Episodes

  • June Mailbag 2: Flood Myths

    June Mailbag 2: Flood Myths
    Jun 24 2026
    folks, we are back with another mailbag because we are behind on patron questions. this time, we talk about everything from donkeys to postal services, gendered work to seasoning pans, Hungary to myths and folklore, and even a whole block of questions about peasants running away to the cities and obtaining their freedom by staying for a year and a day. enjoy!

    cover image: frontispiece from Gustave Dore's illustrations of The Holy Bible showing people clinging to rocks during the biblical Flood, entitled "The Deluge"
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    1 hr and 22 mins
  • Medieval Sportsball

    Medieval Sportsball
    Jun 17 2026
    folks, the World Cup is once again upon us in all of its glory and terror. so we take a look back at sports in the Middle Ages. we talk Medieval football, crossbow competitions, jousts and melees, chariot racing, the Mesoamerican ballgame, and more. we also talk about how sports has always been at the intersection of politics, culture, religion, and communal life for both the regular folks and the elites. also, we've always loved gambling

    cover image: drawing made by Christoph Weiditz in 1528 showing Aztec Ullamalitzil players performing for Charles V of Spain
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    1 hr and 21 mins
  • June Mailbag: Aurora Borealis

    June Mailbag: Aurora Borealis
    Jun 10 2026
    folks, we're back and diving into the patron mailbag once again. this time, we answer questions about a host of topics, including: height differences, Aurora Borealis, best Medieval turlet, Traditional Chinese Medicine, battlefield name changes, othering, and spectacular Medieval wizard battles! check it out!

    cover image is of Aurora Borealis, taken from space.com
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    1 hr and 34 mins
  • The Life and Death of Jane Boleyn feat Logan Weimer

    The Life and Death of Jane Boleyn feat Logan Weimer
    Jun 5 2026
    folks, back in January, we brought on Logan Weimer to talk about the unfolding situation in Minneapolis but she was originally supposed to come on the show to talk about her deep interest in the life, death, and afterlife of Jane Boleyn, Viscountess Rochford, lady in waiting to four of Henry VIII's wives and sister-in-law to Anne Boleyn. we cover a whole range of topics, including coerced testimony, the use of "madness" as a tool for silencing unwanted voices, executions for "madness", and the poor treatment Jane has suffered in both scholarly and popular history until very recently.
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    2 hrs
  • Patreon Ep Unlocked: The Day the Dinosaurs Died

    Patreon Ep Unlocked: The Day the Dinosaurs Died
    May 27 2026
    folks, this is a long one. Luke talks about his Roman Empire: the Chicxulub Asteroid that killed the dinosaurs. it's a scripted episode (don't get used to it) chronicling 3 separate stories: the asteroid impact and its aftermath that killed the dinosaurs, the lives of some of those dinosaurs 66 million years ago, and the modern story of how the asteroid impact hypothesis became scientific consensus.

    a list of sources appears at the end of the episode, go get mad at them if you don't like the way the narrative is presented
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    2 hrs and 2 mins
  • Premodern Iran 4: Vindication

    Premodern Iran 4: Vindication
    May 21 2026
    folks, we finish up our series on Premodern Iran by looking at Greater Iran from the arrival of the Mongols in 1219 until the fall of the Timurid Empire and the Rise of the Safavids in 1501. we talk internal Mongol civil wars, the Ilkhanate, the Timurid Renaissance, the strains of apocalyptic thought amongst the peasantry, the Iranian Golden Age, and the final vindication of a nearly 900 year old ideological project with the rise of a new ethnic Iranian empire. we hope you enjoyed the series!

    cover image: the Ulugh Beg Astronomical Observatory and madrasa in Samarkand, Uzbekistan (built in the time of Timur)
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    1 hr and 29 mins
  • Premodern Iran 3: Towers of Silence

    Premodern Iran 3: Towers of Silence
    May 14 2026
    folks, we are back with part 3 of our series on Premodern Iran. this time, we get into the long, dark years for Iran and its peoples between the Muslim conquest and the Mongol invasions (651-1221 CE). we talk about how the idea of Iran survived even when the Persian language and Zoroastrianism were both suppressed, how the concept of Iranian identity formed into a real ideological project, why we lack sources, national epics and histories, the language of dissent, and the final grim fate of Zoroastrianism.

    cover image is recent photo of the Yazd Tower of Silence, which is no longer in use and now serves as a museum.
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    1 hr and 30 mins
  • Eleanor of Aquitaine feat American Prestige

    Eleanor of Aquitaine feat American Prestige
    May 10 2026
    Welcome to the Crusades: The Second Crusade coming Summer 2026

    this is just a special bonus episode we recorded with Danny and Derek from American Prestige. there will be a regular weekly episode out, the third part of our series on Premodern Iran, the week of May 11. in order to celebrate Mother's Day and the announcement that Welcome to the Crusade is coming back to do the Second Crusade this summer, we got together with American Prestige to talk about Eleanor of Aquitaine. we cover her eventful life, her time on crusade, her awful husbands and sons, her wonderful daughters, her legacy, and more.
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    1 hr and 23 mins