The Askhistorians Podcast

In this episode, Morgan Lewin talks to Darren Colbourne about the origins of Northern Ireland's People's Democracy Party, its early days, motivations, its connections to the United States civil rights movement, and its eventual gradual dissolution.

Jeremy Salkeld (EnclavedMicrostate) talks with /u/mikitacurve about the creation and development of the Moscow Metro under Stalin, its origins in Soviet debates over urban planning, and how the art and monumentality of the underground railroad reflected the utopian ideals of the Soviet Union, even amid the ongoing Terror on the surface. 70 mins.

Jeremy Salkeld (EnclavedMicrostate) talks with /u/PartyMoses about the life and times of robber knight Götz von Berlichingen, who fought in various conflicts in the Holy Roman Empire in the early sixteenth century, and most famously did so with a prosthetic right hand. Topics discussed include martial culture, the politics of the Holy Roman Empire in the reign of Charles V, and disability in Early Modern Europe. 49 mins.

Morgan Lewin (u/aquatermain) talks with Elle Ransom (u/anthropology_nerd) about the history and legacy of residential schools in Canada. Ransom explores why these schools were built, what went on in them, and their lasting impact on indigenous communities in Canada. 63m.

Jeremy Salkeld (EnclavedMicrostate) talks with /u/the_gubna about the field of historical archaeology and the latter's research on the Camino Real in the colonial Andes, discussing the history of this highway and of the people who used it. 32 mins. 

Jeremy Salkeld (EnclavedMicrostate) talks with /u/Dongzhou3kingdoms about the effect the Romance of the Three Kingdoms has had on online discourse about the Three Kingdoms period in Chinese history, and how discussions of the period's history continue to be framed in relation to the literary tradition. 45 mins.

Tyler Alderson talks with u/Valkine, otherwise known as Stuart Ellis-Gorman, about his new book The Medieval Crossbow. Ellis-Gorman discusses what we do and don't know about its origins, its history as a weapon "fit to kill a king," and the many legends and tall tales surrounding the crossbow. He also talks about continuing to do academic research outside of traditional academia. 55m.

For the 200th episode, guest host Jennifer Borgioli Binis (EdHistory101) spoke with one of the country's pre-eminent scholars on American higher education and McCarthism. Dr. Schrecker shares her experiences as a researcher, historian, and woman in academia. 1 hour, 11 minutes.

Tyler Alderson talks with Joan De Jean about her new book Mutinous Women: How French Convicts Became Founding Mothers of the Gulf Coast. We discussed the complicated lives and legacies of the women who were shipped from France across the Atlantic to the Louisiana colony. 52m.

Fraser Raeburn talks with Jason Steinhauer about how the internet has shaped the consumption and production of historical knowledge, as detailed in Jason's new book, History Disrupted: How Social Media and the World Wide Web Have Changed the Past. 40 minutes. A transcript of this episode will be forthcoming.

Morgan Lewin talks with Stegan Aguirre Quiroga about his new book, White Mythic Space: Racism, the First World War, and Battlefield 1, and about the construction of idealized representations of whiteness in the histories of Argentina and Chile. 1 hour.

In this special episode of the AskHistorians podcast, /u/hannahstohelit and /u/EnclavedMicrostate talk about one of the more unusual history-related conspiracy theories of recent years: Tartaria. Why are thousands of internet users convinced of the existence of a lost empire in Eurasia? Where does post-Soviet nationalism come into it? And why are they so obsessed with big buildings? All this and more will be revealed in this special. 60 mins. A transcript of this episode can be found here.

Tyler Alderson talks with pipe organist and Juilliard professor Paul Jacobs about the history of the instrument and his upcoming recital series of the music of César Franck. 34 mins.

In this episode, Morgan Lewin (/u/aquatermain) speaks with Meg Hyland (/u/kelpie-cat) about her Women Of 1000 AD project, a digital public history project and teaching tool that showcases the histories of women from all over the globe who lived in and around the year 1000 CE through hand-made illustrations and thoroughly researched write-ups about their lives and cultures. 65 mins.

Jeremy Salkeld (EnclavedMicrostate) talks with Dr. Joseph W. Ho on the subject of his new book, 'Developing Mission: Photography, Filmmaking, and American Missionaries in Modern China'. While missionary photographers in China have often been approached either as missionaries or as photographers, Dr. Ho's book approaches the subject in its entirety, discussing the role photography played in the missionary enterprise, and in the creation and continuance of Chinese Christian communities in the 20th century. 30 mins.

Tyler Alderson talks to fellow moderator u/Steelcan909 about the religion of the Norse, often called "Norse mythology." They discuss what we do and don't know about religious practice, the truth behind popular conceptions of the Norse gods, and why this religion has continued to feature heavily in pop culture. 

In this episode, Morgan Lewin (u/Aquatermain) talks with Dan Howlett (u/dhowlett1692) about disability in early America.  In this conversation, they cover how to define disability historically, how to find disability in the archives, and how disability shaped events like the Salem Witch Trials. 53 minutes.

In this episode, /u/EnclavedMicrostate talks with Trevor Culley about the Cyrus Cylinder, an inscription dictated by the first ruler of the Persian Empire. Aside from the text of the cylinder and its historical context, also discussed is the use of the cylinder in modern Iranian nation-building. 48 mins.

In this episode, /u/EnclavedMicrostate talks with /u/DGBD, better known as Tyler Alderson, about the history of the banjo. Discussed are the instrument's origins and development, on the cultural place of the banjo on both sides of the Atlantic, and of its relationship to issues of racism and identity. 70 mins.

Tyler Alderson talks with Alex Fox Rudinski, who is looking into the intergenerational effects of the trauma veterans experienced in World War II. From the veterans themselves through to their children and even grandchildren, this trauma has had an impact on many families' lives. Rudinski also talks about the challenges of researching the effects of trauma in a time period when these effects were little understood or recognized.