Was the Holy Roman Empire, Holy, Roman, or an...

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! At the height of the Cold War, the United States considered a plan so audacious that it sounds like science fiction: detonating a nuclear weapon on the Moon. Known as Project A119, it was born from fear, prestige, and th ...  Show more

Tell me your favorite episode for the 6th anniversary show! Elephants are the largest land animals on Earth, capable of extraordinary intelligence, complex communication, and deep social bonds. For thousands of years, they have shaped ecosystems, carried armies, inspired cultures ...  Show more

Voltaire famously wrote that the "The Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” But Dr. Eleanor Janega believes that literally everything about Voltaire’s statement is wrong - in the medieval context.

In this explainer episo ...

Rome has attracted aspiring conquerors and leaders for millennia, not just as a great metropolis, but as an idea. It has long been a symbol of military might and universal power, defined by political and religious authority as well as great feats of engineering that would leav ...

16 January 27 BC is a date sometimes associated with the beginning of the Roman Empire. It was on that day that Octavian received the name Augustus, effectively becoming the first emperor of Rome. Augustus ordered the gates of Janus to be closed, marking an end to the period o ...

The Persian Empire followed in the footsteps of the Assyrians and Babylonians, but it was a much different entity than its predecessors, and its founder - Cyrus the Great - deserves to be mentioned among history's most accomplished conquerors. Professor Matt Waters joins me to ...