American Medieval

Video games! They’re fun. We discuss, and mention some of our favorites set in/ around the Middle Ages. Plus they’re really great for showing how history works. Trust us, we’re doctors. Guest Blair Apgar is an assistant professor of Art history at Kutztown University of Pennsylvania, where they research and teach on the reception of the Middle Ages into modern media such as video games. They also...

This is an older episode from the “Reckoning with Jason Herbert” back catalog, but we all talk about the Ridley Scott epic (?) “Kingdom of Heaven.” Matt yells about water, among other things.  Guest Jason Herbert is the host of Reckoning with Jason Herbert , a podcast about history, the outdoors, and movies. He's also the creator of “Historians at the Movies” Watch Party, one of the longest r...

This episode we talk about Norse sagas and medieval comics. Jack Kirby was an interesting guy - loved norse stuff and hated Nazis. Plus dragons. We talk about medieval dragons. Guests Natalie Hopwood is a PhD candidate at the University of Leeds, where she researches monster encounters as points of intertextuality in Old Norse, and other medieval literature, in modern media, particularly American...

Ok, we get yell-y about the “Dark Ages” in this episode. But first David and Matt make a shocking admission on this April 1, 2026 episode. Then we talk about other things.  Guests Dr Eleanor Janega is a medieval historian, whose work aims to highlight the ways that our society has been influenced by the past, and more particularly, how it tells stories about history that aren’t actually true...

North America? Of course you did. We have Dr. Sarah Baires about that, specifically Cahokia - a city of about 20,000 people outside (modern) St. Louis that was bigger than Rome was at the same time.  Guest Dr. Sarah Baires received her PhD in anthropological archaeology from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in 2014, and her research focuses on why humans built and populated urban...

Did you know that the earliest printing press is from the 13th century? And that the idea of print in the Middle Ages was pervasive and very different from ours? Plus, so-called “AI” is bad for education and I’m sorry to any fans of the Beatles.  Guest Sonja Drimmer is associate professor of medieval art in the Department of the History of Art & Architecture at the University of Massachus...

Aliens! Not really. In this episode, Prof. Gabriele and Lisa talk about the travels of medieval manuscripts (including why there are so many right here in the USA - only Alaska doesn’t have any!), but also the inscrutable and mysterious Voynich Manuscript, with its puzzling script and compelling (weird) illustrations. Guest Lisa Fagin Davis received her PhD in Medieval Studies from Yale University...

This episode ranges over 19th-century history and why they thought of the Middle Ages as vibes, to the vast varieties of experiences of minority communities in medieval Europe, to how Putin uses the Middle Ages politically in contemporary Russia. Plus we righteously hate on Samuel Huntington’s “Clash of Civilizations.” Guest Eugene Smelyansky is an Assistant Professor of History at Washington Stat...

This episode focuses mostly on medieval Islam, including a cool medieval epic about a warrior woman and her son. But also we talk about why theory is good (it is), and how medievals - not just in the Islamicate world - thought about enslaved peoples and race difference. It’s different, but kind of similar, to how we do today. Guest Rachel Schine is an assistant professor of Arabic and History at t...

Prof. Gabriele and Thomas talk about holy war and the end of the world and why early white Americans were kind of like medieval Europeans.  Guest Thomas Lecaque is an Associate Professor of History and the Director of the First Year Experience at Grand View University in Des Moines, Iowa, located on Baxoje, Meskwaki and Sauk lands. His primary research area is on religious violence and apocal...

Prof. Gabriele and guests today are talking about sex, baby. About you and me. About all the good things and the bad things that may be. Sorry. But we are talking about medieval sex and desire with Nancy Thebaut and Melanie Holcomb, who have co-curated the great exhibition “ Spectrum of Desire: Love, Sex, and Gender in the Middle Ages ” at the Cloisters Museum in NYC. Guests Nancy Thebaut is Assoc...

Enjoy this special collab episode with " Wow if True ," a podcast on internet culture and sibling in the Multitude Collective. Prof. Gabriele, Isabel J. Kim, and Amanda Silberling talk about your most favorite (and least favorite) medieval memes and various other internet stuff. Guests See more about Amanda and Isabel at this link .  You already know about Prof. Gabriele . Credits Host &...

Vikings. We talk about Vikings. It’s great. Traders and raiders, but no horned helmets.  Guest Daniel Melleno is Associate Professor of pre-modern history at the University of Denver. His recently published book, Franks and Northmen: From Stangers to Neighbors , and his research more broadly, looks at the impact of cross-cultural encounters in the early medieval world. In the classroom he tea...

We go on a journey in this episode. Arkady Martine (AnnaLinden Weller) and Prof. Gabriele talk here about telling stories, about getting at complicated lives, and about the allure of empires (even when viewed from the margins). History and fiction? Thicker than thieves, those two.  Guest Arkady Martine is the author of the Teixcalaan series, a multitude of short stories, and various other sci...

John and Matt talk about not liking time machines (generally) but also about how the “medieval” can mean more than Europe, and why we should always talk about Africa. Plus a lot on teaching the Middle Ages, and how K-12 teaching compares with college.  Guest John Terry is an award-winning world history teacher at the Paideia School in Atlanta, and has taught history from the ancient world to...

In this episode there are dead mules, dead asses, and penguins. These are all sort of related to one another in the conversation Prof. Gabriele has with Ellen Arnold, but mostly we talk about how the Middle Ages had much more science than the 0% they supposedly did. People really cared about the natural world! They investigated it! It’s neat!  Guest Ellen Arnold is a senior lecturer at Ohio S...

Everybody loves Wheatus, right? Wait, you don’t know who Wheatus is? Nevermind, we’ll get there in this episode. Megan and Prof. Gabriele talk about book history, how medieval people could indeed read - and engage with books in all sorts of interesting ways. Plus, we talk about dirtbag medievalism, a grungy vibes-based way of thinking about the Middle Ages. Guest Megan L. Cook is the Arthur Jeremi...

Prof. Gabriele and Rutger Kramer talk about jolly old St. Nicholas - who, in part, became a saint because he was a rich guy who was also nice. Then he became Santa Claus. Guest Rutger Kramer is assistant professor of Medieval History at Utrecht University (The Netherlands). He works mostly on Carolingian history, monasticism, and hagiographies – topics which are tied together by his interest in th...

Prof. Gabriele and David Perry talk about their recent book, Oathbreakers , about an early medieval civil war that remade Europe. Plus we talk about how we can understand what happened in the past when the sources want to stay silent. Guest David M. Perry is a journalist and historian, who currently works as the associate director of Undergraduate Studies at the University of Minnesota. He’s the c...

In this episode, Prof. Gabriele and Brett talk about Jesus through the years. Defying our assumptions, that Christian figure hasn’t stayed the same and his image was very different through the Middle Ages. Plus we talk a bit about Led Zeppelin. Guest Brett Whalen is the Zachary Smith Distinguished Term Professor of History at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He generally researches C...

In this episode, Roland and Matt talk about Disney and the Byzantine Empire (not in that order). Plus we talk about how the process of studying the past can lead you down interesting rabbit holes and connect, for example, the Byzantine Empire and Disney. Guest Roland Betancourt is currently the Andrew W Mellon Professor in the Center for the Advanced Study of the Visual Arts at the National Galler...

Summary In this episode, we spend our time thinking about the Roman Empire. Cliche, but fun. Anyway, Sarah and Prof. Gabriele discuss how we can hear from the 98.5% of Rome that wasn’t an emperor (or a dude), and then try to unpack why Americans are so freaking obsessed with comparing themselves to Romans and why it always seems like the “Fall of Rome” (which isn’t really a thing) is just around t...

Eels. Prof. Gabriele and John Wyatt talk about eels. And maps. We also talk about maps, but mainly medieval  eels.  Guest John Wyatt Greenlee is a cartographic historian, as well as a historian of roads and pathways and pilgrimage. He’s best known on social media though as the Surprised Eel Historian, and he’s been profiled in TIME , The Guardian , Atlas Obscura , Hakai Magazine , and Th...

In this very first episode of American Medieval, Prof. Gabriele and Dr Janega talk about what got us interested in the Middle Ages, what it’s like to do public-facing history, why Czech history is super cool, and why Dan Brown drives medievalists nuts. Guest Dr Eleanor Janega is a medieval historian, whose work aims to highlight the ways that our society has been influenced by the past, and more p...

American Medieval is a podcast about the Middle Ages, but with an American twist. Each week, your host Prof. Matthew Gabriele is joined by expert guests to explore not just the Middle Ages themselves, but how and why they have such a hold on our collective imagination. After all, if America has never been modern, it’s because we’ve always been slightly medieval. New episodes released every Wednesd...