History Unplugged Podcast

The Old English poem Beowulf is a vital source of information on history, language, story and belief from the darkest of the Dark Ages. Only one copy is known to exist (it’s in the British Library), and that was rescued from a fire that is known to have destroyed many other manuscripts. If Beowulf didn’t exist, how much would we know about that period? It’s a sobering thought that between 410 and 597, no scrap of writing survives from what is now England. This is an interval comparable in length between now… and the Napoleonic Wars. The same is true about fossils — what we know of the fossil record is an infinitesimal dot on an infinitesimal dot on what really happened. Almost everything that once existed on our planet has been lost. This means that anything new we find has the potential to change everything.  Today guest, Henry Gee, author of A (Very) Short History of Life on Earth, zips through the last 4.6 billion years to tell a tale of survival and persistence that illuminates the delicate balance within which life has always existed.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Why has gold reigned as the world’s go-to precious metal for over 2,600 years? It’s not as rare as platinum, durable as diamonds, or malleable as copper. What is it about this metal that made it the standard unit of coinage, from China to Mesoamerica? It’s a very long story, but gold’s scarcity, durability, malleability, and universal appeal made it ideal for trade and wealth preservation, starting with the Lydians of 550 BC. Unlike tin, copper, or bronze, gold’s intrinsic properties allowed it to serve as a stable and universally recognized unit of exchange, laying the foundation for its historical role in economies. In today’s episode, we explore gold’s history, the evolution of monetary systems (from China’s early use of paper money in the Middle Ages to Great Britain’s establishment of the gold standard in the late 17th century), and how the gold standard of the last century facilitated international trade and stability but was ultimately abandoned due to its deflationary pressures and limitations. The pivotal moment came in 1971 when President Nixon ended dollar-gold convertibility, ushering in the fiat currency era. To discuss these topics is today’s guest, Collin Plume, author of “Silver Is the New Oil: Strategies for Profiting From the Next Industrial Revolution” and CEO of Noble Gold Investments. He offers insights into modern trends, including nations increasing gold reserves, gold-backed cryptocurrencies, and the future role of gold in global finance. Links: Silver Is the New Oil Noble Gold InvestmentsSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

One hundred and sixty minutes. That is all the time rescuers would have before the largest ship in the world slipped beneath the icy Atlantic. There was amazing heroism and astounding incompetence against the backdrop of the most advanced ship in history sinking by inches with luminaries from all over the world. It is a story of a network of wireless operators on land and sea who desperately sent messages back and forth across the dark frozen North Atlantic to mount a rescue mission. More than twenty-eight ships would be involved in the rescue of Titanic survivors along with four different countries. At the heart of the rescue are two young Marconi operators, Jack Phillips 25 and Harold Bride 22, tapping furiously and sending electromagnetic waves into the black night as the room they sat in slanted toward the icy depths and not stopping until the bone numbing water was around their ankles. Then they plunged into the water after coordinating the largest rescue operation the maritime world had ever seen and thereby saving 710 people by their efforts.The race to save the largest ship in the world from certain death would reveal both heroes and villains. It would begin at 11:40 PM on April 14, when the iceberg was struck and would end at 2:20 AM April 15, when her lights blinked out and left 1500 people thrashing in 25-degree water. Although the race to save Titanic survivors would stretch on beyond this, most people in the water would die, but the amazing thing is that of the 2229 people, 710 did not and this was the success of the Titanic rescue effort. We see the Titanic as a great tragedy but a third of the people were rescued and the only reason every man, woman, and child did not succumb to the cold depths is due to Jack Phillips and Harold McBride in an insulated telegraph room known as the Silent Room. These two men tapping out CQD and SOS distress codes while the ship took on water at the rate of 400 tons per minute from a three-hundred-foot gash would inaugurate the most extensive rescue operation in maritime history using the cutting-edge technology of the time, wireless. To talk about this race against time is frequent guest Bill Hazelgrove, author of the new book One Hundred and Sixty Minutes: The Race to Save the RMS Titanic.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The German Peasants’ War of 1524-1525 was the largest popular uprising in Western Europe before the French Revolution. Somewhere between seventy and a hundred thousand peasants—roughly 2% of the male population—were slain in a mere two months. While the peasant forces would ultimately prove no match for the lords, for a period of several months they managed to take control of vast areas of southern and middle Germany in pursuit of a more egalitarian order. The rebels pushed against the structures of lordship and embraced the radical and ecological potential of the Reformation in which Earth’s natural resources were gifts from God to all of humanity. Today’s guest is Lyndal Roper, author of “Summer of Fire and Blood: The German Peasants’ War.”  We see that neither the Reformation nor the Peasants’ War can be fully understood in isolation from one another, and that the rebels’ fight for freedom was a direct response to the period of reform.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dan Jones, an accomplished historian and author of 'Powers and Thrones,' dives into the medieval era's uncanny relevance to today. He discusses how pandemics and mass migrations have repeatedly shaped societies. Jones sheds light on the complexities of the Middle Ages, debunking myths of brutality and primitiveness. He explores the intricate dynamics between Christians and Muslims, the impactful role of the Mongols in trade, and the lasting effects of historical pandemics. This enlightening conversation connects past challenges to our current global landscape.

On a warm Halloween Eve, October 30, 1938, during a broadcast of H G. Wells' War of the Worlds, Orson Welles held his hands up for radio silence in the CBS studio in New York City while millions of people ran out into the night screaming, grabbed shotguns, drove off in cars, and hid in basements, attics, or anywhere they could find to get away from Martians intent on exterminating the human race. As Welles held up his hands to his fellow actors, musicians, and sound technicians, he turned six seconds of radio silence—dead air—into absolute horror, changing the way the world would view media forever, and making himself one of the most famous men in America. The revisionism lately of Orson Welles War of the Worlds 1938 broadcast is that it did not affect many beyond l the East Coast and most people did not believe Martians had invaded and were exterminating the human race with heat ray guns and poisonous gas. William Hazelgrove’s new book “Dead Air The Night Orson Welles Terrified America,” points to a different America thrown into mass panic from the broadcast produced and directed by the twenty-three-year-old Welles.Did people really believe that Martians were exterminating the human race and did mass panic engulf the country? Willliam Hazelgrove makes a convincing case people did believe the broadcast and the ensuing terror and panic was a real time example of what would happen if aliens ever did land on earth.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On August 1, 1914, British explorer Sir Ernest Shackelton and his crew sailed from England, set on making history as the first to cross Antarctica. Their ship never returned from her maiden voyage. On November 22, 1915, the aptly named Endurance disappeared, crushed by ice and swallowed by the Weddell Sea. Today, nearly everyone is familiar with Shackelton’s harrowing survival story and incredible rescue of all 27 crew members. Yet Endurance was thought lost forever, impossible to find because of her remote, frozen resting place—until March 5, 2022. Today’s guest is John Shears, author of “Endurance: The Discovery of Shackleton’s Legendary Ship.” He takes us inside the Endurance22 mission to locate, film, and survey the wreck of  Shackleton’s lost ship. We get a firsthand account of the search for Endurance and its discovery—upright and largely intact, at a depth of 9,869 feet underwater.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

A house on the Florida coast. An assisted living program. A lively retirement community. Medicare. Our modern concept of old age—and even the idea of old age as a distinct stage of life—are products of our recent past. Where once Americans had little choice but to work until death, in the years after World War II government subsidies and employer pensions allowed people to retire en masse. But the enormous strides made in the 20th century are under siege today as we face critical issues like the uncertain future of social security, a caregiving crisis, and an aging and increasingly diverse society. Today’s guest is James Chappel, author of “Golden Years: How Americans Invented and Reinvented Old Age.” He shares the surprising history of old age in modern America, showing how we created unprecedented security for some and painful uncertainty for others. From social security and 401(k)s to fitness programs and even The Golden Girls, Chappel explores the rise and fall of a shared ideal of old age, showing how it has been shaped by politicians’ choices, activists’ demands, medical advancements, and popular culture.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Emily Herring, author of "Herald of a Restless World," dives into the extraordinary life of philosopher Henri Bergson. She reveals how his 1913 lecture created a frenzy in New York City, akin to rock star status. Herring discusses Bergson's role in persuading the U.S. to join World War I and how his ideas on creativity and freedom resonate in today's tech-driven society. The conversation highlights the decline of public philosophy and the need to revive Bergson's insights as we navigate modern challenges like AI and materialism.

In the summer of 1941, German troops surrounded the Russian city of Leningrad—now St. Petersburg—and began the longest blockade in recorded history, one that would ultimately claim the lives of nearly three-quarters of a million people. At the center of the besieged city stood a converted palace that housed the world’s largest collection of seeds — more than 250,000 samples hand-collected over two decades from all over the globe by world-famous explorer, geneticist, and dissident Nikolai Vavilov, who had recently been disappeared by the Soviet government. After attempts to evacuate the priceless collection failed and supplies dwindled amongst the three million starving citizens, the employees at the Plant Institute were left with a terrible choice. Should they save the collection? Or themselves? These were not just any seeds. The botanists believed they could be bred into heartier, disease-resistant, and more productive varieties suited for harsh climates, therefore changing the future of food production and preventing famines like those that had plagued their countrymen before. But protecting the seeds was no idle business. The scientists rescued potato samples under enemy fire, extinguished bombs landing on the seed bank’s roof, and guarded the collection from scavengers, the bitter cold, and their own hunger. Then in the war’s eleventh hour, Nazi plunderers presented a new threat to the collection…Today’s guest is Simon Parkin, author of “The Forbidden Garden: The Botanists of Besieged Leningrad and Their Impossible Choice.” We look at the story of the botanists who held their posts at the Plant Institute during the 872-day siege and the remarkable sacrifices they made in the name of science.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.