The Boiled Leather Audio Hour

Sean and I start a new series, analyzing our favorite moments of the series. This week is about the Tower of Joy.

Bismarck famously refused to engage in colonialism, only to do an about-face in the 1880s to create the third-largest colonial empire of the world. It didn’t do much good. A drain financially, utterly indefensible and diplomatically a heavy burden, it weakened Germany, rather than strengthening it. Nor did it bring any good to the colonized; rather the opposite. The first German genocide was perpe...

Bismarck felt, in the colloquial French of the times, the "cauchemar des coalitions", the nightmare of coalitions. He wanted to keep the peace, but a peace on his terms. Was this ever possible, or was Bismarck's artful foreign policy in the end only kicking the can down the road, leading to the inevitable breakdown? Listen to find out!

Amazon produced a gigantic fantasy series in the hopes of upstaging Game of Thrones - or at least its own "Lord of the Rings The Rings of Power". Did they succeed?

I'm talking about the phenomenon of "The Expanse" with Tim Westmeyr.

The first political conflict of the Kaiserriech is upon us! The Kulturkampf, the first and titular culture war, against the catholic church and the suppression of the social democrats are major factors.

We are ten years old! Almost everyone who is someone in nerddom came over to talk to me and say some kind words.

With the Kaiserreich now founded, Jim and I take a look under the hood and dissect its constitutional framework.

To talk about his famous blog series, I invited Bret back over to talk about the myths mentioned in the title.

One of the most popular series right now is "The Boys", which is rather toxic. So what's the whole deal about?

After we looked at the political unification process, we're now looking at the more martially oriented one.

What's this question about? Listen to find out!

Jim and I start a new sub-series on our "history of Germany" bigger series, looking where it all began: in the Kaiserreich.

We continue our series.

I'm bringing back the two political experts to talk about how campaigns go.

We continue our series.

With Bret Deveraux, I'm talking about RTS and their stories. Come back to the Tiberium Wars with us!

After we explored the role that magical creatures play in ASOIAF in  episode 131, it’s time to look at other fantastical elements. From  magical portals to telepathy, from blood sacrifice to Asshai and the  Wall itself, we explore the role magic plays in the greater narrative.

We continue our series on the American presidents.

Do Snarks and Grumpkins exist? Do Squishers? If they did, what would it mean? And what have the Brothers Grimm to do with it? Are direwolves monsters or animals? What's the deal with the Others? And, most importantly, why are monsters in this story in the first place? All this, and more, in the current episode of the Boiled Leather Audio Hour!

It has been a wild week. After all that casting news of “House of  the Dragon”, the new bid-budget HBO show on the Dance of the Dragons, we  not only got news about a Broadway theatrical play about the Tourney at  Harrenhal, but also about three (!) other shows being in development as  well as an animated (!) show, all set in Westeros. Do  these shows excite us? Maybe? Do we have thoughts on them...

After German history, Jim and I look at American presidents.

I watched Twin Peaks for the first time, and boy was it weird. I'm talking to strangeness expert Sean about it.

We're taking a little holiday from Westeros and talk about how stories are told in political campaigns. I have two campaign experts with me for this.

What lessons can we draw from the fall of the Weimar Republic?