History Loves Company

Every city has an underbelly, a dark and shady section that's perhaps best to avoid altogether. But the literal underbelly of Paris is just so cool and unique that you might NOT want to miss it! Tune in this week on Halloween Eve (that's a thing, right?) for the grim and grisly history of the Paris Catacombs!

Babylon. The name conjures up images of Biblical grandeur, of a wicked city whose reputation for vice and vanity would be its ultimate undoing. But beneath this unjust, one-sided, depiction lies one of the greatest architectural marvels in all of human history...or so we've been told. Just what were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon? Who ordered their construction and why? And if they were as grand a...

Historically speaking, it goes without saying that Europe is a Christian continent. But prior to the arrival of this monotheistic faith from the Middle East, its various cultures and peoples had their own gods and religious practices. Still, the conversion of the continent from paganism to Christianity didn't occur overnight and there were indeed a few holdouts, though perhaps none quite as late,...

As of 2025, the city of Manila in the Philippines is the most densely populated place on Earth with 119,600 people per square mile. These statistics are staggering to say the least, but prior to this, one of the most densely populated places in history was the so-named Kowloon Walled City in Hong Kong. Roughly the size of four American football fields, this makeshift enclave boasted some 33,000 in...

Celestial phenomena are nothing new. In fact, they've been recorded throughout human history. The appearance of Halley's Comet in the skies over the English Channel during the Norman Conquest was one such instance. A lunar eclipse prior to the abandonment of several Mayan cities was thought to be an omen from the gods of portents dire. And in an open field in Fátima, Portugal on October 13th, 1917...

Despite there being several examples of female pirates in popular culture, there were, in fact, only about a hundred of whose exploits were recorded throughout history. One of these was Grace O'Malley, the daughter of a prominent Irish clan leader who would go on to gain a fearsome reputation for herself in a largely male-dominated society and age. So avast, me hearties, as the 'Pirates of the Car...

Anyone who has seen 'Jurassic Park' will be familiar with amber, as it plays a major role in the plot. This fossilized tree resin was described by the ancients as "warm to the touch and, when burned, is even more agreeable than frankincense." Indeed, it was a highly prized commodity in Antiquity, being used in jewelry and religious practices throughout the Mediterranean, North Africa, and even Cen...

The Oxford English Dictionary defines a golden age as "an idyllic, often imaginary, past time of peace, prosperity, and happiness." Yet, for the people who lived under the reign of the subject of this week's episode, it was anything BUT imaginary. To this day, the name Mansa Musa strikes awe in the hearts and minds of all those who hear his story, but what exactly IS that story? How was his reign...

Never had Italy been more fractured in its reunification efforts than it was following the Revolutions of 1858-49 as well as the Italian Independence War. Both sides kept butting heads with one another in a tug-of-war that showed no signs of stopping. How long would the revolutionaries' struggle last? Would the Italian Peninsula ever be united? And were it so, what sort of government would ultimat...

As Charles Dickens wrote at the beginning of 'A Tale of Two Cities': "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times," though for the disparate states scattered throughout the Italian Peninsula for much of the start of the 19th Century, it was more the latter. With the people demanding a unified Italy, a series of revolts (some peaceful, some not) broke out, some of which bore partial fruit w...

Once, all of the Italian Peninsula was united under the Roman banner. But with the fall of the western half of that mighty empire in the late 5th Century, it became a fractured collection of kingdoms, republics, and city-states. It would take another fourteen centuries before anything close to cohesion would emerge in Italy and it would come at a highly volatile time in European history. Tune in t...

The word "frontier" conjures up many ideas in the American consciousness. It's become synonymous with the concept of Manifest Destiny in 19th Century American politics, the eventual westward expansion, and, of course, the so-named "Wild West" period that ensued. But before all that, the American Frontier was confined to the land west of the Appalachian Mountains along the country's eastern seaboar...

The modern nation-state of Romania is a puzzle of sorts. Given its place in Eastern Europe, surrounded by mostly Slavic and Slavic-speaking countries, its people speak a tongue descended from Latin, the noble language of the Romans. Its name also gives a hint at ties to Rome, but before these lands fell under Roman influence and jurisdiction, they were united by a man who has since become a nation...

With several rescue and relief efforts underway, one would think the surviving Donner Party members' fates were secured. But alas, inclement weather and the limits of manpower meant that they still had several struggles to overcome, the like of which would cost some of them their lives. Tune in this week for the third and final installment of the Donner Party's epic journey.

When last we left our...heroes? Anti-heroes? Villains? Anyway, when last we left the Donner Party, they had rejoined the Oregon Trail after the disastrous "shortcut" that had been the Hastings Cutoff. But their troubles were only just beginning, as we'll discover in this week's episode, part two of the Donner Party.

We in the 21st Century have it decidedly easy as far as travel is concerned. With cars, trains, and airplanes at our disposal, we've the luxury of traveling in comfort, style, and with enough provisions to ensure our satisfaction. But those in 19th Century America weren't as fortunate, making long overland crossings that caused them to face starvation, attacks from hostile Native Americans, and ot...

The primary purpose of language is to communicate, though with the variety of tongues spoken throughout the world, understanding is somewhat complicated. But in the late 19th Century, an ophthalmologist from a town in what's now Poland sought to bridge these linguistic gaps by creating a universal language. How did he do it? What inspired him to do so, despite his decidedly non-linguistic career p...

As far as 20th Century German art is concerned, the German capital of Berlin tends to overshadow all others, especially In regards to the Weimar Republic of the late 1910s through the early 1930s. But at the beginning of the 20th Century, Munich was the undisputed art capital of Germany when many avant-garde artists converged there and formed a group known as Der Blaue Reiter ("the Blue Rider"). T...

It's known as America's Pastime. For about eight months each year, from March to November, baseball grips the nation in which fans root for their favorite teams for their chance to play in the World Series, the event that culminates the season. But while the sport is intrinsically linked with America and the Americab identity, it enjoys a fanbase overseas as well, though perhaps none with quite as...

Along with the Bronze Age Sea Peoples and the Early Medieval Vikings, no other seafarers were as feared and reviled as the Barbary Pirates. Hailing from homelands in Northern Africa, they disrupted trade and commerce in the Mediterranean, leaving devastation and destruction in their wake. Find out how they did it in this week's enthralling episode!

Depending upon who you ask and where you ask them, May Day can have a few different meanings. As a one-word phrase, it's the notorious code for help. As a two-word proper noun, it can refer to the first day of summer in several European cultures whose origins date back to Pre-Christian times. But it's the other meaning as a two-word proper noun--that of a labor holiday--that is the subject of this...

The influence of Greece and Rome on Western governance can't be understated. But what of the Norse, the other great Western society whose intrepid nature continues to shape Northern Europe to this very day? Most governments would consider themselves lucky to have survived for two centuries (as America has, for instance), yet the subject of this week's episode has endured for a thousand years and t...

There were a number of factors which contributed to the Greek Junta's downfall, which we'll discuss this week in part three, the third and final chapter, on this epic three-part event on one of the darker chapters of Modern Greek history. Tune in to find out how it, quite literally, all went down.

No sooner had the Colonels assumed command of the country after their coup did they completely change the Greek political landscape. In Part Two on the Greek Junta, we'll be exploring what life was like under their iron rule and what those opposed to it were doing behind the scenes.

Greece has a long (and sometimes troublesome) political past. Despite being the birthplace of democracy, little in the way of democratic values extended to the Greek populace until relatively recently. Having been ruled throughout the centuries by such disparate powers as the Ottoman Empire, several foreign kings after gaining independence, and even Fasicst Italy and Nazi Germany during World War...