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 PodcastWhy Did WW2 Advance Civil Rights When WW1 Reversed Them? Here's What WEB DuBois Said
Many of us think that we know all there is to know about W.E.B Du Bois was the early 20th century’s most significant thinker, writer, and philosopher of the…
History Unplugged PodcastWhat It Was Like to be a WW2 Paratrooper
When General Douglas MacArthur fled the Phillipines in the beginning of World War Two, he swore to return, and did so in 1944 in an epic battle in which the…
History Unplugged PodcastVlad the Impaler is the (Partial) Inspiration for Count Dracula
Vampire lore goes back to the ancient world (revenant legends abound from Rome to China) but vampire mythology doesn't come into its own until at least the…
History Unplugged PodcastIn the Premodern Era, Survival Meant Overcoming Earthquakes, Sieges, Global Cooling, Asteroid Strikes, and Cannibalism
Have you ever wondered if you could have survived the eruption at Pompeii, escaped San Francisco's 1906 Earthquake, found a seat on Titanic's lifeboats, outrun…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Time in 1943 That Eleanor Roosevelt Disappeared for 10 Days in the South Pacific
Eleanor Roosevelt is undisputedly one of America’s most influential First Ladies. She used the office to promote international initiatives that stabilized…
History Unplugged Podcast"Witches" Weren't Burned During The Middle Ages. That Actually Happened in the Renaissance Period.
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 PodcastPandemics Cause Misery and Death, But They Also Created Agriculture and Put Humans on Top of the Food Chain
Three years into a global pandemic, the fact that infectious disease is capable of reshaping humanity is obvious. But seen in the context of sixty thousand…
History Unplugged PodcastThe 1920s Female Hungarian Murder Ring That Left 160 Dead
The horror occurred in a rustic farming enclave in 1920s Hungary. Investigators would discover that a murder ring of women was responsible for the deaths of at…
History Unplugged PodcastHow a Flying Ace Survived 24 Days Lost at Sea on the Pacific
Eddie Rickenbacker shouldn’t have survived—his childhood, his auto racing career, the first World War as he became America’s greatest ace, the many plane…
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 PodcastThe Forage War of 1777 Saw George Washington Launch Numerous Hit-and-Run Assaults on the British that Crippled the Army
In late December 1776, the American War of Independence appeared to be on its last legs. General George Washington’s continental forces had been reduced to a…
History Unplugged PodcastMedieval Gender Roles Were Much More -- and Less -- Strict Than We Can Imagine
The Middle Ages are seen as a bloodthirsty time of Vikings, saints and kings: a patriarchal society which oppressed and excluded women. But when we dig a…
History Unplugged PodcastFirsthand Account of the Vietnam War from a "Tunnel Rat"
In this snippet from Josh Cohen's "Eyewitness History," Vietnam War veteran & "tunnel rat" Nick Sanza discusses his experience overseas, what it's like coming…
History Unplugged PodcastWhy Do We Consider Assyria The Most Sadistically Violent Empire When Oftentimes It Wasn't?
At its height in 660 BCE, the kingdom of Assyria stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. It was the first empire the world had ever seen…
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 PodcastA French Archeologist – Considered the Female Indiana Jones – Saved Dozens of Ancient Egyptian Temples From Flooding
In the 1960s, the world’s attention was focused on a nail-biting race against time: Fifty countries contributed nearly a billion dollars to save a dozen…
History Unplugged PodcastEugenics is Considered a Form of Scientific Fascism Today, But 100 Years Ago It Was Universally Popular
Inspired by Charles Darwin’s ideas about evolution, the theory of eugenics arose in Victorian England as a proposal for ‘improving’ the British population. It…
History Unplugged PodcastJames Early Launches New Series: The Second World War in Europe
The roots of the Second World War in Europe lie within the First World War. The 1919 Treaty of Versailles formally ended the war between Germany and the…
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 PodcastAbraham Lincoln’s Religious Transformation Mirrored Larger Revival Trends of 1860s America
Abraham Lincoln, unlike most of his political brethren, kept organized Christianity at arm’s length. He never joined a church and only sometimes attended…
History Unplugged PodcastAugustine Built the Medieval World With the Help of His Mother, Concubine, Empress, and 10-Year-Old Fiancé
Saint Augustine of Hippo is one of the most important figures of the Latin Middle Ages, and his writings have shaped Western thought on marriage and sexuality…
History Unplugged PodcastWhen Irish Vets of the American Civil War Invaded Canada in 1866
One year after the Civil War ended, a group of delusional and mostly incompetent commanders sponsored by bitterly competing groups riddled with spies, led tiny…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Destructive Power of the Family, From Oedipus to the Godfather
Family has been an inexhaustible source of conflict for writers from the ancient to modern worlds – maybe even more inexhaustible than war. From Greek…
History Unplugged PodcastA 15th-Century Islamic Scholar Has Surprisingly Contemporary Advice on Handling Pandemics
Six hundred years ago, Ibn Hajar al-Asqalani —an esteemed judge, poet, and scholar in Cairo— wrote “Merits of the Plague,” a landmark work of history and…
History Unplugged PodcastAndrew Jackson’s Victory in the Creek War Set the Stage for Southern Secession 50 Years Later
An oft-overlooked chapter in American History is the Creek War, a conflict between the Creek Indians and a young United States hungry for expansion in the…
History Unplugged PodcastAfter Woodrow Wilson Suffered a Stroke, His Wife Edith Secretly Served As President for a Year
The United States has yet to elect its first female president, but over a century ago, there was a woman acting as the leader of this nation—before women could…
History Unplugged PodcastVictory Gardens Produced Nearly Half of America’s Fresh Produce in WW2. With Today's Supply-Chain Meltdowns, Are They Ready for a Comeback?
Victory gardens are perhaps the U.S. government’s most successful and long-lasting propaganda campaign. It began during World War One, when the War Garden…
History Unplugged PodcastDespite the Spartans’ Last Stand at Thermopylae, They Are Still the Most Overrated Warriors of the Ancient World
The last stand at Thermopylae made the Spartans legends in their own time, famous for their toughness, stoicism and martial prowess. They were feared for never…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Real-Life King Arthur May Have Been a Roman Equestrian Who Served Marcus Aurelius
King Arthur. The search for the historical figure behind what is arguably the most famous cycle of legends ever has been relentless over the centuries. Many…
History Unplugged PodcastHow Botany Was Weaponized in the 19th Century For Imperial Expansion of Plantations, And How Humble Gardeners Pushed Back
In 19th century America, no science was more important than botany. Understanding plants meant more productive plantations, more wealth extracted from cash…
History Unplugged PodcastNicolas Said was an Enslaved Africa Who Gain Emancipation, Traveled to Europe’s Royal Courts, and Fought in the Civil War
In the late 1830s a young black man was born into a world of wealth and privilege in the powerful, thousand-year-old African kingdom of Borno. But instead of…
History Unplugged PodcastPizza, Pinocchio and the Papacy: Finding the Very Best and Very Worst of Italy
What do Italian unification, Pinocchio and pizza have in common? In this episode preview from History of the Papacy, host Steve Guerra dives in! The…
History Unplugged PodcastThis 1791 US Military Defeat Was 3x Worse than Little Bighorn And Nearly Destroyed the Army
November 4, 1791, was a black day in American history. General Arthur St. Clair’s army had been ambushed by Native Americans in what is now western Ohio. In…
History Unplugged PodcastThe KGB Agent Who Lived Incognito in New York for 10 Years That Was Exchanged at the Bridge of Spies
Rudolf Ivanovich Abel was one of the most integral agents of the KBG, the Soviet Union’s most renowned spy network during the Cold War of the 1950s. He may…
History Unplugged PodcastHow a Slave Coupled Escaped the Antebellum South in Disguise
In 1848, a year of international democratic revolt, a young, enslaved couple, Ellen and William Craft, achieved one of the boldest feats of self-emancipation…
History Unplugged PodcastOperation Torch: WW2’s first Paratrooper Missions Were On One-Way Flights With Drops Into Total Darkness
The December 7, 1941, surprise attack on Pearl Harbor thrust the United States into World War II. Just six months later in May 1942, flying new C-47 transport…
History Unplugged PodcastAnne Frank Was Only One of Thousands in Occupied Netherlands That Kept Diaries. Others Include Dutch Nazis, Farmers, and Resisters
Growing up in New York as the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, Nina Siegal had always wondered about the experience of her mother and maternal grandparents…
History Unplugged PodcastHow Shakespeare Impacted U.S. Presidents, from John Adams to JFK
There are countless ways Shakespeare has made his way into unexpected corners of American life. It starts at the top with our presidents. Shakespeare is a…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Unexpected Turbulence of the Eisenhower Years
Some remember Dwight D. Eisenhower’s presidency as a time of peace and prosperity, but in reality, it was an era of constant global crises. In this episode…
History Unplugged PodcastA Union Spy's Mission to Stop the Confederates From Building a Secret Navy in Britain
In 1861, just as the Civil War began, the leaders of the Confederacy soon realized they were outmatched when it came to military might, especially in terms of…
History Unplugged PodcastWW2 Bombing Raids on Germany Were Bloodbaths for the Allies Until a Futurist Fighter Plane (the P-51) Was Developed
One of the lowest points of World War 2 for the Allies was autumn 1943, when bombing runs from England to Germany were ramping up. Hundreds of B-17s flew out…
History Unplugged PodcastJohn Burgoyne: The British Playboy Who Lost the Revolutionary War
No British General of the Revolutionary War has been written about more than John Burgoyne. That’s because of his surrender of his army at Saratoga, New York…
History Unplugged PodcastHow Britain Stole Intelligence from Nazi High Command Via Their German Drinking Buddies
"How might the British have handled Hitler differently?” remains one of history’s greatest "what ifs." Many fault the Neville Chamberlain administration of the…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Encyclopedia: One Book’s Quest to Hold the Sum of All Knowledge
What if one book could contain the sum of mankind’s knowledge? Scholars and chroniclers have tried to write this book since antiquity, penning several…
History Unplugged PodcastHow Much Can One Individual Alter History? More and Less Than You Think
How far can a single leader alter the course of history? Thomas Carlyle, who promoted the Great Man Theory, says that talented leaders are the primary – if not…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Mongol Storm: Making and Breaking Empires in the Medieval Near East
The most disruptive and transformative event in the Middle Ages wasn’t the Crusades, the Battle of Agincourt, or even the Black Death. It was the Mongol…
History Unplugged PodcastWeather Itself Was WW2's Fiercest Enemy: The Sinking of the USS Macaw
On January 16, 1944, the submarine rescue vessel USS Macaw ran aground at Midway Atoll while attempting to tow the stranded submarine USS Flier. The Flier was…
History Unplugged PodcastA Short History of War
Some anthropologists once believed that humanity lived in a peaceful state that lacked large-scale warfare before the arrival of large civilizations and all…
History Unplugged PodcastStories From 300 British Men Executed For Cowardice During WW1
Over 300 men were executed by the British Army for desertion and cowardice during the first World War. In this episode preview from Vlogging Through History…
History Unplugged PodcastThe 1911 McNamara Bros. Murder Trial was the OJ Simpson/Johnny Depp v. Amber Heard Case of Its Time
Considered by many to be one of the best-known criminal defense lawyers in the country, Clarence Darrow became nationally recognized for his eloquence…
History Unplugged PodcastDaniel Webster -- Perhaps History’s Greatest Orator -- Turned Virginians and New Yorkers Into Americans
When the United States was founded in 1776, its citizens didn’t think of themselves as “Americans.” They were New Yorkers or Virginians or Pennsylvanians. It…
History Unplugged PodcastHow Ottoman Sultan Suleyman Conquered Most of Europe and the Mediterranean While Avoiding Assassination
Within a decade and a half, Ottoman Sultan Suleyman, who reigned form 1520 to 1566, held dominion over twenty-five million souls, from Baghdad to the walls of…
History Unplugged PodcastYoga Came to America via an Indian Monk at the 1893 Worlds Fair
If you are one of the 40 million people in the United States who practice yoga, or if you have ever meditated, you have a forgotten Indian monk named Swami…
History Unplugged PodcastA Modern-Day Knight Discusses What Knightly Service Means in 2023 (Essentially, Less Crusading and More Volunteering)
In 1348, King Edward III founded a charity for impoverished men-at-arms, who came to be known as the Alms Knights (or Poor Knights). These knights were…
History Unplugged PodcastJ. Edgar Hoover’s 50-Year Career of Blackmail, Entrapment, and Taking Down Communist Spies
J. Edgar Hoover was possibly the most powerful non-elected person in modern American history. As FBI director from 1924 through his death in 1972, he used the…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Irish Conquered the World With Plentiful Cheap Labor and Pints of Guinness
When people think of Irish emigration, they often think of the Great Famine of the 1840s, which caused many to flee Ireland for the United States. But the real…
History Unplugged PodcastTwo British Sisters – A Typist and a Romance Novelist – Save Jewish Artists from the Holocaust With a Clever Con Involving Opera
In 1937, two British sisters, Louise and Ida Cook, seemed headed for spinsterhood due to so many men of their generation dying in World War One. Louise was a…
History Unplugged PodcastThe Double Victory Campaign: Over 1 Million Black Americans Enlisted in WW2 To Fight Fascism Abroad and Win Equality at Home
In the wake of Imperial Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor, American men famously flooded recruiting offices across the nation to join the war effort. These…
History Unplugged PodcastEveryone Loves Free Markets. But This Meant One Thing To Romans And Something Completely Different to Milton Friedman
“Free market” is a concept beloved by many but understood in incredibly different ways. Most use Milton Friedman’s definition: the absence of any and all…
History Unplugged PodcastFailed Futures: Russia's Plans to Defeat the U.S. in the Cold War
Was it ever possible for the Soviets to win the Cold War? Looking back, its defeat seemed inevitable. The USSR had a political system hated by much of its…