History Unplugged Podcast

Call-in show and interviews on history topics with experts and authors AI summary

History Unplugged Visit website › History · EN · 1137 episodes · latest 2026-11-12

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What it is about

For history lovers who listen to podcasts, History Unplugged is the most comprehensive show of its kind. It's the only show that dedicates episodes to both interviewing experts and answering questions from its audience. First, it features a call-in show where you can ask our resident historian (Scott Rank, PhD) absolutely anything (What was it like to be a Turkish sultan with four wives and twelve concubines? If you were sent back in time, how would you kill Hitler?). Second, it features long-form interviews with best-selling authors who have written about everything. Topics include gruff World War II generals who flew with airmen on bombing raids, a war horse who gained the rank of sergeant, and presidents who gave their best speeches while drunk.

Publisher’s own description, taken unchanged from the podcast feed.

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Latest episodes

The Battle of Blood River: When 450 Boers Killed 15,000 Zulus

2026-11-12 · 49 min

By the 1830s, the Zulu kingdom was consolidating its power as the strongest African polity in the south-east, but was under growing pressure from British traders and hunters on the coast, and descendants of the early…
"Lord" Means Bread-Guardian and “Lady” Means “Bread-Kneader”: The 1000-Year-Old Histories Hidden in Everyday Words

2026-11-10 · 42 min

The English word "lord" is hiding a loaf of bread. It descends from the Old English hlaford, a compound of hlaf (loaf) and weard (warden): a lord was literally a bread-guardian, the person who controlled the food supply…
Was Robin Hood Actually an Anglo-Saxon Hitman

2026-11-05 · 43 min

Contrary to popular belief, Robin Hood may not have been the merry medieval outlaw of Sherwood Forest. Rather, a look at real historical figures who inspired the legend are narrowed down to the most unlikely suspect: an…
Andrew Mellon Nearly Ended Big Government Forever. FDR Destroyed Him For It

2026-11-03 · 46 min

When Andrew Mellon arrived in Marion, Ohio, for his interview with President-elect Warren Harding in December 1920, nobody met him at the train station. The third-richest man in America picked up his worn leather valise…
The Mongols on the High Seas: The Yuan Dynasty's Massive Navy

2026-10-29 · 50 min

Genghis Khan built a formidable land empire, but he never crossed the sea. Yet by the time his grandson Kublai Khan had defeated the last vestiges of the Song empire and established the Yuan dynasty in 1279, the Mongols…
Amazon Won’t Destroy Bookshops Because 600 Years of Disruptions Haven’t Either

2026-10-27 · 47 min

In 1784, a young German immigrant named Bernard Quaritch walked into the London office of Henry George Bohn, one of the largest booksellers in England, and told him: "Mr Bohn, you are the first bookseller in England. I…
The Ancient World's Best Military Technology Was Constantinople's City Walls

2026-10-22 · 40 min

On May 29, 1453, Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II captured Constantinople, bringing an end to over a thousand years of Byzantine rule. The city's formidable walls, which had stood nearly impenetrable for eight centuries,…
Edgar Allen Poe’s Self-Sabotage, Early Death, and Path to Becoming America’s Greatest Poet

2026-10-20 · 46 min

In the summer of 1849, Edgar Allan Poe knocked on the door of his friend John Sartain's Philadelphia workshop, wild-eyed and without luggage. He had fled a train in New Jersey after overhearing passengers plotting to…
England's Last Knights Fought in Armor Until the 1640s

2026-10-15 · 42 min

The 17th-century battlefield ushered in a new era, with formed musketeers and pistol-wielding cavalry gradually taking over from the knights and men-at-arms that had dominated the European battlefield. But knights could…
Vikings Went from Christendom’s Terror to Its Best Crusaders

2026-10-13 · 47 min

In 1861, an archaeologist named James Farrer broke into a grass-covered Neolithic tomb on the Orkney Islands expecting to find ancient bones and treasure. The tomb was empty. But its walls were covered with runic…

Episode details from the publisher’s feed. Playback happens at the publisher.

Publisher details

Owner: Support
Oldest episode in feed: 05/2017 · over 9 years
Typical length: 42 min
Format: Episodic Newest first, episodes stand alone

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