We're Not So Different

folks, we couldn't do a series on weird Medieval shit without talking about our favorite weird Medieval little guys who show up in marginalia of illuminated manuscripts from the era. and to do so, we brought on Olivia Swarthout, aka at Weird Medieval on twitter, to help us out. we discuss why humans love to think up and draw weird little guys, what it means, and why they're still so fascinating to us today. then, in the last half of the episode, we each do a tier list, ranking 25 weird little guys from Medieval marginalia, it's a whole lot of fun! enjoy! there is some slight reverb on the tracks occasionally but we have done our best to edit as much out as possible.if you want to do your own tier list of these weird Medieval guys, then you can do so at this link: https://tiermaker.com/create/rank-the-weird-medieval-guys-16945815if you want to see the tier we each made, you can find them posted on our twitter account: https://x.com/wnsdpod/status/1773369399665144155?s=20

we're back with the second episode of our Weird Medieval series and this time we're talking about space. in recorded history, only eight possible supernovae within the Milky Way have ever been witnessed by direct observation, and three of them occurred during the Middle Ages. we talk about those supernovae, what made them special, and how one was finally confirmed as a supernova just three years ago! then we turn to the Roman Catholic Church and remark on how weird it is that the Church not only stayed united but that it became hegemonic over an entire continent and intertwined with existing governments to help prop it all up. even weirder still is the fact that this hegemony lasted for hundreds of years and couldn't lasted even longer if they could've just stopped with the indulgences. also, the Hussites, because they're weird too. check it out!

folks, we've started a new series and this one is all about Weird Medieval shit. the Middle Ages were an incredibly fascinating time and we want to celebrate and emphasize that by looking at the events, people, and things that make you go, "damn that's wild." we're going to cover stuff from all across the entire one-thousand-year Medieval era and on every continent save Antarctica. in this first part, we take a look at the following three events: that time Justinian I sent two monks to China to steal the secrets of silk for the Byzantines, the Erfurt Latrine Disaster that killed sixty nobles in a lake of shit, and the Fourth Crusade that permanently split Christendom forever.

we finish up our intermittent series on proto-nationalism and nationalism by discussing the modern concept of tradwives, or women who endorse a so-called traditionalist perspective and aesthetic online, either out of pure belief or as a grift. and to do so, we interview Dr. Lauren Hill Griffin, a religious studies, nationalism, technology, and politics professor at Louisiana State University. we discuss whether the tradwife "movement" is authentic or just a cash grab, how it ties into broader religious and white nationalist movements, the continuing breakdown of religious ideals in the modern world, and speaking in tongues at the gym. enjoy!

we have had a lot of great interviews lately and that means we haven't had much time to answer the backlog of patron questions we have, so we decided to do a mailbag. we answer questions ranging from Robin Hood's death to Silk Road safety to experimental archaeology to a counterfactual about capitalism and the Reformation and much more. enjoy!

Author and blogger Cory Doctorow discusses 'enshittification' and why the modern world seems to be deteriorating. They compare modern times to the Middle Ages and explore the impact of technology on society. They also touch on bad French translations and the evolution of social media platforms.

this time, Luke and Eleanor welcome special guest November, co-host of the Trashfuture, Well There's Your Problem, and Kill James Bond podcasts to the show to talk about the German Peasants War, which turns 500 this year. we talk about the attempted radical Reformation, the magisterial reaction, Martin Luther's horrified response, and why the lords and nobles can partake in extreme forms of violence and war crimes while their peasant underlings are forbidden from doing so. check it out

this week, we're continuing our series on proto-nationalism and nationalism by talking to Dr. Rachel Moss about the ways nostalgia is used for evil and, specifically, how false nostalgia for a Middle Ages that didn't exist fuels modern nationalism. we talk about how rose-tinted glasses are used to paint a false picture of the Medieval era, how the same feelings of both good and bad nostalgia similarly affected Medieval people, and modern reactionaries who are really just looking for a new liege lord to oppress them. check it out!Dr. Rachel Moss is a Sr Lecturer in History at the University of Northampton. Rachel is a Medievalist specializing in Late Medieval English history and literature as well as social and economic history of the Middle Ages, and is holding an upcoming workshop on politicizing nostalgia this summer.

This week, we welcome Dr. Bradley Onishi, co-host of the Straight White American Jesus podcast, onto the show as part of our series on proto-nationalism in the Middle Ages. As we promised earlier this month, we had some guests lined up to discuss other aspects of proto-nationalism and nationalism with us and this is the first of those interviews. Brad joins us to discuss the problem of Christian nationalism, which is on the rise in the world right now but has its roots in the Middle Ages. We discuss how the past instances of Christian nationalism are fueling what we see today, the modern contradictions that have arisen within that movement, and much more.check it out and also check out Brad's podcast, Straight White American Jesus, and his 2023 book, Preparing for War: The Extremist History of Christian Nationalism–and What Comes Next

this time, we return to our occasional series on Medieval women, where we look at the lives and times of ladies who were able to rise to positions of power and esteem despite the extremely patriarchal nature of the Middle Ages. we have previously done these for the Virgin Mary and Mary Magdalene and for Hildegard of Bingen and Eleanor of Aquitaine. but now we turn to the Mediterranean and the Early Middle Ages to find our two remarkable women: Byzantine Empress Theodora and Lombardi Queen Theodelinda. Theodora rose from humble origins to become the wife and confidant of one of Constantinople's greatest rulers, Justinian I, and was integral in saving his regime during the Nika Riots. Then there's Theodelinda, who is less famous than Theodora but was still impressive all the same. Theodelinda was queen and ruler of the Lombards for 35 years, ruling on her without a king for part of that and, legend has it, was allowed to choose her own husband after her first husband died, something that almost never happens. So let's find our what else made these women so special!