Episodes

  • Episode 562: Enemy at the Gates

    Episode 562: Enemy at the Gates
    Oct 23 2026
    The year 1942 is normally seen as the turning point of World War Two. In some ways it is. The Axis powers hit their highest peak of expansion but are turned back at Almein, Guadalcanal, and Stalingrad. Yet, to the people fighting and back at home, the future looked far from certain.

    Western Civ 2.0
    Show More Show Less
    56 mins
  • Episode 561: The World at War

    Episode 561: The World at War
    Oct 16 2026
    With the attack on Pearl Harbor, the world is now well and truly at war in a way that dwarfed anything in World War One. Today, we back up a bit and cover the German invasion of the USSR in earnest and then move forward to the Battle of Midway.

    Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial
    Show More Show Less
    1 hr and 31 mins
  • The Flight Nurses' War

    The Flight Nurses' War
    Oct 13 2026
    Today I sit down with author and historian Leah Garrett and discuss her latest book: The Flight Nurses' War: The American Women Who Saved Thousands of Lives at Iwo Jima and Okinawa.

    The Pacific Theater was the setting for some of World War II’s bloodiest battles, and yet much of its history remains untold. As the war in Europe was winding down, fierce Japanese resistance and mounting casualties slowed the US advance toward Japan. The terrible death toll of doctors, medics, and corpsmen forced the United States Navy to deploy combat nurses to contested airfields, where they triaged desperately wounded men and evacuated them to safety.

    In The Flight Nurses’ War, award-winning historian Leah Garrett traces the lives of a team of nurses from their small-town origins to the devastation of Iwo Jima and Okinawa. They risked their lives on rickety, unpressurized aircraft and braved constant enemy assaults. As the battles intensified, Army nurses were also deployed to hospital ships and the infantry front- line, where they endured disease, snipers, and Kamikazes. Successfully evacuating thousands of wounded men from danger, the combat nurses freed up troops to secure both islands and help win the war.

    Uncovering an extraordinary story of Second World War heroism, The Flight Nurses’ War powerfully brings to life the remarkable women who risked everything to save lives and assure America’s success in the Pacific campaign.

    Buy The Book

    Support The Podcast
    Show More Show Less
    49 mins
  • Convergence

    Convergence
    Oct 12 2026
    Today I sit down with former Cook County Prosecutor Gregg Owen to discuss their book, Convergence.

    This story seems impossible. But every word is true.

    Convergence is the account of a vicious double homicide in 1970s Chicago and a trial that almost didn't happen.

    This is a different kind of true crime book.It isn't a mystery, because the killer was arrested right away. It's not a police story, although Convergence is there at every step of their investigation. It's not a defense lawyer's story.

    This is a story from the other side of the courtroom.

    Convergence is the story of Gio Messina and Delphine Moore's murders and the trial that followed, but this time told from the perspective of the prosecution. You are there to witness how a case is built, how it's brought to court, and how it unfolds when the trial starts. You see what happens when power and money try and keep the trial from starting at all. You follow the prosecution from the courtrooms of Chicago to rural Tennessee looking for new evidence to replace the evidence that's vanished.

    You're introduced to the choreography of the courtroom: listening in on the careful strategizing, understanding the thought behind what a jury hears, and getting a close view of what's involved in how it's presented. Most importantly, you're introduced to Mike Goggin and Gregg Owen, the two prosecutors who fought to have the case heard. Goggin and Owen had set a record for convictions that still stands. They refused to let the Messina and Moore murders break it.

    Convergence is a historical snapshot of a time when Chicago was changing, and a timeless picture of how justice is sought and found.

    Buy The Book
    Show More Show Less
    50 mins
  • Episode 560: The Longest Sunday

    Episode 560: The Longest Sunday
    Oct 9 2026
    It is not hyperbole to say that the Japanese decision to bomb Pearl Harbor changed western history. Today we will cover the attack, why Japan did it, and look at the momentous decision Hitler made in the days that followed.

    Western Civ 2.0 Free Trial

    Show More Show Less
    51 mins
  • Charlemagne's Dream

    Charlemagne's Dream
    Oct 6 2026
    Today I sit down with medieval historian, James Palmer, and discuss his latest book: Charlemagne's Dream: The Rise and Fall of the Carolingian Empire.

    Today, the Carolingians are best known as the dynasty of Charlemagne. In a few remarkable decades spanning the late eighth and early ninth centuries, Charlemagne united much of modern-day Europe through conquest and diplomacy, establishing the continent’s first empire since the fall of Rome.

    In Charlemagne’s Dream, historian James T. Palmer looks beyond Charlemagne alone to tell the full story of the rise and fall of the massively consequential Carolingian dynasty―the men and women who laid the foundations for his achievements, and the colorful heirs who squandered his legacy. Carolingian rulers established the royal court as a place of learning, attracting scholars and philosophers and driving a cultural and intellectual renaissance. They fought and traded with power centers as far-flung as Córdoba, Constantinople, and Baghdad. In allying with the pope, they forever changed the relationship between church and state in the West. And they dispatched the first missionaries to northern Europe, expanding Christendom’s reach farther than ever before.

    Charlemagne’s Dream details the powerfully human stories of the Carolingians, showing how their pursuit of ever-greater power built one of the world’s great empires.



    You can buy the book HERE.
    Show More Show Less
    54 mins
  • Flirting With Evil

    Flirting With Evil
    Oct 6 2026
    Today I sit down with renowned historian of the Catholic Church, Ambrogio Caiani to discuss his most recent work: Flirting with Evil: The Catholic Church in the Age of Total War and Globalization.

    The history of the Catholic Church in the twentieth century is one of spies, scandals and bad
    political choices. It's a shadowy, ornate world of cover-ups and hidden motives. In this book,
    Ambrogio Caiani lifts back the heavy velvet curtains of the chancel and peers behind the
    locked mahogany doors of the Vatican to reveal the shocking truths that make up a century
    of Catholic corruption.

    For many, Catholicism's flirtation with evil has become impossible to ignore: a pope courting
    Nazi officials and, horribly, turning a blind eye to the Holocaust; the Vatican becoming
    embroiled in a series of dodgy financial dealings; the child abuse continuously perpetrated
    by members of the clergy. Time and time again, Catholic figures have made terrible choices
    in private and preached in public about goodness and morality.

    This is the first history that focuses exclusively on Catholicism throughout the twentieth
    century, sketching not only scandalous stories of corruption but also lively portrayals of
    Catholicism's key characters – from a beret-clad communist revolutionary priest to the bizarre
    morning routine of the pope who followed a daily cold bath with dry unbuttered toast.
    Caiani, a critical Catholic himself, takes a frank and sceptical look at the trajectory of global
    Catholicism and wrestles with vital questions about the future of the church. Taking in the
    wider socio-political contexts of a world at war and the accumulating momentum of social
    progress, this brilliant history traces the evolution of the Catholic church alongside the
    development of our modern society right up to the election of Pope Leo XIV in 2025.

    Buy The Book HERE.
    Show More Show Less
    48 mins
  • Episode 559: The Battle of Britain

    Episode 559: The Battle of Britain
    Oct 2 2026
    In the summer of 1940, with continental Europe under Nazi occupation, Great Britain stood alone against the seemingly unstoppable German war machine. This episode chronicles the Battle of Britain, a high-stakes aerial campaign where the heavily outnumbered pilots of the Royal Air Force clashed with the Luftwaffe in the skies over the English Channel. We dive into the tactical decisions, the revolutionary use of radar technology, and the sheer human endurance that prevented a full-scale German invasion. Join us as we explore how a few thousand young aviators—immortalized as "The Few"—defied the odds in a turning point that fundamentally shifted the trajectory of World War II.

    Western Civ Podcast 2.0 Free Trial
    Show More Show Less
    47 mins