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.

 

#967

Humanity’s Past Suggests We Only Have 10,000 Years to Change or Go Extinct

We are living through a period that is unique in human history. For the first time in more... more

27 Mar 2025

53 MINS

53:19

27 Mar 2025


#966

The 16th Century Ottomans Nearly Conquered Europe. Why Did European Kingdoms Make So Many Alliances ...

The determined attempt to thwart Ottoman dominance was fought by Muslims and Christians ac... more

25 Mar 2025

51 MINS

51:05

25 Mar 2025


#965

Fort Stanwix and the Forgotten Revolutionary War Siege That Convinced France to Help the US

After a series of military defeats over the winter of 1776–1777, British military le... more

20 Mar 2025

42 MINS

42:07

20 Mar 2025


#964

Enough is Enuf, Our Failed Attempts to Make English Easier to Spell

No language is as inconsistent in spelling and pronunciation as English. Kernel and colone... more

18 Mar 2025

39 MINS

39:21

18 Mar 2025


#963

Did Haiti’s First and Last King Squander the Revolution or Succeed in Underappreciated Ways?

Slave, revolutionary, king, Henry Christophe was, in his time, popular and famous the worl... more

13 Mar 2025

51 MINS

51:04

13 Mar 2025


#962

What Ancient Greeks and Victorian Explorers Thought Was at the North Pole

The North Pole looms large in our collective psyche—the ultimate Otherland in a worl... more

11 Mar 2025

41 MINS

41:34

11 Mar 2025


#961

Nothing Healed America’s Wounds After the Civil War Like Baseball

The nineteenth century was a time of rapid growth and development for the game of “b... more

06 Mar 2025

50 MINS

50:35

06 Mar 2025


#960

How an 1870 Murder Created San Francisco

Shortly before dusk on November 3, 1870, just as the ferryboatEl Capitanwas pulling away f... more

04 Mar 2025

37 MINS

37:52

04 Mar 2025


#959

Failed Futures: If Alexander The Great Hadn’t Died, He Might Have Conquered Europe, Circumnavigated ...

And Alexander wept, seeing as he had no more worlds to conquer. That’s a quote from ... more

27 Feb 2025

34 MINS

34:20

27 Feb 2025


#958

Why the Anabasis is the Second-Most Influential Greek Epic (After Homer’s Works)

Imagine being stranded thousands of miles deep in enemy territory with 10,000 soldiers, no... more

25 Feb 2025

48 MINS

48:43

25 Feb 2025


#957

The American Revolution Would Have Been Lost Without a Ragtag Fleet of Thousands of Privateers

Privateers were a cross between an enlisted sailor and an outright pirate. But they were c... more

20 Feb 2025

59 MINS

59:36

20 Feb 2025


#956

Did Lincoln Save Global Democracy or Undermine It Using Wartime Powers?

Did Abraham Lincoln preserve democracy during the Civil War, or did he endanger it in the ... more

18 Feb 2025

57 MINS

57:26

18 Feb 2025


#955

The 1541 Spanish Expedition Down the Amazon to Find the Imaginary “El Dorado” and Valley of Cinnamon

As Spanish conquistators slowly moved through Latin America, they encountered levels of we... more

13 Feb 2025

40 MINS

40:32

13 Feb 2025


#954

Everyday Life for the 500K German POWs House in America During World War Two

During World War II, approximately half a million German prisoners of war were held in the... more

11 Feb 2025

1 HR 02 MINS

1:02:31

11 Feb 2025


#953

The Arsenal of Democracy: How the Revolver and Repeating Rifle Democratized Gun Ownership and Armed ...

The United States is the most heavily armed nation in the world, with an estimated 400 mil... more

06 Feb 2025

56 MINS

56:07

06 Feb 2025


#952

Owning Land Was The Best – and Usually Only – Way to Be Rich in the Ancient World

For millennia, humans eked out survival atop the surface of the Earth and land had no uniq... more

04 Feb 2025

44 MINS

44:24

04 Feb 2025


#951

Benjamin Franklin – In the 200 Years After His Death – Funded New Businesses, Supported Boston and P...

When Benjamin Franklin died on April 12, 1790, he made a final bet on the future of the Un... more

30 Jan 2025

37 MINS

37:53

30 Jan 2025


#950

When American Gilded Elite Bought Up English Country Houses, It Create an Epic Transatlantic Clash o...

For generations, the great palaces of Britain were home to living histories, noble familie... more

28 Jan 2025

44 MINS

44:09

28 Jan 2025


#949

The Untold History of Earth: Hobbits Really Existed, Dinosaurs Had Feathers, and Yetis Roamed Our Pl...

The Old English poem Beowulf is a vital source of information on history, language, story ... more

23 Jan 2025

1 HR 08 MINS

1:08:48

23 Jan 2025


#948

How Did Gold Beat Out Every Other Precious Metal To Become Humanity’s Dominant Currency For the Last...

Why has gold reigned as the world’s go-to precious metal for over 2,600 years? It&rs... more

21 Jan 2025

36 MINS

36:05

21 Jan 2025


#947

The 160-Minute Race to Save the Titanic

One hundred and sixty minutes. That is all the time rescuers would have before the largest... more

16 Jan 2025

47 MINS

47:13

16 Jan 2025


#946

200 Years Before the French Revolution, German Peasants Tried to Overthrow The Holy Roman Empire

The German Peasants’ War of 1524-1525 was the largest popular uprising in Western Eu... more

14 Jan 2025

54 MINS

54:27

14 Jan 2025


#945

What the Middle Ages Can Teach Us About Pandemics, Mass Migration, and Tech Disruption

The medieval world – for all its plagues, papal indulgences, castles, and inquisitio... more

09 Jan 2025

53 MINS

53:15

09 Jan 2025


#944

Did Orson Welles’s 1938 ‘War of the Worlds’ Broadcast Really Cause a Mass Panic?

On a warm Halloween Eve, October 30, 1938, during a broadcast of H G. Wells' War of the Wo... more

07 Jan 2025

48 MINS

48:26

07 Jan 2025


#943

A Talk With The Polar Geographer Who Discovered Shackleton’s Endurance Under 10,000 ft of Frozen Wat...

On August 1, 1914, British explorer Sir Ernest Shackelton and his crew sailed from England... more

02 Jan 2025

43 MINS

43:26

02 Jan 2025


#942

The Founding Fathers Were 20 and 30-Somethings. Why Is America Now a Gerontocracy?

A house on the Florida coast. An assisted living program. A lively retirement community. M... more

31 Dec 2024

42 MINS

42:13

31 Dec 2024


#941

A Pre-WWI French Philosopher Was More Popular Than Elvis and Possibly Entered the US Into the Great ...

In New York City, 1913, French philosopher Henri Bergson gave a lecture at Columbia Univer... more

26 Dec 2024

43 MINS

43:13

26 Dec 2024