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
Jan 20, 2023 • 1h 5min
AskHistorians Podcast Episode 213 - The World The Plague Made with James Belich
Tyler Alderson talks with Professor James Belich of Balliol College, Oxford about the dramatic aftereffects of the Black Death. From the immediate shocks to the lingering ripples centuries later, Belich shows the influence that this unimaginable calamity had on shaping the world as we know it, including the rise of colonialism and the Atlantic slave trade. 65 mins.
6 snips
Jan 5, 2023 • 38min
AskHistorians Podcast Episode 212 – Public Transport in North America with Jake Berman
Jeremy Salkeld talks with Jake Berman about the development of public transport in the US and Canada, and the background to the US' modern issues with urban transport infrastructure, including the rise and fall of the streetcar and difficulties with establishing light and underground rail systems. Also discussed is the idea that there is not so much a single history of North American public transport, so much as a series of individual, city-specific histories, situated in continent-wide milieus. 38 mins.
Dec 3, 2022 • 57min
AskHistorians Podcast Episode 211 - The Beat Cop with Michael O'Malley
Tyler Alderson talks with Michael O'Malley about his new book The Beat Cop, exploring the life of Irish music collector (and Chicago police chief) Francis O'Neill. O'Malley details O'Neill's life as well as his influence on our concepts of "Irish music." He also examines the power dynamics at play when a well-connected police chief collects music from his community, and the biases apparent in O'Neill's work. 58m.
Nov 17, 2022 • 50min
AskHistorians Podcast Episode 210: Lydia Maria Child with Lydia Moland
Jennifer Borgioli Binis (EdHistory101) talks with Lydia Moland about her new book on suffragist, poet, author, and abolitionist Lydia Maria Child. They discuss Child's complicated life, the ways she sought and used the power accessible to her, and the choices she made as a well-educated white woman with a fierce commitment to social justice. 50 mins.
Nov 3, 2022 • 1h 24min
AskHistorians Podcast Episode 209 - Public History and Outreach with Bret Devereaux and Roel Konijnendijk
/u/Steelcan909 talks with Bret Devereaux and our own Roel Konijnendijk about public history, the changing role of historians both inside and outside of the academy, and of course on proper ditch digging tecninques. 82m,
Oct 6, 2022 • 54min
AskHistorians Podcast Episode 208 - Pirates and Public History with Rebecca Simon
Tyler Alderson talks with Rebecca Simon about the difference between fact and fiction in the Golden Age of Piracy. Simon also discusses the challenges and opportunities of public-facing history work, including social media like TikTok. 54m
Sep 23, 2022 • 55min
AskHistorians Podcast Episode 207 -The People's Democracy Party with Darren Colbourne
In this episode, Morgan Lewin talks to Darren Colbourne about the origins of Northern Ireland's People's Democracy Party, its early days, motivations, its connections to the United States civil rights movement, and its eventual gradual dissolution.
Aug 25, 2022 • 1h 9min
AskHistorians Podcast Episode 206 – The Moscow Metro with /u/mikitacurve
Jeremy Salkeld (EnclavedMicrostate) talks with /u/mikitacurve about the creation and development of the Moscow Metro under Stalin, its origins in Soviet debates over urban planning, and how the art and monumentality of the underground railroad reflected the utopian ideals of the Soviet Union, even amid the ongoing Terror on the surface. 70 mins.
Jul 31, 2022 • 49min
AskHistorians Podcast Episode 205 - Götz von Berlichingen and Robber Knights of the Holy Roman Empire with /u/PartyMoses
Jeremy Salkeld (EnclavedMicrostate) talks with /u/PartyMoses about the life and times of robber knight Götz von Berlichingen, who fought in various conflicts in the Holy Roman Empire in the early sixteenth century, and most famously did so with a prosthetic right hand. Topics discussed include martial culture, the politics of the Holy Roman Empire in the reign of Charles V, and disability in Early Modern Europe. 49 mins.
Jul 14, 2022 • 1h 3min
AskHistorians Podcast Episode 204 - Residential Schools in Canada with Elle Ransom
Morgan Lewin (u/aquatermain) talks with Elle Ransom (u/anthropology_nerd) about the history and legacy of residential schools in Canada. Ransom explores why these schools were built, what went on in them, and their lasting impact on indigenous communities in Canada. 63m.
