The AskHistorians Podcast

This week, u/EdHistory101 talks with Mary Ziegler about her book, [Personhood: The New Civil War over Reproduction](https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300273045/personhood/). The conversation covers Ziegler's role as the first historian looking at the intersection of law and abortion, some of the history of personhood, what it's like to do an AMA from the other side of the keyboard and more! (38 minutes) Be sure to visit the subreddit thread if you have any questions for Dr. Ziegler. 

Steelcan909 and Halofreak1171 pick up their previous discussion of Australian history.  This time they focus on the sudden rise and equally rapid fall of Australia's interwar fascist movement, the New Guard. 54min.

This time we have a flaired user, u/HaloFreak1171, talking about Australian History with u/Steelcan909.  This is part one of a two part conversation, about the start of Australian colonization, the later career of one Willliam Bligh, and the outbreak of a military coup in Sydney! 48min.   Be sure to check out their podcast, A History of Australia, here!

A slightly different episode this week! u/EdHistory101 talks with Judy Hart about her book, A National Park for Women's Rights: The Campaign That Made It Happen. Judy not only made history as the lead advocate for the park, she helped ensure women's history would be immortalized. The conversation covers the shift from thinking about National Parks as being about places to a way to memorialize stories, the role of women in the creation of the park and other national parks, and the role of "winsome smiles" for park rangers. You can see the maps that Judy praises here. 40 minutes.

EdHistory101 talks with Matthew Ehrlich about his book The Krebiozen Hoax: How a Mysterious Cancer Drug Shook Organized Medicine. 45 minutes. Episode discussion on Reddit. 

EdHistory101 talks with historian Scott Spillman about his book on the history of the study of slavery as an academic discipline. 50 mins

Steelcan909 and warneagle discuss the unique nature of Soviet prisoners of war during the Second World War.  The differences between Soviet and Western prisoners, soviet political commissars, and the intersection of the Soviet experience of the war with the Holocaust are discussed. 49min

Steelcan909 discusses the roll of podcasts, alt-acadmia, and the surprising complexity behind historical podcasting shows with Jeannete Patrick of R2 Studios. 43min.

Steelcan909 talks with Dr. Justin Sledge of the YouTube channel Esoterica about his experiences in public historical outreach, YouTube, and his own methodology. 56 min.

EdHistory101 talks with Susan Brewer about her book, The Best Land: Four Hundred Years of Love and Betrayal on Oneida Territory. 

EdHistory101 and Kathryn Gehred talk about her podcast about women's letters, women's history, and her work as a documentary editor. 

Steelcan909 and Max Miller of Tasting History discuss youtube, history outside of academia, research troubles, and battling historical myths.  58min.

We have a slightly different format for this podcast episode!  A little while ago we floated the idea to our flaired users of a podcast episode where various answers were read out by the answerers themselves.  This lets our flaired users highlight some of their answers that they think were particularly spectacular, and gives their answers another chance to reacha new audience!  On our first episode of this type, user trevor_culley reads off four of his answers on Persian History! 43min.

In this episode, Jenn Binis (EdHistory101) talks with with u/LostHistoryBooks about lost - and found - American history texts. They discuss the history of Black education, Black history, American history, and more! 45 mins.

EnclavedMicrostate (Jeremy) talks with /u/thebigbosshimself about the leadup to the 1974 Ethiopian Revolution, which saw the overthrow of the Solomonic dynasty and its replacement by the military junta known as the Derg. 53 mins.

EnclavedMicrostate (Jeremy) and Lubyak (Chris) talk with Drachinifel about doing naval history on Youtube, covering the opportunities and challenges of Youtube as a platform for public history. Near the end is also a Q&A specifically on naval history topics. 59 mins.

In this episode, Jenn Binis (EdHistory101) talks with Rebecca Clarren, Investigative Reporter, and author of THE COST OF FREE LAND: JEWS, LAKOTA AND AN AMERICAN INHERITANCE. The conversation explores her research process, the concept of intertwined histories, and the role of the author in such histories. 42 minutes.

In this episode, Jenn Binis (EdHistory101) talks with with Darrin M. McMahon about his book, EQUALITY: The History of an Elusive Idea. They discuss the difference between equity and equality, scholarship around the history of an idea, and the adventures of conducting research across multiple eras and places. 52 mins.

Steelcan909 talks with Andrew Rakich of Atun-Shei films about his new release, the Sudbury Devil.  The episode is split into a spoiler free section and a spoiler section.  Spoilers for the movie start at 30 minutes.  75 minutes.

Tyler Alderson talks with members of the Australian Haydn Ensemble about historical performance in classical music. From instruments to techniques, the ensemble aims to play the music of the 18th century the way that composers like Haydn and Mozart would have heard it. 39m

Steelcan909 talks with James Currie about the recent proliferation of books about the crusades written by conservative Catholic writers and their sympathizers.  Two books are examined for their ideaological dimensions and what they say about the crusades and their reception almost 1000 years after their events.  Warning signs for biased history books, inter-Catholic disputes, the relationship between Catholic "historians" and the Catholic Church, and alternative reading suggestions are discussed.  58min.

Jeremy Salkeld talks with Dr. Mitch Maki of the Go For Broke National Education Center about Japanese-American internment, the 442nd Infantry Regiment, and the Japanese-American campaign for redress and recognition in the postwar decades. Also discussed are relations between Hawaiian-born and continental-born Japanese-Americans, and the efforts of the Go For Broke center's efforts to promote awareness and bring about positive social change. 36 mins.

Morgan Lewin Campos chats with Dr Claire Aubin (@ceaubin on Twitter) about the challenges of studying fascism and violence in the current global political climate, as well as the problems sensationalistic and revisionistic historical writing creates for public history. (68 mins)

We're back! Jennifer Borgioli Binis (EdHistory101) talks with J. C. Hallman, author of "Say Anarcha: A Young Woman, a Devious Surgeon, and the Harrowing Birth of Modern Women's Health." Heads up that the episode talks about some of the experiences enslaved women had with J. Marion Sims, who had been long credited as "the father of gynocology." They discuss how Hallman approached the research as a non-historian, dynamics around identity, and the genre of speculative of non-fiction. The archive for the book is at: https://anarchaarchive.com/. 

Steelcan909 talks with Andrew Rakich from Atun-Shei Films about the role of YouTube in public historical outreach, filmaking, and the comments sections that you dread to look at.  79 minutes.

Tyler Alderson talks to fellow moderator u/hannahstohelit about golems, their origins in Jewish mysticism and folklore, and the various depictions of them throughout the years. 81m.

Steelcan909 sits down to talk about YouTube, Hollywood, and Netflix with DW Draffin, operator of the YouTube Channel "Study of Antiquty and the Middle Ages". 65 mins

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.

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.

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.

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.

/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,

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

Jeremy Salkeld (EnclavedMicrostate) talks with /u/the_gubna about the field of historical archaeology and the latter's research on the Camino Real in the colonial Andes, discussing the history of this highway and of the people who used it. 32 mins. 

Jeremy Salkeld (EnclavedMicrostate) talks with /u/Dongzhou3kingdoms about the effect the Romance of the Three Kingdoms has had on online discourse about the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, and how discussions of the period's history continue to be framed in relation to the literary tradition. 45 mins.

Tyler Alderson talks with u/Valkine, otherwise known as Stuart Ellis-Gorman, about his new book The Medieval Crossbow. Ellis-Gorman discusses what we do and don't know about its origins, its history as a weapon "fit to kill a king," and the many legends and tall tales surrounding the crossbow. He also talks about continuing to do academic research outside of traditional academia. 55m.

For the 200th episode, guest host Jennifer Borgioli Binis (EdHistory101) spoke with one of the country's pre-eminent scholars on American higher education and McCarthism. Dr. Schrecker shares her experiences as a researcher, historian, and woman in academia. 1 hour, 11 minutes.

Tyler Alderson talks with Joan De Jean about her new book Mutinous Women: How French Convicts Became Founding Mothers of the Gulf Coast. We discussed the complicated lives and legacies of the women who were shipped from France across the Atlantic to the Louisiana colony. 52m.

Fraser Raeburn talks with Jason Steinhauer about how the internet has shaped the consumption and production of historical knowledge, as detailed in Jason's new book, History Disrupted: How Social Media and the World Wide Web Have Changed the Past. 40 minutes. A transcript of this episode will be forthcoming.

Morgan Lewin talks with Stegan Aguirre Quiroga about his new book, White Mythic Space: Racism, the First World War, and Battlefield 1, and about the construction of idealized representations of whiteness in the histories of Argentina and Chile. 1 hour.

In this special episode of the AskHistorians podcast, /u/hannahstohelit and /u/EnclavedMicrostate talk about one of the more unusual history-related conspiracy theories of recent years: Tartaria. Why are thousands of internet users convinced of the existence of a lost empire in Eurasia? Where does post-Soviet nationalism come into it? And why are they so obsessed with big buildings? All this and more will be revealed in this special. 60 mins. A transcript of this episode can be found here.

Tyler Alderson talks with pipe organist and Juilliard professor Paul Jacobs about the history of the instrument and his upcoming recital series of the music of César Franck. 34 mins.

In this episode, Morgan Lewin (/u/aquatermain) speaks with Meg Hyland (/u/kelpie-cat) about her Women Of 1000 AD project, a digital public history project and teaching tool that showcases the histories of women from all over the globe who lived in and around the year 1000 CE through hand-made illustrations and thoroughly researched write-ups about their lives and cultures. 65 mins.

Jeremy Salkeld (EnclavedMicrostate) talks with Dr. Joseph W. Ho on the subject of his new book, 'Developing Mission: Photography, Filmmaking, and American Missionaries in Modern China'. While missionary photographers in China have often been approached either as missionaries or as photographers, Dr. Ho's book approaches the subject in its entirety, discussing the role photography played in the missionary enterprise, and in the creation and continuance of Chinese Christian communities in the 20th century. 30 mins.

Tyler Alderson talks to fellow moderator u/Steelcan909 about the religion of the Norse, often called "Norse mythology." They discuss what we do and don't know about religious practice, the truth behind popular conceptions of the Norse gods, and why this religion has continued to feature heavily in pop culture. 

In this episode, Morgan Lewin (u/Aquatermain) talks with Dan Howlett (u/dhowlett1692) about disability in early America.  In this conversation, they cover how to define disability historically, how to find disability in the archives, and how disability shaped events like the Salem Witch Trials. 53 minutes.

In this episode, /u/EnclavedMicrostate talks with Trevor Culley about the Cyrus Cylinder, an inscription dictated by the first ruler of the Persian Empire. Aside from the text of the cylinder and its historical context, also discussed is the use of the cylinder in modern Iranian nation-building. 48 mins.