The AskHistorians Podcast
The AskHistorians Mod Team
The AskHistorians Podcast showcases the knowledge and enthusiasm of the AskHistorians community, a forum of nearly 1.4 million history academics, professionals, amateurs, and curious onlookers. The aim is to be a resource accessible to a wide range of listeners for historical topics which so often go overlooked. Together, we have a broad array of people capable of speaking in-depth on topics that get half a page on Wikipedia, a paragraph in a high-school textbook, and not even a minute on the History channel. The podcast aims to give a voice (literally!) to those areas of history, while not neglecting the more commonly covered topics. Part of the drive behind the podcast is to be a counterpoint to other forms of popular media on history which only seem to cover the same couple of topics in the same couple of ways over and over again.
Episodes
Mentioned books
Mar 13, 2015 • 1h 11min
AskHistorians Podcast 032 - Early Modern Medicine & Women's Health
Dr. Jennifer Evans, lecturer in history at the University of Hertfordshire, and Dr. Sara Read, lecturer in English at Loughborough University, make a special appearance on the AskHistorians podcast to discuss women's health in England during the early modern era. Covering the medical schema and standard of care of the time, Drs. Read and Evans touch on fertility, infections, menstruation, and the lived experience of women at the time. More of their work can be found on their blog, Early Modern Medicine. In addition, both have works of interest: Dr. Evans' Aphrodisiacs, Fertility and Medicine in Early Modern England is available from Boydell & Brewer, and Dr. Read's Menstruation and the Female Body in Early Modern England is available from Palgrave-MacMillan.
Feb 27, 2015 • 1h 13min
AskHistorians Podcast 031 - China: Great Leap Forward
Cordis_Melum discusses the ambitious mid-20th Century modernization program in mainland China known as the Great Leap Forward. The ideology behind the push to establish a self-sufficient communist utopia; the steps and mis-steps taken in industry and agriculture; the political blowback; and the aftermath covered.
Feb 13, 2015 • 51min
AskHistorians Podcast 030 - Book of Daniel, Part 2
Continuing the conversation with Husky54 about the Book of Daniel. In this episode we cover the later chapters of Daniel before moving on to chapters and additional text considered apocryphal in some traditions. Till 18:38 - Chapters 8-12 18:38 - Prayer of Azariah 26:28 - Susanna and the Elders 33:37 - Bel and the Dragon 43:14 - Interpretations of Daniel
Jan 30, 2015 • 1h 19min
AskHistorians Podcast 029 - Book of Daniel
Husky54 returns to the podcast for an in-depth delve into Daniel, the Book of. Approaching the work as a historical text, this episode -- the first of two -- covers the relationship of Daniel to other works in the Hebrew Bible; the language and content of the first seven chapters; and situates the book within the historical context of the time it was written. 3:20 - Background and Dating the Text 16:50 - Chapters 1 & 2 33:35 - Chapter 3 41:17 - Chapter 4 48:53 - Chapter 5 54:20 - Chapter 6 & Darius the Mede 1:05:17 - Chapter 7
Jan 16, 2015 • 1h 39min
AskHistorians Podcast 028 - Alaskan Disasters
James Brooks, city editor of the Juneau Empire and author of 9.2: Kodiak Island and the World's Second-Largest Earthquake, talks on four natural and manmade disasters in Alaska. Through the 1912 Katmai-Novarupta volcanic eruption, the 1925 Nome Serum Run, the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake, and the 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill, we get a picture of how the state of Alaska changed throughout the 20th century.
Jan 2, 2015 • 1h 38min
AskHistorians Podcast 027 - Language Policy in Modern East Asia
Keyilan takes on the topic of official language policy in China (both PRC and Taiwan), North and South Korea, and Japan. Dispelling some myths about languages in East Asia, he goes on to cover efforts at character simplification; efforts to promulgate "proper" language; modern linguistic differences stemming from political divisions; and why Taiwan spoke Japanese for a while, among much more. One of our longer single episodes, China takes up most of the show, with Korea being covered around minute 56 and the section on Japan around 1 hour 20 minutes in.
Dec 19, 2014 • 1h 10min
AskHistorians Podcast 026 - South Korea: Politics and Protests
AsiaExpert provides an overview of the politics and social unrest of South Korea since the end of the Korean War. Starting from the meteoric rise of Syngman Rhee and continuing up to the establishment of the 6th Republic, this episode covers everything from the April Revolution, to Park dictatorship, to the chaebol system, to some reasons why South Koreans today may be less familiar with the smell of tear gas than their parents and grandparents.
Dec 5, 2014 • 1h 3min
AskHistorians Podcast 025 - Mongols: China and the Yuan Dynasty
Jasfss continues our examination of the Mongols, this time on the Eastern side of Asia. We start with the socio-political -- even artistic -- state of China on the eve of the Mongol advance before moving on to Kublai's establishment of the Yuan Dynasty and the final fall of the Song. We then move on to how the Mongols dealt with finding themselves as the ruling dynasty of China and their eventual downfall.
Nov 21, 2014 • 1h 18min
AskHistorians Podcast 024 - Mongols: Ilkhanate
Rakony discusses the Ilkhanate, the portion of the Mongol Empire in Persia and the surrounding areas. The reasons for the Mongol push into the area, why it did not go farther, and how the local peoples and the Mongols accomodated to each other, somewhat ironically leading to a resugence of Persian culture. Also, a surprising amoung of digging up graves.
Nov 7, 2014 • 1h 2min
AskHistorians Podcast 023 - Alchemy and the History of Science
Bemonk, host of the History of Alchemy Podcast (among others), speaks on how the practices and concepts of alchemy relate to the development of modern scientific methods and ideas. Covered in the talk are some basic pointers about what alchemy is, how long it has been around, differences between "Western" and "Eastern" alchemy, notable figures, and urine.
