Podcasts about global history

As a saint caught between the Italian and Iberian worlds, Saint Louis of Toulouse (d. 1297) is an important yet often forgotten piece of the religious and political history of Iberian expansion. In this episode, PhD candidate Jessica Minieri and MMA Pod producer Loren Cantrell trace the long history of the theft, movement, and translation of the relics of Louis of Toulouse—a saint associated with the House of Anjou in the Kingdom of Naples. Between his death and 1800, Louis's relics were split between cities in Iberia, southern France, the Philippines, and California all in connection with Spanish conquest worldwide.For more information, visit www.multiculturalmiddleages.com.

In this episode, cohost Sergio Infante and I talk to AndrésM. Guiot-Isaac about his book in progress, titled Development with Stability. In it, Guiot Isaac takes the lens of the emergence of economic technocracy in Colombia between1948 and 1974 to understand how the production and circulation of economic expertise allowed states in developing countries to buildcapacities to act on the economy. As the title suggests, Andres argues that the infrastructures that allowed economists to occupy decision-making positions in governments over the decades emerged with the aspiration to reconcile economic development with stability. That these things werecompatible was not a given. We trace the tension between the tecnicos and los politicos as the central economic planning inistuttions – such as the National Planning Department – were emerging. That is, between the emerging economic technocratic class – very young, highly educated, covered by the president Lleras' Restepo's patronage – and the political establishment accustomed to influencing economic policy along sectoral and electoral interests. This playsout against the background of the evolution of economic planning, the rise and fall of comprehensive planning – pushed by the structuralist ECLAC, or CEPAL in Spanish – and how it gave way to what Andres calls “bottom-up” or strategic planning.The conversation gets pretty in the weeds – and I LOVED it. Not only because of my family connection to one of the economists involved (one of them is my grandfather) , but because this is also closely linked to my own PhD research about what I callthe techno-politics of economic expertise. I think that this type of granular economic history as pointing to concerns as pervasive as any other facet of urban life, and maybe even more. Studying this development of economic governance reveals its contingent character, and reminds us that it could be different. This episode is a beautiful example of the critical function of this type of history. Andrés M. Guiot-Isaac is visiting professor of Economics at the Universidad de los Andes (Colombia) and will join the Department of Economic History, Institutions and Policy, and World Economy at the Universidad de Barcelona as AssistantProfessor in January 2027.  He formerly held a post-doctoral fellowship in the Department of Economic History at theLondon School of Economics. Before joining the LSE, Andrés completed his PhD in the University of Oxford. His doctoral dissertation, on which Development with Stability is based, was awarded the Joseph Dorfman 2024 Prize for the Best Dissertation in the History of Economics by the History of Economics Society. His research about development economics, developing planning and the role of foreign experts in developing countries has been published in History of Political Economy, Oeconomia and Science in Context. He also translated Hirschman's biography by Jeremy Adelman Worldly Philosopher into Spanish.Sergio Infante is a Ph.D. candidate in Global History at Yale University. His research explores how twentieth-century social scientists and intellectuals understood poverty, employment, and economic development, all with a special focus on Latin America. He is writing a history of the “informal sector” and “informal economy” as concepts. This project reconstructs debates over the business savviness, risk-taking behavior, and vulnerabilities of the global poor. It also contextualizes contemporary anxieties over “precarity” and “gig work.” Sergio's research touches on several themes that concern historians of the recent past, including transnational migration, urbanization, population growth, technocracy, democracy, and the Cold War. 

What's a garnet mined in Sri Lanka two and a half thousand years ago doing in a silver hairpin dug up near Bruges? Why are the Duke of Burgundy and the conqueror of Constantinople staring each other down for the first time in history? And, how did most of Belgium forget that its own counts once sat on the throne of Constantinople?Afua turns interviewer as Peter opens the doors on Bigger Picture, the exhibition he has spent four years building to reframe Bruges as one of the great connected cities of the medieval world.It's the opening show at BRUSK, Bruges' vast new exhibition hall — 250 objects from 90 lenders, among them a Memling released from Turin, a Vatican portrait of Alexios I Komnenos that has never been lent before, and Gentile Bellini's Mehmed II brought face to face with Philip the Good. Along the way: a very Belgian silence, a wall of Bruce Springsteen memoirs, the price of medieval pepper — and Peter greeting visitors as a hologram.Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fm[0:00] Afua opens the Legacy inbox on Peter's four-year secret project[3:04] A very Belgian silence, a coffee break, and the job is Peter's[9:13] Asked to pick one object, Peter picks three[12:20] Philip the Good meets Mehmed the Conqueror, five centuries late[16:14] How the counts of Flanders ended up emperors of Constantinople[27:42] Hologram Peter, and how to see the show before 8 SeptemberStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.comJoin Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

National Review senior writer Dan McLaughlin joins The Karol Markowicz Show for a wide-ranging conversation about history, politics, constitutional law, and why understanding the past is essential to navigating America's future. Dan shares his fascinating journey from practicing attorney to one of conservative media's leading writers, discusses his ambitious upcoming history book covering the transformative years of 1851-1857, and explains how events from more than 170 years ago continue to shape today's political landscape. Karol and Dan also explore the long-term effects of the COVID pandemic, the rise of artificial intelligence, declining reading habits, political engagement, and why today's cultural battles often echo history. Dan closes with practical advice on succeeding professionally without creating unnecessary enemies.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The 1980s were box office, and General K Sundarji was Forrest Gump, everywhere all at once. Probal DasGupta joins Amit Varma in episode 449 to tell the story of a fascinating man and the turbulent times he lived in. (FOR FULL LINKED SHOW NOTES, GO TO SEENUNSEEN.IN.) Also check out: 1. Probal DasGupta on Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn and Amazon. 2. General Brasstacks: The Sundarji Story -- Probal Dasgupta. 3. Watershed 1967: India's Forgotten Victory Over China — Probal DasGupta. 4. Camouflaged: Forgotten Stories from Battlefields — Probal DasGupta. 5. Of Some Consequence: A Soldier Remembers -- K Sundarji. 6. Blind Men of Hindoostan -- K Sundarji. 7. Probal DasGupta Goes to the Himalayas With Books in His Bag -- Episode 412 of The Seen and the Unseen. 8. Shooting Straight: A Military Biography of Lt Gen. Rostum K Nanavatty -- Arjun Subramaniam. 9. Fair & Square interview of SK Sinha about Operation Bluestar. 10. The Light Has Gone Out -- Jawaharlal Nehru's speech after Mahatma Gandhi died. 11. The Geopolitics of the Bangladesh War — Episode 113 of The Seen and the Unseen (w Srinath Raghavan). 12. 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh — Srinath Raghavan. 13. Testaments Betrayed — Milan Kundera. 14. Pratap: A Defiant Newspaper -- Chander Mohan and Jyotsna Mohan. 15. Boforsgate: A Journalist's Pursuit of Truth -- Chitra Subramaniam. 16. Assignment Colombo -- JN Dixit. 17. 100 Years of Solitude -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez (translated by Gregory Rabassa). 18. Nuremberg -- James Vanderbilt. 19. Spotlight -- Tom McCarthy. 20. Munich – The Edge of War -- Christian Schwochow. 21. The Plot Against America -- Philip Roth. 22. The Loneliness of Sonia and Sunny -- Kiran Desai. 23. The Indian Empire At War -- George Morton-Jack. 24. A Confederacy of Dunces -- John Kennedy Toole. 25. Until August -- Gabriel Garcia Marquez. 26. Portnoy's Complaint -- Philip Roth. Amit Varma, Shruti Rajagopalan and Pranay Kotasthane have just started a new YouTube Show called Watching the Wheels. You must watch it. You must! You simply must!! It's mast!!! Amit Varma runs a course called Life Lessons, which aims to be a launchpad towards learning essential life skills all of you need. For more details, and to sign up, click here. And have you read Amit's newsletter? It's madly active right now! Subscribe right away to The India Uncut Newsletter! It's free! Also check out Amit's online course, The Art of Clear Writing. Episode art: 'Five Assassinations and an Arms Deal' by Simahina.

The 2026 World Cup has finished and the final two teams, Spain and Argentina, have stirred up old notions of what we call soft power. Sports play a large role in how countries display their soft power, but it can often be confused for cooperation. Indeed all power is contested and soft power is no exception, and the contest is clear when two national teams meet in a sports contest. Examples of soft power interactions in sports include the US beating the USSR in hockey in the 1980 Winter Games or the Soviets defeating the US in basketball at the 1972 Olympics during the height of the Cold War. No sport, however, garners more international interest than soccer (or what the rest of the world calls football). Our guests have written a new book that defines the Cold War rivalry through the lens of ten historic soccer matches. The book is called Cold War Football: A history in Ten matches. [ dur: 33mins. ] Tony Shaw is Professor of Contemporary History at the University of Hertfordshire. He is the co-author of The American and Soviet Struggle for Hearts and Minds and Hollywood and Israel: a History. Alan McDougall is Professor of History at the University of Guelph. He is the author of Contested Fields; A Global History of Modern Football and Dreams and Songs to Sing: A People's History of Liverpool FC from Shankly to Klopp. We revisit the September 11th, 1973 coup in Chile that toppled democratically elected Salvador Allende and installed the dictator Augustin Pinochet. We'll hear what happened, explore the latest revelations and how Chileans are dealing with their past now.  [ dur: 25mins. ] For a transcript of this interview, please visit: TheBigQ This interview was recorded September, 2014. John Dingus is Professor of Journalism at Columbia University. He is the author of The Condor Years: How Pinochet And His Allies Brought Terrorism To Three Continents and Our Man in Panama: How General Noriega Used the United States- And Made Millions in Drugs and Arms Peter Kornbluh directs the Cuba Documentation Project and the Chile Documentation Project at the National Security Archives. He is the author of The Pinochet File: A Declassified Dossier on Atrocity and Accountability, co-author of Back Channel to Cuba: The Hidden History of Negotiations between Washington and Havana and  The Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified History. This program is produced by Ankine Aghassian, Doug Becker, Sudd Dongre, and Anna Lapin. Politics and Activism, Diplomacy, Social Sciences, Organized Sports

The final part of my massive review of Sven Beckert's masterpiece Capitalism: A Global History. In this last section we survey the neoliberal hell we currently exist in and get all depressed.

In this penultimate part of my review of Sven Beckert's Capitalism: A Global History looks at the golden age of capitalism in the West, the period from 1945-1970s. What ever happened to the "Affluent Society"? Maybe we will find out.

In this part of my review of Sven Beckert's Capitalism: A Global History I finish chapter 14 and read through chapter 15, exploring the response to the Great Depression and the rise of "insurgent" capitalisms in the colonial world.

Part 7 of my review of Sven Beckert's Capitalism: A Global History. In this section of the book we explore Beckert's commentary on state expansion and the origins of the Great Depression.

In part 6 of this 10 part review of Sven Beckert's Capitalism: A Global History I read the chapters on the "reconstructions" of capital and labor in the later 19th century. It is in these reconstructions that the foundations of modern capitalism were laid

Wow, we are half done with this massive book. The next part of my review of Capitalism: A Global History by Sven Beckert. This section focuses on the emergence of a capitalist culture and the rebellions that brought the "old regime capitalism" to an end. It is fascinating stuff.

These chapters of Sven Beckert's Capitalism: A Global History explore the revolutions we often lump together as the Industrial Revolution and the growing expansion of capitalism into the hinterland. It is increasingly clear we need to take a hinterland first view of capitalism's spread.

In this third part of my review of Sven Beckert's Capitalism: A Global History I explore chapters 5-6 on the developments in industrial production in the early modern period and their relationships with capitalism, as well as the reasons capitalism broke out from the islands due to a "perfect storm" of feedback loops.

Even before a game has been played, this year's World Cup has been the source of controversy. Officials and staff from countries like Iraq, Iran and Somalia have been refused entry or face lengthy interrogation by immigration officials at American airports. FIFA President Gianni Infantino has been widely criticized for his proximity to U.S. President Donald Trump after presenting Trump with a ‘FIFA Peace Prize' award and sitting in the front row at Trump's inauguration. For nearly 100 years, leaders across the world have used soccer, and the World Cup specifically, as a tool of power and politics.David Goldblatt is a journalist, sociologist, professor, and the author of bestselling books such as ‘The Ball is round: A Global History of Soccer.' He joins the program to discuss the World Cup's political history, the failed promise of this year's tournament, and how soccer became “our great public and political theatre.” For transcripts of Front Burner, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/frontburner/transcripts

Think the Black Death was just a medieval European tragedy? Think again.When you picture the Black Death, you probably imagine a third of Europe being wiped out while flagellants marched through British and French villages. But pandemics don't stop at borders. What if our standard history lessons have completely ignored more than half of the story?In this special episode for the Chalke History Festival, host Paul Bavill sits down with Tom Asbridge, Reader in Medieval History at Queen Mary University of London and author of The Black Death, a Global History. Together, they shatter the Euro-centric myths to reveal a truly global disaster that stretched from Central Asia all the way across the medieval world.Discover how the plague reshaped the wealthy and sophisticated Mamluk Empire. Massive Middle Eastern cities like Cairo—which completely dwarfed London with a population of half a million people—faced unimaginable mass mortality. Tom explains the fascinating doctrinal differences that dictated survival; while Christian Europe viewed the disease as divine punishment that justified flight and abandonment, Islamic doctrine saw it as a merciful martyrdom. This completely altered how communities reacted, locked down, and ultimately collapsed under the weight of the pandemic.From the horrific eyewitness accounts of parents burying their own children to the long-term socioeconomic shifts that triggered peasant revolts and altered workers' rights, this episode zooms out to a global scale and zooms in on the raw human experience. If you want to understand the true scale of history's most terrifying disease, hit play now!About Our GuestTom Asbridge is a professional historian, author, and Reader in Medieval History at Queen Mary University of London.See Tom Live: Catch Tom speaking at the Chalke History Festival on Friday 26th June at 4:00 PM. Grab your tickets at: https://www.chalkefestival.com/Buy the Book: Get your copy of The Black Death, a Global History directly from the History Rage Bookshop to support the show: https://uk.bookshop.org/a/10120/9780241399408Recommended Episodes To Check Out NextEpisode 193: Luke Pepera rages that there is an African history long before any Europeans turned up.Episode 143: Eleanor Janega brings the rage to prove that medieval women absolutely worked.Support and Follow History RageIf you love truth being freed and myth getting a long, slow, brutal death, help us keep the anger alive!Support us on Patreon: Join the inner circle for £5 a month to get entry into our monthly book draws, pitch questions to future guests, access live streams, and grab the coveted History Rage mug: https://www.patreon.com/historyrageFollow us on Twitter/X: https://x.com/HistoryRageVisit our Website: Get the latest updates and episodes directly at https://www.historyrage.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Part two of my review of Sven Beckert's brilliant Capitalism: A Global History. This section centers on how the islands of capital became connected and extended their reach in the early modern period. 

Scientists warn that a “super” El Niño could be on its way which, combined with the effects of human-caused climate change, could result in 2027 being the warmest year on record. Yet El Niño is not just a climate story - throughout history, this recurring weather pattern has helped shape global events, triggering everything from famines and revolutions to impacting the Cold War. In this episode, we speak to historian Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History at Oxford, to discuss what historical El Niños tell us about what cou be coming our way, and how we can collectively prepare. Producers: Valerio Esposito and Aron KellerExecutive producer: James Shield and China CollinsMix: Travis EvansSenior news editor: China CollinsPhoto: A woman rides a bicycle in the rain in Yangon, Myanmar, 22 May 2026. Credit: Nyein Chan Naing/EPA/Shutterstock

For the next 10 episodes I will be reading Sven Beckert's Capitalism: A Global History, which covers the history of capitalism from its earliest origins to the present. It consolidates most of the findings in the recent "history of capitalism" trend in historical scholarship. I am very excited to begin this project. 

In this episode, we feature historian Sven Beckert discussing his sweeping new book, “Capitalism: A Global History.” We dig into how capitalism emerged over the last thousand years, why it's not just “markets” but a specific, historically created social order, and how it became a genuinely global system built on “connected diversity” of labor regimes—from wage work and peasant farming to slavery and colonial extraction. Beckert explains the crucial role of state power, empire, and the countryside in capitalism's rise, and traces how different historical phases—mercantile, industrial, and neoliberal—have reshaped our world. We also talk about capitalism's dual legacy of technological dynamism and staggering inequality, and why “denaturalizing” capitalism matters for how we think about today's crises, from inequality to climate change. If you're interested in the history of capitalism, global political economy, or the roots of our current social order, this conversation offers an accessible big‑picture overview from an author recognized as one of the world's leading scholars on the history of global capitalism, 19th-century United States history, and labor.   About Sven Beckert Sven Beckert is the Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University and one of the leading historians of capitalism working today. Born in Germany and trained in history, economics, and political science before earning his PhD at Columbia University, Beckert's research focuses on the economic, social, and political history of capitalism in the nineteenth-century United States and from a global perspective. He is the author of the widely acclaimed “Empire of Cotton: A Global History”—winner of the Bancroft Prize and a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. At Harvard, Beckert co-chairs the Program on the Study of Capitalism and the Weatherhead Initiative on Global History, teaches courses on American and global capitalism, and has helped lead major projects on the university's historical ties to slavery, while receiving numerous honors and fellowships, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and election to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Order the book: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/541160/capitalism-by-sven-beckert/ Sven's Website: https://www.svenbeckert.com/   Sven's Substack: https://substack.com/@svenbeckert Greg's book review on MLToday: https://mltoday.com/thinking-about-capitalism/ Pat's Substack: https://patcummings.substack.com/  #SvenBeckert#CapitalismAGlobalHistory#capitalismhistory#historyofcapitalism#globalcapitalism#economichistory#politicaleconomy#laborhistory#EmpireofCotton#industrialcapitalism#mercantilecapitalism#neoliberalism#globalization#globaltrade#slaveryandcapitalism#colonialism#connecteddiversity#Harvardhistorian#workingclasshistory#capitalismandinequality#capitalismanddemocracy#capitalismandclimatechange#worldhistory#Marxisthistory#criticaltheory#PatCummings#PatrickCummings#GregGodels#ZZBlog#ComingFromLeftField#Podcast#zzblog#mltoday

Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson & Greta Kelly as they delve into a writing masterclass on Drawing from Global History with bestselling author Shannon Chakraborty. During the episode, Shannon traverses the world, discussing global interconnectedness across time, using SFF to shine a light on history, deciding on a historical time/place for your story, knowing when to deviate from history, author responsibility and intentions, accessible approaches for research, historical authenticity, academics/historians and more.NOTE: This is part two of a two-part chat with Shannon. Click ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠here⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to check out part one.

Join co-hosts Adrian M. Gibson & Greta Kelly as they chat with bestselling author Shannon Chakraborty about her new novel The Tapestry of Fate, writing a more mature, middle-aged protagonist in The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi series, portraying motherhood on the page, blood family vs. found family, Middle Eastern poisoners and demons, balancing science with the occult, writing complex antagonists, the value of day jobs, breaking into publishing and more.NOTE: This is part one of a two-part chat with Shannon. Stayed tuned next week for her writing masterclass on Drawing from Global History.

Markets of Pain offers a sweeping history of the business of licit opium--following cultivators, merchants, scientists, and policymakers--and shows how this potent crop reshaped global trade, medicine, and geopolitics. For centuries, opium has been a source of both profit and peril, its legacy entangled with addiction, imperialism, and the complex interplay of global trade and national development. While the illicit opium trade is infamous, the history of licit opium--how it was farmed, refined, and used to build modern medicine and shape state power--has remained largely untold.Drawing on archival sources from Asia, Europe, and the United States, Markets of Pain: Opium, Capitalism, and the Global History of Painkillers (Oxford UP, 2026) traces the global arc of licit opium from poppy fields and processing plants in India, Turkey, and Australia to the clinics and laboratories of modern medicine. It shows how both the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic treated the opium poppy as a national resource and a means of securing global stature. In postcolonial India, by contrast, nationalist leaders initially rejected opium's imperial legacy before embracing its strategic value amid the shifting currents of the Cold War. At the heart of this story are the cultivators, scientists, bureaucrats, and policymakers who shaped the licit opium trade and grappled with its far-reaching consequences. Their work and visions demonstrate how colonial empires and postcolonial states helped forge the global pharmaceutical industry as it struggled to govern a drug it could not abandon.Markets of Pain reveals how a seemingly marginal crop became an unlikely engine of modernization, a tool of Cold War geopolitics, and a harbinger of today's global opioid crisis. Blending vivid scenes from opium's fields and factories with incisive analysis of scientific and diplomatic archives, Benjamin Robert Siegel recovers a buried history with urgent relevance for global supply chains, international power, and public health. Markets of Pain offers an account of the global drug trade in the twentieth century, focusing on the transformation of opium from a colonial commodity into a modern resource for the American and European pharmaceutical industries. Challenging simplistic ideas of licit and illicit drugs in the twentieth century, it reveals how the modern global drug regime was formed by India and Turkey's navigation of the international anti-opium movement, the rise of the pharmaceutical industry, and the complex relationship between agriculture, medicine, and global capitalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

Markets of Pain offers a sweeping history of the business of licit opium--following cultivators, merchants, scientists, and policymakers--and shows how this potent crop reshaped global trade, medicine, and geopolitics. For centuries, opium has been a source of both profit and peril, its legacy entangled with addiction, imperialism, and the complex interplay of global trade and national development. While the illicit opium trade is infamous, the history of licit opium--how it was farmed, refined, and used to build modern medicine and shape state power--has remained largely untold.Drawing on archival sources from Asia, Europe, and the United States, Markets of Pain: Opium, Capitalism, and the Global History of Painkillers (Oxford UP, 2026) traces the global arc of licit opium from poppy fields and processing plants in India, Turkey, and Australia to the clinics and laboratories of modern medicine. It shows how both the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic treated the opium poppy as a national resource and a means of securing global stature. In postcolonial India, by contrast, nationalist leaders initially rejected opium's imperial legacy before embracing its strategic value amid the shifting currents of the Cold War. At the heart of this story are the cultivators, scientists, bureaucrats, and policymakers who shaped the licit opium trade and grappled with its far-reaching consequences. Their work and visions demonstrate how colonial empires and postcolonial states helped forge the global pharmaceutical industry as it struggled to govern a drug it could not abandon.Markets of Pain reveals how a seemingly marginal crop became an unlikely engine of modernization, a tool of Cold War geopolitics, and a harbinger of today's global opioid crisis. Blending vivid scenes from opium's fields and factories with incisive analysis of scientific and diplomatic archives, Benjamin Robert Siegel recovers a buried history with urgent relevance for global supply chains, international power, and public health. Markets of Pain offers an account of the global drug trade in the twentieth century, focusing on the transformation of opium from a colonial commodity into a modern resource for the American and European pharmaceutical industries. Challenging simplistic ideas of licit and illicit drugs in the twentieth century, it reveals how the modern global drug regime was formed by India and Turkey's navigation of the international anti-opium movement, the rise of the pharmaceutical industry, and the complex relationship between agriculture, medicine, and global capitalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

Markets of Pain offers a sweeping history of the business of licit opium--following cultivators, merchants, scientists, and policymakers--and shows how this potent crop reshaped global trade, medicine, and geopolitics. For centuries, opium has been a source of both profit and peril, its legacy entangled with addiction, imperialism, and the complex interplay of global trade and national development. While the illicit opium trade is infamous, the history of licit opium--how it was farmed, refined, and used to build modern medicine and shape state power--has remained largely untold.Drawing on archival sources from Asia, Europe, and the United States, Markets of Pain: Opium, Capitalism, and the Global History of Painkillers (Oxford UP, 2026) traces the global arc of licit opium from poppy fields and processing plants in India, Turkey, and Australia to the clinics and laboratories of modern medicine. It shows how both the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic treated the opium poppy as a national resource and a means of securing global stature. In postcolonial India, by contrast, nationalist leaders initially rejected opium's imperial legacy before embracing its strategic value amid the shifting currents of the Cold War. At the heart of this story are the cultivators, scientists, bureaucrats, and policymakers who shaped the licit opium trade and grappled with its far-reaching consequences. Their work and visions demonstrate how colonial empires and postcolonial states helped forge the global pharmaceutical industry as it struggled to govern a drug it could not abandon.Markets of Pain reveals how a seemingly marginal crop became an unlikely engine of modernization, a tool of Cold War geopolitics, and a harbinger of today's global opioid crisis. Blending vivid scenes from opium's fields and factories with incisive analysis of scientific and diplomatic archives, Benjamin Robert Siegel recovers a buried history with urgent relevance for global supply chains, international power, and public health. Markets of Pain offers an account of the global drug trade in the twentieth century, focusing on the transformation of opium from a colonial commodity into a modern resource for the American and European pharmaceutical industries. Challenging simplistic ideas of licit and illicit drugs in the twentieth century, it reveals how the modern global drug regime was formed by India and Turkey's navigation of the international anti-opium movement, the rise of the pharmaceutical industry, and the complex relationship between agriculture, medicine, and global capitalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/public-policy

Markets of Pain offers a sweeping history of the business of licit opium--following cultivators, merchants, scientists, and policymakers--and shows how this potent crop reshaped global trade, medicine, and geopolitics. For centuries, opium has been a source of both profit and peril, its legacy entangled with addiction, imperialism, and the complex interplay of global trade and national development. While the illicit opium trade is infamous, the history of licit opium--how it was farmed, refined, and used to build modern medicine and shape state power--has remained largely untold.Drawing on archival sources from Asia, Europe, and the United States, Markets of Pain: Opium, Capitalism, and the Global History of Painkillers (Oxford UP, 2026) traces the global arc of licit opium from poppy fields and processing plants in India, Turkey, and Australia to the clinics and laboratories of modern medicine. It shows how both the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic treated the opium poppy as a national resource and a means of securing global stature. In postcolonial India, by contrast, nationalist leaders initially rejected opium's imperial legacy before embracing its strategic value amid the shifting currents of the Cold War. At the heart of this story are the cultivators, scientists, bureaucrats, and policymakers who shaped the licit opium trade and grappled with its far-reaching consequences. Their work and visions demonstrate how colonial empires and postcolonial states helped forge the global pharmaceutical industry as it struggled to govern a drug it could not abandon.Markets of Pain reveals how a seemingly marginal crop became an unlikely engine of modernization, a tool of Cold War geopolitics, and a harbinger of today's global opioid crisis. Blending vivid scenes from opium's fields and factories with incisive analysis of scientific and diplomatic archives, Benjamin Robert Siegel recovers a buried history with urgent relevance for global supply chains, international power, and public health. Markets of Pain offers an account of the global drug trade in the twentieth century, focusing on the transformation of opium from a colonial commodity into a modern resource for the American and European pharmaceutical industries. Challenging simplistic ideas of licit and illicit drugs in the twentieth century, it reveals how the modern global drug regime was formed by India and Turkey's navigation of the international anti-opium movement, the rise of the pharmaceutical industry, and the complex relationship between agriculture, medicine, and global capitalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/drugs-addiction-and-recovery

Markets of Pain offers a sweeping history of the business of licit opium--following cultivators, merchants, scientists, and policymakers--and shows how this potent crop reshaped global trade, medicine, and geopolitics. For centuries, opium has been a source of both profit and peril, its legacy entangled with addiction, imperialism, and the complex interplay of global trade and national development. While the illicit opium trade is infamous, the history of licit opium--how it was farmed, refined, and used to build modern medicine and shape state power--has remained largely untold.Drawing on archival sources from Asia, Europe, and the United States, Markets of Pain: Opium, Capitalism, and the Global History of Painkillers (Oxford UP, 2026) traces the global arc of licit opium from poppy fields and processing plants in India, Turkey, and Australia to the clinics and laboratories of modern medicine. It shows how both the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic treated the opium poppy as a national resource and a means of securing global stature. In postcolonial India, by contrast, nationalist leaders initially rejected opium's imperial legacy before embracing its strategic value amid the shifting currents of the Cold War. At the heart of this story are the cultivators, scientists, bureaucrats, and policymakers who shaped the licit opium trade and grappled with its far-reaching consequences. Their work and visions demonstrate how colonial empires and postcolonial states helped forge the global pharmaceutical industry as it struggled to govern a drug it could not abandon.Markets of Pain reveals how a seemingly marginal crop became an unlikely engine of modernization, a tool of Cold War geopolitics, and a harbinger of today's global opioid crisis. Blending vivid scenes from opium's fields and factories with incisive analysis of scientific and diplomatic archives, Benjamin Robert Siegel recovers a buried history with urgent relevance for global supply chains, international power, and public health. Markets of Pain offers an account of the global drug trade in the twentieth century, focusing on the transformation of opium from a colonial commodity into a modern resource for the American and European pharmaceutical industries. Challenging simplistic ideas of licit and illicit drugs in the twentieth century, it reveals how the modern global drug regime was formed by India and Turkey's navigation of the international anti-opium movement, the rise of the pharmaceutical industry, and the complex relationship between agriculture, medicine, and global capitalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Markets of Pain offers a sweeping history of the business of licit opium--following cultivators, merchants, scientists, and policymakers--and shows how this potent crop reshaped global trade, medicine, and geopolitics. For centuries, opium has been a source of both profit and peril, its legacy entangled with addiction, imperialism, and the complex interplay of global trade and national development. While the illicit opium trade is infamous, the history of licit opium--how it was farmed, refined, and used to build modern medicine and shape state power--has remained largely untold.Drawing on archival sources from Asia, Europe, and the United States, Markets of Pain: Opium, Capitalism, and the Global History of Painkillers (Oxford UP, 2026) traces the global arc of licit opium from poppy fields and processing plants in India, Turkey, and Australia to the clinics and laboratories of modern medicine. It shows how both the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic treated the opium poppy as a national resource and a means of securing global stature. In postcolonial India, by contrast, nationalist leaders initially rejected opium's imperial legacy before embracing its strategic value amid the shifting currents of the Cold War. At the heart of this story are the cultivators, scientists, bureaucrats, and policymakers who shaped the licit opium trade and grappled with its far-reaching consequences. Their work and visions demonstrate how colonial empires and postcolonial states helped forge the global pharmaceutical industry as it struggled to govern a drug it could not abandon.Markets of Pain reveals how a seemingly marginal crop became an unlikely engine of modernization, a tool of Cold War geopolitics, and a harbinger of today's global opioid crisis. Blending vivid scenes from opium's fields and factories with incisive analysis of scientific and diplomatic archives, Benjamin Robert Siegel recovers a buried history with urgent relevance for global supply chains, international power, and public health. Markets of Pain offers an account of the global drug trade in the twentieth century, focusing on the transformation of opium from a colonial commodity into a modern resource for the American and European pharmaceutical industries. Challenging simplistic ideas of licit and illicit drugs in the twentieth century, it reveals how the modern global drug regime was formed by India and Turkey's navigation of the international anti-opium movement, the rise of the pharmaceutical industry, and the complex relationship between agriculture, medicine, and global capitalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Markets of Pain offers a sweeping history of the business of licit opium--following cultivators, merchants, scientists, and policymakers--and shows how this potent crop reshaped global trade, medicine, and geopolitics. For centuries, opium has been a source of both profit and peril, its legacy entangled with addiction, imperialism, and the complex interplay of global trade and national development. While the illicit opium trade is infamous, the history of licit opium--how it was farmed, refined, and used to build modern medicine and shape state power--has remained largely untold.Drawing on archival sources from Asia, Europe, and the United States, Markets of Pain: Opium, Capitalism, and the Global History of Painkillers (Oxford UP, 2026) traces the global arc of licit opium from poppy fields and processing plants in India, Turkey, and Australia to the clinics and laboratories of modern medicine. It shows how both the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish Republic treated the opium poppy as a national resource and a means of securing global stature. In postcolonial India, by contrast, nationalist leaders initially rejected opium's imperial legacy before embracing its strategic value amid the shifting currents of the Cold War. At the heart of this story are the cultivators, scientists, bureaucrats, and policymakers who shaped the licit opium trade and grappled with its far-reaching consequences. Their work and visions demonstrate how colonial empires and postcolonial states helped forge the global pharmaceutical industry as it struggled to govern a drug it could not abandon.Markets of Pain reveals how a seemingly marginal crop became an unlikely engine of modernization, a tool of Cold War geopolitics, and a harbinger of today's global opioid crisis. Blending vivid scenes from opium's fields and factories with incisive analysis of scientific and diplomatic archives, Benjamin Robert Siegel recovers a buried history with urgent relevance for global supply chains, international power, and public health. Markets of Pain offers an account of the global drug trade in the twentieth century, focusing on the transformation of opium from a colonial commodity into a modern resource for the American and European pharmaceutical industries. Challenging simplistic ideas of licit and illicit drugs in the twentieth century, it reveals how the modern global drug regime was formed by India and Turkey's navigation of the international anti-opium movement, the rise of the pharmaceutical industry, and the complex relationship between agriculture, medicine, and global capitalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/book-of-the-day

The significance of printmaking within the history of art is often underplayed, obscured or misunderstood. The Story of Printmaking: A Global History of Art (Yale UP, 2026) by Holly EJ Black tells the story of artist prints from across the globe in a manner that is accessible and engaging. It demystifies how prints are made – from woodblock to etching – and explores how, throughout history, printmaking has defied easy categorisation, straddling ‘fine' art practices and commercially minded production. In fact, it has been employed as much for creative experimentation as it has for disseminating information. Beginning in ancient East Asia and travelling through Renaissance Europe, revolutionary Mexico, and post-Apartheid South Africa, these ten chapters celebrate the interconnected nature of the printed image and its multiple histories, while illuminating the lesser-known players who have been deliberately or erroneously overlooked. Whether formed by slicing linoleum or plunging plates into acid, then distributed via bound books or pasted posters, the print has not just replicated the world, it has shaped it. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

The significance of printmaking within the history of art is often underplayed, obscured or misunderstood. The Story of Printmaking: A Global History of Art (Yale UP, 2026) by Holly EJ Black tells the story of artist prints from across the globe in a manner that is accessible and engaging. It demystifies how prints are made – from woodblock to etching – and explores how, throughout history, printmaking has defied easy categorisation, straddling ‘fine' art practices and commercially minded production. In fact, it has been employed as much for creative experimentation as it has for disseminating information. Beginning in ancient East Asia and travelling through Renaissance Europe, revolutionary Mexico, and post-Apartheid South Africa, these ten chapters celebrate the interconnected nature of the printed image and its multiple histories, while illuminating the lesser-known players who have been deliberately or erroneously overlooked. Whether formed by slicing linoleum or plunging plates into acid, then distributed via bound books or pasted posters, the print has not just replicated the world, it has shaped it. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

The significance of printmaking within the history of art is often underplayed, obscured or misunderstood. The Story of Printmaking: A Global History of Art (Yale UP, 2026) by Holly EJ Black tells the story of artist prints from across the globe in a manner that is accessible and engaging. It demystifies how prints are made – from woodblock to etching – and explores how, throughout history, printmaking has defied easy categorisation, straddling ‘fine' art practices and commercially minded production. In fact, it has been employed as much for creative experimentation as it has for disseminating information. Beginning in ancient East Asia and travelling through Renaissance Europe, revolutionary Mexico, and post-Apartheid South Africa, these ten chapters celebrate the interconnected nature of the printed image and its multiple histories, while illuminating the lesser-known players who have been deliberately or erroneously overlooked. Whether formed by slicing linoleum or plunging plates into acid, then distributed via bound books or pasted posters, the print has not just replicated the world, it has shaped it. This interview was conducted by Dr. Miranda Melcher whose book focuses on post-conflict military integration, understanding treaty negotiation and implementation in civil war contexts, with qualitative analysis of the Angolan and Mozambican civil wars. You can find Miranda's interviews on New Books with Miranda Melcher, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/art

Check out BeerBiceps SkillHouse Courses Here - https://www.bbskillhouse.comFor all BeerBiceps vlog content Watch Life Of BeerBiceps - https://www.youtube.com/@LifeOfBeerBicepsCheck out my Mind Performance app: Level SuperMindLink:- https://level4665.u9ilnk.me/d/F1ZOZV4OnTShare your guest suggestions hereMail - connect@beerbiceps.comLink - https://forms.gle/aoMHY9EE3Cg3Tqdx9Join the Level Community Here:https://linktr.ee/levelsupermindcommunityFollow BeerBiceps SkillHouse's Social Media Handles:YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@BeerBicepsSkillHouseInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/beerbiceps_skillhouseWebsite : https://beerbicepsskillhouse.inFor any other queries EMAIL: support@beerbicepsskillhouse.comIn case of any payment-related issues, kindly write to support@tagmango.comFollow Abhijit Chavda's Social Media Handles:-YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@AbhijitChavdaInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/theabhijitchavda/X (Twitter): https://twitter.com/AbhijitChavdaIn this special episode #486 of The Ranveer Show, we are joined by geopolitical analyst and historian Abhijit Chavda, who shares deep insights into the escalating Iran vs. USA conflict, the history of the Middle East, Global Economics, and Geopolitics. This episode provides an in-depth analysis of the 2026 crisis, the potential for nuclear fallout, and how these global tensions directly impact India's economy and security.In this conversation with Abhijit Chavda, we talk about the 1953 CIA-backed coup, the nationalization of oil by Mohammad Mossadegh, and the 1979 Islamic Revolution led by Ayatollah Khomeini. We also understand the brutal history of the Iran-Iraq War, the use of chemical warfare, and the rise and fall of Saddam Hussein.This episode also covers the Petro-Dollar System, the significance of the Strait of Hormuz, and the threat of global De-dollarization. We delve into the science of oil discovery, the strategic importance of India's naval presence in the Andaman Sea, and the potential triggers for World War III. Chavda breaks down the "End Game" of the US and China and the impact of rising oil prices on the common man.This podcast is a valuable resource for anyone interested in Geopolitics, Global History, Military Strategy, Indian Economy, International Relations, and the future of Global Power.(00:00) – Start of the episode(00:44) – Nuclear Fallout Threat to India(02:12) – Oil Crisis & Indian Economy(04:58) – PM Modi's Diplomatic Strategy(08:00) – How US Sanctions Destroy Nations(11:37) – Who Benefits from Global War?(16:06) – The Era of Drone Warfare(21:53) – Donald Trump's 2026 Threat(24:18) – 1953: The Great Oil Theft(28:08) – Operation Ajax: CIA's Secret Role(32:31) – 1979: The Iranian Revolution(41:42) – US vs. China: The Oil End Game(45:09) – Hidden Oil Reserves in India?(52:13) – Truth Behind the Nuclear Deal(59:09) – Chemical Warfare & Brutal History(1:04:42) – The Rise & Fall of Saddam Hussein(1:12:00) – Why the Petro-Dollar is Dying(1:18:21) – Are We Heading to World War 3?(1:22:31) – Global Inflation & Food Crisis(1:27:09) – Iran's Decentralized Military Node(1:30:02) – End of the episode

Historian Ryan Gingeras has spent years tracing the hidden networks of power that operate just beneath the surface of modern states. A professor at the Naval Postgraduate School and a specialist in late Ottoman and modern Middle Eastern history, his work often explores crime, politics, and the blurred lines between them.His new book, 'Mafia: A Global History,' widens that lens, charting the evolution of organized crime across continents and centuries. It's a sweeping, deeply researched account of how mafias emerge, adapt, and endure—and what their stories reveal about the world we live in.

Understandings of Black-Jewish relations have been notable for the near consensus among scholars that the Yiddish press repeatedly condemned discrimination and prejudice against African Americans, and highlighted the similarities between the situation of Jews in Eastern Europe and Blacks in America. This book argues that this view covers just a sliver of the varied representations of Black women and men. East European Jewish culture during the immigration era was not uniformly supportive of Black Americans as those interpretations suggest.Crude Creatures draws on a mixture of previously unexplored Yiddish press, theatre, and literature from Eastern Europe and the United States through 1929 to examine how Black Africans and African Americans were depicted. It charts a significant gap between the sincere condemnation of lynching, violence against Black Americans, and racial segregation on the one hand, and the ways in which Jewish authors, newspapers, playwrights, actors, and theater managers actually represented Black people on the other. While most East European Jews would not have seen a Black person before their arrival in America, they had already acquired preconceived imagery of Black people through rabbinic exegesis, pious advice, travel narratives (either original or adapted from other languages), folklore, scientific explorations, pulp literature, press reports, political rhetoric, and educational materials. Thus, Yiddish writers commonly described Black people as cannibals, oversexed, prone to violence, childlike, or just happy-go-lucky people.Crude Creatures provides a critical revision, correcting the accepted rosy narrative of Black women and men's portrayals in Yiddish culture, and highlighting what we can learn from these representations about how immigrant groups integrated their own cultures into American racial hierarchy and vocabulary.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/arroe-collins-unplugged-totally-uncut--994165/support.

From its birth in seventh-century Arabia, Islam has been a faith on the move. In Worlds of Islam: A Global History (Basic Books, 2026), James McDougall explores its origins and transformations from Late Antiquity to the digital age. Over the span of a thousand years, armies, missionaries, and merchants carried it to the edges of Europe, the coasts of Southeast Asia, and the remote interior of China. By the nineteenth century, Islam encompassed a world of great diversity, from Muslim-ruled empires to nations where Muslims lived out their faith among many others. In the twentieth century, while monarchs in the Gulf asserted dynastic privilege and fundamentalists in Egypt and Pakistan preached social morality, revolutionaries from Algeria to Indonesia fought for national self-determination, and activists in North America and Europe campaigned for civil liberties and social justice. As empires fell and new superpowers rose, Muslims proved to be as adaptable and dynamic as modernity itself. Sweeping and authoritative, Worlds of Islam narrates the epic story of how Muslims emerged as a community, built empires, traversed the globe, came to number in the billions, and became modern. James McDougall is a Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and a Fellow of Trinity College, University of Oxford. He previously taught at Princeton and at SOAS, London. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

From its birth in seventh-century Arabia, Islam has been a faith on the move. In Worlds of Islam: A Global History (Basic Books, 2026), James McDougall explores its origins and transformations from Late Antiquity to the digital age. Over the span of a thousand years, armies, missionaries, and merchants carried it to the edges of Europe, the coasts of Southeast Asia, and the remote interior of China. By the nineteenth century, Islam encompassed a world of great diversity, from Muslim-ruled empires to nations where Muslims lived out their faith among many others. In the twentieth century, while monarchs in the Gulf asserted dynastic privilege and fundamentalists in Egypt and Pakistan preached social morality, revolutionaries from Algeria to Indonesia fought for national self-determination, and activists in North America and Europe campaigned for civil liberties and social justice. As empires fell and new superpowers rose, Muslims proved to be as adaptable and dynamic as modernity itself. Sweeping and authoritative, Worlds of Islam narrates the epic story of how Muslims emerged as a community, built empires, traversed the globe, came to number in the billions, and became modern. James McDougall is a Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and a Fellow of Trinity College, University of Oxford. He previously taught at Princeton and at SOAS, London. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/islamic-studies

From its birth in seventh-century Arabia, Islam has been a faith on the move. In Worlds of Islam: A Global History (Basic Books, 2026), James McDougall explores its origins and transformations from Late Antiquity to the digital age. Over the span of a thousand years, armies, missionaries, and merchants carried it to the edges of Europe, the coasts of Southeast Asia, and the remote interior of China. By the nineteenth century, Islam encompassed a world of great diversity, from Muslim-ruled empires to nations where Muslims lived out their faith among many others. In the twentieth century, while monarchs in the Gulf asserted dynastic privilege and fundamentalists in Egypt and Pakistan preached social morality, revolutionaries from Algeria to Indonesia fought for national self-determination, and activists in North America and Europe campaigned for civil liberties and social justice. As empires fell and new superpowers rose, Muslims proved to be as adaptable and dynamic as modernity itself. Sweeping and authoritative, Worlds of Islam narrates the epic story of how Muslims emerged as a community, built empires, traversed the globe, came to number in the billions, and became modern. James McDougall is a Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and a Fellow of Trinity College, University of Oxford. He previously taught at Princeton and at SOAS, London. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/middle-eastern-studies

From its birth in seventh-century Arabia, Islam has been a faith on the move. In Worlds of Islam: A Global History (Basic Books, 2026), James McDougall explores its origins and transformations from Late Antiquity to the digital age. Over the span of a thousand years, armies, missionaries, and merchants carried it to the edges of Europe, the coasts of Southeast Asia, and the remote interior of China. By the nineteenth century, Islam encompassed a world of great diversity, from Muslim-ruled empires to nations where Muslims lived out their faith among many others. In the twentieth century, while monarchs in the Gulf asserted dynastic privilege and fundamentalists in Egypt and Pakistan preached social morality, revolutionaries from Algeria to Indonesia fought for national self-determination, and activists in North America and Europe campaigned for civil liberties and social justice. As empires fell and new superpowers rose, Muslims proved to be as adaptable and dynamic as modernity itself. Sweeping and authoritative, Worlds of Islam narrates the epic story of how Muslims emerged as a community, built empires, traversed the globe, came to number in the billions, and became modern. James McDougall is a Professor of Modern and Contemporary History and a Fellow of Trinity College, University of Oxford. He previously taught at Princeton and at SOAS, London. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/religion

It's an Emmajority Report Thursday on The Majority Report On today's program: Donald Trump admits that his war in Iran is violating the constitution at a fund-raising dinner where he said, "they don't like the word war because you have to get approval, so I'll just say military operation". Trump lashes out at reporting that he is desperate to find a way out of Iran and claims that Iran is begging him for a deal. Andrew Arsan, Professor of Arab and Global History at the University of Cambridge joins Emma for a conversation about his piece in Equator entitled, "Tearing up the Map - Netanyahu's War to Remake the Middle East". Ed Zitron, publisher of the Where's Your Ed At? newsletter and host of the Better Offline podcast join the program to discuss his piece "The AI Industry is Lying to You". In the Fun Half Brandon Sutton and Matt Binder join. Emerson Polling shows Graham Platner with a massive on Janet Mills as well as a solid lead over Susan Collins. Melania Trump introduces a robot meant to replace teachers and childcare providers. Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security dodges questions from Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-TX) on whether or not Israel has nuclear capabilities. Former Secretary of State under Biden, Antony Blinken is confronted by a student at an event at Harvard Law School over his role in the genocide in Palestine. Blinken responds with his usual smarmy condescension. Adam Schiff has a hilarious exchange with the child lawyer that Donald Trump nominated for the U.S. District Court in Montana. all that and more   No Kings Protests across the country this Saturday, March 28. Check out NoKings.Org to find the protest closest to you.   Check out longtime MR listener Jim Di Bartolo's new graphic novel F*ck Billionaires   To connect and organize with your local ICE rapid response team visit ICERRT.com The Congress switchboard number is (202) 224-3121. You can use this number to connect with either the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. Follow us on TikTok here: https://www.tiktok.com/@majorityreportfm Check us out on Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/themajorityreport Find our Rumble stream here: https://rumble.com/user/majorityreport Check out our alt YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/majorityreportlive Gift a Majority Report subscription here: https://fans.fm/majority/gift Subscribe to the AMQuickie newsletter here: https://am-quickie.ghost.io/ Join the Majority Report Discord! https://majoritydiscord.com/ Get all your MR merch at our store: https://shop.majorityreportradio.com/ Get the free Majority Report App!: https://majority.fm/app Go to https://JustCoffee.coop and use coupon code majority to get 10% off your purchase Check out today's sponsors: LIQUID IV: Go to LIQUIDIV.com and use code MAJORITYREP at checkout for 20% off your first order. SUNSET LAKE: Use coupon code "Left Is Best" (all one word) for 20% off of your entire order at SunsetLakeCBD.com  Follow the Majority Report crew on Twitter: @SamSeder @EmmaVigeland @MattLech On Instagram: @MrBryanVokey Check out Matt's show, Left Reckoning, on YouTube, and subscribe on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/leftreckoning Check out Matt Binder's YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/mattbinder Subscribe to Brandon's show The Discourse on Patreon! https://www.patreon.com/ExpandTheDiscourse Check out Ava Raiza's music here! https://avaraiza.bandcamp.com

Send a textWhat is a concentration camp?  What are the distinguishing features of these spaces?  Where did they come from?In this episode, I talk with Andrea Pitzer about the long, global history of the concentration camp and its evolution over time.  We talk about what the definition is, what qualifies something as a concentration camp, and how different societies have learned from each other in their various iterations of "the camp."Andrea Pitzer is a journalist and author.Pitzer, Andrea. One Long Night: A Global History of Concentration Camps (2018)Follow on Twitter @holocaustpod.Email the podcast at holocausthistorypod@gmail.comThe Holocaust History Podcast homepage is hereYou can find a complete reading list with books by our guests and also their suggestions here.

In March 2026, AHR begins the rollout of a new project called "Authoritarianism 101: A Global History." Part of the #AHRSyllabus series, A101 consists of 30 modules from 30 different contributors. Each module centers on a core question about the history of authoritarianism and provides a single primary source that allows history teachers and students to explore that question. Alongside these modules, a soon-to-be-launched website will offer additional resources, like videos and podcast episodes, that pair with specific modules and extend the ability for students to engage these historical questions. In this episode, Daniel speaks with AHR editor Mark Bradley and consulting editor for the #AHRSyllabus project Laura McEnaney about how the A101 project came together and what teachers and students can expected to find when they dive into the modules.

From the deserts of Central Asia to the gates of ancient China, from the bazaars of Persia to the harbours of the Mediterranean, the Silk Roads were never just one route. A living network of paths, mountain passes, and caravan trails, they carried not only silk and spices, but stories, beliefs, technologies, and ideas that would reshape entire civilisations. For more than a thousand years, they connected worlds that might otherwise never have met, and, in doing so, transformed them. The Silk Roads have witnessed empires rise and crumble, faiths spread and evolve, and cultures meet, merge, and create anew.   But what drove people to risk their lives travelling them? How did they impact the disparate worlds they joined together? And why, even today, do the Silk Roads still matter? This is a Short History Of The Silk Roads. A Noiser podcast production. Hosted by John Hopkins. With thanks to Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History at Oxford University, and author of The Silk Roads. Written by Sean Coleman | Produced by Kate Simants | Production Assistant: Chris McDonald | Exec produced by Katrina Hughes | Sound supervisor: Tom Pink | Sound design by Oliver Sanders | Assembly edit by Anisha Deva | Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink | Mix & mastering: Cody Reynolds-Shaw Get every episode of Short History Of… a week early with Noiser+. You'll also get ad-free listening, bonus material and early access to shows across the Noiser podcast network. Click the subscription banner at the top of the feed to get started. Or go to noiser.com/subscriptions ⁠A Short History of Ancient Rome⁠ - the debut book from the Noiser Network is out now! Discover the epic rise and fall of Rome like never before. Pick up your copy now at your local bookstore or visit ⁠⁠noiser.com/books⁠⁠ to learn more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dr. Alfred McCoy provides a sweeping historical analysis of the Cold War, focusing on how individual covert operatives (“men on the spot”) shaped world events. McCoy explains how his early work on the CIA's role in heroin trafficking during the Vietnam War evolved into a broader study of covert operations and their impact on world history. He characterizes the era as a golden age of intelligence, where the threat of nuclear catastrophe forced superpowers to compete through indirect, clandestine operations. McCoy describes his personal experiences with CIA surveillance and his research into the global drug trade, illustrating how the agency penetrated American civil society and media. He argues that the geopolitical strategies developed during this period, particularly the containment of Eurasia, remain central to understanding modern power dynamics. Finally, the discussion explores the decline of American hegemony, contrasting past interventionist models with current shifts toward a multi-polar world order, noting how historical tactics of surveillance and control are increasingly being applied within the domestic United States. Watch on BitChute / Brighteon / Rumble / Substack / YouTube *Support Geopolitics & Empire! Become a Member https://geopoliticsandempire.substack.com Donate https://geopoliticsandempire.com/donations Consult https://geopoliticsandempire.com/consultation **Listen Ad-Free for $4.99 a Month or $49.99 a Year! Apple Subscriptions https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/geopolitics-empire/id1003465597 Supercast https://geopoliticsandempire.supercast.com ***Visit Our Affiliates & Sponsors! Above Phone https://abovephone.com/?above=geopolitics American Gold Exchange https://www.amergold.com/geopolitics easyDNS (15% off with GEOPOLITICS) https://easydns.com Escape The Technocracy (15% off with GEOPOLITICS) https://escapethetechnocracy.com/geopolitics Outbound Mexico https://outboundmx.com PassVult https://passvult.com Sociatates Civis https://societates-civis.com StartMail https://www.startmail.com/partner/?ref=ngu4nzr Wise Wolf Gold https://www.wolfpack.gold/?ref=geopolitics Websites Cold War on Five Continents: A Global History of Empire and Espionage https://www.amazon.com/Cold-War-Five-Continents-Espionage/dp/B0F1Z9CX74 Alfred W. McCoy, Harrington Professor of History https://history.wisc.edu/people/mccoy-alfred-w Alfred McCoy at TomDispatch https://tomdispatch.com/authors/alfredmccoy About Dr. Alfred W. McCoy Alfred W. McCoy holds the Harrington chair in history at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and is the author of The Politics of Heroin, the classic study of global drug trafficking that the CIA attempted to suppress. Among his two dozen published books, the most recent are In the Shadows of the American Century, To Govern the Globe, and Cold War on Five Continents. *Podcast intro music used with permission is from the song “The Queens Jig” by the fantastic “Musicke & Mirth” from their album “Music for Two Lyra Viols”: http://musicke-mirth.de/en/recordings.html (available on iTunes or Amazon)

In the 1930s and 1940s, amid intensifying anticolonial activism across the British Empire, dozens of new West African and Caribbean newspapers printed their first issues. With small staffs and shoestring budgets, these newspapers nonetheless became powerful vehicles for the expression of Black political thought. Drawing on papers from Trinidad, Jamaica, Ghana, and Nigeria, Leslie James shows how the press on both sides of the Atlantic nourished anticolonial and antiracist movements. Editors with varying levels of education, men and women journalists, worker and peasant correspondents, and anonymous contributors voiced incisive critiques of empire and experimented with visions of Black freedom. But as independence loomed, the press transformed to better demonstrate the respectability expected of a self-governing people. Seeing themselves as “the Fourth and Only Estate,” the sole democratic institution available to a colonized population, early press contributors experimented with the form and function of the newspaper itself. They advanced anticolonial goals through clipping and reprinting articles from a variety of sources; drawing on local ways of speaking; and manipulating photography, comics, and advertising. Such unruly content, James shows, served as a strategic assertion of autonomy against colonial bureaucracy. Yet in the 1950s, this landscape changed as press professionalism became a proxy for a colony's capacity to govern itself. Analyzing a key moment in the history of Black Atlantic political thought, The Moving Word: How the West African and Caribbean Press Shaped Black Political Thought, 1935-1960 (Harvard UP, 2025) highlights the boundless, shapeshifting power of experimental media. During the era of decolonization, as independence loomed on the horizon, West African and Caribbean newspapers creatively engineered and reinvented debates about imperialism, racial capitalism, and Black freedom dreams and realities. Leslie James is Reader and Sinor Lecturer in Global History at Queen Mary University of London and the author of George Padmore and Decolonization from Below: Pan-Africanism, the Cold War, and the End of Empire, 1939–1959. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/new-books-network

In the 1930s and 1940s, amid intensifying anticolonial activism across the British Empire, dozens of new West African and Caribbean newspapers printed their first issues. With small staffs and shoestring budgets, these newspapers nonetheless became powerful vehicles for the expression of Black political thought. Drawing on papers from Trinidad, Jamaica, Ghana, and Nigeria, Leslie James shows how the press on both sides of the Atlantic nourished anticolonial and antiracist movements. Editors with varying levels of education, men and women journalists, worker and peasant correspondents, and anonymous contributors voiced incisive critiques of empire and experimented with visions of Black freedom. But as independence loomed, the press transformed to better demonstrate the respectability expected of a self-governing people. Seeing themselves as “the Fourth and Only Estate,” the sole democratic institution available to a colonized population, early press contributors experimented with the form and function of the newspaper itself. They advanced anticolonial goals through clipping and reprinting articles from a variety of sources; drawing on local ways of speaking; and manipulating photography, comics, and advertising. Such unruly content, James shows, served as a strategic assertion of autonomy against colonial bureaucracy. Yet in the 1950s, this landscape changed as press professionalism became a proxy for a colony's capacity to govern itself. Analyzing a key moment in the history of Black Atlantic political thought, The Moving Word: How the West African and Caribbean Press Shaped Black Political Thought, 1935-1960 (Harvard UP, 2025) highlights the boundless, shapeshifting power of experimental media. During the era of decolonization, as independence loomed on the horizon, West African and Caribbean newspapers creatively engineered and reinvented debates about imperialism, racial capitalism, and Black freedom dreams and realities. Leslie James is Reader and Sinor Lecturer in Global History at Queen Mary University of London and the author of George Padmore and Decolonization from Below: Pan-Africanism, the Cold War, and the End of Empire, 1939–1959. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Support our show by becoming a premium member! https://newbooksnetwork.supportingcast.fm/history

In December, the Rhodes Center hosted Sven Beckert, the Laird Bell Professor of History at Harvard University, to discuss his new book “Capitalism: A Global History.” The title may sound dry, but in the hands of Sven, it is anything but. In it, he takes readers on a globe-trotting, centuries-spanning tour of the economic system we call “capitalism.” In doing so, he challenges many long-held assumptions about capitalism that readers might have - about its origins, its evolution, and how it has shaped our world. On this episode, professor of American History at Brown University and Rhodes Center affiliate Seth Rockman sat down with Beckert for a discussion about the book, and about how it can help us to better understand capitalism's past, present, and future. Learn more about and purchase “Capitalism: A Global History”Transcript coming soon to our website

Today I sit down with author and historian James McDougall and talk about his most recent book: Worlds of Islam: A Global History. From its birth in seventh-century Arabia, Islam has been a faith on the move. Over the span of a thousand years, armies, missionaries, and merchants carried it to the edges of Europe, the coasts of Southeast Asia, and the remote interior of China. By the nineteenth century, Islam encompassed a world of great diversity, from Muslim-ruled empires to new nations where Muslims lived out their faith among many others. As empires fell and new superpowers rose, Muslims proved to be as adaptable and dynamic as modernity itself.In Worlds of Islam, historian James McDougall explores Islam's origins and transformations as Muslims adapted to changing times and conditions, from Late Antiquity to the digital age. In the twentieth century, while monarchs in the Gulf asserted dynastic privilege and fundamentalists in Egypt and Pakistan preached social morality, revolutionaries from Algeria to Indonesia fought for national self-determination, and activists in North America and Europe campaigned for civil liberties and social justice.Sweeping and authoritative, Worlds of Islam narrates the epic story of how Muslims emerged as a community, built empires, traversed the globe, came to number in the billions, and became modern.Buy The Book HERE.Support Western Civ

Islam is often treated as a civilisation apart — self-contained, resistant to modernity, and fundamentally at odds with the West. In this episode, Thomas speaks to Oxford professor James McDougall about why that framing is misleading, and how Islamic history is inseparable from the making of the modern world itself. Drawing on his new book Worlds of Islam: A Global History, McDougall explains: Why Islamic and Western histories are deeply intertwined rather than civilisationally opposed The extent to which Islam is an imperial and political project Islam's role in shaping global modernity before European dominance What made European power different in the nineteenth century How the Mongol sack of Baghdad reshaped the geography of the Islamic world The importance of Central Asia, Indonesia, and West Africa to Islamic history The debate over early Islamic sources and why scholarly scepticism has softened Whether today's tensions reflect a clash of civilizations — or a clash of perspectives Follow James on Instagram: www.instagram.com/jamesrobertmcdougall Follow James on Substack: substack.com/@mcdougalljames Follow James of Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/jamesrmcd.bsky.social Join the Conflicted Community here: https://conflicted.supportingcast.fm  Find us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/MHconflicted And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MHconflicted And Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/conflictedpod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Conflicted is a Message Heard production. Executive Producers: Jake Warren & Max Warren. This episode was produced by Thomas Small and edited by Lizzy Andrews. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In this episode, we discuss public distrust of politicians and the realities behind presidential approval polling before turning to the math of lotteries and why people continue to play despite the odds. We examine Maryland's proposed reparations commission, including questions of eligibility, funding, legal responsibility, and the practical challenges of tying modern policy to historical injustice. We're joined by Phil Magness to explore the economic history of slavery, the claim that capitalism was built on slave labor, and why slavery is fundamentally incompatible with free markets. We cover Adam Smith's opposition to slavery, misconceptions about profit incentives, the global history of forced labor, and the moral and economic failures surrounding emancipation, closing with a broader discussion of capitalism, socialism, and historical accountability. 00:00 Introduction and Overview 00:44 Presidential Approval Ratings and Polling Reality 02:38 Why Americans Have Always Hated Politicians 03:35 Powerball, Probability, and the Math of Dreaming 06:51 Maryland's Reparations Commission Explained 08:12 Who Pays and Who Gets Reparations? 10:03 Mitigation, Law, and the Reparations Problem 14:24 Introducing Phil Magness 15:02 Was Capitalism Built on Slavery? 17:59 Slavery as an Ancient Institution 19:50 Adam Smith's Case Against Slavery 23:05 Why Slavery Is Anti-Capitalist 24:50 Pro-Slavery Economics and Feudalism 26:16 Founding Fathers, Hypocrisy, and Moral Failure 30:21 Slavery's Global History and Misconceptions 32:06 Incentives, Profit, and Economic Naivety 34:53 Would Slavery Have Ended Without the Civil War? 37:59 Gradual Emancipation and Historical Alternatives 40:47 Socialism, Capitalism, and the Plantation Model 44:01 Final Reflections and Closing Thoughts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices