Where do conspiracy theories come from? Why do people believe them? What do they mean? Did the CIA drug people with LSD against their will? Is Queen Elizabeth a reptilian? We consider the merits and pitfalls of conspiracy theories, trace the history and evolution of the conspiratorial tradition from rumors about lepers in the 1300s to Alex Jones and Q-Anon, and examine the biases and double standards built into the very concept of “conspiracy theories.” This is it: the most thorough, fair, and impartial examination of conspiracy theories that you will ever find anywhere. Suggested Further Reading: Uscinski & Parent, "American Conspiracy Theories"; Kathryn Olmsted, "Real Enemies"; Jesse Walker, "United States of Paranoia"; Machiavelli, The Discourses, Book III; David Coady, "Conspiracy theory as heresy," in "Educational Philosophy and Psychology," 2021 Please join as a patron to help keep the podcast coming and to hear all patron-only lectures when they are posted! -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

A stunningly complex piece of mathematical craftsmanship, the world's earliest known analogue computer, and the so-called "scientific wonder of the ancient world" -- the Antikythera mechanism was discovered by chance in 1900, by Greek sponge divers who stumbled upon the wreckage of an ancient ship that foundered on its way from Greece to Rome. An object of bafflement, controversy, and misrepresentation for more than a century, thought to be an astrolabe or a planetarium, the Antikythera mechamism has only recently been proved by x-ray analysis to be a calendrical computing machine intended, for the purposes of astrology, to forecast heavenly events, especially eclipses, into the indefinite future. Suggested further reading: Alexander Jones, "A Portable Cosmos." Image: reconstruction of the Antikythera's "back" panel, with Metonic and Saros dials, by Tony Freeth & the AMRP My previous lecture on astrology: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/unlocked-myth-of-the-month-14-astrology Please join as a patron to support this podcast, and to hear all the patron-only lectures! -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

A special edition for patrons: We examine the unique and complex history of Bosnia, at once a borderland and a world unto itself, and the only Slavic country in which Islam has ever been the majority faith. With the help of readings from the classic novel, "The Bridge on the Drina," we trace how Bosnians' confused search for a national identity and a national destiny led ultimately to the fateful assassination that triggered a world war. Image: Travnik Mosque, Bosnia Suggested further reading: Noel Malcolm, "Bosnia: A Short History"; Ivo Andric, "The Bridge on the Drina." Please support this podcast to hear the whole lecture: https://www.patreon.com/posts/origins-of-first-86366245

At the height of their power in the Baroque Age, the Habsburgs aspired to rule the entire world; by the end of the ninetheenth century, they strove merely to maintain control over the volatile lands of the upper Danube valley. We trace how the Habsburgs' domains evolved from a messy collection of local duchies into an absolutist empire, and finally into a complex military-industrial state, the home of artistic modernism, which was nonetheless threatened with destruction by a welter of nationalist movements and by the rising power of Serbia and Russia. Previous lecture on Central Europe & the Rise of the Habsburgs: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/age-of-absolutism-1-central-europe-and-the-rise-of-the-hapsburgs Image: Painting by Johann Nepomuk Geller of Emperor Franz-Josef walking in the gardens of the Schonbrunn in winter, 1908 Suggested further reading: Mason, "The Dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire"; Sked, "The Decline & Fall of the Habsburg Empire"; Kohn, "The Habsburg Empire"; Rady, "The Habsburgs: To Rule the World." music: J.S. Bach, Sonata No. 4 in E Minor, played on pedal clavichord by Blaint Karosi. Please support this podcast to hear patron-only lectures, including an upcoming examination of the history of Bosnia -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

We continue the epic history of Western architecture by tracing how medieval builders and their patrons revived the art of building in stone once more, and used it to craft monumental edifices into intimate, atmospheric spaces in the Romanesque age, before reaching for the heavens with soaring Gothic vaults and spires, and then returning once more to earth with the simple, balanced dignity of the Renaissance. See the first part of the series here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwCuQLuajn8 Image of the unrealized plan of Beauvais Cathedral courtesy of Myles Zhang, https://www.myleszhang.org/2021/12/25/beauvais-cathedral/ Please support this podcast to help keep these lectures coming! – https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632 See the video of this lecture here: https://youtube.com/live/qgzvVd6oNUM

The center of every sacred mystery, the Temple at Jerusalem is the most famous building on earth, even though it has not existed for almost 2000 years and no one knows precisely what it looked like. We join with Michael of “Xai, How Are You” to discuss Solomon’s Temple – both the real historical building as it can be reconstructed from ancient texts and archaeology, and the symbol that has been endlessly appropriated to represent humankind’s relationship to the cosmos, from Jewish mysticism, to Christian theology, to early Islam, to medieval magic, to Renaissance humanism, to the rituals of Freemasonry, to modern Jewish and evangelical fundamentalism. Suggested further reading: Hamblin & Seely, “Solomon’s Temple: Myth and History” Image: page of the "Perpignan Bible," France, 1299, depicting ritual objects in the Temple, including the Menorah My previous lectures on Freemasonry: https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/the-freemasonry-its-origins-its-myths-and-its-rituals https://soundcloud.com/historiansplaining/freemasonry-its-growth-and-spread-before-1789 Correction: There is archaeological and textual evidence for two Israelite temples in Egypt -- one at Leontopolis in the Nile delta, and one at Elephantine in Upper Egypt. Please support this podcast! – https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

Unlocked after one year for patrons only: One moonlit night in 1853, an Iraqi excavator named Hormuzd Rassam and his team snuck into the hills outside of Mosul and began to uncover the massive palace of the last ancient Assyrian emperor, Ashurbanipal. Inside the palace was the largest trove of surviving documents from the ancient world that has ever been found. The massive library of over 30,000 tablets illuminated what had been the most mysterious empire of the Iron Age, brought to light the ancient masterpiece of the Epic of Gilgamesh, and provided the first window into the lost Near Eastern mythology that influenced the Biblical book of Genesis. While the discovery provided the greatest triumph of British imperial antiquarianism, in recent times Saddam Hussein and other Arab nationalists have attempted to reclaim its legacy by building a modern Library of Ashurbanipal. Suggested further reading: Damrosch, "The Buried Book." Image: relief sculpture showing Ashurbanipal slaying a lion with a writing stylus tucked into his belt Please become a patron to support this podcast, and to hear all patron-only lectures as soon as they are posted, including the latest, "Myth of the Month 22: Culture" -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632

We consider the history and explosive politics of the often-forgotten Eastern European nation that set the events of the First World War in motion: Serbia. We examine the country’s emergence and brief flowering as an Eastern Orthodox kingdom in the high Middle Ages, its fall to the Ottoman advance, its many years of quiet resistance in religion and song, its re-emergence amidst the Napoleonic wars and the Ottoman breakdown, and finally, its long-frustrated quest to fulfill its purported destiny of reunifying the Southern Slavs, which led a militant and conspiratorial secret society to murder their own country’s king and to smuggle teenage assassins across the border to kill their rivals’ crown prince. Image: Golubac Fortress, eastern Serbia, seen from across the Danube River Intro & Outro music: Bach, Sonata no. 4 in E Minor, played on clavichord by Balint Karosi

What is "culture"? And how did a metaphor from gardening invade social-science discourse in 19th-century Germany and America and then take the world by storm? Am I doing "podcast culture" right now? However you define it, I make the case that it is the defining myth of our time, and that we should get rid of it. Image: "Old New York" diorama, Museum of Natural History, New York Suggested reading: Michael A. Elliott, "The Culture Concept: Writing and Difference in the Age of Realism" Please sign up as a patron to hear the whole discussion! -- https://www.patreon.com/posts/82746773

For over a century, scholars, politicians, and pundits have debated the supposed causes of the First World War, from German naval provocations to the rising global tide of nationalism. All of these explanations tend to ignore the simple fact that the war began in eastern Europe, triggered by regional feuding and violence in what had previously been the Ottoman provinces. We begin our exploration of the roots of World War I by following the struggles of the declining Ottoman Empire to hold its ground and contain ethnic and religious strife as Western powers circle like vultures around the so-called "sick man of Europe." Image: View over Topkapi Palace, Istanbul, to the Bosporus Suggested further reading: Alan Palmer, "Decline and Fall of the Ottoman Empire." music: "Fandango," by Scarlatti or Soler, midi file version by El Gran Mago Paco Quito. Please become a patron to support the podcast and hear patron-only lectures, including upcoming Myth of the Month: Culture -- https://www.patreon.com/user?u=5530632