By Sean T. Collins & Stefan Sasse
Podcasts at least twice a month. Support us on Patreon!
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In a special, political episode, I talk with political operative Frank Spring about the upcoming presidential elections. If you don’t want politics from me, stay away from this episode :) You have been warned. Download the episode! Torrent Our iTunes...
Sean has written a list of the top ten TV shows of 2023 (https://decider.com/2023/12/29/sean-t-collinss-top-10-tv-shows-of-2023/), and we’re here to talk about it. Take it as your to-do-list, nod along or vehemently disagree! Download the episode! Torrent Our iTunes page. Previous episodes....
Oppenheimer has been released on BlueRay. Having missed it in cinema and after covering Barbie with Sean, I’ll now took BLAH veteran and nuclear deterrence expert Tim Westmyer to debate why Oppenheimer is such a good movie, to clear up...
Ridley Scott’s new epic “Napoleon” sure is divisive and polarizing. It takes two historians to get the definitive judgement on the movie, and it’s greatly helped that we are in agreement: this movie is either way too short or way...
BLAH 184 | A Tale of Two Germanies - Democratization, with Jim McGeehin With Zero Hour dealt with, we’re looking at how the Western Allies laid the foundations for the democratization of Western Germany. From the foundation of parties to...
In a crossover with Javi Marcos, you’re getting an episode in which he interviews me. Download the episode! Our Patreon page at patreon.com/boiledleatheraudiohour. Torrent Our iTunes page. Previous episodes. Podcast RSS feed. Stefan’s blog. Javi on Twitter.
Jim and I started a new subseries in our ongoing coverage of German history. This time, we will cover the divided Germany after World War II up until reunification. In our first installment, we set the scene in 1945, directly...
In a surprise twist, we make a BLAC episode available for everyone! Enjoy, and if you do, pledge at the Conversationalist level and get access to 47 other episodes and everything that will come after! Download the episode! Torrent Our...
With board game designer Bryan Kromrey, I talk about the adaptation of the famous RTS “Company of Heroes”, how the modern Kickstarter economy works and how his process for a second edition went. Download the episode! Torrent Our iTunes page....
Origin stories are a Hollywood trope. Oftentimes, they’re rote and uninteresting, but if done right, they can recontextualize and enrich characters you never thought would rise above mid-level anti-hero-badassery. Case in point: the Hound, who gives the speech of a...
Finally, we’re in the home stretch. From the peace of Brest-Litovsk to the Kaiserschlacht offensive to the breakdown of the Central Powers and the winding down of the war in the fall, we’re doing the whole picture. Download the episode!...
In the next installment of our ongoing series, we talk about Bran’s Dream from AGOT, Bran III. It’s a testament to Martin’s abilities as a gardener as well as to our ability to constantly reinterpret the source text. Download the...
We continue into the year 1917! This time, our focus is not on tactics, strategy, weapons and stuff but on the epochal events of the Russian Revolution and the American entry into the war. Download the episode! Our Patreon page...
We’re continuing the story of World War I with the year 1916. The battles of Verdun and the Somme are the most famous, and we’re giving them the space they deserve, but the Romanian campaign, the Brusilov offensive and the...
It was only a question of time until we hit one of the most profound and meaningful pieces of text in the whole ASOIAF corpus, but we did it! Sean and I talk Septon Meribald’s “broken men” speech. Follow us...
This is special episode. I have been challenged by Kienn Joiaf to defend my assertion that Lyanna Stark is the Knight of the Laughing Tree and to disprove their theory that in truth it is Eddard Stark. That theory is...
We’re continuing the story of World War I with the year 1915. From the massive loss of human lives in the big offensives, the Western stalemate and the breakthrough in the East, to technological innovations like aerial bombardement and poison...
We are finally here: World War I has broken out, and now it’s off to the military history. But not so fast! Before you think we’re down to discussing which caliber of gun is superior to which, let me assure...
Greek myths and medieval novels provide a rich tapestry of themes and inspiration that inspire literature for centuries now. Reason enough for us here at the Boiled Leather Audio Hour to go to that well and drink deep. I recruited...
Sean and I are on record being huge fans of the German series “Dark”. Their creators now published their follow-up work, “1899”, streaming on Netflix. However, lighting doesn’t strike twice, and the show doesn’t manage to live up to its...
I reviewed Netflix’ adaptation of “All Quiet on the Western Front” for the Patreon already, but now I want to do an in-depth-look with an expert and see whether my criticisms hold any merit. Aside from the new movie, we...
CAUTION: The original upload contained episode 167 with Andor ep 11 again. This should be correct now. The finale is out! We get a funeral, a rom-com between two fascists, a prison break, a child marriage, police shooting unarmed civilians,...
The finale is out! We get a funeral, a rom-com between two fascists, a prison break, a child marriage, police shooting unarmed civilians, a terrorist, a failed assassination attempt and I’m sure I’m missing something else - but what does...
What is this? A review of Andor? Isn’t this supposed to be exclusive to the Boiled Leather Audio Moment? Yes, of course. But christmas is coming early! We’re publishing the last two episode reviews of this great show, because we...
It’s been a long time since episode 151, but after the gruelling regime of covering three shows (HotD, LOTRTROP and Andor) simultaneously for weeks on end, we need to get back to our regular, light-hearted fare. This week, Jim McGeehin...
Not only did the Boiled Leather Audio Hour produce a roundtable about the finale, the regular episode with Sean T. Collin was produced as well! If my audio sounds a bit worse than usual, that’s because I had to record...
The first season has come to a close! Before you get to enjoy the final review that Sean and I do together, I have a special treat for you: a roundtable discussion coming live from the “City of Dragons”, Caceres,...
The Green Council finally has arrived! People get murdered, smallfolk massacred, a king gets lost, factions betrayed, convictions challenged, all against the backdrop of incredibly sharp writing and great acting. Is there anything more you could want? We don’t think...
What’s more relaxing than a nice family dinner? Maybe a wedding at the Twins. In this episode, the showrunners manage to make a dinner into one of the most tense scenes on TV in months. This show continues to impress,...
The newest episode of House of the Dragon is out, and so is our podcast! We’re covering a sad funeral, a nice family meeting, a kid finding a new pet, a grandfather loves his grandchildren. After that, we’re diving into...
It’s ten years since the last episode, but lucky for everyone, only in narrated time. We meet up with new actresses, aged-up actors and a shit-ton of new characters for a very plot-heavy episode that really does some heavy lifting...
The fifth episode of “House of the Dragon” came out, and the show is still great. It’s one of the best shows out there right now, no question, and it might break in the pantheon of all-time stars. HBO still...
Last week we asked whether episode 3 was the best episode yet, and it was at the time. Now it’s been dethroned, and the new heir is episode 4! Sean and I produce our shortest review yet because this was...
Is this the best “House of the Dragon” episode yet? Granted, it’s only three episodes in, but this is shaping out to be one of the best shows an air right now. Sean and Stefan really gush about how good...
We did it! Sean and I coordinated our schedules and join our forces once again to talk “House of the Dragon”. This time, it’s episode 2. Is it better or worse than episode 1? It’s almost a moot discussion since...
The House of the Dragon is finally here! Sean and I have written our own reviews (here and here), but now comes the great synthesis of what we think about episode 1. We’re doing the deep dive: characters, actors, production,...
When Bran was thrown out the window by Jaime Lannister, this marked the first real signal that something was different about this series. Today, Sean and I explore as to why this is and what makes this scene special. Plus,...
The Disney+ Miniseries “Obi-Wan Kenobi” starring Ewan McGregor just concluded its six-episode run. We are talking about why it was a show that exists but doesn’t really rise beyond that. Where does the strange lack of suspense, meaning and emotion...
We are returing to our new series on our favorite moments in A Song of Ice and Fire. After Sean’s pick of the Tower of Joy last time, this time Stefan chooses The Knight of the Laughing Tree, the most...
In this brand new series, Sean T. Collins and I delve back into our favorite fantasy series and talk about our favorite moments. Starting off, how could it be otherwise, is the infamous scene from the Tower of Joy. What...
After we followed Bismarck’s delicate attempt at maintaining European balance in the favor of German foreign policy interests, we now watch it all crash down as Kaiser Wilhelm II takes the reigns and infuses some panage into the whole thing....
Bismarck famously refused to engage in colonialism, only to do an about-face in the 1880s to create the third-largest colonial empire of the world. It didn’t do much good. A drain financially, utterly indefensible and diplomatically a heavy burden, it...
Bismarck felt, in the colloquial French of the times, the “cauchemar des coalitions”, the nightmare of coalitions. He wanted to keep the peace, but a peace on his terms. Was this ever possible, or was Bismarck’s artful foreign policy in...
The little known fantasy saga “The Wheel of Time” was picked up by niche channel Amazon Prime and made into a small-budget show of *checks notes* 80 million dollars, which is small compared to the *checks notes again* 500 million...
The famous science-fiction epic by James S. A. Corey is now finished, with the ninth and final novel having been published in late 2021. Time to take stock and talk about this series. Is it any good? What is its...
In the latest episode of our Kaiserreich series, we talk about the three great domestic fights that the ruling conservatives fought in the Kaiserreich: political catholicism (the titular Kulturkampf), social democracy and feminism. All these presented challenges to the authority...
The Boiled Leather Audio Hour is 10 years old! Congratulating yourselves isn’t a courteous thing to do, we know. But on a podcast, there’s little choice in how to do this, since we have to record, don’t we? And so,...
After waging the Wars of Unification last time, Jim and I now brace a battlefield on an entirely different sort: the smoke-filled backrooms of parliaments. We are following the creation of the German state not on the battlefield, but on...