France, turning the…
History Unplugged PodcastTeaser: Ottoman Lives, Part 3—The Eunuch
Subscribe today for access to all premium episodes! https://patreon.com/unplugged See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
History Unplugged Podcast6 Historical Figures Who Deserve Their Own Movie—History Unplugged Meets 1001 Stories
Historical biopics perform a great service. These movies remind the world of people that would have otherwise fallen into obscurity: Oscar Schindler…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Story of Bravo, The Greatest Rescue Mission in Navy SEAL History
Today's guest is Stephan Talty, author of the new book, SAVING BRAVO, which comes out October 30. Talty tells the never-before-told story of one of the…
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 12: (Vicksburg 2 of 2)
Welcome to the second part in our episodes on the Vicksburg Campaign, one of the most consequential Civil War battles in the Western theatre and what many…
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 11: Vicksburg (1 of 2)
In the next two episodes Scott and James will discuss the Siege of Vicksburg. In the summer of 1863, Grant’s Army of the Tennessee came to Vicksburg, located…
History Unplugged PodcastTeaser: Ottoman Lives, Part 2—The Sultan
Subscribe today for access to all premium episodes! https://patreon.com/unplugged See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 10: Battle of Chancellorsville
The Battle of Chancellorsville is considered Robert E. Lee’s masterpiece. His reputation as a military genius was sealed by fighting an incredibly successful…
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 9: The Battle of Fredericksburg
Following McClellan's disastrous Union loss at Antietam, Lincoln replaced him with Ambrose Burnside, who planned to march to the city of Fredericksburg…
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 8: Sidetrack Episode on Emancipation
The entire point of the Civil War was to end slavery, right? Not exactly, and definitely not at the beginning of the War. The North went to war strictly to…
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 7: The Battle of Antietam
The Battle of Antietam—an 1862 clash between Robert E. lee's Army of Northern Virginian and George McClellan's Army of the Potomac—was the deadliest one-day…
History Unplugged PodcastTeaser: Ottoman Lives, Part 1: The Janissary
Subscribe today for access to all premium episodes! https://patreon.com/unplugged See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
History Unplugged PodcastHistory of the Civil War in 10 Battles, Part 6: The Seven Days' Battle
Union General George B. McClellan, who led 100,000 men and moved as fast as an iceberg, attempted to capture the Confederate capital of Richmond in a series of…