Before Blackbeard, Calico Jack, Anne Bonny, and the famouspirates of the Golden Age, there was already a violent and complicated world waiting for them. In this episode of History with Dad, we travel back to the Caribbean and Atlantic world of the 1600s to understand why piracy exploded in the first place. We’ll break down the differences between pirates, privateers, buccaneers, naval sailors, and merchant sailors, explore the empires fighting over the Americas, and discover how war, trade, colonial rivalry, and thousands of experienced sailors helped create the perfect conditions for the Golden Age of Piracy.

Why do certain soldiers become remembered as almostsuperhuman?

In this History with Dad Tangent, we're looking at theSpartans, Gurkhas, and Japanese soldiers of World War II to see how battlefield success, enemy fear, propaganda, and storytelling can turn very human fighters into legends.

And what happens when an army discovers that being fearedcan be almost as useful as being strong?

Can a painting, play, or movie change the way we remember ahistorical person?

In this History with Dad Tangent, we're looking at Joan ofArc, Boudica, and the American cowboy to see how costumes and visual storytelling can become so powerful that the image eventually overtakes the history.

Did Vikings really wear horned helmets? Were they unusuallytall, covered in tattoos, filthy, blond-haired barbarians who dreamed of dying in battle?

In the Season 3 finale of History with Dad, we're separatingthe Vikings of history from the Vikings created by centuries of legends, misunderstandings, art, opera, movies, and modern pop culture.

The Roman Empire supposedly fell in 476. The Middle Agessupposedly ended in 1453... or maybe 1492. And an entire civilization supposedly “collapsed” at the end of the Bronze Age. But the people living through these moments didn't know they were crossing boundaries in a history book. In this Dad Tangent, we're looking at who decides when one historical age ends and another begins.

Success is supposed to teach us what works. But sometimes it teaches exactly the wrong lesson. From Robert E. Lee at Gettysburg to IBM’s PC and Kodak's dominance of photography, this Dad Tangent looks at what happens when people keep using the strategy that made them successful... after the world around them has changed.

The Viking Age reaches its traditional end in 1066. Harald Hardrada and Tostig invade northern England, defeat Edwin and Morcar at Fulford, and threaten York before King Harold Godwinson races north to meet them at Stamford Bridge. Nineteen days later, Harold must march south again to face William of Normandy at the Battle of Hastings. In this episode of History with Dad, we follow one of the most extraordinary months in English history, the deaths of Harald Hardrada and Harold Godwinson, William the Conqueror's victory, the Norman takeover of England, and the complicated question of why historians traditionally use 1066 to mark the end of the Viking Age.

For thousands of years, comets were treated as warnings of war, plague, revolution, and the deaths of kings. But why? From Caesar’s Comet and the Great Comet of 1577 to the bizarre panic surrounding Halley’s Comet in 1910, we explore why these spectacular visitors terrified people—and how astronomers eventually discovered that comets weren’t supernatural warnings at all.

Who actually decides who becomes king? Royal succession sounds simple—until several people have legitimate claims to the same throne. From the chaos of Empress Matilda to Scotland’s Great Cause and the Wars of the Roses, we explore why bloodlines alone were rarely enough to make someone king.

England is heading toward 1066. Edward the Confessor has no heir, Harold Godwinson is becoming the most powerful man in the kingdom, William of Normandy believes the English throne was promised to him, and Harald Hardrada has finally ended his long war for Denmark. In this episode of History with Dad, we follow the rise of Harold Godwinson, William the Conqueror's brutal early life, the mysterious oath in Normandy, Tostig's rebellion, Edward the Confessor's death, and the disputed succession that puts Harold on theEnglish throne. By the end, William is building an invasion fleet, Tostig has found an ally, and Harald Hardrada is sailing for England.