Hanging with History

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. Don't let the title fool you, this is history with science context.   The Elizabethan era.  The Saltsrømmen episode.  Current ideas around Bostorm’s Simulation hypothesis and using RNA for computation are compared to the Elizabethan religious settlement.  The religious settlement is assisted by the Papal mercenaries invading Ireland...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. Mary’s efforts to restore the Catholic faith backfire with the result that Protestantism gains strength, and anti-Spanish feeling grows.  A Fornebu episode.   We explore 3 characteristic failures with the greatest being that time when Dumbledore, I mean Gandalf, uh, Cranmer foxed the regime with the help of a divinely sent comet.  His he...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. Very strong episode, very good for people who want to understand the medieval church and their relationship with death.  You get a feel for what Protestants are trying to overthrow. Mary Tudor and the dead are our subjects.  The Astraea episode.  The dead we cover in depth in the 2nd half.  First, we look at Mary’s history and how histor...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. One of the most popular episodes.  Lighter in tone, driven by the guest Cyrus, who is a visual artist, but also a comedic talent.   Again with the minimally murdery theme. Henry VIII Part 3, The Cyrus episode.  Henry’s romantic misadventures are portrayed as a somewhat pathetic and lame subject for History.  The execution of Cromwell she...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. This episode is potentially one of the most valuable in understanding England. The Reformation in England continues with Cromwell’s Act of Supremacy.  A minimally murdery Reformation.  This is an under appreciated fact of the English Reformation.   Parliament makes Henry head of the Church of England and the clergy goes along with it.  C...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. This is a really good episode. The Reformation in England; Henry VIII Part 1.  The first of a 5 episode arc.  The Reformation is dominated by Henry VIII and Thomas Cromwell.  The stakes are high, the relationship between the living and the dead are at the heart of it.  This episode has a lot of narrative on Henry’s first marriage, the ar...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. Reformation in Germany Part 2.  The bloody parts.  We start with the example of astrology as a belief of educated people in the 16th century and wonder what equally stupid things we believe today.  This leads to extended coverage of the Peasant’s Revolt, the largest until Bolshevik times.  The Reformation begins to spread but is limited...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. The Reformation in Germany Part 1.  Martin Luther, they didn’t have a prayer.  With the help of Kurt Gödel via Scott Aaronson we examine Purgatory and the related prayer industry.  How can we understand a prayer industry?  This leads to indulgences. The great weakness, the great mistake of the church.  We try to bring the scummy, scammy...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. Introduction to an introduction to the Reformation.  The Outdoorsman episode.  Tools for historical analysis on the Reformation including Burke and Stirner.  We review where we have gotten so far in English history and talk about historical what-ifs.  Talk a little about the widespread understanding of corruption in the church.  We discu...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. The Agricultural Revolution arc concludes with a discussion of crop rotation, but first a good long look at the tragic element of economic and social upheavals.  We take some time to credit the Catholic kingdoms for their contribution to the miracle.  The role of rivalry in driving forward the industrial revolution cannot be ignored, was...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. Enclosures: Efficiency and Tears.  Agricultural output increases 80% over rival France, with profits increasing greatly more.  We look at the rural landscape and take a look at how the Commons were integrated into village life.  We describe some of the situations as resembling a color blindness chart with a kaleidoscope of rights to farm...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. The first of a 3 episode arc on the Agricultural Revolution.  Yes, this is the Jethro Tull episode. The focus is on engineering and the early inventions often associated with the Agricultural Revolution – the wrong ones.  Then we turn to the Dutch and their development of efficient water transport which allowed for a much larger hinterla...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. Tudor England and the Parish based system to care for the aged.  British and Dutch elites  were better and more competent in the great struggles between the powers.  Partly this is because the method for selecting elites was more robust than France and Spain where birth was so important.  We look at studies done of village life in Englan...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. Background we need for the 3 episode arc on the Agricultural Revolution which runs in episodes 18-20.  The early 16th century Dutch have twice the percentage of people employed in Industry as the rest of Western Europe, as a concomitant they have half the percentage employed in Agriculture.  How can this be?  Trade is the answer.  Basics...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. The Spanish Armada was a consequence of the Dutch war with Spain.  It was a flyweight boxer against a heavyweight.  We look at a few other examples from military history of flyweights winning.  We relate the importance of the defeat of the Armada to the Battle of Jutland.  Then we turn from the Armada via Drake to Foxe’s Book of Martyrs...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. The Dutch contribution the the Miracle part 2.  The 80 years war.  Dutch Independence.  The Sea Beggars and Maurice of Nassau are an irresistible combination.  The determination of the Hapsburg kings to keep their provinces is immovable.  The Duke of Alba and his Blood Court, the Inquisition, the Spanish Fury and the sacking of Antwerp a...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. The Dutch contribution introduction, through the medium of breakfast, with a side order of Portuguese.  Did you know that Flanders was the richest and most advanced part of Europe for a time and soon the Netherlands too?  Clothing manufacture led to trade.  The Mother Trade and the technological marvels that made it possible broke the Ha...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. This is a really superior episode as history.  Only a couple cringey bits, it is getting better. Torture is wrong, only the sophisticated torture.  The future effects of the Black Death are different in England.  Instead of doubling down on serfdom, in England, it ends.  Also we get into church land confiscation with the destruction of t...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. Magna Carta, a unique document that is one of England's many great gifts to the world.  Magna Carta is, or is a marker for, one of the greatest innovations in world history.  It, like Modus Tennedi Parliamentum, rests upon a common delusion.  It's great success was based on failure.  Is this a Doctor Who episode or is it histor...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. A mad dream escapes into the world and becomes real.  We know this dream as Parliament.  Modus Tenendi Parlementum.  Parliament achieves a secure place in the English conception of society and politics while representative bodies lose power all over Europe. The Domesday survey reveals 9 percent of the English were slaves.  William would...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. Takes a few minutes to get into 1066 narrative.  We have distinguished how Europe was different from the world and how Britain was different from Europe,  We cover the history of Canute the Great and the year 1066.  Was it an Annus Horribilus or something necessary for the Miracle?  William the Bastard should maybe be called William the...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. A strong episode on Vikings.   We continue our very historical, but unconventional pro-Viking approach.  Also a good discussion on Scandinavia that might be useful for others. The story of Forkbeard's rapid conquest of England is complete.  And he dies 5 weeks later.  Along the way we cover Thorkell's invasion and his short liv...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. These have been very popular.  We take a very historical, but unconventionally pro-Viking view. The Vikings in the Danelaw are settling down and spreading out, a good time had by all (by gruesome 10th century standards), but they couldn't leave well enough alone.  Politics ensue.  An introduction to exponential growth and how it mat...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. 3rd of 6 Viking story arc.  These have been very popular.  We take a very historical, but unconventionally pro-Viking view. Vikings conquer 3 English kingdoms and settle down.  They just seem unstoppable, until they decide to stop.  The Danelaw is established with long term consequences for the history of England, the English language an...

You can send a text, include contact info to get a response. 2nd of 6 episode Viking story arc.  These have been very popular.  We take a very historical, but unconventionally pro-Viking view.    About this episode we introduce the idea that the Vikings were just more effective man-for-man than the Anglo-Saxons of the time, with a few exceptions.   There is a little pointless grumpiness, but hey w...