Meet Joan: The Female Pope—Stephen Guerra of the History of the Papacy Podcast
According to medieval accounts, a woman named Joan reigned as pope, 855-857 A.D., by disguising herself as a man. The story is widely thought to be fiction, but almost everyone took it as fact in the ...
5 Kesä 201848min
The Most Productive People in History, Part 2: Thomas Aquinas to Thomas Edison
This is Part 2 of an exploration of the live of the most productive people in history. We will look at the life, times, and work habits of medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas (the most prolific writer...
31 Touko 20181h 8min
The Most Productive People in History, Part 1: From Archimedes to Ben Franklin
They never knew how he did it. Few composers write more than one or two symphonies in their lifetimes. Beethoven spent a year on his shorter symphonies but more than six years on his 9th Symphony. But...
29 Touko 20181h 8min
The Union's Secret Rebels: The Story of Gettysburg's Five Rebellious Double Crossers Who Returned as Foreign Invaders
The Civil War is called the war in which brother fought against brother. But few knew of the“Gettysburg Rebels”: the five privates from that very town who moved south to Virginia in the 1850s,joined t...
24 Touko 201846min
How to Reach Allied Territory When Your Plane Is Shot Down in Nazi-Occupied France
Lieutenant George W. Starks' worst fear came true when his B-17 was shot down over Nazi-occupiedFrance. Earlier that morning, the boyish 20-year-old and his crew were assigned to the most exposedsecti...
22 Touko 201857min
Anthology: How Switzerland Remained Neutral In Two World Wars
How was Switzerland able to remain neutral in the two world wars? Why was a tiny mountainous nation of watch-makers, bankers, and chocolateers able to dictate their own fate at a time when nobody else...
17 Touko 201841min
Grammar Girl (Mignon Fogarty) on the Strange History of the English Language
Mignon Fogarty has spent years helping others sort out the extremely peculiar grammar of the English language. But in the course of her research on how to navigate the weirdness of English, she learne...
15 Touko 201852min
History's Most Insane Rulers: From Emperor Caligula to Muammar Gaddafi
Few mixtures are as toxic as absolute power and insanity that comes from megalomania or severe mental illness. When nothing stands between a leader's delusional whims and seeing them carried them out,...
10 Touko 20181h 11min
