American Medieval

The medieval F-word. Ada Kuskowski and Prof. Gabriele talk about “Feudalism” and how it’s a term that’s more about modernity than the Middle Ages. It’s Adam Smith’s fault. Guest Ada Kuskowski is an associate professor in the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania. Her book Vernacular Law: Writing and the Reinvention of Customary Law in Medieval France was published in 2022, and he...

Imagine walking down the street and seeing a fox arguing with a wolf, or some dudes on a cart talking about the end of the world. That’s (part of) medieval drama, baby. Prof. Gabriele and Andrew Albin talk about how street theater, both in the medieval world and performed today, can be liberatory. Guest Andrew Albin is Professor of English and Medieval Studies at Fordham University. His scholarshi...

Matt and Hannah talk opera and how it uses the Middle Ages, because there is A LOT of medievalism in opera - far beyond the stereotypes we have in our head about Wagner. There’s something in the water that helps us think not just about the medieval world, but our own. Take that Chalamet.  Guest Hannah Weaver is an assistant professor of medieval literature at Columbia University. She's the au...

This episode we talk about Roger Bacon, maybe not perfect for Instagram but not far off. There’s some medieval science (and using data to understand the medieval world), some alchemy, and some antichrist. Peter Thiel even gets a mention, but only briefly.  Guest Jennifer Jahner is a Professor of English at Caltech, where she has worked since 2012. Trained in literature, she has migrated over...

Michael and Matt talk about wars between England and France. There were a lot of them, or maybe there was just one. Plus we talk about humility in doing the work of history and how telling stories is really good for making people understand things.  Guest Michael Livingston , PhD, FRHistS, Col (UMSC), is an award-winning historian and author who frequently lectures on military history and hos...

Although our guest doesn’t still skateboard (much), he does have a great new book on the history of a gesture - to turn away from grief/ shame. What does it mean to bear witness in the medieval and modern worlds? Guest Benjamin A. Saltzman is associate professor of English at the University of Chicago, where he coedits the journal Modern Philology . Saltzman is the author of the books Bonds of Sec...

In this episode, Kathleen and Matt talk about vast early North America and all the peoples who inhabited it during (what Europeans call) the Middle Ages. There were cities, and then there weren’t. And the not having cities was better in a lot of ways, so we don’t need to cling to 19th-century stories about what’s “civilized” and what isn’t. Guests Kathleen DuVal is the author of the Pulitzer Prize...

There’s something just amazing about being able to reconstruct a person ’s life in the deep past, from say 5,000 years ago. Matt and Patrick talk in this episode about how being a medievalist helps think about our shared humanity and why history is so freakin’ exciting.  Guest Patrick Wyman is a historian and the host of the history podcast “ Tides of History ” and now the new show “ Past Liv...

I think this might be a food podcast now because we talked a lot about cake. But also in this episode we talk about archives, how podcasts can demystify the medieval world, and how everyone should be welcomed into studying the Middle Ages. Guests Reed O'Mara is a PhD candidate in the joint art history program between Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Museum of Art and is currently...

It’s the Matthew and Matthew show! In this episode, we talk about frictions - about how art can help us think differently about the Middle Ages, as well as our own futures. Plus we talk about Doritos. Guest Matthew Vernon is a medievalist at UC Davis. He’s the author of The Black Middle Ages: Race and the Construction of the Middle Ages , and if you want a peek into his new work, check out  h...

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...