History Unplugged Podcast 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 long-form interviews with best-selling authors who have written about everything. Topics include gruff World War II generals who flew with airmen on bombing raids, a war horse who gained the rank of sergeant, and presidents who gave their best speeches while drunk.

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 long-form interviews with best-selling authors who have written about everything. Topics include gruff World War II generals who flew with airmen on bombing raids, a war horse who gained the rank of sergeant, and presidents who gave their best speeches while drunk.

 

#1073

Greenland is Nothing: American Nearly Acquired El Salvador, Canada, and the Kamchatka Peninsula

America’s desire to expand its borders has existed since its first colonies – ... more

02 Apr 2026

43 MINS

43:11

02 Apr 2026


#1072

From Big Village to Global Power: The Thousand-Year Rise of Moscow, Russia's Fortress Capital

When St. Petersburg nobility mockingly called Moscow a "big village," in the 19th century ... more

31 Mar 2026

56 MINS

56:13

31 Mar 2026


#1071

American Civilians Caught Behind Enemy Lines After Pearl Harbor, and How They Were Repatriated

In the wake of Pearl Harbor, more than ten thousand Americans living abroad became trapped... more

26 Mar 2026

47 MINS

47:43

26 Mar 2026


#1070

Washington's Crossing from the Other Side: Three Hessian Soldiers' Stories of Defeat and Capture at ...

Emanuel Leutze's iconic painting Washington Crossing the Delaware shows the general standi... more

24 Mar 2026

46 MINS

46:14

24 Mar 2026


#1069

From Bronze to Blood: How the Sword Became Humanity's First Murder Weapon

For nearly two thousand years, swords reigned as humanity's weapon of choice—the fir... more

19 Mar 2026

47 MINS

47:42

19 Mar 2026


#1068

Scientists Who Were Ridiculed, Exiled, and Imprisoned for Being Right

Science progresses through breakthrough discoveries, but behind many of the field's greate... more

17 Mar 2026

47 MINS

47:26

17 Mar 2026


#1067

How Two California Wines Shattered Centuries of French Supremacy in a Blind Taste Test

In 1976, nine French wine judges did the unthinkable: they blindly selected two California... more

12 Mar 2026

36 MINS

36:45

12 Mar 2026


#1066

How an Italian Engineer with 700 Knights Defeated 100,000 Ottoman Troops at the Siege Rhodes

Throughout the 16th century, one man stood between the Ottoman Empire and European dominat... more

10 Mar 2026

43 MINS

43:18

10 Mar 2026


#1065

Why America's Military Never Became a Threat to Democracy

America's Founding Fathers feared a standing army would inevitably threaten civilian gover... more

05 Mar 2026

51 MINS

51:32

05 Mar 2026


#1064

How Christianity Shaped America's 500-Year Mission to Become a Holy Land

Thomas Jefferson’s 1802 letter to the Danbury Baptists famously described the First ... more

03 Mar 2026

52 MINS

52:05

03 Mar 2026


#1063

Every Communication Breakthrough—From Cave Art to AI Video—Exists to Tell Stories

There’s an argument to be made that every technology advance in communication &ndash... more

26 Feb 2026

58 MINS

58:05

26 Feb 2026


#1062

The East’s Auschwitz: How Imperial Japan’s Secret Experimenters Escaped Justice

During the Holocaust, Josef Mengele discarded every medical ethic to perform horrific huma... more

24 Feb 2026

44 MINS

44:37

24 Feb 2026


#1061

The Chemistry of Conquest: Behind the USSR’s State-Sponsored (and Steroid-Powered) Olympic Glory

Since the era of Joseph Stalin, Moscow’s rulers have sent Russian athletes into the ... more

19 Feb 2026

1 HR 03 MINS

1:03:32

19 Feb 2026