We're Not So Different

150th episode wooooo! this time, we continue our miniseries on what we're calling Proto-nationalism in the Middle Ages by talking about two very big materialist reasons why they couldn't really have nationalism back then: malleable borders and dynastic rulership. Medieval borders were porous, light-enforced at best, and changed overnight based on the confusing, overlapping rights that various rulers had over a plot of land. rulership, meanwhile, was personalized and heavily influenced by dynastic concerns and marriage alliances, meaning it could change at the drop of a hat based on a marriage going bad or a third son dying early and passing the land in question to a completely different family. these factors were so limiting that they essentially made nationalism, as we know it today, an impossibility in the Middle Ages. though we do address the special case of Medieval China here too.

nationalism is, unfortunately, once again on the rise in the modern day and while you might think that it has very little to do with the Middle Ages, you'd be wrong. because while the nationalism we see today didn't exist in the same form back then, the roots of it began to take hold even back then in the form of religious discrimination and of othering people who look or act differently. further, the nationalism that we experience today popped up in the 19th century and its loudest proponents popularized it by pointing to a very skewed, totally ahistorical version of Medieval history in order to reinforce modern ideas of racism and racial purity. so let's talk about it and see what we can do to combat it.

it's our first episode of the new year but we're just not ready to move on quite yet, so we're taking a look back at 2023 and then taking a little peak ahead into 2024. we talk about Medieval news and studies from last year, review a little of what happened on the podcast, and talk about some of our favorite movies, TV shows, books, etc. then, we set our sights on the year ahead and close our with some predictions for 2024 and even our New Year's resolutions. enjoy!

hello listeners! what you're about to hear is one of our patron-exclusive bonus episodes from March 2023, the first of our seven part book club series on Dante's Inferno. in it, we introduce Dante Alighieri's masterwork, The Inferno, by discussing the author's life, the background of Medieval Italian city-states, the Guelph-Ghibelline conflict, and more meta details about the book. we talk about The Inferno's importance, both as a work of fiction and as a surviving Medieval text, Dante's genius and hubris, and how this work still forms the basic conception of Hell that most people living today have in their minds. you'll love it! and if you do, then please subscribe to our patreon at patreon.com/wnsdpod, it's just $5 a month.

folks, it's the holidays and so we decided to post some prompts on twitter and bluesky and answer some questions about history, life, and culture from the general audience. we cover everything from Chinese feudalism to the Panera lemonade that kills you to counterfactuals on how imperial Italy could've become a world superpower and whether there was a Medieval concept of coolness analogous to what we have today. check it out, it's a ton of fun and we hope you'll like it.finally, we'd like to wish everyone a happy holiday season, no matter what you're celebrating and thank you for listening to the show in 2023. we're excited to come back with more Medieval goodness in 2024!

folks, we've got podcaster, historian, dad-aficionado, and friend of the show Patrick Wyman back on the show to talk about dad culture, what it means to be a dad as opposed to just a father, Medieval dads, dad-coded behavior, and much more. this is Patrick's 3rd appearance on the show and we love to have him on. you can check out his podcasts, the Fall of Rome, Tides of History, and the Pursuit of Dadliness, wherever you get your podcasts.

this time, we take a dive into the backlog of questions from our patrons and answer a few of them. we tackle everything from how to explain the Middle Ages to a 5 year old, to how bad was Henry VIII really to Eleanor Rykener and even who was the worst person in the Middle Ages. we cover 11 questions in total and it's a lot of fun, enjoy!

as you may have heard, the Princes in the Tower are in the news again, 540 years after their supposed deaths. recently, Philippa Langley, who famously help find Richard III's body in a parking lot back in 2012, hosted a television special in the UK which alleged a new theory about the Princes in the Tower: they survived and later returned to the island in attempts to take back the throne. as you may recall from our series on the Wars of the Roses, the historical consensus is that the young Princes were murdered on the orders of the usurper king Richard III, an event which led to his overthrow and defeat at the hands of Henry Tudor. we discuss the evidence that Langley puts forth, what it means if true, and, most importantly, how this affects George RR Martin's writing schedule for The Winds of Winter.

folks, we're finally doing a review of Ridley Scott's 2021 Medieval history film, The Last Duel, a film that asks the question: what if Ridley Scott just didn't do all the stuff he's known for and instead made an intimate portrait of a Medieval soap opera in the style of Rashomon that revolves around both an obscure land dispute based on manorial custom and a lengthy legal proceeding. it is a surprisingly well done film based on the director and subject matter and we're glad you get to experience it with us in our longest episode ever (or close to it)!

folks, in this episode we brought in a special guest and friend of the show, Phoebe Roy, co-host of the Ten Thousand Posts and Masters of Our Domain podcasts, to talk with us about depictions of Tudor England in books and TV. the Tudors are, of course, a foundational aspect of English history and culture, so it's interesting to see the many and varied depictions they get nowadays, especially when those depictions are made for American audiences or others who might not be so familiar with the Tudors. we talk with Phoebe about three works: Wolf Hall, the historical fiction novel by Hilary Mantel; Blackadder II, the BBC sitcom about Elizabeth's courtiers; and The Tudors, a big budget prestige drama about Henry VIII's court.check it out, you'll love it and check out Phoebe's other shows too!