The Medieval Podcast

This week, Danièle shows how useful medieval history can be in helping us survive the imminent zombie apocalypse.

The Middle Ages are full of amazing tales, both fictional and true. This week, Peter Konieczny joins Danièle to talk about three of their favourite medieval stories.

Looking for a book to read about the medieval world? Danièle offers her picks for which books about the Middle Ages you should read. It includes ones by Dan Jones, Helen Castor, Peter Frankopan and Ruth Mazo Karras, plus Danièle's choices for primary sources and medieval fiction.

This week, Danièle asked her listeners which myths about the Middle Ages really drive them crazy. From the Flat Earth to daily hygiene, here is our attempt to shed light on some of the most common (but wrong!) ideas we have about the Middle Ages.

The medieval period is routinely slammed as a time in which people had little to no medical knowledge, but the people of the Middle Ages had a much better understanding of how to heal themselves than modern popular culture would suggest. In this episode, Danièle speaks with Dr. Ilana Krug about the use of honey in medieval military medicine and the time Henry V got an arrow in the face.

One of the buzzwords in education is gamification - using games to get people more engaged with what they are learning. Those studying history might be using the immersive games from Reacting to the Past, which gets students to work with primary sources and with each other. Danièle is joined by Kyle Lincoln to discuss his work with Reacting to the Past, how he is developing a game based on the Fourth Crusade.

Love it or hate it, Game of Thrones has had a major impact on people’s perceptions of the Middle Ages. In this episode, Danièle talks with Peter Konieczny about the finale, the future, and saying farewell to this fan favourite.

During the medieval period, there was a lot of interest in writing down what was going on in the world for the sake of future generations, but there’s one massive problem with medieval chronicles: people didn’t approach history in the Middle Ages the way we do today. This week, Danièle speaks with Dr. Lane Sobehrad about how medieval people wrote history, and how historians today can do their part to help future generations through outreach.

Sexuality was a huge part of medieval culture, from the rules about how and when to have sex, to the dirty jokes that found their way into religious art. This week, Danièle speaks with Dr. Eleanor Janega about getting medieval in the bedroom.

From the submissive to the scandalous, medieval queens held a huge amount of influence over the politics of the day. In this episode, Danièle speaks with Dr. Helen Castor about queenship, the challenges of studying even the most prominent medieval women, and how their stories still resonate today.