This is just a quick announcement about this year’s Intelligent Speech Conference. Intelligent Speech brings together your favourite educational podcasters and their fans in a 3 ring circus of edutainment.

The conference takes place online from 10 am Eastern and 3pm London time on June 25th. There will 3 keynote speeches, 8 round tables and 24 individual sessions. Each sessions is about 40 minutes each with a lot of time given to Q&A.

Early bird tickets are $20 US and you get 10% off when you use the code ”Germans” at checkout. To book your ticket go to intelligentspechconference.com, there is also Facebook page @intelligentspeechconf and you can email the organisers at [email protected].

The theme of this year‘s conference is, “Crossing Lines.” Where lines cross are junctures and our era certainly feels like a major juncture in time; at Intelligent Speech 2022, we will be exploring other times when lines have been crossed in one way or another.

There will be some amazing speakers. I am particularly excited about Roberto Toro of the History of Saqartvelo Georgia talking about Georgian influence on the Holy Land and Eric Halsey of the History of Bulgaria putting a spotlight on the forgotten story of the Circassians exodus from their homeland in the 19th century. David Montgomery from The Siecle will be there and the Pontifact girls. The list of fabulous podcasters and broad topics goes on. Jennifer Dasal from the Art Curious podcast will do a keynote speech, Alycia from Civics and Coffee and the Ancient History Fangirls will do sessions. The closing keynote will be by none other than Jamie Jeffers from the British History Podcast who needs no introduction.

Yours truly will talk about Crossing the Alps, the ambivalent relationship between Germany and Italy. As you guys know too well, German and Italian history has been inextricably linked ever since Otto the Great wooed Adelheid, queen of Italy in 951. We also talked about how historians of the 19th century saw the involvement in the south as a sink of resources that led to the collapse of central authority and the delayed nationhood of Germany. But there is another side as well, that of a deep attachment to Italy and its people. It wasn’t just the medieval emperors and Frederick II most prominently who fell for the charms of the south. The beacons of the Enlightenment were seeking the “Land where the Citrons bloom”. Goethe, Winkelmann, Jacob Burckhardt to name a few embedded love and admiration for our neighbour to the south. This ambivalent relationship between fear of wasting resources and emotional attachment may go back a 1000 years but still shines through, most recently in the question whether and how Germany should support Italy during the Sovereign Debt Crisis of 2012.

So, it is hopefully worth it. Early bird tickets are $20 US and you get 10% off when you use the code ”Germans” at checkout. To book your ticket go to intelligentspechconference.com, there is also Facebook page @intelligentspeechconf and you can email the organisers at [email protected].

I hope you will join us.