All Episodes
Displaying 91 - 120 of 123 in total
Episode 31 - Feudalism
You probably have heard of Prince William and his wife Kate. You might have heard of their official titles, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. Or William’s dad, Prin...
Episode 30 - The Vikings!
Last episode, we talked about the Charles the Hammer and his son Charlemagne, and the Carolingian renaissance in France and western Europe. After Charley and Charley...
Episode 29 - Charles Martel and Charlemagne
Last episode, we talked about the rise of Islam, and how it swept over the Middle East, Central Asia, and across North Africa. And I mentioned that the Islamic Caliph...
Episode 28 - The Rise of Islam
Ok, so Europe was reeling from the volcanic winter of 536, and then the subsequent Plague of Justinian in 541, and it was beginning to descend into the Dark Ages. B...
Episode 27 - What Has Been Going on in the Rest of the World while We Were Talking about Rome for 12 Episodes
Before we get fully into the Middle Ages, and all the cool barbarian stuff that happens there, like Vikings, let’s take stock of the rest of how the rest of the world ...
Episode 26 - Rome Falls, and the Dark Ages Begin
I’m going to begin this episode with a famous quote from Edward Gibbon, from his massive work, the History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire: The decli...
Episode 25 - Constantine, the Church, and the Creeds
In the late 200’s while the Roman Empire was struggling with a long series of bad emperors and empire-wide troubles with barbarians, Christianity was spreading all thr...
Episode 24 - The Height of the Roman Empire
From the time that Caesar Augustus took control and turned Rome into an Empire, until about 200 years later, Rome enjoyed a time of unparalleled peace and prosperity....
Episode 23 - The Early Church and the Bible
Remember how, a few episodes ago, we left Julius Caesar on the floor of the Senate, in a pool of blood? Well, that’s NOT how we left Jesus at the end of the last epis...
Episode 22 - The Life of Jesus the Messiah
There’s really no debate that Jesus was one of the most important people in all of history, but there are two ways to look at that. On the one hand, his life, death...
Episode 21 - The Fullness of Time
In two places in the the New Testament, the Apostle Paul uses the phrase, ‘in the fullness of time,’ to indicate that in some way, the time was ripe for the Messiah to...
Episode 20 - Caesar Augustus and the Rise of the Empire
So last episode we left Julius Caesar lying on the floor in a pool of blood. Some in the Senate were very happy about this, but generally speaking, most of Rome liked...
Episode 19 - Julius Caesar and the End of the Roman Republic
We’re about to look at one of the most interesting, most famous people in all of history - Julius Caesar. If you had to choose the 5 most famous people of all time,...
Episode 18 - The Decline of the Roman Republic
In order to cover Caesar well, I think I’m going to spend this episode not on Caesar, but on the events that lead up to Caesar. Also, the stuff leading up to Caesar ...
Episode 17 - The Punic Wars
Throughout Roman history, from the early days of the republic to the last days of the empire, Rome was threatened by barbarian tribes. They came marching down from no...
Episode 15 - The Early Roman Republic
When Rome got rid of her last king, an aftereffect was that Rome had a long-lasting hatred of tyrants, and so the government they set up was designed to prevent any on...
Episode 14 - The Founding of Rome
OK, I’ve been building up to Rome for basically this whole podcast so far, and now it’s time to finally start talking about it. In this episode, I want to answer the ...
Episode 13 - The Buddha
So we’re back in the mid-500’s BC, and we are back in India, slowly working our way around to talking about the Buddha. Before I talk about his life though, I thi...
Episode 12 - Philip of Macedon, Alexander the Great, and the Spread of Greek Culture
The really golden part of the Golden Age of Greece took place in a pretty small area, actually. It took place mostly on the Attic peninsula, and mostly in the city of...
Episode 11 - Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle
As the battles between Athens and Sparta were going on, oddly enough, some very important philosophical questions were being asked; questions that philosophers and th...
Episode 10 - The Peloponnesian Wars
The Golden Age of Greece, which we focused on last episode, lasted from around 528 BC to 323 BC, and it was a time of great prosperity in Greece. And that very prospe...
Episode 9 - Athenian Democracy and the Golden Age of Greece
So what made it golden? What made it a classic? Well, there were two ascendent cities during this time, Athens and Sparta. They both were incredibly prosperous, and...
Episode 8.1 - Ancient Greek Military Strategy
A side trip to look at ancient Greek military strategy and weapons. Specifically hoplites and triremes.
Episode 8 - The Persian Wars
We’re talking today about the ancient wars between Greece and Persia. I’ve mentioned that Greece has had an important impact on the western world, but did you know th...
Episode 7 - The Kingdom of Israel
Israel had an outsized influence on the history of the Western world, considering its size and significance in Ancient history.
Episode 6 - The Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Trojan War
One of the most famous events of the ancient world is war between the Greeks and the Trojans, which is told in the epic novel the Iliad, and then finished in the Odyss...
Episode 5.1 - The Development of Written Language and Literacy
I thought we’d take a side journey into something that I find really fascinating: the development of written languages. And we’re also going to do something else a b...
Episode 5 - Early Greece and the first City-states
It’s hard to overstate how important ancient Greece was in terms of influencing the western world. Art, government and politics, literature, philosophy, athletics, ma...
Episode 4 - The Gods of Egypt and the Law of Moses
The Gods of Egypt, and the Law of Moses. Today we are going to look at one of the more important, and durable, civilizations of the ancient world - Egypt
