The Askhistorians Podcast

Today on AskHistorians aloud, hillsonghoods answers the question "How did people throughout ancient history explain static electricity?"   Link to question and answer: here.

In this week's podcast, we talk to AskHistorians flaired user u/rusoved, a historical linguist with a special focus on Slavic and Albanian linguistics. We discuss how historical linguists work backwards from modern language and dialects to work out how things used to be, as well as how the field itself developed and where it may be going on the future.

Today we have on askhistorians flaired user /u/nilhaus, better known as James McAllister to his friends and family. He has worked in a variety of fields including journalism, IT and government, but he returned to grad school and got his MA and his PHD (ABD) in American History and public history. He is working on his dissertation with an aim of beginning work in a museum afterwards.   He talks to us today about the nature of doing history, what it would have been like to be a soldier in the American Civil War, and the UNTOLD sexual history of the American Civil War. You wont get this story anywhere else!   Please take the podcast improvement and opinion poll here.    Discussion thread is here. © 2019 Brian M. Watson

New interview episode on Friday! For now, enjoy an AH Aloud episode! I often hear people say that the Irish Potato Famine was more a genocide than a true famine. How accurate is this claim?   Link to answer.

Today on AskHistorians Aloud, hillsonghoods answers the question : Is the concept of mental ilness a modern phenomenon?   Link to question and answer: here. 

In this episode of AskHistorians Aloud, we talk about conscription in the Ancient Greek world. Iphikrates answers "I'm a farmer in 500 BC in a typical Greek city-state. How often will I get called to mobilize for a battle?"   Link to answer: here.   Update: Someone has pointed out that a bit of the outro got recorded over the answer! Terribly sorry about that. Here is the missing text: How much of the time was wartime is an open question. But even during the Peloponnesian War, there were several uneventful years, in which Sparta did not call out the levy of the Peloponnesian League and Athens had only men from the Lists in various expeditionary forces. In such times you, as a regular farmer, might escape military duty altogether. And if your city-state wasn't a member of the League or a subject of the Athenian Empire, you might be fighting your own petty wars, but otherwise you'd be left mostly alone. It is anyone's guess how often you would actually be involved in a battle. Given all the factors I've mentio

This week we are thrilled to have the host of EdHistory 101 podcast, and great AskHistorians flaired member UrAccountabilityBuddy, who is better known as Jenn Binis! In this episode we literally trace the entire history of education in America, diving deep into some weeds of discussion. I think you will enjoy it greatly. Please do go and subscribe to Ed History 101 wherever you get your podcasts and also please support us on patreon.com/askhistorians as it really does help to keep this show going   Join us here for a discussion thread. © 2019 Brian M. Watson

Today we're talking with fellow mod u/Georgy_K_Zhukov about dueling in the 19th century United States.

Today, a history of the condom from /u/AnnalsPornographie / @HistoryOf Porn. Link to answer. © 2019 Brian M. Watson

Today we are joined by AskHistorians user /u/mimicofmodes, flaired in the History of Western Fashion. She is better known to her friends and family as Cassidy Percoco, an independent historian of fashion, textiles and material culture. She is the author of Regency Women's Dress: Techniques and Patterns 1800-1830, the host of A Most Beguiling Accomplishment podcast, and a collections manager at the St. Lawrence County Historical Association and talks to us today about  some aspects of history in public life--what it is like to work in a museum and to teach history to the public   You can also catch her on Episode 45 talking about Regency Era Fashion and on Episode 100 talking about AskHistorians under the hood, as in what it is like to moderate and run an academic history subreddit on the internet.  © 2019 Brian M. Watson

In this episode of AskHistorians Aloud, sunagainstgold answers "Were women voters subject to vote suppression campaigns in the 1920s like those forced on African-Americans after Reconstruction?"   Link to question and answer: here. 

Today we talk with Dr. Timo Schaefer, author of Liberalism as Utopia The Rise and Fall of Legal Rule in Post-Colonial Mexico, 1820–1900 (Cambridge University Press, 2017), about how Liberal projects and ideals affected the legal system in 19th century Mexico.   You can find him on Twitter as @TimoHSchaefer     You can find his book here.

Today's episode is a little bit different! Instead of your regularly scheduled episode we are coming out with a preview of a new AskHistorians Podcast feature, AskHistorians Aloud! This feature is meant to bring some of the amazing work being done on the subreddit everyday to your ears here.  © 2019 Brian M. Watson

Today we talk with Dr. Roel Konijnendijk (@Roelkonijn on Twitter) about the myths surrounding the Battle of Thermopylae in popular culture. In particular, we compare scholarship on the battle with the mid-aughts film 300, Directed by Zack Snyder.

Today we talk with /u/UncoveredHistory, better known as Jason Aglietti. He is a public librarian in Baltimore and he just finished his Master’s thesis from University of Maryland Baltimore County, where he wrote and defended his thesis The Friends They Loathed: The Persecution of Maryland Quakers During the Revolutionary War. Jason will tell us all about the lives of the Quakers in the American colonies from their founding to their persecution in the revolutionary war. This is NOT the history you usually hear about the revolutionary war, and Jason gives us a lot of new things to think about!   Finding The Maryland 400, the history project Jason worked on and talks about can be found here. Jason's blog is here.   Discussion thread. © 2019 Brian M. Watson

Today we talk with Max (AKA u/Commustar on Reddit) about tribes, tribalism, and nationality in Africa.   You can find the discussion thread here.

Today on the AskHistorians Podcast we are joined by Dr Adam Rodman of the BedsideRounds Podcast! Prepare for the ultimate crossover episode as we discuss the history of the body, of medicine, and of physicians. This is a great episode and please enjoy it, love it, rate and review it!   You can find Adam @AdamRodmanMD and his podcast at http://bedside-rounds.org/.   Discussion thread is here.  © 2019 Brian M. Watson

Today we're talking about the ways in which 17th and 18th century Russia gathered intelligence on the Far East with Professor Gregory Afinogenov, who is currently Assistant Professor of Russian Imperial History at the University of Georgetown.   He's on Twitter as @athenogenes.

Today we are joined by /u/amandycat, who is flaired on AskHistorians as Early Modern English Death Culture, which has to be one of the more stark and interesting flairs we have on the subreddit. She is better known to her friends and family as Amanda Brunton, a PhD student at Anglia Ruskin University in the UK. Today we discuss all sorts of interesting and morbid things, like deaths, funerals, and how people liked to talk shade about the dead. An hour on the culture and history surrounding death and death culture in Early Modern England and it's not even Halloween!    © 2019 Brian M. Watson