Conflicted: A History Podcast

Genghis Khan and the Mongols killed millions, but were they actually woke AF? Let's tackle the surprisingly progressive (yet blood-drenched) legacy of one of history's most mysterious empires.SOURCES:Weatherford, Jack. Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World. 2004.Weatherford, Jack. Genghis Khan and the Quest for God. 2016.Weatherford, Jack. The Secret History of the Mongol Queens. 2010.McLynn, Frank. Genghis Khan: His Conquests, His Empire, His Legacy. 2015.Waterson, James. Defending Heaven: China’s Mongol Wars. 2013. Bergreen, Laurence. Marco Polo: From Venice to Xanadu. 2007.Turnbull, Stephen. Genghis Khan & the Mongol Conquests, 1190-1400. 2003.Turnbull, Stephen. Mongol Warrior, 1200-1350. 2003.    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Car bombs, hitmen, and hunger strikes. How "The Troubles" tore Northern Ireland apart.SOURCES:Toolis, Kevin. Rebel Hearts. 1995McKittrick, David. Making Sense of the Troubles. 2000Coogan, Tim Pat. The Troubles: Ireland's Ordeal and the Search for Peace. 1995.Edwards, Aaron. The Northern Ireland Troubles. 2014.O'Doherty, Malachi. The Trouble With Guns. 1998.Collins, Eamon. Killing Rage. 1997.Bingham, John. "Margaret Thatcher: Seconds from death at the hands of IRA bomber." April 2013.Moriarty, Gerry. "Internment Explained: when it was introduced and why". August 2019. Simonson, Robert. "The Irish Car Bomb". March 2018 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Wonder and warmth quickly turn to slaughter and horror as Hernan Cortes meets Emperor Moctezuma in the explosive conclusion of this two-part series.SOURCES:Levy, Buddy. Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs. Sheppard, Si. Tenochtitlan 1519-1521. 2018.Thomas, Hugh. Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes, and the Fall of Old Mexico. 1993.Prescott, William H. History of the Conquest of Mexico. 1843Cortes, Hernan. Five Letters. 1519-1526.Restall, Matthew. When Montezuma Met Cortez: The True Story of the Meeting That Changed History. 2018. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How a handful of mercenaries, explorers, and pirates destroyed the Aztec Empire and burnt its capital city to the ground. Two cultures collide in the first of a two-part series on the Conquest of Mexico. SOURCES:Levy, Buddy. Conquistador: Hernan Cortes, King Montezuma, and the Last Stand of the Aztecs. Sheppard, Si. Tenochtitlan 1519-1521. 2018.Thomas, Hugh. Conquest: Montezuma, Cortes, and the Fall of Old Mexico. 1993.Prescott, William H. History of the Conquest of Mexico. 1843Cortes, Hernan. Five Letters. 1519-1526.Restall, Matthew. When Montezuma Met Cortez: The True Story of the Meeting That Changed History. 2018. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The story of China’s infamous One-Child Policy, the most ambitious (and catastrophic) social engineering project the modern world has ever seen.SOURCES:Fong, Mei. One Child: The Story of China’s Most Radical Experiment. 2016Evans, Karin. The Lost Daughters of China. 2008Johnson, Kay Ann. China’s Hidden Children. 2016Xinran, Message From an Unknown Chinese Mother: Stories of Loss and Love. 2012Greenhalgh, Susan. Just One Child: Science and Policy in Deng’s China. 2008. Ren, Yuan. “How China's one-child policy overhauled the status and prospects of girls like me”. The Telegraph. Dec 2013. Clarke, Aileen. “See How The One-Child Policy Changed China”. National Geographic. Nov 2015. Chen, Shanshan. “Lost lives: the battle of China's invisible children to recover missed years”. Reuters. Dec 2016.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How a single week in 1967 changed the Middle East, and the world, forever. This is the action-packed, heartbreaking origin story of Israel and the Six-Day War. SOURCES:Oren, Michael B. Six Days Of War. 2002.Pressfield, Steven. The Lion’s Gate. 2014.Churchill, Randolph S. The Six Day War. 1967Dana, Seif. “The 1967 Naksa: The Making of the New Middle East”. Al Jazeera. June 2016.Samuel, Sigal. “How the Six Day War Transformed Religion”. The Atlantic. Jun 5 2017Land, Graham. “Was the Great Jewish Revolt Against Rome a Preventable Tragedy?” HistoryHit. July 2018Josephus. The Works of Josephus. The Wars of the Jews, Book 7 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

African berserkers, graceful samurai, and deadly Soviet fighter pilots. A three-part, globe-trotting tour of remarkable female soldiers and the complicated lives that they led.SOURCES:Vinogradova, Lyuba. Defending the Motherland. 2015Alpern, Stanley B. Amazons of Black Sparta. 1998.Dash, Mike. “Dahomey’s Women Warriors”. Smithsonian.com. Sept 2011Busch, Jenna. “Meet the Dahomey Amazons, the Inspiration for the Dora Milaje”. SyFy Wire. Nov 2018.Joubeaud, Edouard. The Women Soldiers of Dahomey. UNESCO Digital Library. 2014“Three Months in Captivity in Dahomey”. The Sydney Morning Herald. Oct 1890Budnik, Ruslan. “Dahomey Amazons - The Only Elite All-Female Warrior Regiments”. War History Online. Oct 2018Okoh, Lize. “Meet the Dahomey Amazons: The All-Female Warriors of West Africa”. Culture Trip. May 2018.Turnbull, Stephen. Samurai Women, 1184 -1877. 2012.Hoffman, Michael. “Women Warriors of Japan”. The Japan Times. Oct 2011.Hastings, Cristobel. “How Onna-Bugeisha, Feudal Japan's Women Samurai, Were Erased From History”. VICE. Sept 2018. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The Rated-R-for-Russian story of the Red Army’s horrific campaign of vengeance against Nazi Germany. SOURCES:Beevor, Antony. The Fall of Berlin 1945. 2003.Huggler, Justin. “Fall of Berlin: ‘Of course I was afraid. I was 17 years old.’”. The Telegraph UK. May 2015Johnson, Daniel. “Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps”. The Guardian. Jan 2002.Ash, Lucy. “The Rape of Berlin”. BBC News. May 2015.Fitzgerald, Nora. “Berliners recall Red Army atrocities”. Chicago Tribune. September 2002. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sea battles, tiger hunts, and a mountain of human noses. This is the Shakespearean saga that triggered centuries of bad blood between Korea and Japan.SOURCES:Samuel, Hawley. The Imjin War: Japan's Sixteenth-Century Invasion of Korea and Attempt to Conquer China. 2005Turnbull, Stephen. The Samurai Invasion of Korea. 2008.Turnbull, Stephen. War in Japan, 1467-1615. 2002Berry, Mary Elizabeth. Hideyoshi. 1982Kristof, Nicholas D. “Japan, Korea, and 1597: A Year That Lives in Infamy”. Sept 1997 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A myth-busting breakdown of history’s favorite fitness cult.SOURCES:Hanson, Victor Davis. A War Like No Other. 2005. Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian WarPlutarch. Parallel LivesXenophon. HellenicaCartledge, Paul. “The Socratics’ Sparta and Rosseau’s”. Cambridge University. 1998 Penades, Antonio. “Bred for Battle - Understanding Ancient Sparta’s Military Machine”. National Geographic History. Dec 2016. Grant, R.G. “Battle of Leuctra”. Encyclopedia Britannica. March, 2017 Andrews, Evan. “8 Reasons It Wasn’t Easy Being Spartan”. History.com. Sept 2018 Grant, R.G. “Battle of Leuctra”. Encyclopedia Britannica. March, 2017 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices