History on Fire

By Daniele Bolelli

Society & Culture

What's History on Fire about?

Where history and epic collide--"History on Fire" is a podcast by author and university professor Daniele Bolelli.

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[RERUN] EPISODE 64: The Tai...

12.04.2023

“Is not this insurgent movement truly wonderful? These rebels keep Sabbath as we do, they pray to God daily, they read the Scriptures, they break the idols, and they long for the time when, instead of those heathen temples, they ...

History on Fire episodes:

12.04.2023 [RERUN] EPISODE 64: The Taiping Rebellion (Part 2): Jesus’ Chinese Younger Brother “Is not this insurgent movement truly wonderful? These rebels keep Sabbath as we do, they pray to God daily, they read the Scriptures, they break the idols, and they long for the time when, instead of those heathen temples, they ...
11.20.2023 [RERUN] EPISODE 63: The Taiping Rebellion (Part 1): Drug Dealers and Visionaries “The entire story of the Taiping Rebellion might be told, from one perspective, as the rage of a failed exam candidate writ large.” — Stephen Platt“They may not intend to harm others on purpose, but the fact remains that they ...
11.06.2023 EPISODE 103: The Lone Samurai, Miyamoto Musashi (Part 2) “If you know the way broadly you will see it in everything.” — Miyamoto MusashiEver since I started History on Fire, one topic has been the most consistently requested by listeners. Over the years, I received hundreds of messages asking ...
10.09.2023 EPISODE 102: The Lone Samurai, Miyamoto Musashi (Part 1) “All warfare is based on deception.” — Sun Tzu Ever since I started History on Fire, one topic has been the most consistently requested by listeners. Over the years, I received hundreds of messages asking me to cover the life ...
09.11.2023 EPISODE 101: The History Behind Killers of the Flower Moon “But the years of peace and plenty was not to last. Slowly the days turned sour and the watchful nights closed in. Thrór's love of gold grown too fierce and sickness had begun to grow within him. It was a ...
08.14.2023 [RERUN] EPISODE 62: Plagues, Mystery and Dancing “The universities do not teach all things, so a doctor must seek out old wives, gypsies, sorcerers, wandering tribes, old robbers, and such outlaws and take lessons from them. A doctor must be a traveler… Knowledge is experience.” — Paracelsus“They ...
07.03.2023 [RERUN] EPISODE 61: Raiders in the Night “We are all ghosts now. But once we were men.” — Anonymous POW from Cabanatuan camp“Never in history had the United States Army been called on to rescue such a large number of POWs from so deep in enemy territory.” ...
06.19.2023 EPISODE 100: Benvenuto Cellini (Part 2) “Brother, this is the greatest sorrow and the greatest trial that could happen to me in the whole course of my life. But don’t despair; before you lose sight of him who did the mischief, you shall see yourself revenged ...
06.05.2023 EPISODE 99: Thug Life: Benvenuto Cellini (Part 1) “If one of you comes out of the shop, let the other run for a priest, because there’ll be no need for a doctor.” — Benvenuto Cellini “The whole world was now in warfare.” — Benvenuto Cellini“And then falling on ...
05.22.2023 [RERUN] EPISODE 60: Fear and Loathing in Mongolia (Part 2) “On these hills, where everywhere were rolling skulls, skeletons, and decaying body parts, Baron Ungern used to like to go to rest.” — Quote from one of Roman von Ungern-Sternberg’s officers“Look at [Europe's] past full of fire and blood and ...
05.08.2023 [RERUN] EPISODE 59: Fear and Loathing in Mongolia (Part 1) “My name is surrounded with such hate and fear that no one can judge what is the truth and what is false, what is history, and what is myth.” — Roman von Ungern-Sternberg“Ungern had fused with the war, and equally, ...
04.24.2023 EPISODE 98: Machine Gun Blues “Most people go through life thinking they’re totally safe. People like us, we know the truth. Life is hard and dangerous, and sometimes you just got to chop off somebody’s head to survive.” — Ash vs. Evil Dead“No friend ever ...
03.31.2023 [RERUN] EPISODE 58 Sitting Bull: Wounded Knee (Part 5) “There a papoose cries by its mother’s breast which, cold and insensible, can nourish it no more; there lies a young girl with her long hair sticky of blood, hiding her mutilated face… And here—here rests the beautiful young squaw ...
03.14.2023 [RERUN] EPISODE 57 Sitting Bull: Compulsory Civilization with a Side of Murder (Part 4) “Sent to report on a story that wasn’t there, reporters invented one.” — Heather Cox Richardson “Lakota will kill you.” — A meadowlark speaking to Sitting Bull in a vision “If the white men want me to die, they ought ...
02.28.2023 [RERUN] EPISODE 56 Sitting Bull: Compulsory Civilization with a Side of Murder (Part 3) “Kill the Indian and save the man.” — Richard Pratt “The life my people want is a life of freedom. I have seen nothing that a white man has, houses or railways or clothing or food, that is good as ...
02.16.2023 [RERUN] EPISODE 55 Sitting Bull (Part 2) “I don’t want to have anything to do with people who make one carry water on the shoulders and haul manure. You are fools to make yourselves slaves to a piece of fat bacon, some hardtack, and a little sugar ...
01.30.2023 [RERUN] EPISODE 54 Sitting Bull (Part 1) “Sitting Bull, leader of the largest Indian nation on the continent, the strongest, boldest, most stubborn opponent of European influence, was the very heart and soul of the Frontier. When the true history of the New World is written, he ...
01.16.2023 EPISODE 97: The Psychology of Power in History: A Conversation with Aziz Al-Doory “…we venerate the crooks, rapists, and pillagers credulous historians have repackaged as ‘founders,’ ‘conquerors,’ and ‘civilize.’ We erect statues and consecrate tombs to commemorate their difference-making. But in fact, most of these monuments memorialize the dark deeds of unhinged lunatics ...
12.20.2022 [RERUN] EPISODE 51 A Life for a Whistle: Emmett Till and the Birth of the Civil Rights Movement “Until the philosophy Which hold one race superior and another Inferior Is finally And permanently Discredited And abandoned Everywhere is war” — Bob Marley, War, inspired by a speech by Haile Selassie “Emmett Till is dead and gone… Why can’t ...
12.06.2022 EPISODE 96: The Wildest Man You Have Never Heard Of: Thomas Morton “The Puritans feared that which was undomesticated.” — Jeff Hendricks“Our earliest American heroes were Morton’s oppressors, Endicott, Bradford, Miles Standish. Merry Mount’s been expunged from the official version because it’s the story not of a virtuous utopia but of a ...
11.23.2022 [RERUN] EPISODE 50 Philosophers and Thugs: Jigoro Kano (Part 2) “I teach Kodokan judo as a way of life.” — Jigoro Kano “Even though he was drunker than usual, Saigo came to the driver’s aid. The burly sailors laughed out loud: “Scram, midget!” Much to their great surprise and considerable ...
11.18.2022 Feed Drop For "This Job Is History" Where the oddest jobs from the past meet a comedian from the present… and it’s awkward! On this weekly show, Chris Parnell (SNL, Rick and Morty) welcomes guests who have held some of human history’s most unexpected and downright bizarre ...
11.07.2022 [RERUN] EPISODE 49 The Father of Martial Arts: Jigoro Kano (Part 1) “It was a period of stupendous change and immense challenge; the entire social, political, and economic landscape of Japan would be transformed within a few decades. Just as this new era was dawning in Japan, Jigoro Kano was born, on ...
10.24.2022 EPISODE 95: Tom Le Forge: The Real Dances with Wolves “The adopted father gave away many presents to the people, and these in turn gave presents to me. Thus I became a Crow Indian, a brother of Three Irons and a son of Yellow Leggings, who was a leading counselor ...
10.10.2022 [RERUN] EPISODE 48: Give Me Back My Legions! (Part 2) “In order to depict a battle, there is required one of those powerful painters who have chaos in their brushes” — Victor Hugo “Inconceivable!” — From The Princess Bride A little over 2,000 years ago, Rome was a well-oiled war ...
09.24.2022 EPISODE 94: The Last War Chief “Reflecting upon the chiefs I had known, I realized that here had never been one who was very well off. Poverty was part of a chief’s obligations…” — Frank Bird Linderman “While we painted ourselves the drums kept beating, and ...
08.17.2022 EPISODE 93: The Beast of Gevaudan “This animal is a monster whose father is a lion; it remains open what the mother is.” — Jean-Baptiste Boulanger Duhamel“I would be tempted to imagine that we are dealing with a witch, or the devil in person, if only ...
07.15.2022 EPISODE 92: Jujitsuffragettes With Attitude “…a mad, wicked folly…” — Queen Victoria about the notion of women having the right to vote“When I watched a policeman fell a girl to the ground and kick her across the platform, my only regret was that I had ...
01.17.2022 EPISODE 85: The Siege That Changed All of History “I cut off their heads. I burned them with fire. With their blood I dyed the mountain red like red wool. Men I impaled on stakes. The city I destroyed, devastated… the young men and maidens I burned in the ...
01.17.2022 EPISODE 78: Bruce Lee (Part 2) “Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and since Jeet Kune Do has no style, it can fit with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do utilizes all ways and is bound by none ...
01.17.2022 EPISODE 77: Bruce Lee (Part 1) “Energy is eternal delight.” — William Blake “Hong Kong in the 1950s was a depressed place. Post–World War II Hong Kong had suffered from unemployment, a poor economy, over-crowding, homelessness, and people taking advantage of each other. Gangs roamed the ...
12.18.2021 EPISODE 85: The Siege That Changed All of History “I cut off their heads. I burned them with fire. With their blood I dyed the mountain red like red wool. Men I impaled on stakes. The city I destroyed, devastated… the young men and maidens I burned in the ...
06.12.2021 EPISODE 78 Bruce Lee (Part 2) “Jeet Kune Do favors formlessness so that it can assume all forms and since Jeet Kune Do has no style, it can fit with all styles. As a result, Jeet Kune Do utilizes all ways and is bound by none ...
06.05.2021 EPISODE 77 Bruce Lee (Part 1) “Energy is eternal delight.” William Blake “Hong Kong in the 1950s was a depressed place. Post–World War II Hong Kong had suffered from unemployment, a poor economy, over-crowding, homelessness, and people taking advantage of each other. Gangs roamed the street, ...
09.13.2020 EPISODE 67: Ripples of History “If I knew the way, I would take you home.” — From the song Ripple by the Grateful Dead “The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.” — Bertrand Russell “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” ...
09.12.2020 EPISODE 67 Ripples of History “If I knew the way, I would take you home.” From the song Ripple by the Grateful Dead “The only thing that will redeem mankind is cooperation.” Bertrand Russell “Talent wins games, but teamwork and intelligence win championships.” Michael Jordan ...
09.05.2020 EPISODE 64: The Taiping Rebellion (Part 2): Jesus’ Chinese Younger Brother “Is not this insurgent movement truly wonderful? These rebels keep Sabbath as we do, they pray to God daily, they read the Scriptures, they break the idols, and they long for the time when, instead of those heathen temples, they ...
09.05.2020 EPISODE 63: The Taiping Rebellion (Part 1): Drug Dealers and Visionaries “The entire story of the Taiping Rebellion might be told, from one perspective, as the rage of a failed exam candidate writ large.” — Stephen Platt“They may not intend to harm others on purpose, but the fact remains that they ...
09.05.2020 EPISODE 62: Plagues, Mystery and Dancing “The universities do not teach all things, so a doctor must seek out old wives, gypsies, sorcerers, wandering tribes, old robbers, and such outlaws and take lessons from them. A doctor must be a traveler… Knowledge is experience.” — Paracelsus“They ...
04.18.2020 EPISODE 53 The Punk Rocker of Ancient Greece “A Socrates gone mad.” Plato referring to Diogenes “Had I not been Alexander, I would have liked to have been Diogenes.” Alexander the Great "If I wasn't Diogenes, I would be wishing to be Diogenes too." Diogenes “There are nowadays ...
04.17.2020 EPISODE 61: Raiders in the Night “We are all ghosts now. But once we were men.” — Anonymous POW from Cabanatuan camp“Never in history had the United States Army been called on to rescue such a large number of POWs from so deep in enemy territory.” ...
04.05.2020 EPISODE 60: Fear and Loathing in Mongolia (Part 2) “On these hills, where everywhere were rolling skulls, skeletons, and decaying body parts, Baron Ungern used to like to go to rest.” — Quote from one of Roman von Ungern-Sternberg’s officers“Look at [Europe's] past full of fire and blood and ...
04.05.2020 EPISODE 59: Fear and Loathing in Mongolia (Part 1) “My name is surrounded with such hate and fear that no one can judge what is the truth and what is false, what is history, and what is myth.” — Roman von Ungern-Sternberg“Ungern had fused with the war, and equally, ...
04.05.2020 EPISODE 58 Sitting Bull: Wounded Knee (Part 5) “There a papoose cries by its mother’s breast which, cold and insensible, can nourish it no more; there lies a young girl with her long hair sticky of blood, hiding her mutilated face… And here—here rests the beautiful young squaw ...
04.05.2020 EPISODE 57 Sitting Bull: Compulsory Civilization with a Side of Murder (Part 4) “Sent to report on a story that wasn’t there, reporters invented one.” — Heather Cox Richardson “Lakota will kill you.” — A meadowlark speaking to Sitting Bull in a vision “If the white men want me to die, they ought ...
04.05.2020 BONUS EPISODE Dan Carlin’s “The End Is Always Near” “That is the nicest guilt trip anybody has ever given me in my entire life.” — Dan Carlin Dan Carlin is one of my all time favorite human beings, and on top of that an incredible podcaster. He’s now a ...
12.18.2019 EPISODE 56 Sitting Bull: Compulsory Civilization with a Side of Murder (Part 3) “Kill the Indian and save the man.” — Richard Pratt “The life my people want is a life of freedom. I have seen nothing that a white man has, houses or railways or clothing or food, that is good as ...
11.20.2019 BONUS: Dan Carlin’s “The End Is Always Near” “That is the nicest guilt trip anybody has ever given me in my entire life.” Dan Carlin Dan Carlin is one of my all time favorite human beings, and on top of that an incredible podcaster. He’s now a published ...
11.09.2019 EPISODE 55 Sitting Bull (Part 2) “I don’t want to have anything to do with people who make one carry water on the shoulders and haul manure. You are fools to make yourselves slaves to a piece of fat bacon, some hardtack, and a little sugar ...
10.12.2019 EPISODE 52 The Lady and Her Gun “It's just incredible that this little hand has killed Nazis, has scythed them down by the hundreds, without missing…” Charlie Chaplin “Miss Pavlichenko's well known to fame, Russia's your country, fighting is your game, Your smile shines as bright as ...

Older episodes

History on Fire

What's History on Fire about?

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History on Fire episodes:

[RERUN] EPISODE 64: The Taiping Rebellion (Part 2): Jesus’ Chinese Younger Brother

[RERUN] EPISODE 63: The Taiping Rebellion (Part 1): Drug Dealers and Visionaries

EPISODE 103: The Lone Samurai, Miyamoto Musashi (Part 2)

EPISODE 102: The Lone Samurai, Miyamoto Musashi (Part 1)

EPISODE 101: The History Behind Killers of the Flower Moon

[RERUN] EPISODE 62: Plagues, Mystery and Dancing

[RERUN] EPISODE 61: Raiders in the Night

EPISODE 100: Benvenuto Cellini (Part 2)

EPISODE 99: Thug Life: Benvenuto Cellini (Part 1)

[RERUN] EPISODE 60: Fear and Loathing in Mongolia (Part 2)

[RERUN] EPISODE 59: Fear and Loathing in Mongolia (Part 1)

EPISODE 98: Machine Gun Blues

[RERUN] EPISODE 58 Sitting Bull: Wounded Knee (Part 5)

[RERUN] EPISODE 57 Sitting Bull: Compulsory Civilization with a Side of Murder (Part 4)

[RERUN] EPISODE 56 Sitting Bull: Compulsory Civilization with a Side of Murder (Part 3)

[RERUN] EPISODE 55 Sitting Bull (Part 2)

[RERUN] EPISODE 54 Sitting Bull (Part 1)

EPISODE 97: The Psychology of Power in History: A Conversation with Aziz Al-Doory

[RERUN] EPISODE 51 A Life for a Whistle: Emmett Till and the Birth of the Civil Rights Movement

EPISODE 96: The Wildest Man You Have Never Heard Of: Thomas Morton

[RERUN] EPISODE 50 Philosophers and Thugs: Jigoro Kano (Part 2)

Feed Drop For "This Job Is History"

[RERUN] EPISODE 49 The Father of Martial Arts: Jigoro Kano (Part 1)

EPISODE 95: Tom Le Forge: The Real Dances with Wolves

[RERUN] EPISODE 48: Give Me Back My Legions! (Part 2)

EPISODE 94: The Last War Chief

EPISODE 93: The Beast of Gevaudan

EPISODE 92: Jujitsuffragettes With Attitude

EPISODE 85: The Siege That Changed All of History

EPISODE 78: Bruce Lee (Part 2)

EPISODE 77: Bruce Lee (Part 1)

EPISODE 85: The Siege That Changed All of History

EPISODE 78 Bruce Lee (Part 2)

EPISODE 77 Bruce Lee (Part 1)

EPISODE 67: Ripples of History

EPISODE 67 Ripples of History

EPISODE 64: The Taiping Rebellion (Part 2): Jesus’ Chinese Younger Brother

EPISODE 63: The Taiping Rebellion (Part 1): Drug Dealers and Visionaries

EPISODE 62: Plagues, Mystery and Dancing

EPISODE 53 The Punk Rocker of Ancient Greece

EPISODE 61: Raiders in the Night

EPISODE 60: Fear and Loathing in Mongolia (Part 2)

EPISODE 59: Fear and Loathing in Mongolia (Part 1)

EPISODE 58 Sitting Bull: Wounded Knee (Part 5)

EPISODE 57 Sitting Bull: Compulsory Civilization with a Side of Murder (Part 4)

BONUS EPISODE Dan Carlin’s “The End Is Always Near”

EPISODE 56 Sitting Bull: Compulsory Civilization with a Side of Murder (Part 3)

BONUS: Dan Carlin’s “The End Is Always Near”

EPISODE 55 Sitting Bull (Part 2)

EPISODE 52 The Lady and Her Gun

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