History Unplugged Podcast

Simon Mayall, author of "The House of War," dives into a gripping 1,300-year saga of conflict between Christendom and Islam. He discusses key historical events—from the Siege of Jerusalem in the 7th century to the fall of Constantinople. Mayall examines the rise of the Islamic caliphate and the Crusades, revealing how technological innovations impacted warfare. He also highlights the enduring effects of these clashes on today’s geopolitical landscape and addresses the use of historical narratives in shaping modern conflicts.

More Americans have peanut allergies today than at any point in history. Why? In 2000, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a strict recommendation that parents avoid giving their children peanut products until they're three years old. Getting the science perfectly backward, triggering intolerance with lack of early exposure, the US now leads the world in peanut allergies-and this misinformation is still rearing its head today.How could the experts have gotten it so wrong? Could it be that many modern-day health crises have been caused by the hubris of the medical establishment? Experts said for decades that opioids were not addictive, igniting the opioid crisis. They demonized natural fat in foods, driving Americans to processed carbohydrates as obesity rates soared.These failures of medical groupthink have been seen throughout history. Philosophers of the 16th century who claimed that blood circulated throughout the body (instead of resting in a layer below the epidermis) faced capital punishment. James Lind, who discovered that Vitamin C prevented scurvy, was ignored for 40 years. Ignaz Semmelweis was rejected by the medical community for suggesting that doctors should perhaps wash their hands before operating on patients.Today’s guest is Marty Makary, author of “Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What it Means for Our Health.” We see how when modern medicine issues recommendations based on good scientific studies, it shines. Conversely, when medicine is interpreted through the harsh lens of opinion and edict, it can mold beliefs that harm patients and stunt research for decades.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Appleton Oaksmith was a swashbuckling Civil War-era sea captain whose life intersected with some of the most important moments, movements, and individuals of the mid-19th century, from the California Gold Rush, filibustering schemes in Nicaragua, Cuban liberation, and the Civil War and Reconstruction. But in his life we also see the extraordinary lengths the Lincoln Administration went to destroy the illegal trans-Atlantic slave trade. That’s because he spent years working as an outlaw mariner for the Confederacy and later against the Klan.Oaksmith lived in the murky underworld of New York City, where federal marshals plied the docks in lower Manhattan in search of evidence of slave trading. Once they suspected Oaksmith, federal authorities had him arrested and convicted, but in 1862 he escaped from jail and became a Confederate blockade-runner in Havana. The Lincoln Administration tried to have him kidnapped in violation of international law, but the attempt was foiled. Always claiming innocence, Oaksmith spent the next decade in exile until he received a presidential pardon from U.S. Grant, at which point he moved to North Carolina and became an anti-Klan politician.To look at this story is today’s guest, Jonathan White, author of “Shipwrecked: A True Civil War Story of Mutinies, Jailbreaks, Blockade-Running, and the Slave Trade.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For Christians, the Bible is a book inspired by God. But it has been received by different cultures and language groups in (sometimes) radically different ways.  Following Jesus’s departing instruction to go out into the world, the Bible has been a book in motion from its very beginnings, and every community it has encountered has read, heard, and seen the Bible through its own language and culture.  It was spread by merchants, missionaries, and colonizers Asia, Africa, and to the Americas. Local communities adapted the "alien" book through a blend of cultural integration and reinterpretation. For instance, 20th-century Chinese theologians described similarities between Confucianism and biblical texts, while Native Americans placed themselves directly into biblical narratives—a group of 18th-century Mohican converts renamed themselves Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, proclaiming themselves "patriarchs of a new nation of believers."Today’s guest is Bruce Gordon, author of “The Bible: A Global History.” We discuss the story of the Bible’s journey around the globe and across more than two thousand years, showing how it has shaped and been shaped by changing beliefs and believers’ different needs. The people who received it interpreted it in radically different ways, from desert monasteries and Chinese house churches, Byzantine cathedrals and Guatemalan villages.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In World War II, there were no C-130s or large cargo aircraft that could deliver heavy equipment– such as a truck or artillery piece – in advance of an airborne invasion. For that, you needed to put that equipment, along with its crew, in a glider. These were unpowered boxes of plywood, pulled by a towing plane into enemy territory by a single cable wrapped with telephone wire.The men who flew on gliders were all volunteers, for a specialized duty that their own government projected would have a 50 percent casualty rate. In every major European invasion of the war they led the way. They landed their gliders ahead of the troops who stormed Omaha Beach, and sometimes miles ahead of the paratroopers bound for the far side of the Rhine River in Germany itself. From there, they had to hold their positions. They delivered medical teams, supplies and gasoline to troops surrounded in the Battle of the Bulge, ahead even of Patton's famous supply truck convoy. These all-volunteer glider pilots played a pivotal role from the day the Allies invaded Occupied Europe to the day Germany finally surrendered. Yet the story of these anonymous heroes is virtually unknown.To explore these stories with us is today’s guest, Scott McGaugh, author of “Brotherhood of the Flying Coffin: The Glider Pilots of World War II.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

From George Washington’s powdered pigtail to John Quincy Adams’ bushy side-whiskers and from James Polk’s masterful mullet to John F. Kennedy’s refined Ivy League coif, the tresses of American leaders have long conveyed important political and symbolic messages.There are surprising, and multi-dimensional ways that hair has influenced the personalities, public and private lives, personal scandals, and tragedies of the men and women who have occupied the White House and influenced the nation at large.To explore this unconventional aspect of American history is today’s guest, Ted Pappas, author of “Combing Through the White House: Hair and Its Shocking Impact on the Politics, Private Lives, and Legacies of the Presidents.”See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Richard Evans, a prominent historian and author known for his insights into the Third Reich, discusses the chilling question of how much ordinary Germans knew about the Holocaust. He dives into the psyche and backgrounds of key Nazi figures like Himmler and Goebbels, exploring their motivations and moral complicity. The conversation also addresses the societal dynamics of post-war Germany, including the reluctance to confront its Nazi past and the evolving attitudes toward culpability. Evans weaves together personal narratives and broader historical contexts, shedding light on the complex interplay of perpetration and bystanding.

In this discussion, Mir Bahmanyar, author of "Second Punic War in Iberia: 220-206 BC", dives deep into the Second Punic War's pivotal battles. He examines Hannibal's ambitious siege of Saguntum that sparked the conflict, and the subsequent Roman victories led by Scipio Africanus. Bahmanyar highlights Hasdrubal's struggles in Iberia, strategic failures, and the significant consequences of the Roman triumph at Baecula, which shifted the war's momentum toward Carthage's defeat.

Peter Staveley, author of "Robin Unhooded, And the Death of a King," presents a bold theory that redefines Robin Hood as an Anglo-Saxon hitman linked to the assassination of King William II. He challenges the traditional Merry Man narrative, proposing that Robin operated in the backdrop of the Norman Conquest and particularly in South Yorkshire. The discussion dives into the intriguing connections between Robin's actions and the political dynamics of the time, as well as the mysterious circumstances surrounding King Rufus's death.

Timothy Winegard, author of "The Horse: A Galloping History of Humanity," sheds light on the pivotal role horses have played in shaping civilization since their domestication over 5,500 years ago. He reveals how horses were integral to transportation, trade, and warfare, and compares their historical significance to modern perceptions. Winegard also discusses their dual role in public health, as both disease carriers and contributors to medical advancements, as well as the transition from horse reliance to the age of cars.