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 Septuagint – It Really is Greek to Me
The Septuagint is the most important translations you’ve never heard of. In this episode of the 10th Anniversary of the History of the Papacy series, Steve…
History Unplugged PodcastBenedict Arnold Was America’s Greatest Hero Before He Became Its Worst Villain
Benedict Arnold committed treason— for more than two centuries, that’s all that most Americans have known about him. Yet Arnold was much more than a…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Sacking of Rome in 410: Caused By Sclerotic Bureaucrats or Unassimilated Barbarians?
It took little more than a single generation for the centuries-old Roman Empire to fall. In those critical decades, while Christians and pagans, legions and…
History Unplugged PodcastHow Scientists Learned to Stop Deuling With Each Other (Literally) and Start Cooperating
Scientists have always been rivals—for priority, prizes, and positions within science, and for fame and funding. This can be seen when Newton and Leibniz…
History Unplugged PodcastVictory to Defeat: The British Army, 1918–40
The British Army won a convincing series of victories between 1916 and 1918. But by 1939 the British Army was an entirely different animal. The hard-won…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Most Interesting American: Personal Encounters, Quotations, and First-Hand Impressions of Theodore Roosevelt
A century after Theodore Roosevelt’s death, the personal attributes that endeared him to Americans have become obscured. He is mostly known for his many…
History Unplugged PodcastThe History of Equality, and How Close Different Civilizations Were to Attaining It
The most tried-and-true method of kings or politicians justifying their hold on power is by promising equality (this was the slogan of the French Revolution…
History Unplugged PodcastHow the Catholic Church Maintained Civilization in the Lowest Points of the Middle Ages
For 2,000 years, Catholicism – the largest branch of Christianity and – has shaped global history on a scale unequal by any other institution. It created the…
History Unplugged PodcastMarty Glickman: The New York Sports Legend Who Lost His Spot in the 1936 Olympics For Being Jewish
For close to half a century after World War II, Marty Glickman was the voice of New York sports. His distinctive style of broadcasting, on television and…
History Unplugged PodcastTecumseh and William Henry Harrison’s Struggle for the Destiny of a Nation
The conquest of Indian land in the eastern United States happened through decades of the U.S. government’s military victories, along with questionable treaties…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Great Chicago Fire of 1871 and Rebuilding The Windy City Into a World Metropolis
In October of 1871, Chicagoans knew they were due for the “big one”—a massive, uncontrollable fire that would decimate the city. There hadn’t been a meaningful…
History Unplugged PodcastCommemorating the 60th Anniversary of JFK's Assassination
November 22nd marked the 60th anniversary of the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. To commemorate this pivotal event in American history, learn more…
History Unplugged PodcastHitler, Stalin, and a Jewish Couple Who Met After Surviving Their Extermination Programs
About four years ago Times of London journalist Daniel Finkelstein undertook an effort to tell his parents’ stories of survival in WW2 Europe. They met at a…
History Unplugged PodcastCrown, Cloak, and Dagger: How the British Royal Family Spied on Others and Was Spied on in Turn
The British Royal Family and the intelligence community are two of the most mysterious and mythologized actors of the British State. From the reign of Queen…
History Unplugged PodcastJoshua Chamberlain: From Stuttering Child to Civil War Hero to Polyglot Governor of Maine
Before 1862, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain had rarely left his home state of Maine, where he was a trained minister and mild-mannered professor at Bowdoin…
History Unplugged PodcastWhite House Wild Child: How Alice Roosevelt Charmed Early 1900s America
During Theodore Roosevelt’s presidency—from 1901 to 1909, when Mark Twain called him the most popular man in America—his daughter Alice Roosevelt mesmerized…
History Unplugged PodcastThe First Attempted Nazi Takeover of Germany: The Beer Hall Putsch of 1923
In 1923, the Weimar Republic faced a series of crises, including foreign occupation of its industrial heartland, rampant inflation, radical violence, and…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 and the Making of Modern European Warfare
Among the conflicts that convulsed Europe during the nineteenth century, none was more startling and consequential than the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–1871…
History Unplugged PodcastHow Ancient Religions Affect What We Do and Don’t Eat in 2023
Religious beliefs have been the source of food "rules" since Pythagoras told his followers not to eat beans (they contain souls), Kosher and Halal rules…
History Unplugged PodcastLife in Rome at the Very Height of Its Power
The Pax Romana has long been shorthand for the empire’s golden age. Stretching from Caledonia to Arabia, Rome ruled over a quarter of the world’s population…
History Unplugged PodcastHow Russians Survive the 900-Day-Long Siege of Leningrad
The first year of the siege of Leningrad that began in September 1941 marked the opening stage of a 900-day-long struggle for survival that left over a million…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Origins of the KKK and its First Death in the 1870s
The Ku Klux Klan was arguably America’s first organized terrorist movement. It was a paramilitary unit that arose in the South during the early years of…
History Unplugged PodcastA Nazi Defector Revealed Germany’s Infiltration in All Major Governments in His 1945 Memoir
Heinrich Pfeifer was a senior member of the Nazi deep state who defected in 1938. He wrote his memoirs in 1945, with the goal of describing the inner workings…
History Unplugged PodcastFrom Orphan to RAF Hero
Many of the WW2 generation faced hardship in their youth (they did spend their childhood in the Great Depression), but few had as bad of an early life as Denis…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Life and Tragic Death of R101, The World’s Largest Flying Machine
The tragic story of the British airship R101—which went down in a spectacular hydrogen-fueled fireball in 1930, killing more people than died in the Hindenburg…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Postwar Lives of WW2 Leaders, Both Axis and Allies
Check out this episode sample from James Early's "Key Battles of American History," In this episode, which wraps up a season devoted to World War 2 in the…
History Unplugged PodcastWhy Robert E. Lee was America’s Most Admired General For Over a Century
Robert E. Lee has become a target of activists in the last decade, with statues of him being taken down across the United States, and eponymous schools and…
History Unplugged PodcastParthenon Roundtable: Which Person From History Deserves a Movie?
Who are people from the past whose lives are so cinematic that they deserve their own movie, but haven't received the right silver screen treatment, such as…
History Unplugged PodcastCharlie Chaplin vs. America
Charlie Chaplin was the most famous movie star in the world, especially at his height in the 1920s, when the silent film star won the hearts of audience around…
History Unplugged PodcastJoe McCarthy, the Hydrogen Bomb, and Ten Fateful Months That Kicked Off the Cold War
There’s a good argument to be made that the entire trajectory of the Cold War was set off by ten fateful months of American and global history, between the…
History Unplugged PodcastThe SAS Began as a Lie but Became Britain’s Most Elite WW2 Commando Unit
Created during the World War II, the SAS was a small band of men brought together in the North African desert. They were the toughest and brightest of their…
History Unplugged PodcastEyewitnesses of History Share Stories of the 1980 Miracle on Ice, Pablo Escobar, Jonestown, and Much More
In this special compilation episode, Josh Cohen of Eyewitness History shares his favorite interview moments and stories from people who witnessed some of…
History Unplugged PodcastIn 1864, Nine Union Officers Escaped from a POW Camp and Trekked 300 Miles to the North
At the height of the Civil War in November 1864, nine Union prisoners-of-war escaped from a Confederate Prison known as Camp Sorghum in Columbia, South…
History Unplugged PodcastTeddy Roosevelt Nearly Died in a Cavalry Charge Against German Machine Guns in WW1
Teddy Roosevelt faced many challenges at the end of his life. Racked by rheumatism, a ticking embolism, pathogens in his blood, a bad leg from an accident, and…
History Unplugged PodcastBeyond the Wall: What Life Was Really Like in East Germany
When the Iron Curtain fell in 1990, East Germany ceased to be. For over forty years, from the ruin of the Second World War to the cusp of a new millennium, the…
History Unplugged PodcastHow An Unlikely Cohort of Black Nurses at a New York Sanatorium Helped Cure Tuberculosis
Nearly a century before the COVID-19 pandemic upended life as we know it, a devastating tuberculosis epidemic was ravaging hospitals across the country. In…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Mississippi Was First Mapped by a Polyglot Priest and a College Dropout-Turned-Fur Trapper
Perhaps the most consequential expedition in North American history wasn’t the Lewis and Clark Expedition. It was one that happened 130 years earlier and…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Eurasian Steppes Gave Us Atilla the Hun, Genghis Khan, Global Trade and Hybrid Camels
The barbarian nomads of the Eurasian steppes have played a decisive role in world history, but their impact has gone largely unnoticed. These nomadic tribes…
History Unplugged PodcastDecades of Turbulent Decolonization After WW2 Launched With The Dutch-Indonesian Wars of 1945-49
The Dutch–Indonesian War was one of the first postwar struggles that followed the Japanese surrender in September 1945, which left a power vacuum in the…
History Unplugged PodcastCould the Pacific War of WW2 Have Been Entirely Avoided if Not For U.S. Diplomats in Over Their Heads?
It’s November 1941. Japan and the US are teetering on a knife-edge as leaders on both sides of the Pacific strive to prevent war between them. But failed…
History Unplugged PodcastThe WW2 Pacific Theatre of January-May 1942: When Japan Was Omnipotent and America Was a Fearful Underdog
After the devastating Japanese blows of December 1941, the Allies found themselves reeling with defeat everywhere in the Pacific. Although stripped of his…
History Unplugged PodcastThe History of America’s Ice Obsession: Why The U.S. Loves Frozen Drinks and Ice Rinks
Ice is everywhere: in gas stations, in restaurants, in hospitals, in hotels via noisy machines, and in our homes. Americans think nothing of dropping a few ice…
History Unplugged PodcastIntroducing Mark Vinet's New Show: Historical Jesus
This is a preview of the new Parthenon Podcast Network show "Historical Jesus," hosted by Mark Vinet. This show explores the question of who was Jesus Christ…
History Unplugged PodcastLeyte Gulf: The Largest Naval Battle in History and the Downfall of the Japanese Navy
The WW2 battle of Leyte Gulf was the largest naval encounter in history and probably the most decisive naval battle of the entire Pacific War, and one that saw…
History Unplugged PodcastBritain Controlled the Globe by Farming Out Colonial Governance to the East Indian Company and other Corporations
How did Britain – an island nation the same size as Oregon – manage to control most of the world through its colonial empires? The answer is that it didn’t, at…
History Unplugged PodcastHow the Monroe Doctrine Led to America Occupying Cuba, Panama, Hawaii, and Haiti
Following the Napoleonic Wars, a tidal wave of independence movements hit the Western Hemisphere. The United States was afraid that expansionist powers—namely…
History Unplugged PodcastA 1943 Translation Blunder Saved FDR, Churchill, and Eisenhower From Being Assassinated
In a recently bombed, spy-infested Casablanca, Morocco, the architects of Allied victory in World War Two meet. It is January 1943, and Franklin Delano…
History Unplugged PodcastJames Garfield – Overlooked for his Short Presidency – Was the Most Beloved Politician of Reconstruction
James Garfield was the last president born in a log cabin, and was raised by a poor widow on Ohio’s rugged Western Reserve. By his late twenties, he had become…
History Unplugged PodcastRoad Tripping with Henry Ford and Thomas Edison Through Rural America In Beat-Up Model Ts
Some of the most important moments in the lives of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison weren’t their inventions or business successes. It was their road trips through…
History Unplugged PodcastDid the South Lose the Entire Civil War Because One General Got Lost at the Battle of Gettysburg?
Did the Confederacy lose the entire Civil War on the second day of the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863 because one of their generals showed up late to a battle…
History Unplugged PodcastAlexander the Great’s Final Battle Nearly Killed Him with Drowning and War Elephants
In the years that followed Alexander the Great’s victory at Gaugamela on October 1, 331 BC, his Macedonian and Greek army fought a truly ‘Herculean’ series of…
History Unplugged PodcastIn 1938, America Underwent a 7-Year Transformation From an Weak, Pacifist Nation to the Arsenal of Democracy
Nobody would have thought that the United States could fight in a world war in 1938, let alone be a major reason for victory. That year, it was so politically…
History Unplugged PodcastExploring the Aztec Empire and Indigenous Mexico
This is a preview of Mark Vinet's "History of North America." Explore one of the most glorious Mesoamerican societies and encounter the Pre-Hispanic Mexico…
History Unplugged PodcastThe First War on Terror: How Europe Fought Anarchist Suicide Attacks, From 1850 to WW1
At the end of the nineteenth century, the world came to know and fear terrorism. Much like today, this was a time of progress and dread, in which breakthroughs…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Italian Squad: A Group of 1920s NYPD Immigrant Detectives Who Fought the Rise of the Mafia
The story begins in Sicily, on Friday, March 12th, 1909. Three gunshots thundered in the night, and then a fourth. Two men fled, and investigators soon…
History Unplugged PodcastConspiracy Theories Haunt the Assassination of MLK 55 Years After His Death
Doubts about James Earl Ray, Dr. Martin Luther King’s lone assassin, arose almost immediately after the civil rights leader was fatally shot on the balcony of…
History Unplugged PodcastEarly 1800s Newspaperman William Hunter Was a British Soldier’s Son Who Built Early America
In June 1798, President John Adams signed the now infamous Alien & Sedition Acts to suppress political dissent. Facing imminent personal risks, a gutsy…
History Unplugged PodcastLong Before Seabiscuit, a Civil War-era Racehorse Smashed Records and Sired Thousands of Colts
The early days of American horse racing in the pre-Civil War era were grueling. Four-mile races, run two or three times in succession, were the norm, rewarding…
History Unplugged PodcastHow the 1910 Return of Halley's Comet (Almost) Destroyed Civilization
Halley’s Comet visits the earth every seventy-five years. Since the dawn of civilization, humans had believed comets were evil portents. In 1705, Edmond Halley…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Coronation of Charles III and the Meaning Behind His Vestments, 5-Pound Crown, and the "Sovereign Orb"
Charles III was crowned king of England on May 6, 2023, the first of its kind in 70 years. He wore regalia that look straight out of a portrait of Charlemagne…