History of the World podcast

Find out about my visit to the Podcast Show 2022 in London this past May, and we fondly remember our good friend Nick Barksdale who sadly passed away this month.

1066 - Both the Kingdom of England and the Duchy of Normandy had matured into states that faced each other across the English Channel, and had their futures entwined with each other as a consequence.  One powerful duke of Normandy called William had great ambitions for his neighbours across the water.

845 - 1194 - The Normans take up a much larger role than many initially know and this episode looks to tell the entire story of the Normans of Normandy.

1014 - The story of the history of Ireland and the Irish folklore legend of Brian Boru and how he managed his unlikely inheritance in a medieval world of fierce competition on both local and national levels.

878 - The inevitable showdown between the Danish Vikings whose intensity against the Anglo-Saxons reached breaking point.  We discover more about King Alfred the Great and how he set the foundations for the nation that would become England.

1179 - 1241 This episode tells the life story of the Icelandic saga  writer and statesman who lived during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries during the closing years of Icelandic independence.

862 - 1242 - The story of the creation of the medieval nation state that was the birth of a unique modern culture with a rich history that would have a fortune changing influence on European and global politics.  The fusion of Viking and Slavic cultures.

793 - 1035 - Glorious literature tells us that the Vikings were savage raiders who sailed the seas and plundered from others.  This episode investigates what we do know about the Vikings and their history and whether those preconceptions are completely fair.

410 - 939 - From the abandonment of Britannia by the Romans, the island became a place of tribal warfare for many centuries, but from the chaos emerged the beginnings of a modern English nation.

43 - 848 - When the Romans invaded Britain they discovered people who  had decorated their bodies with bright colours.  Who were these people  and what became of them?