15-Minute History

Join us and our special guest Father Dominic Verner, Ph. D. candidate, for a discussion on the life and times of Bartolome de Las Casas and his effect on world history. 

Bartolomé de Las Casas was born in Spain in 1484 into a wealthy merchant family. At the age of eighteen, he emigrated with his father Pedro to the new Spanish colony on Hispaniola (the island that is today divided between the nations of Haiti and the Dominican Republic). Pedro de Las Casas obtained a large farm, or hacienda, from the governor along with dozens of slaves. As landowners, the family...

Five months into the First World War, as the European powers were hurling their young men into barbed wire and machine-gun fire, Pope Benedict XV issued a plea "that the guns may fall silent at least upon the night the angels sang." The governments of the warring nations ignored the pontiff's call, and generals ordered their men to continue to fight while the rest of the Christian world celebrated...

Join us as we discuss Jordan Peterson, his influences, his writings, and his effect on society today. 

Join Jon and Dan as they each discuss three historical figures and their effect on world history. 

Join us as we teach you about Jordan Peterson, the effect of his philosophy on today's society, and the means by which he affects change (for the good or bad) across the globe. 

Join us as we share three stories about Thanksgiving and explore the art of being thankful. This episode originally ran in 2019. 

Join us as we discuss Fyodor Dostoyevsky, his life, his influences, and his genius.

He looked up at the white sky. The flakes did come into view until they came through the holes in the roof. A breeze blew through the building. Men around him huddled close together. He didn’t smell the stink anymore. It was all the same smell.  Among the flakes now contrasting with the dark of the roof, he centered on one that moved slowly down to him. It went to and fro, back and forth, unt...

Join us as we discuss Ceasear Augustus, his life, and how his actions directed the rise of one of the largest empires in the history of the world.

The old man lay in his bed surrounded by courtiers and family members. He had traveled from Rome to visit the place where his father had died many years ago, and now his own life was nearing its end. History records his last words as, “Have I played the part well? Then applaud as I exit.” Caesar Augustus, the first citizen of Rome and the founder of an empire that outlasted him by over fourteen hu...

Join us as we answer your questions and discuss Joan of Arc. 

Arrows filled the sky above the battlefield and rained down on the French knights as they slogged through the mud in heavy armor. Their effect was devastating, and hundreds of France’s noblest men fell screaming as the English longbowmen poured fire into their ranks. The French commander urged his men forward, while at the other end of the field the King of England, Henry V, watched the battle wit...

Join us as we discuss Mark Twain, his writings, his life, what we can learn from him, and his effect on history. 

The steamboat passed the port and he looked out at the brown, muddy water. The heat was failing and the humidity began to soak his clothes. Soon it would be twilight and the lighting bugs would begin to flash on the shoreline. As the boat moved downriver, he saw an old wooden raft hitched to a tree near the shore. It had a battered steering rudder, and the logs that were tied together looked so be...

In August 2019,  The New York Times  commemorated the four hundred-year anniversary of the first black Africans arriving in the New World by launching a long-form journalism project called the 1619 Project. Developed by Nikole Hannah-Jones, the project was designed to shift the focus of American history away from the American Revolution and hone in on the experiences of black Americans both before...

Join us as we discuss the final episode in our "What if?" series, "The 1619 Project". 

From 1531-1532, Pizzaro and his group conquered and destroyed the Inca Civilization. Climbing the Andes Mountains, they probably never questioned the ability of the Inca Empire to feed itself in the absence of cattle and wheat. That was, by most estimations, the farthest thing from the mind of the conqueror. Amongst the riches they stole and the mining they conducted, a resource emerged that McNei...

Join us as we discuss, "What if" | Pizzaro and the Potato.

"Cortés and his men leapt across the breach in the causeway to pursue the fleeing Aztecs, only to see them turn and attack. Drawn into the trap, Cortés and sixty-eight other Spaniards were captured and dragged off, leaving scores of others dead on the road. Ten captives were killed immediately, and…the remaining fifty-eight were taken to the towering Great Temple, which could plainly be seen from...

Join us as we discuss What If? | The Immolation of Hernán Cortés.

General Marshall had arrived early in 1946 with orders from Harry Truman to build a coalition government that included both Communists and Nationalists in China. Mao Tse Tung eagerly accepted Marshall’s intervention, continuing his public relations campaign to depict the Chinese Communist Party as kinder and gentler than its Stalinist counterpart in Moscow. But Chiang, who had chafed at having to...

Join us as we discuss What If? | Victory at Harbin.

The raft floated in the midst of the River Niemen. On it were two beautiful pavilions, one for the Emperor of the French and the other for the Czar and Autocrat of All the Russias. In the French tent, Napoleon Bonaparte argued with his foreign minister, Charles-Maurice de Talleyrand, over how harsh the peace terms with the defeated Russians should be. Talleyrand, a servant of every revolutionary g...

Join us as we discuss, What if? | The Lasting Peace at Tilst.