Tides of History
Episodes
How Should We Understand the Deep Human Past? Interview with Professor John Hawks
27 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Professor John Hawks of the University of Wisconsin-Madison, one of the world's best communicators on the deep human past and paleoanthropology, joins...
New Insights on the First Americans: Interview with Professor Jennifer Raff
13 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Our understanding of the past is constantly in flux, and there's no field where that's clearer than with the early settlement of the Americas. I'm joi...
Who Were the First Americans?
06 Aug 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Americas were the last continents Homo sapiens reached. Why did it take so long for people to enter this vast and promising expanse of land? Who w...
Trapped in Ice: The Paleolithic World
30 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Twenty thousand years ago, the world was locked in ice. The glaciers advanced from the poles and mountain ranges, swallowing huge portions of the plan...
Ancient DNA and the Human Story: Interview with Geneticist Eske Willerslev
16 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Ancient DNA is the key that's unlocking the deep history of humanity, allowing us to answer questions about our collective past that we never dreamed ...
The Ghosts of Archaic Humans
09 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Until very recently, Homo sapiens - our species - was only one of several varieties of humans on this planet. As our ancestors spread outwar...
Bone, Stone, and Genome: Understanding Humanity's Deep Past
02 Jul 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Welcome to a new season of Tides of History! Over the next year, we'll be traveling from the very origins of our species through the peopling of the p...
Did I End My Early Modern Series in the Right Place? Interview with Keith Pluymers
18 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
How do we tell when one period ends and another begins? What are the fundamental characteristics of the early modern period? My dear friend (and frien...
The Globalization of the Year 1000: Interview with Professor Valerie Hansen
11 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Around the year 1000, merchants, explorers, and missionaries linked the world together from Newfoundland to China. Trade goods, people, and above all ...
Alaric, the Goths, and the Sack of Rome: Interview with Professor Douglas Boin
04 Jun 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Alaric was one of the most famous barbarians of antiquity, and yet we know little about him - or at least, we knew very little, until Douglas Boin's e...
John Maynard Keynes and His Legacies: Interview with Author and Journalist Zach Carter
28 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
John Maynard Keynes was one of the most important figures of the 20th century, creating the economic structures and ideas that defined the Second Worl...
Malta, Lepanto, and the End of an Era
14 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
We reach the epic conclusion of our series on the early modern period with the Great Siege of Malta and the Battle of Lepanto.Listen ad-free on Wonder...
The Battle for the Mediterranean
07 May 2020
Contributed by Lukas
For much of the 16th century, the Habsburgs of Spain and the Ottoman Empire waged an epic conflict for control over the Mediterranean. Follow along wi...
Charles V and the Failure of Empire
30 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Charles V controlled more of Europe than any ruler in centuries, with resources other monarchs could only dream of. But that was never enough to give ...
Mike Duncan on Pandemics, Revolutions, and COVID-19
23 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
DISCLAIMER: If you do not think that this pandemic is a big deal; if you do not want to hear our personal political views; if you don’t care about p...
The Rise of Charles V
16 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Charles V was the most powerful European ruler since Charlemagne: king of Spain and Naples, Holy Roman Emperor, and ruler of a whole bunch else beside...
Pandemics in History
09 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
All of us are dealing with the ongoing pandemic in different ways, and I decided to wedge myself into my closet to record an informal talk with you al...
Genetics and the Transformation of Prehistory: Interview with Spencer Wells and Razib Khan
02 Apr 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Genetics has radically transformed our understanding of prehistory over the past two decades, revealing everything from the existence of brand-new, un...
Classic Tides: Plague, Climate, and the End of the Roman World
26 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In light of current events, we are re-posting one of my favorite episodes (from December, 2017) on natural disasters and the fall of the Roman Empire....
American Nations, American Union: Interview with Colin Woodard
19 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Few books have influenced my view of American history and politics more than Colin Woodard's American Nations: A History of the Eleven Rival Regional ...
Classic Tides: The Black Death Revisited
17 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
In light of current events, we are re-posting one of my favorite episodes (from June, 2018) on the Black Death.Between 1346 and 1351, the Black Death ...
Suleiman the Magnificent and Ottoman Decline
12 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The reign of Suleiman the Magnificent was the high point of the Ottoman Empire, but for centuries, it has also been pegged as the beginning of the emp...
Suleiman the Magnificent and the Apex of the Ottoman Empire
05 Mar 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Suleiman the Magnificent ruled the Ottoman Empire for forty-six years. During that time, his armies fought everywhere from Iran to Vienna. His navies ...
Pirates! With Leah Sutherland
20 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Leah returns to chat with Patrick about one of their favorite topics - pirates. It wouldn't be a Leah episode if we didn't range widely, so we also ch...
The Ottomans, the Safavids, and the War for the Muslim World, 1501-1514
13 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Muslim world was a vast and diverse place, home to a variety of traditions and schools of thought. The Safavids began as a brotherhood of Sufi mys...
The Ottomans, the Mamluks, and the Clash for Control of the Muslim World
06 Feb 2020
Contributed by Lukas
While the Ottoman Empire spent most of its early history expanding into Christian Europe, it also faced east, toward the vast, wealthy, and dynamic Mu...
Pilgrims, Puritans, and the Battle for New England: Interview with Historian Peter Mancall
23 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
The Pilgrims and the Puritans dominate our understanding not just of early New England, but also early America and the entire future course of America...
The Rising Tide of the Ottoman Empire, 1453-1481
16 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
Mehmet the Conqueror captured Constantinople for the Ottoman Empire in 1453 and ended the thousand-year reign of the Byzantine Empire after an epic si...
The Dawn of the Age of Exploration
09 Jan 2020
Contributed by Lukas
What was it like to be on the cutting edge of the Age of Exploration, and what made these enormous leaps possible? To answer those questions, we follo...
The Last Battle of the Wars of the Roses
19 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What brought the son of a German shoemaker to a blood-soaked English field in June, 1487? In today's episode, we follow the life of a composite charac...
Leah Interviews Dr. Patrick Wyman, PhD, about his upcoming book
12 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Leah declared mutiny and there was a small defenestration from the 8th Floor Wondery Studio as she took full creative control of Tides of History. Wel...
The Life of Margaret, Brewer of London
05 Dec 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What was it like to be a regular person in the late Middle Ages? We follow the life of a composite character, a brewer in London named Margaret, throu...
Minisode: Is Netflix's "The King" Good History? And Winter Reading Recommendations!
28 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Leah is back on the show today to discuss The King on Netflix starring Timothee Chalamet as King Henry V, our favorite Sadboi King, as he becomes the ...
The End of the Crusades and the Fall of Acre: An Interview with Historian Roger Crowley
21 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Popular historian Roger Crowley returns to the show to discuss his new book, The Accursed Tower: The Fall of Acre and the End of the Crusades, which c...
Was the Protestant Reformation Inevitable?
14 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Was history destined to happen as it did? That's what counterfactuals - alternative scenarios of how things might have gone - are useful for answering...
Medieval Merchants
07 Nov 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The medieval economy underwent a profound transformation, becoming ever more commercialized and monetized. Merchants helped drive that change, moving ...
Persecution, Toleration, and the Rise of Modernity: An Interview with Historian Mark Koyama
31 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Religious freedom is a core value of the modern West, but how did it emerge, and why does it matter? Economic historian Mark Koyama, of George Mason U...
The Commercial Revolution
17 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The roots of the modern economy, based on markets, money, and exchange, lie deep in the Middle Ages. The Commercial Revolution remade the European eco...
The Venetian Empire
10 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Venice was a commercial hub, the hinge of the medieval economy, but it was also the center of a remarkable empire that spanned the sea lanes and trade...
The Crusades: An Interview with Dan Jones, Part 2
03 Oct 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Here's the rest of our conversation with historian and bestselling author Dan Jones. In Part 1, which you should absolutely listen to if you haven't a...
Why Rome Never Rose Again: An Interview with Professor Walter Scheidel
19 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Alone among the world's regions, western Europe only had one major, long-lived imperial experience: that of Rome. When it fell, nothing like it ever r...
We Join Professor Sheilagh Ogilvie's Guild (And You Should, Too!)
12 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When it comes to medieval and early modern economic history it is important to understand guilds, how they functioned, and their effects on society. P...
The Crusades: An Interview with Dan Jones
05 Sep 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Crusades defined the Middle Ages and left a long legacy behind them. We chat with Dan Jones, author of the upcoming book Crusaders: The Epic Histo...
The Rise of Printing and the Invention of News: An Interview with Professor Andrew Pettegree
29 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
There’s an interesting history when it comes to books, printing, and the Reformation, all tied together through new technology and business. Profess...
The Origins and Rise of Venice
15 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
A swampy lagoon on the Adriatic coast of Italy was not a promising place for a city, but Venice grew from a collection of huts on spits of land to a g...
Boxing, Race, and the Gilded Age: An Interview with Professor Louis Moore
08 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Boxing has a long past, one deeply connected to race, labor, and broader developments in American history. Professor Louis Moore joins me to talk abou...
The Experience of the Italian Wars
01 Aug 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Italian Wars changed the face of Europe, but what was it like living through them? Today, we follow the lives of two composite characters to see b...
Book Club: Summer Reading
25 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Planning a summer vacation and looking for something fun to read? Patrick and Leah have you covered with a few suggestions.See Privacy Policy at https...
The Italian Wars, Part 2
18 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In our second episode on the Italian Wars, we explore how Holy Roman Emperor Charles V's vast territories ratcheted up the conflict from a dynastic sq...
Walls throughout History: An Interview with Professor David Frye
11 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
What creates civilization, in the most basic sense? According to Professor David Frye, who joins me this week, it's walls - Hadrian's Wall, the Great ...
The Italian Wars, Part 1
04 Jul 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Italian Wars were the defining conflict of the sixteenth century, bridging the gap between the Middle Ages and the early modern period. Today, we ...
Minisode: Military Revolutions
27 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
It's a concept! It's a feeling! It's... been a long time since we talked about it. We're throwing it back to 2017 and tracing the evolution of war in ...
Why Bother with the Seventeenth Century? An Interview with Professor Keith Pluymers
20 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Friend of the show Keith Pluymers returned for a great chat about fuel, environmental history, and why the seventeenth century is worth studying.You c...
Condottieri: War for Profit in Renaissance Italy
13 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
In Renaissance Italy, war was simultaneously art, science, and big business, waged for profit and glory by hired contractors known as condottieri. Tod...
Machiavelli's Laboratory: The Politics of Renaissance Italy
06 Jun 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Renaissance Italy was a political minefield, where backstabbing dukes, ambitious republics, and disloyal mercenaries created a laboratory for politica...
Classic Tides: Life in Renaissance Florence
30 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We're revisiting an episode of Tides of History we originally released in January 2018. Pay close attention, we're going to be spending a LOT of time ...
Minisode: Banking
23 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We catch up a bit more on Jakob Fugger's personality - or lack thereof - along with some of the other important south German trading firms of the age,...
Jakob Fugger: The Richest Man Who Ever Lived?
16 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
At the end of the fifteenth century, the center of European banking suddenly swung from its birthplace in Italy to south Germany. The key figure in th...
The Rise and Fall of the Medici Bank
09 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Medici name still carries echoes of power and labyrinthine politics. But the Medici got their start as bankers, and built a financial empire that ...
The Civil War, Reconstruction, and the Gilded Age: An Interview with Stanford's Professor Richard White
02 May 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Civil War and its decades-long aftermath continue to define American life well into the twenty-first century. Today we chat with Stanford's Profes...
Minisode: Messianic Rulers and Military Revolutions in Spain
25 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Let's chat about some of the other interesting things Patrick discovered in his research for this month's episodes: messianic rulership and military r...
The Spanish Inquisition, the Expulsion of the Jews, and the Rise of Spain
18 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Queen Isabella of Castile was one of the great state-building monarchs of the later Middle Ages, but state-building had a dark side: the Spanish Inqui...
Queen Isabella of Spain and the End of the Reconquista
11 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Queen Isabella of Castile was the greatest of the state-building rulers of the late Middle Ages. During her rule, she sent Columbus to America, marrie...
Historical Fiction and the Wars of the Roses: An Interview with Philippa Gregory
04 Apr 2019
Contributed by Lukas
We talked to bestselling novelist Philippa Gregory about her views of history and historical fiction, and her perspective on the Wars of the Roses, wh...
1492: A Guided Tour of Europe on the Brink
21 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
1492 was a big year, and not just because a certain Genoese navigator set sail into the unknown. Europe was on the cusp of enormous changes. Follow al...
Who Was Christopher Columbus? With Professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto
14 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
1492 was a truly wild year, and there is no one better to talk about it with than one of Patrick's favorite historians, Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, auth...
Civil Servants, State Finance, and the Rising State
07 Mar 2019
Contributed by Lukas
States didn't pull themselves up by their bootstraps, driven solely by the will of indomitable rulers; instead, they benefited from the services of a ...
The Troubled Inheritance of Mary of Burgundy and Dynastic Consolidation
21 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
When Charles the Bold, duke of Burgundy, met the business end of a Swiss halberd in 1477, his 19-year-old daughter Mary was set to inherit all of his ...
The Rise and Fall of Burgundy
14 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Valois dukes of Burgundy were kings in all but name. Originally a branch of the French royal family, they fought for control of the French crown, ...
Game of Thrones and Late Medieval Politics
07 Feb 2019
Contributed by Lukas
Surprise: Patrick loves Game of Thrones. Bigger surprise: GoT is actually a pretty accurate portrayal of late medieval politics - except for the drago...
Civil Wars and Political Breakdowns in Late Medieval Europe
24 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Wars of the Roses are infamous, but practically every European kingdom, not just England, was wracked by serious bouts of infighting in the second...
The Wars of the Roses, II
17 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
By 1461, the Wars of the Roses had already claimed thousands of lives and shaken England's political system to its foundations. The bloodiest battle e...
The Wars of the Roses
10 Jan 2019
Contributed by Lukas
The Wars of the Roses brought what had once been Europe’s most stable and well-governed kingdom to its knees. Weakness at the center, in the form of...
The Reformation, Live from Boston
20 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Leah and I had the opportunity to give a public talk at the Sound Education Conference at Harvard. We talked about the Reformation, why it matters, an...
Archaeology Rules with Raksha Dave!
13 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
YES we're talking to THAT Raksha Dave, the one from Time Team, Patrick and Leah's favorite show! She tells us about her future digs, all the cool stuf...
Vlad the Impaler and the Legend of Dracula
06 Dec 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Medieval politics, full of assassinations and betrayal, was not for the faint of heart. But even within that landscape, one man stands out for his cru...
George Washington and the End of the Revolution: An Interview with Author Nathaniel Philbrick
29 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Nathaniel Philbrick - one of Patrick's favorite authors of popular history - stopped by to chat about his latest book, In the Hurricane's Eye: The Gen...
Beer, Brewsters, and Women's Work: An Interview with Judith Bennett
15 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Professor Judith Bennett joined Patrick to talk about the difference between ale and beer, and how work - and women's work in particular - changed ove...
The Fall of Constantinople and the Tragic End of the Byzantines
08 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
In 1453, after more than 60 years of trying, the Ottomans finally besieged and captured the city of Constantinople. This marked the end of one phase o...
Holy War and the Rise of the Ottomans
01 Nov 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The Ottoman Empire rose from humble beginnings in Anatolia to dominate a vast swathe of territory. Holy war, gaza, was a powerful driving force behind...
Archaeology and Why It Rules
18 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
Archaeology shows up all the time on Tides of History, and it's one of Patrick's favorite topics. Leah joins to chat about what it can tell us, how it...
Heresy, Witch Hunts, and Inquisition
11 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The dark side of the late medieval Church was its emphasis on control and conformity. A concept of orthodoxy produced a conception of unacceptable dif...
The Trials and Tribulations of the Late Medieval Church
04 Oct 2018
Contributed by Lukas
The late Middle Ages were a time of upheaval for the universal Church, caught between the glories and overwhelming power of the High Middle Ages and t...
The Ebb and Flow of History
20 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
History shapes our world in ways both seen and unseen. In the introductory episode of Tides of History, we explore two major tides - the Fall of ...
Introducing Tides of History
07 Jul 2017
Contributed by Lukas
History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme, said Mark Twain. From the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the modern world: history eb...