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 PodcastWhat Were Rome’s Persian Borderlands Like?
Being a Roman isn't easy. Running an intercontinental empire across hundreds of languages, customs, and ethnic groups without the benefit of telegraphs or…
History Unplugged PodcastGerman POWs in the US During WW2
Did you know that over 400,000 German POWs were settled in the United States during World War II? Did you know that they may have built some of the stone…
History Unplugged PodcastHow Emperor Justinian Changed the World—Robin Pierson from The History of Byzantium Podcast
Justinian I of Byzantium is among the most towering figure of the ancient and medieval periods. His innovations in governance, architecture, law, and welding…
History Unplugged PodcastHow Texas Almost Became German
Like much of the United States, Texas has a large popular whose ancestors originated in Germany. But Texas takes it a step further. In the 1840s a massive…
History Unplugged PodcastDid America Switch from Tea to Coffee Due to the Boston Tea Party?
In mid-December 1773 a force of colonists, dressed up as Mohawk Indians, boarded the three boats and dumped 342 chests of tea into the Boston Harbor. The…
History Unplugged PodcastDid a 6th-Century Irishman Really Reach America?
Archeological evidence proves that Leif Ericsson, the Icelandic Viking, arrived in the New World centuries before Columbus. But what if he was in turn beaten…
History Unplugged PodcastEmperor Norton I of the United States
Emperor Norton is San Francisco's original oddball. In 1859 he proclaimed himself "Norton I, Emperor of the United States." He later expanded his pretense by…
History Unplugged PodcastDorsey Armstrong on the Legend of King Arthur: From Noble Knight to Guy Ritchie’s 'Excalibro'
For a guy that lived 1,500 years ago, King Arthur has remarkable staying power. He became a stock figure in Welsh and Latin chronicles of Britain by the 800s…
History Unplugged PodcastWhat Can We Learn from the Kurds About Nationalism and Nation Building?
The Kurdish people are arguably the largest stateless people on Earth. An estimated 35 million live in Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, and elsewhere, but do not…
History Unplugged PodcastHad Native Americans Been Resistant to Old World Diseases How Different Would the New World Have Been?
Smallpox is arguably the deadliest weapon in history. Ninety percent of some Native American tribes were wiped out by this disease when they first encountered…
History Unplugged PodcastWhat Is the Biggest Forgery in History?
You probably haven't heard of the Donation of Constantine. It was a fake letter that represented one of the biggest real estate scams in history. How did an…
History Unplugged PodcastHow Did the Ottoman Imperial Harem Operate?
Nothing fascinated Europeans about the Ottoman Empire quite like the harem. Since no foreigners were permitted to enter it themselves, imaginations ran while…
History Unplugged PodcastWhere Did Sea Monsters From the Edge of Medieval Maps Come From?
Have you ever seen a picture of an old map of the world and wondered why they contained enormous serpents, giant squids, Krakken, and other terrifying…
History Unplugged PodcastWhat Are Some Inventions That Are Much Older Than We Think?
Many of us assume that cars, computers, and batteries are modern inventions. Before that time we lived in a technological dark age too barbaric and boring to…
History Unplugged PodcastWho Was the Most Powerful Woman in the Middle Ages? 2/2
Joan of Arc has one of the most incredible stories in history. Consider this: How did an illiterate peasant lead an army into victory against England in the…
History Unplugged PodcastWho Was The Most Powerful Woman in the Middle Ages? 1/2
Eowyn, the Shieldmaiden of Rohan, is one of the best characters from the “Lord of the Rings.” But J.R.R. Tolkien didn't invent her out of thin air. Ever the…
History Unplugged PodcastHow One Man Ruled 1920s Kansas City Like a Caesar—Jason Roe
America attempted to legislate morality in the 1920s by outlawing the production, sale, and transport of intoxicating liquors through the Volstead Act. But…
History Unplugged PodcastWas There a Real-Life Dr. Frankenstein?
Was there a real life Dr. Frankenstein who tried to bring the dead back to life by science and alchemy? Yes there was, and his name was Johann Dippel. He lived…
History Unplugged PodcastWho is the Bravest Person Who Ever Lived?
In the early 1800s there was no English explorer greater than James Holman. He covered a distance almost twenty times farther than Marco Polo on foot or…
History Unplugged PodcastDoes China Really Have a 5,000-Year-Old History?
Few will dispute that China has one of the most ancient cultures on earth, but is there any truth to the claim—made by many residents of China—that there is a…
History Unplugged PodcastWhy Is July 4 Celebrated The Way It Is (Fireworks n’ Hot Dogs)?
Why do Americans celebrate the Fourth of July with fireworks? Are we trying to take the National Anthem as literally as possible, creating “Bombs Bursting in…
History Unplugged PodcastIs There Any Language In Use Today That Could Be Used 1,000 Years Ago?
Any fan of Shakespeare knows how much the English language has changed over the last 400 years. A student of Chauncer knows even better. A brave student of…
History Unplugged PodcastWhen Did The Roman Empire Really End?
Rome didn’t fall in 476 when Romulus, the last of the Roman emperors in the west, was overthrown by the Germanic leader Odoacer, who became the first Barbarian…
History Unplugged PodcastWhy Did Hitler Hate the Jews?
The horrors of the Holocaust are as vivid now as they were in 1945 when the world discovered the horrors of Nazi Germany's atrocities. But why did Hitler hate…
History Unplugged PodcastWas There an Objective Reason for the European Colonization of Africa?
By the late 1800s Europe's Great Powers controlled nearly 80 percent of the African continent. Much research has analyzed the brutal aspects of its…
History Unplugged PodcastUnderstanding Putin Through the History of Russian Invasions — Mark Schauss from the Russian Rulers in History Podcast
In today's episode we are possibly going to bite off more than we can chew... by discussing the entire history of Russia. OK, maybe not the entire history of…
History Unplugged PodcastDid People Get Depressed in Ancient Times?
Depression is not a modern phenomenon. Take the example of Abraham Lincoln. He is an unusual psychological case study. He was both chronically melancholy, and…
History Unplugged PodcastWere Ancient People More Advanced Than Us?
The ancients had abilities that have fallen into near-complete disuse in the modern age. Consider memorization. The average peasant of 1,000 years ago had 10x…
History Unplugged PodcastWhy Was Africa Never as Developed as The Rest of the World?
Today's question is a tricky one that has to do with global politics, colonialism, and threatens to enter the minefield of race. Why do so many African nations…
History Unplugged PodcastDid King Arthur and Merlin Truly Exist?
Did the greatest king who ever lived ever live? That's a tricky question. The fabled first king of England, the mythological figure associated with Camelot and…
History Unplugged PodcastWhat the Saints Drank and Monks Brewed—Michael Foley
Michael Foley loves contradictions. He is a Catholic professor of patristics—a study of the lives of early Christian theologians—at a dry Baptist university…
History Unplugged PodcastWho Built the Pyramids? Aliens?
Today's question comes from Nayeli Carpenter She asks about lost civilizations: pyramid builds, Egyptians, Mayans, Incans, especially the ones where cultures…
History Unplugged PodcastCan You Explain the 1915 Armenian Genocide?
Today's question comes to us from Kevin deLaplante, creator of the Critical Thinker Academy and host of the Argument Ninja Podcast. Can you tell me about the…
History Unplugged PodcastHow Important Was the Spice Trade to Medieval Europe?
Today's question comes from Jaime Martínez Bowness: Hi - here's a quick list of topics I thought of: The importance of the spice trade in Medieval times TO…
History Unplugged PodcastWhat Happened to Places Like Catalonia After Rome’s Fall?
Today's question comes to us from Nate Finch: I would love for you to do a podcast (series?) on Mediterranean "empires" after Rome (e.g. the Catalonian…
History Unplugged PodcastWas Hitler a Christian, Atheist, or Something Else? — Richard Weikart
No matter how little you know about history, you know something about Adolf Hitler. And if you want to shut down an opponent, you can claim that Hitler…
History Unplugged PodcastWho Was WW2 Spy Zig-Zag?
Today's question comes from Dean Wallace: Could you tell me about the career of [World War Two] agent Zigzag? WANT ME TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION ABOUT HISTORY?…
History Unplugged PodcastWhat Is The World’s Oldest University?
Today's question comes from James Ganong: Could you please tell me the history of oldest university? I think it is in Egypt... WANT ME TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION…
History Unplugged PodcastTell Me About the Varangians (The Vikings of Russia)
Today's question is about the Varangians, a group of Vikings that conquered Kievan Rus and became the first rulers of the Russian state. I'd love it if you…
History Unplugged PodcastCan We Really Know Anything in History Or Is It All Fake News?
Today's question comes from C. M. Ho: How much of history has been the figment of some power hungry person or group? Some historians or those that call…
History Unplugged PodcastEvery President’s Go-to Drink, From Washington’s Whisky to Obama’s Homebrew—Mark Will-Weber
There are books about presidents. There are books about cocktails. Then there are books that create and attribute a cocktail to each of the 45 U.S. presidents…
History Unplugged PodcastWhat Were French Trappers Doing in 1700s America?
Today's question comes from Suzanne: I would enjoy anything about the French in North America, Canada and the US, early American History of the Michigan…
History Unplugged PodcastDid the Inventor of the Guillotine Die By Guillotine?
Today's question comes from August Berkshire: Is it true that the person who invented the guillotine was guillotined himself? What the story behind both…
History Unplugged PodcastWhat is the Bloody Mary Myth Based On?
Today's question comes from Goa Yong: Is Bloody Mary a real person? WANT ME TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION ABOUT HISTORY? Click here to learn more. TO HELP OUT THE…
History Unplugged PodcastWas Leif Erikson First to Visit the New World?
Today's question comes from Ryan: Was Leif Erikson really the first explorer of European descent to explore North America? WANT ME TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION…
History Unplugged PodcastTevi Troy on Pop Culture in the White House: From Washington’s Library to Trump’s Twitter Account
In the 21st century presidents can't stay out of the spotlight. Barack Obama released his NCAA tournament brackets every year on ESPN, was a regular guest on…
History Unplugged PodcastWhen Did People Start Using Last Names?
Today's question comes from Melanie Padon: When did people start using last names and why? How did they come up with them? WANT ME TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION…
History Unplugged PodcastDid Conquering Armies Really Salt the Earth of Their Enemies?
Today's question comes to us from Peter Swanson. My question is what is the history of "salting the earth" after a military victory. How would an army in the…
History Unplugged PodcastWhat if JFK Had Lost the 1960 Election?
Today's question comes to us courtesy of Brandon. Here's his question: This is Brandon Wall, and I'm wondering what would have happened if Nixon beat JFK in…
History Unplugged PodcastJustin from the Generation Why Podcast: What Assassination Had the Most Impact on History?
Today's question comes to us from Justin from the Generation Why Podcast. It's a true crime podcast that you should definitely check out. Here's his question…
History Unplugged PodcastWhy Your Favorite Presidents (Lincoln, Washington) Actually Screwed Up America—Brion McClanahan
Quick – name your favorite president. You probably said Washington or Lincoln, right? C'mon. You can be more original than that. Well, Brion McClanahan is…
History Unplugged PodcastHow a Horse Became a Sergeant in the Korean War — Robin Hutton
The story of Reckless—a pack horse in the Korean War who was a beloved household name in the 1950s and the only animal in U.S. history to officially achieve…
History Unplugged PodcastWhen Camels Roamed the American Southwest—The U.S. Camel Corps (1856-1866)
Welcome to the first episode of the History Unplugged podcast. We are kicking things off by exploring the US Army’s failed experiment of using camels as the…