Conflicted: A History Podcast

By Evergreen Podcasts

Untangling history’s greatest controversies. Every month, we take a hard look at the historical conflicts that raise difficult questions, stoke controversy, and send our moral compasses spinning.... more

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The podcast currently has 72 episodes available.

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Number 1: The Children’s Crusade 1212 – Part 1: Stephen of Cloyes
In the late spring of 1212, a spontaneous mass movement of 30,000 children arose in medieval France. Led by a 12-year-old shepherd boy named Stephen from the small village of Cloyes, the “Children’s Crusade” swore to march on the Holy Land and peacefully reclaim the city of Jerusalem from Muslim control. In this first episode of a two-part series, we examine the origins of the Children’s Crusade, the historiographical controversy surrounding it, and the enigmatic figure at its center, Stephen of Cloyes. SOURCES: Asbridge, Thomas. The Crusades: The Authoritative History of the War for the Holy Land. Ecco, 2010. Clayton, Joseph. Pope Innocent III and His Times. Bruce Publishing Company, 1913. Cunningham, Hugh. The Invention of Childhood. BBC Books, 2006. Gabriele, Matthew, and David M. Perry. The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe. Harper, 2021. Gies, Frances, and Joseph Gies. Life in a Medieval City. Harper Perennial, 2010. Gray, George Zabriskie. The Children's Crusade. Houghton Mifflin, 1870. Hourly History. The Crusades: A History from Beginning to End. Hourly History, 2016. Jones, Dan. Crusaders: The Epic History of the Wars for the Holy Lands. Viking, 2019. Maalouf, Amin. The Crusades through Arab Eyes. Translated by Jon Rothschild, Schocken Books, 1984. Nicolle, David. The Fourth Crusade 1202–04: The Betrayal of Byzantium. Illustrated by Christa Hook, Osprey Publishing, 2001. Norwich, John Julius. Absolute Monarchs: A History of the Papacy. Random House, 2011. Sayers, Jane. Innocent III: Leader of Europe, 1198–1216. Longman, 1994. The Crusades. Captivating History, 2019. Chronicles of the First Crusade. Edited by Christopher Tyerman, Penguin Classics. Medieval Christianity. Captivating History, 2020. Trow, M. J. The Children's Crusade. Pen & Sword History, 2008. Hunnicutt, Wendell, editor. “Speech of Urban II at the Council of Clermont, November 26, 1095.” Reading List: Western Civilization, University of Texas at Arlington, https://websites.uta.edu/hunnicut/reading-list/readings-western-civilization/speech-of-urban-ii-at-the-council-of-clermont-november-26-1095/. Accessed 6 July 2026. Farkel, William. “The Ebstorf Map: Unlocking Medieval Cartography and Its Hidden Meanings.” The Cartographic Institute, https://thecartographicinstitute.com/the-ebstorf-map-unlocking-medieval-cartography-and-its-hidden-meanings/. Accessed 6 July 2026. “15 Medieval Jokes That Still Hold Up Today.” Medievalists.net, 23 May 2023, https://www.medievalists.net/2023/05/15-medieval-jokes/. Accessed 6 July 2026 Medievalists.net. (2024, April 17). How to be a shepherd in the Middle Ages. Medievalists.net Lanigan, Dennis T. “The Departure – An Episode of the Child's Crusade, 12th Century, by Joanna Boyce Wells.” The Victorian Web, 22 July 2024, https://victorianweb.org/painting/wellsjb/paintings/5.html. Accessed 5 Aug. 2026. This episode is sponsored by Rula. Rula patients typically pay $15 per session when using insurance. Connect with quality therapists and mental health experts who specialize in you at https://www.rula.com/conflicted #rulapod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
September 05, 20261h 20min
Number 2: The Tokyo Subway Sarin Attacks 1995 – Part 2
As the Japanese police prepare for a raid on the Aum Shinrikyo compound, cult leader Shoko Asahara launches a desperate chemical weapons attack in downtown Tokyo. During the height of Monday morning rush hour, Aum terrorists target five commuter trains with sarin gas, killing 13 people and scarring the psyche of an entire nation. In the aftermath, survivors struggle to pick up the pieces of their lives and adapt to new realities. SOURCES: Amarasingam, A. (2017, April 5). A history of sarin as a weapon. The Atlantic. Brackett, D. W. Holy Terror: Armageddon in Tokyo. 1996. Cotton, Simon. “Nerve Agents: What Are They and How Do They Work?” American Scientist, vol. 106, no. 3, 2018, pp. 138–40. Danzig, Richard; Sageman, Marc; Leighton, Terrance; Hough, Lloyd; Yuki, Hidemi; Kotani, Rui; Hosford, Zachary M.. Aum Shinrikyo: Insights Into How Terrorists Develop Biological and Chemical Weapons . Center for a New American Security. 2011 “Former ER Doctor Recalls Fear Treating Victims in 1995 Tokyo Sarin Attack.” The Japan Times, March 18, 2025.. Gunaratna, Rohan. “Aum Shinrikyo’s Rise, Fall and Revival.” Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses, vol. 10, no. 8, 2018, pp. 1–6. Harmon, Christopher C. “How Terrorist Groups End: Studies of the Twentieth Century.” Strategic Studies Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 3, 2010, pp. 43–84. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26269787. “IHT: A Safe and Sure System — Until Now.” The New York Times, 21 Mar. 1995. Jones, Seth G., and Martin C. Libicki. “Policing and Japan’s Aum Shinrikyo.” How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering al Qa’ida, RAND Corporation, 2008, pp. 45–62. Kaplan, David E. (1996) “Aum’s Shoko Asahara and the Cult at the End of the World”. WIRED. Lifton, Robert Jay. Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism. 1999. Murakami, Haruki. Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche. Translated by Alfred Birnbaum and Philip Gabriel. 2001. Murphy, P. (2014, June 21). Matsumoto: Aum’s sarin guinea pig. The Japan Times. Reader, Ian. Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo. 2000. Tucker, Jonathan B. “Chemical/Biological Terrorism: Coping with a New Threat.” Politics and the Life Sciences, vol. 15, no. 2, 1996, pp. 167–83. Ushiyama, Rin. “Shock and Anger: Societal Responses to the Tokyo Subway Attack.” Aum Shinrikyō and Religious Terrorism in Japanese Collective Memory., The British Academy, 2023, pp. 52–80. Williams, Richard. 2003. “Marathon Man.” The Guardian, May 16, 2003. “Woman bedridden since AUM cult’s 1995 sarin gas attack on Tokyo subway dies at 56.” The Mainichi (English), 20 Mar. 2020, “30 Years After Sarin Attack — Lessons Learned / Brother Kept Diary For Sister Caught in Sarin Attack, Chronicling Her 25-Year Struggle With Illness” The Japan News, 19 Mar. 2025, Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
January 16, 20261h 51min
Number 3: The Tokyo Subway Sarin Attacks 1995 – Part 1
On March 20th, 1995, the Tokyo subway system was flooded with sarin nerve gas in a coordinated terrorist attack by the religious cult Aum Shinrikyō. Led by the charismatic new-age guru, Shoko Asahara, the well-funded and technologically ambitious Aum organization manufactured and deployed chemical weapons in an attempt to bring about the end of the world. In the chaos that followed, 13 people were killed, thousands were injured, and the international community shuddered at the possibility of future attacks by fringe political groups. SOURCES: Amarasingam, A. (2017, April 5). A history of sarin as a weapon. The Atlantic. Cotton, Simon. “Nerve Agents: What Are They and How Do They Work?” American Scientist, vol. 106, no. 3, 2018, pp. 138–40. Danzig, Richard; Sageman, Marc; Leighton, Terrance; Hough, Lloyd; Yuki, Hidemi; Kotani, Rui; Hosford, Zachary M.. Aum Shinrikyo: Insights Into How Terrorists Develop Biological and Chemical Weapons . Center for a New American Security. 2011. Gunaratna, Rohan. “Aum Shinrikyo’s Rise, Fall and Revival.” Counter Terrorist Trends and Analyses, vol. 10, no. 8, 2018, pp. 1–6. Harmon, Christopher C. “How Terrorist Groups End: Studies of the Twentieth Century.” Strategic Studies Quarterly, vol. 4, no. 3, 2010, pp. 43–84. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/26269787. “IHT: A Safe and Sure System — Until Now.” The New York Times, 21 Mar. 1995. Jones, Seth G., and Martin C. Libicki. “Policing and Japan’s Aum Shinrikyo.” How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering al Qa’ida, RAND Corporation, 2008, pp. 45–62. Kaplan, David E. (1996) “Aum’s Shoko Asahara and the Cult at the End of the World”. WIRED. Lifton, Robert Jay. Destroying the World to Save It: Aum Shinrikyo, Apocalyptic Violence, and the New Global Terrorism. 1999. Murakami, Haruki. Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche. Translated by Alfred Birnbaum and Philip Gabriel. 2001. Murphy, P. (2014, June 21). Matsumoto: Aum’s sarin guinea pig. The Japan Times. Reader, Ian. Religious Violence in Contemporary Japan: The Case of Aum Shinrikyo. 2000. Tucker, Jonathan B. “Chemical/Biological Terrorism: Coping with a New Threat.” Politics and the Life Sciences, vol. 15, no. 2, 1996, pp. 167–83. Ushiyama, Rin. “Shock and Anger: Societal Responses to the Tokyo Subway Attack.” Aum Shinrikyō and Religious Terrorism in Japanese Collective Memory., The British Academy, 2023, pp. 52–80. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
December 05, 20252h 5min
Number 4: Get Eichmann – Israel’s Hunt For A Nazi War Criminal - Part 1
When World War II ended, SS officer Adolf Eichmann disappeared. As a key organizer of Nazi Germany’s Final Solution, the genocidal program that murdered 6 million European Jews, Eichmann became one of the most hunted men on earth. For 15 years, he remained hidden. But in 1957, through the efforts of a West German lawyer, a blind man, and Israeli intelligence, Eichmann’s trail was found, leading to Buenos Aires, Argentina… SOURCES: Arendt, Hannah. Eichmann In Jerusalem: A Report on the Banality of Evil. 1963. Bascomb, Neal. Hunting Eichmann: How a Band of Survivors and a Young Spy Agency Chased Down the World’s Most Notorious Nazi. 2009. Bergman, Ronen. Rise and Kill First: The Secret History of Israel’s Targeted Assassinations. 2018. Charles Rivers Editors. The Mossad. 2019. Charles Rivers Editors. Germany and the Cold War. 2018. Charles Rivers Editors. Israel’s Most Legendary Operations. 2018. Goni, Uki. The Real Odessa: How Nazi War Criminals Escaped Europe. 2003. Fairweather, Jack. The Prosecutor: One Man’s Batlle to Bring Nazis to Justice. 2025. Hourly History. The Nuremberg Trials. 2020. Lauryssens, Stan. The Eichmann Legacy. 2017. Lipstadt, Deborah. The Eichmann Trial. 2011. MacLean, French. American Hangman: MSGT. John C. Woods. 2019. Roland, Paul. The Nuremberg Trials: The Nazis and Their Crimes Against Humanity. 2010. Scott-Bauman, Michael. The Shortest History of Israel and Palestine. 2023. Stangneth, Buttina. Eichmann Before Jerusalem: The Unexamined Life of a Mass Murderer. 2014. Stein, Harry. Malkin, Peter. Eichmann In My Hands. 1990. Steinke, Ronan. Fritz Bauer: The Jewish Prosecutor Who Brought Eichmann and Auschwitz to Trial. 2020. Thomas, Gordon. The Secret History of the Mossad. 1999. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
August 08, 20251h 42min
Number 5: The Gulf War 1991 – Part 1: Lines in the Sand
On August 2, 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded the tiny emirate of Kuwait. The resulting conflict triggered a chain reaction that changed the world. In this first installment in a three-part series, we trace the origins of the Kuwait crisis, chronicle Saddam’s rise to power in Iraq, and explore America’s symbiotic relationship with the Persian Gulf. SOURCES: Aburish, Said K. Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Revenge. 2000. Atkinson, Rick. Crusade: The Untold Story of the Gulf War. 1993. Al-Radi, Nuha. Baghdad Diaries. 1998. Charles Rivers Editors. The Gulf War. 2018. Coll, Steve. Ghost Wars. 2004. Coll, Steve. Branigin, William. “US scrambled to shape view of ‘Highway of Death’”. 3.11.1991. Corrigan, Jim. Desert Storm Air War. 2017. Coughlin, Con. Saddam: His Rise and Fall. 2005. Dunnigan, James F. Macedonia, Raymond M. Getting It Right. 1995. Finlan, Alastair. The Gulf War 1991. 2003. Gordon, Michael R. Trainer, Bernard E. The General’s War. 1995. Hallion, Richard P. Desert Storm 1991. 2022. Hiro, Dilip. Desert Shield to Desert Storm: The Second Gulf War. 1991. Hiro, Dilip. Cold War in the Islamic World. 2018. Karsh, Efraim. The Iran-Iraq War, 1980-1988. 1989. Karsh, Efraim. Rautsi, Inari. Saddam Hussein. A Political Biography. 1991. Khadduri, Majid. Ghareeb, Edmund. War in the Gulf, 1990-1991. 1999. Mufson, Steven. 1990 Aug 6. “Kuwait Assets Form Vast, Frozen Empire”. The Washington Post. Murray, Williamson. Woods, Kevin M. The Iran-Iraq War. 2014. Meacham, Jon. Destiny and Power. 2015. Morris, David J. Storm on the Horizon. 2004. Riedel, Bruce. Kings and Presidents: Saudi Arabia and the United States. 2019. Swofford, Anthony. Jarhead. 2003. Wyndham, Buck. Hogs in the Sand. 2020. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
April 30, 20231h 22min