The Ridiculous Origin of the Modern Calendar

Heads-up, fellow Ridiculous Historians: this is an explicit episode, and maynot be appropriate for all audiences. It's no secret that Ben, Noel and Max are huge fans of etymology -- and there's one word that's mystified them for years. When did the English world fall in love with ...  Show more

Fellow Ridiculous Historians, we just returned from the beautiful Baha Mar resort, and we're going through a pirate phase. So, naturally, we have to share an hilarious Classic episode: the so-called Golden Age of Piracy was a time of lawless, terrifying, at-times amazing and obje ...  Show more

It's December 25th, 2024. Across this wide world, people commemorate one of the most famous birthdays in all of history: the birth of Jesus Christ. Then as now, adherents of Christianity celebrate the coming of the Messiah -- yet why does this holiday occur on a specific date in, ...  Show more

Why is the Western world's most famous birthday celebrated on a seemingly-arbitrary date? As Ben, Matt and Noel discover in the second chapter of this special two-part holiday series, the power structures of ancient empires experienced a progression of conspiracies, geopolitical ...  Show more

Professor Alexander Meyer visits Google to share the ways ancient Greeks and Romans kept time and their reasons for doing so. He discusses various time-keeping artifacts and works of literature to show that the manner in which time was kept and tracked reflected and continues to ...  Show more

As one of the world’s most historically important bodies of water, the Persian Gulf is home to fascinating evidence of ancient humanity. In tonight’s episode, Ben, Matt and Noel discover the true story of an ancient civilization lost to antiquity.They don't want you to read our b ...  Show more