The Boiled Leather Audio Hour

By Sean T. Collins & Stefan Sasse

Arts Literature TV & Film

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BLAH 149 | Kaiserreich, Epi...

04.19.2022

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 ...

The Boiled Leather Audio Hour episodes:

04.19.2022 BLAH 149 \| Kaiserreich, Episode 6: Colonialism, with Jim McGeehin 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 ...
03.07.2022 BLAH 148 \| Kaiserreich, Episode 5: Balancing, with Jim McGeehin 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 ...
02.12.2022 BLAH 147 \| The Wheel of Time, with Sean T. Collins 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 ...
01.28.2022 BLAH 146 \| The Expanse, with Tim Westmyer 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 ...
01.17.2022 BLAH 145 \| Kaiserreich, episode 4: Kulturkampf, with Jim McGeehin 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 ...
12.15.2021 BLAH 144 \| Happy Birthday to us 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, ...
12.03.2021 BLAH 143 \| Kaiserreich, Episode 3: Constitution 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 ...
11.19.2021 BLAH 142 \| The Fremen Mirage, the myth of the Chosen One and military strategy in the Dune universe, with Bret Deveraux After talking about Dune in our Conversationalist-exclusive episode with Sean T. Collins, I’m returning once more to the rolling sands of Arrakis to take a deeper look at the material. After having an expert for movies and storytelling with me ...
11.08.2021 BLAH 141 \| A heap of toxic nerddom, with DancingSean There are quite a lot stories about superheroes gone bad on offer right now. Amazon Prime alone offers two currently: Invincible, which is a pretty good cartoon series bogged down by some issues, and The Boys, which has some good ...
10.28.2021 BLAH 140 \| Kaiserreich, Episode 2: War, with Jim McGeehin In our second episode of the Kaiserreich series, we’re wading through blood and iron as the new nation state is formed in a series of unification wars. Follow us through Denmark, Bohemia and France towards Versailles. Why does the European ...
10.05.2021 BLAH 139 \| Do Fantasy and SciFi stick at the wall?, with Aziz Together with Aziz from History of Westeros I talk about the smattering of Fantasy and SciFi shows coming out in the final quarter of 2021. Foundation, Wheel of Time, The Witcher season 2, The Expanse season 6, The Expanse‘s final ...
09.11.2021 BLAH 138 \| Kaiserreich, Episode 1: Federation, with Jim McGeehin We are starting a new series on the history of the Kaiserreich! But before we can actually go into the history of German unification, we need to find out what the German Question is and why it took almost 60 ...
08.21.2021 BLAH 137 \| The US presidents, part 4, with Jim McGeehin In the fourth and final part of our trilogy on the US presidents since FDR (don’t ask), Jim and I talk about presidential mythology and cults. From the New Deal to JFK, from “Morning in America” to “Yes we can”, ...
07.25.2021 BLAH 136 \| Forget the numbers, with Marcus A. Roberts and Frank Spring Ten episodes ago, I gathered political operatives and consultants Marcus A. Roberts and Frank Spring and talked about the narratives of politics. Today, we continue in this vein, looking at the language used, the framings employed and the tropes weaponized ...
07.11.2021 BLAH 135 \| The US presidents, part 3, with Jim McGeehin In this epic final (?) instalment of our series on the American presidents, Jim and I end the Cold War with an assessment of George H. W. Bush, move over to the presidency of Bill Clinton and then try to ...
07.02.2021 BLAH 134 \| Battlefields of bits and bytes - the history of the RTS genre, with Bret Deveraux In 1992, Westwood Studios created “Dune 2”, the first real time strategy game ever, spawning one of the most succesful genres ever. With “Command and Conquer” in 1995, they created one of the most succesful IPs of the era. At ...
06.15.2021 BLAH 133 \| Telepathy, portals, necromancy and other magic After we explored the role that magical creatures play in ASOIAF in episode 131, it’s time to look at other fantastical elements. From magical portals to telepathy, from blood sacrifice to Asshai and the Wall itself, we explore the role ...
05.23.2021 BLAH 132 \| The US presidents, part II, with Jim McGeehin After covering FDR to LBJ in our first episode, this two-parter now comes to a close with our in-depth look at the remaining presidencies. It’s a juicy episode of almost 2 hours, so we cover a lot of ground and ...
05.11.2021 BLAH 131 \| Grumkins, Snarks and other monsters, with Sean T. Collins Do Snarks and Grumkins exist? Do Squishers? If they did, what would it mean? And what have the Brothers Grimm to do with it? Are direwolves monsters or animals? What’s the deal with the Others? And, most importantly, why are ...
04.24.2021 BLAH 130 \| The Westeros Cinematic Universe It has been a wild week. After all that casting news of “House of the Dragon”, the new bid-budget HBO show on the Dance of the Dragons, we not only got news about a Broadway theatrical play about the Tourney ...
04.12.2021 BLAH 129 \| Not A Ranking of the US Presidents, part 1, with Jim McGeehin We take a break from German history to do some American history! Since it’s silly to do rankings of the American presidents, we are opting for a chronological approach. But we’re still grading them of a sort. Instead of fruitlessly ...
03.21.2021 BLAH 128 \| A neophyte’s guide to Twin Peaks, with Sean T. Collins It’s weird (and that’s a word you’ll hear a lot in this podcast), but it took me until the time between years to finally watch Twin Peaks. And the one question I have since then is captured best in the ...
03.20.2021 FIXED AUDIO! \| BLAH 127 \| The New Golden Age of Television, Part 2 (with Sean T. Collins & Gretchen Felker-Martin) Sean and Gretchen reunite for a second two-hour deep dive into television’s storied recent past! This time, the Original Bad Boy and the Filthcore Queen tackle shows they didn’t touch on before or only touched on briefly. Beginning with a ...
03.19.2021 BLAH 127 \| The New Golden Age of Television, Part 2 (with Sean T. Collins & Gretchen Felker-Martin) Sean and Gretchen reunite for a second two-hour deep dive into television’s storied recent past! This time, the Original Bad Boy and the Filthcore Queen tackle shows they didn’t touch on before or only touched on briefly. Beginning with a ...
03.09.2021 BLAH 126 \| Tell your story, politics edition, with Marcus A. Roberts and Frank Spring We’re talking about storytelling a lot here on the Boiled Leather Audio Hour, and on occasion, we analyzed how the Westerosi politicans are using story to drive their own machinations - or how stories ruin them. Turns out, both are ...
02.28.2021 BLAH 125 \| The Weimar Republic - Lessons, with Jim McGeehin We return to Weimar history one more time in order to draw lessons. What can we actually learn from its collapse? What ways were there to prevent it? Join the discussion, and please tell us where you want this particular ...
02.19.2021 BLAH 124 \| The New Golden Age of Television (by Sean T. Collins & Gretchen Felker-Martin) It’s a Boiled Leather Audio Hour first! Sean’s flying solo in the captain’s chair for this episode, but he’s not alone—returning guest Gretchen Felker-Martin is here to talk about the New Golden Age of Television in all its glory. From ...
02.07.2021 BLAH 123 \| The Weimar Republic - Collapse, with Jim McGeehin It’s the last episode of the series, as we go through the presidential cabinets of Franz von Papen, Kurt von Schleicher and one Adolf Hitler. With the Reichstag burning and democracy left in the ashes, we leave the history of ...
01.24.2021 BLAH 122 \| Teachers of Ice and Fire, part 3, with Sean T. Collins In this episode, we close off our series on the Teachers of Ice and Fire by having a closer look at Bran Stark. He is taught a little bit by his stern father before he takes off to King’s Landing, ...
12.20.2020 BLAH 121 \| The Weimar Republic - Depression, with Jim McGeehin We’re back, and it’s the penultimate episode of our history of Weimar Germany. We cover the years 1928-1931, as the last democratic government forms just before the Great Depression starts in the US, taking down the world economy and the ...
11.25.2020 BLAH 120 \| Teachers of Ice and Fire, part 2 - Ice and Fire, with Sean T. Collins I won’t tell you whose teachers we’re talking about this episode, but at one point it’s a valuable comparison to ask ourselves what Obama could have learned from Avon and Stringer Bell. We’re also learning as we go and arrive ...
10.27.2020 BLAH 119 \| The Weimar Republic - Society, with Jim McGeehin We’re continuing our series, talking today about societal changes in Weimar. It’s a period caught between inertia and progress, pulled in different directions and inadequately equipped to sustain the strain. Download the episode! Our Patreon page at patreon.com/boiledleatheraudiohour. Torrent Our ...
10.16.2020 BLAH 118 \| The Weimar Republic - Stabilization, with Jim McGeehin In this installment of our ongoing series on the Weimar Republic, Jim and I tackle the stabilization period between 1924 and 1928. We look at how a precarious balance establishes itself, why this balance comes to be and why it ...
10.03.2020 BLAH 117 \| The Teachers of Ice and Fire I - The Stark Sisters Teachers! Who likes them? Oftentimes, the influence of our tutors is overlooked and underappreciated. Not on this podcast, though! We’re taking a look at the different teachers that Sansa and Arya have and that shape their characters and world views. ...
09.15.2020 BLAH 116 \| The Weimar Republic - Crisis, with Jim McGeehin We continue our journey through the history of Weimar Germany with a look at how democracies actually weather crises. In this case, the triple crisis of 1923 provides the blueprint. Why did the Republic survive this onslaught, when it would ...
08.31.2020 BLAH 115 \| The sample chapters: Aeron I, with Sean T. Collins In the final episode in our series on the sample chapters, Sean and I tackle the much-hyped “The Forsaken”, Aeron Greyjoy’s first chapter of “The Winds of Winter”. No worries, we’ll do it in one podcast. As a side-note, I’ve ...
08.19.2020 BLAH 114 \| Swords, sworn and forsaken I’m taken to school! To law school. Clint and Merry from the Learned Hands podcast join me to talk about the Sworn Sword. Why are we discussing the middle novella of the Hedge Knight trilogy? Reasons. Listen to the podcast ...
07.28.2020 BLAH 113 \| The Weimar Republic - Fever, with Jim McGeehin We continue the talk about the Weimar Republic with the feverish combination of inflation fuelled economic growth, coups, counter-coups, the Versailles treaty and a lot of constitutional analysis! Download the episode! Our Patreon page at patreon.com/boiledleatheraudiohour. Torrent Our iTunes page. ...
07.14.2020 BLAH 112 \| The sample chapters: Victarion I, with Sean T. Collins It’s time to watch a Coen Brothers movie. Strap in, imagine George Clooney in viking armor, and let’s delve into TWOW, Victarion I. , Download the episode! Our Patreon page at patreon.com/boiledleatheraudiohour. Torrent Our iTunes page. Previous episodes. Podcast RSS ...
06.25.2020 BLAH 111 \| The Weimar Republic - Revolution, with Jim McGeehin In a dazzling new series, Jim McGeehin (of Wars of Ice and Fire fame) and I tackle the history of the Weimar Republic. In this issue, we talk about the end of World War I and the revolution that ensued, ...
06.11.2020 BLAH 110 \| The sample chapters: Tyrion II, with Sean T. Collins Tyrion II, you ask befuddled? Did I miss Tyrion I? You did not. For reasons we explain in this podast. Don’t worry, it will all become clear in a moment. But on to the topic! This episode is not about ...
05.30.2020 BLAH 109 \| The sample chapters: Barristan I+II, with Sean T. Collins We’re on the home stretch! Today, in our series on the TWOW sample chapters, Sean and I look at not one but two Barristan chapters! Download the episode! Our Patreon page at patreon.com/boiledleatheraudiohour. Torrent Our iTunes page. Previous episodes. Podcast ...
05.14.2020 BLAH 108 \| Plagues and diseases in Westeros, with Steven Attewell We’re taking a break from the usual light-hearted discussions like the one about atrocities and war crimes and go topical: amidst the Corona pandemic, we’re talking about plague and disease in Westeros and our own middle ages. You know, just ...
05.03.2020 BLAH 107 \| A dozen at dinner, and other atrocities, with Jim McGeehin When Tywin tried to legitimize the Red Wedding to Tyrion, he hyperbolically asked whether it was worse to kill a dozen at dinner than thousands in battle. Tyrion doesn’t have a good retort, so I turned to my trusted colleague ...
04.09.2020 BLAH 106 \| The sample chapters: Arianne II, with Sean T. Collins Is there some foreshadowing going on? Will someone die? Is this “A Song of Ice and Fire”? We can answer all of these in affirmative as we take on “Arianne II”, chewing happily through our series analyzing all the preview ...
03.28.2020 BLAH 105 \| The sample chapters: Arianne I, with Sean T. Collins We delve into Arianne I, the next on our list of sample chapters. It’s “A Game of Forebodings”, a chapter choke-full of predictions, prophecies, foreboding and foreshadowing. And it’s not even a Dany chapter! Rather, the point of reference is ...
03.15.2020 BLAH 104 \| The Iron Bank and Communist Revolution in Westeros, with Steven Attewell One of our beloved Patreons, going by the awe-inspiring alias of ABCD1234 (sorry, I can’t let a name like that stand without at least some sniping ;)) asked me a question about the financing of the Iron Bank and Marxist ...
02.29.2020 BLAH 103 \| So say we all, with Bret Devereaux It’s been some time since the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, one of the most important TV series of our time, ended its four-season-run. Time enough to invite back Bret Devereaux, with whom I did a great episode on historical realism in ...
02.18.2020 BLAH 102 \| The sample chapters: Alayne I, with Sean T. Collins Welcome back on our regular circuit, where we talk about all the published sample chapters! This time, we tackle Sansa’s first TWOW chapter, Alayne I. Tackling gives you the right idea, since it’s all about a tourney. Or is it? ...
02.04.2020 BLAH 101 \| The Laws of Ice and Fire, part 2, with Clint Woods It’s the time of second parters! After I came back to the long promised second episode about the Elections of Ice and Fire with Marcus A. Roberts, it was time to revisit the legal system of Planetos this month. No ...

Older episodes

04.19.2022 BLAH 149 \| Kaiserreich, Episode 6: Colonialism, with Jim McGeehin 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 ...
03.07.2022 BLAH 148 \| Kaiserreich, Episode 5: Balancing, with Jim McGeehin 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 ...
02.12.2022 BLAH 147 \| The Wheel of Time, with Sean T. Collins 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 ...
01.28.2022 BLAH 146 \| The Expanse, with Tim Westmyer 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 ...
01.17.2022 BLAH 145 \| Kaiserreich, episode 4: Kulturkampf, with Jim McGeehin 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 ...
12.15.2021 BLAH 144 \| Happy Birthday to us 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, ...
12.03.2021 BLAH 143 \| Kaiserreich, Episode 3: Constitution 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 ...
11.19.2021 BLAH 142 \| The Fremen Mirage, the myth of the Chosen One and military strategy in the Dune universe, with Bret Deveraux After talking about Dune in our Conversationalist-exclusive episode with Sean T. Collins, I’m returning once more to the rolling sands of Arrakis to take a deeper look at the material. After having an expert for movies and storytelling with me ...
11.08.2021 BLAH 141 \| A heap of toxic nerddom, with DancingSean There are quite a lot stories about superheroes gone bad on offer right now. Amazon Prime alone offers two currently: Invincible, which is a pretty good cartoon series bogged down by some issues, and The Boys, which has some good ...
10.28.2021 BLAH 140 \| Kaiserreich, Episode 2: War, with Jim McGeehin In our second episode of the Kaiserreich series, we’re wading through blood and iron as the new nation state is formed in a series of unification wars. Follow us through Denmark, Bohemia and France towards Versailles. Why does the European ...
10.05.2021 BLAH 139 \| Do Fantasy and SciFi stick at the wall?, with Aziz Together with Aziz from History of Westeros I talk about the smattering of Fantasy and SciFi shows coming out in the final quarter of 2021. Foundation, Wheel of Time, The Witcher season 2, The Expanse season 6, The Expanse‘s final ...
09.11.2021 BLAH 138 \| Kaiserreich, Episode 1: Federation, with Jim McGeehin We are starting a new series on the history of the Kaiserreich! But before we can actually go into the history of German unification, we need to find out what the German Question is and why it took almost 60 ...
08.21.2021 BLAH 137 \| The US presidents, part 4, with Jim McGeehin In the fourth and final part of our trilogy on the US presidents since FDR (don’t ask), Jim and I talk about presidential mythology and cults. From the New Deal to JFK, from “Morning in America” to “Yes we can”, ...
07.25.2021 BLAH 136 \| Forget the numbers, with Marcus A. Roberts and Frank Spring Ten episodes ago, I gathered political operatives and consultants Marcus A. Roberts and Frank Spring and talked about the narratives of politics. Today, we continue in this vein, looking at the language used, the framings employed and the tropes weaponized ...
07.11.2021 BLAH 135 \| The US presidents, part 3, with Jim McGeehin In this epic final (?) instalment of our series on the American presidents, Jim and I end the Cold War with an assessment of George H. W. Bush, move over to the presidency of Bill Clinton and then try to ...
07.02.2021 BLAH 134 \| Battlefields of bits and bytes - the history of the RTS genre, with Bret Deveraux In 1992, Westwood Studios created “Dune 2”, the first real time strategy game ever, spawning one of the most succesful genres ever. With “Command and Conquer” in 1995, they created one of the most succesful IPs of the era. At ...
06.15.2021 BLAH 133 \| Telepathy, portals, necromancy and other magic After we explored the role that magical creatures play in ASOIAF in episode 131, it’s time to look at other fantastical elements. From magical portals to telepathy, from blood sacrifice to Asshai and the Wall itself, we explore the role ...
05.23.2021 BLAH 132 \| The US presidents, part II, with Jim McGeehin After covering FDR to LBJ in our first episode, this two-parter now comes to a close with our in-depth look at the remaining presidencies. It’s a juicy episode of almost 2 hours, so we cover a lot of ground and ...
05.11.2021 BLAH 131 \| Grumkins, Snarks and other monsters, with Sean T. Collins Do Snarks and Grumkins exist? Do Squishers? If they did, what would it mean? And what have the Brothers Grimm to do with it? Are direwolves monsters or animals? What’s the deal with the Others? And, most importantly, why are ...
04.24.2021 BLAH 130 \| The Westeros Cinematic Universe It has been a wild week. After all that casting news of “House of the Dragon”, the new bid-budget HBO show on the Dance of the Dragons, we not only got news about a Broadway theatrical play about the Tourney ...
04.12.2021 BLAH 129 \| Not A Ranking of the US Presidents, part 1, with Jim McGeehin We take a break from German history to do some American history! Since it’s silly to do rankings of the American presidents, we are opting for a chronological approach. But we’re still grading them of a sort. Instead of fruitlessly ...
03.21.2021 BLAH 128 \| A neophyte’s guide to Twin Peaks, with Sean T. Collins It’s weird (and that’s a word you’ll hear a lot in this podcast), but it took me until the time between years to finally watch Twin Peaks. And the one question I have since then is captured best in the ...
03.20.2021 FIXED AUDIO! \| BLAH 127 \| The New Golden Age of Television, Part 2 (with Sean T. Collins & Gretchen Felker-Martin) Sean and Gretchen reunite for a second two-hour deep dive into television’s storied recent past! This time, the Original Bad Boy and the Filthcore Queen tackle shows they didn’t touch on before or only touched on briefly. Beginning with a ...
03.19.2021 BLAH 127 \| The New Golden Age of Television, Part 2 (with Sean T. Collins & Gretchen Felker-Martin) Sean and Gretchen reunite for a second two-hour deep dive into television’s storied recent past! This time, the Original Bad Boy and the Filthcore Queen tackle shows they didn’t touch on before or only touched on briefly. Beginning with a ...
03.09.2021 BLAH 126 \| Tell your story, politics edition, with Marcus A. Roberts and Frank Spring We’re talking about storytelling a lot here on the Boiled Leather Audio Hour, and on occasion, we analyzed how the Westerosi politicans are using story to drive their own machinations - or how stories ruin them. Turns out, both are ...
02.28.2021 BLAH 125 \| The Weimar Republic - Lessons, with Jim McGeehin We return to Weimar history one more time in order to draw lessons. What can we actually learn from its collapse? What ways were there to prevent it? Join the discussion, and please tell us where you want this particular ...
02.19.2021 BLAH 124 \| The New Golden Age of Television (by Sean T. Collins & Gretchen Felker-Martin) It’s a Boiled Leather Audio Hour first! Sean’s flying solo in the captain’s chair for this episode, but he’s not alone—returning guest Gretchen Felker-Martin is here to talk about the New Golden Age of Television in all its glory. From ...
02.07.2021 BLAH 123 \| The Weimar Republic - Collapse, with Jim McGeehin It’s the last episode of the series, as we go through the presidential cabinets of Franz von Papen, Kurt von Schleicher and one Adolf Hitler. With the Reichstag burning and democracy left in the ashes, we leave the history of ...
01.24.2021 BLAH 122 \| Teachers of Ice and Fire, part 3, with Sean T. Collins In this episode, we close off our series on the Teachers of Ice and Fire by having a closer look at Bran Stark. He is taught a little bit by his stern father before he takes off to King’s Landing, ...
12.20.2020 BLAH 121 \| The Weimar Republic - Depression, with Jim McGeehin We’re back, and it’s the penultimate episode of our history of Weimar Germany. We cover the years 1928-1931, as the last democratic government forms just before the Great Depression starts in the US, taking down the world economy and the ...
11.25.2020 BLAH 120 \| Teachers of Ice and Fire, part 2 - Ice and Fire, with Sean T. Collins I won’t tell you whose teachers we’re talking about this episode, but at one point it’s a valuable comparison to ask ourselves what Obama could have learned from Avon and Stringer Bell. We’re also learning as we go and arrive ...
10.27.2020 BLAH 119 \| The Weimar Republic - Society, with Jim McGeehin We’re continuing our series, talking today about societal changes in Weimar. It’s a period caught between inertia and progress, pulled in different directions and inadequately equipped to sustain the strain. Download the episode! Our Patreon page at patreon.com/boiledleatheraudiohour. Torrent Our ...
10.16.2020 BLAH 118 \| The Weimar Republic - Stabilization, with Jim McGeehin In this installment of our ongoing series on the Weimar Republic, Jim and I tackle the stabilization period between 1924 and 1928. We look at how a precarious balance establishes itself, why this balance comes to be and why it ...
10.03.2020 BLAH 117 \| The Teachers of Ice and Fire I - The Stark Sisters Teachers! Who likes them? Oftentimes, the influence of our tutors is overlooked and underappreciated. Not on this podcast, though! We’re taking a look at the different teachers that Sansa and Arya have and that shape their characters and world views. ...
09.15.2020 BLAH 116 \| The Weimar Republic - Crisis, with Jim McGeehin We continue our journey through the history of Weimar Germany with a look at how democracies actually weather crises. In this case, the triple crisis of 1923 provides the blueprint. Why did the Republic survive this onslaught, when it would ...
08.31.2020 BLAH 115 \| The sample chapters: Aeron I, with Sean T. Collins In the final episode in our series on the sample chapters, Sean and I tackle the much-hyped “The Forsaken”, Aeron Greyjoy’s first chapter of “The Winds of Winter”. No worries, we’ll do it in one podcast. As a side-note, I’ve ...
08.19.2020 BLAH 114 \| Swords, sworn and forsaken I’m taken to school! To law school. Clint and Merry from the Learned Hands podcast join me to talk about the Sworn Sword. Why are we discussing the middle novella of the Hedge Knight trilogy? Reasons. Listen to the podcast ...
07.28.2020 BLAH 113 \| The Weimar Republic - Fever, with Jim McGeehin We continue the talk about the Weimar Republic with the feverish combination of inflation fuelled economic growth, coups, counter-coups, the Versailles treaty and a lot of constitutional analysis! Download the episode! Our Patreon page at patreon.com/boiledleatheraudiohour. Torrent Our iTunes page. ...
07.14.2020 BLAH 112 \| The sample chapters: Victarion I, with Sean T. Collins It’s time to watch a Coen Brothers movie. Strap in, imagine George Clooney in viking armor, and let’s delve into TWOW, Victarion I. , Download the episode! Our Patreon page at patreon.com/boiledleatheraudiohour. Torrent Our iTunes page. Previous episodes. Podcast RSS ...
06.25.2020 BLAH 111 \| The Weimar Republic - Revolution, with Jim McGeehin In a dazzling new series, Jim McGeehin (of Wars of Ice and Fire fame) and I tackle the history of the Weimar Republic. In this issue, we talk about the end of World War I and the revolution that ensued, ...
06.11.2020 BLAH 110 \| The sample chapters: Tyrion II, with Sean T. Collins Tyrion II, you ask befuddled? Did I miss Tyrion I? You did not. For reasons we explain in this podast. Don’t worry, it will all become clear in a moment. But on to the topic! This episode is not about ...
05.30.2020 BLAH 109 \| The sample chapters: Barristan I+II, with Sean T. Collins We’re on the home stretch! Today, in our series on the TWOW sample chapters, Sean and I look at not one but two Barristan chapters! Download the episode! Our Patreon page at patreon.com/boiledleatheraudiohour. Torrent Our iTunes page. Previous episodes. Podcast ...
05.14.2020 BLAH 108 \| Plagues and diseases in Westeros, with Steven Attewell We’re taking a break from the usual light-hearted discussions like the one about atrocities and war crimes and go topical: amidst the Corona pandemic, we’re talking about plague and disease in Westeros and our own middle ages. You know, just ...
05.03.2020 BLAH 107 \| A dozen at dinner, and other atrocities, with Jim McGeehin When Tywin tried to legitimize the Red Wedding to Tyrion, he hyperbolically asked whether it was worse to kill a dozen at dinner than thousands in battle. Tyrion doesn’t have a good retort, so I turned to my trusted colleague ...
04.09.2020 BLAH 106 \| The sample chapters: Arianne II, with Sean T. Collins Is there some foreshadowing going on? Will someone die? Is this “A Song of Ice and Fire”? We can answer all of these in affirmative as we take on “Arianne II”, chewing happily through our series analyzing all the preview ...
03.28.2020 BLAH 105 \| The sample chapters: Arianne I, with Sean T. Collins We delve into Arianne I, the next on our list of sample chapters. It’s “A Game of Forebodings”, a chapter choke-full of predictions, prophecies, foreboding and foreshadowing. And it’s not even a Dany chapter! Rather, the point of reference is ...
03.15.2020 BLAH 104 \| The Iron Bank and Communist Revolution in Westeros, with Steven Attewell One of our beloved Patreons, going by the awe-inspiring alias of ABCD1234 (sorry, I can’t let a name like that stand without at least some sniping ;)) asked me a question about the financing of the Iron Bank and Marxist ...
02.29.2020 BLAH 103 \| So say we all, with Bret Devereaux It’s been some time since the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, one of the most important TV series of our time, ended its four-season-run. Time enough to invite back Bret Devereaux, with whom I did a great episode on historical realism in ...
02.18.2020 BLAH 102 \| The sample chapters: Alayne I, with Sean T. Collins Welcome back on our regular circuit, where we talk about all the published sample chapters! This time, we tackle Sansa’s first TWOW chapter, Alayne I. Tackling gives you the right idea, since it’s all about a tourney. Or is it? ...
02.04.2020 BLAH 101 \| The Laws of Ice and Fire, part 2, with Clint Woods It’s the time of second parters! After I came back to the long promised second episode about the Elections of Ice and Fire with Marcus A. Roberts, it was time to revisit the legal system of Planetos this month. No ...

The Boiled Leather Audio Hour

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The Boiled Leather Audio Hour episodes:

BLAH 149 | Kaiserreich, Episode 6: Colonialism, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 148 | Kaiserreich, Episode 5: Balancing, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 147 | The Wheel of Time, with Sean T. Collins

BLAH 146 | The Expanse, with Tim Westmyer

BLAH 145 | Kaiserreich, episode 4: Kulturkampf, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 144 | Happy Birthday to us

BLAH 143 | Kaiserreich, Episode 3: Constitution

BLAH 142 | The Fremen Mirage, the myth of the Chosen One and military strategy in the Dune universe, with Bret Deveraux

BLAH 141 | A heap of toxic nerddom, with DancingSean

BLAH 140 | Kaiserreich, Episode 2: War, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 139 | Do Fantasy and SciFi stick at the wall?, with Aziz

BLAH 138 | Kaiserreich, Episode 1: Federation, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 137 | The US presidents, part 4, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 136 | Forget the numbers, with Marcus A. Roberts and Frank Spring

BLAH 135 | The US presidents, part 3, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 134 | Battlefields of bits and bytes - the history of the RTS genre, with Bret Deveraux

BLAH 133 | Telepathy, portals, necromancy and other magic

BLAH 132 | The US presidents, part II, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 131 | Grumkins, Snarks and other monsters, with Sean T. Collins

BLAH 130 | The Westeros Cinematic Universe

BLAH 129 | Not A Ranking of the US Presidents, part 1, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 128 | A neophyte’s guide to Twin Peaks, with Sean T. Collins

FIXED AUDIO! | BLAH 127 | The New Golden Age of Television, Part 2 (with Sean T. Collins & Gretchen Felker-Martin)

BLAH 127 | The New Golden Age of Television, Part 2 (with Sean T. Collins & Gretchen Felker-Martin)

BLAH 126 | Tell your story, politics edition, with Marcus A. Roberts and Frank Spring

BLAH 125 | The Weimar Republic - Lessons, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 124 | The New Golden Age of Television (by Sean T. Collins & Gretchen Felker-Martin)

BLAH 123 | The Weimar Republic - Collapse, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 122 | Teachers of Ice and Fire, part 3, with Sean T. Collins

BLAH 121 | The Weimar Republic - Depression, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 120 | Teachers of Ice and Fire, part 2 - Ice and Fire, with Sean T. Collins

BLAH 119 | The Weimar Republic - Society, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 118 | The Weimar Republic - Stabilization, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 117 | The Teachers of Ice and Fire I - The Stark Sisters

BLAH 116 | The Weimar Republic - Crisis, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 115 | The sample chapters: Aeron I, with Sean T. Collins

BLAH 114 | Swords, sworn and forsaken

BLAH 113 | The Weimar Republic - Fever, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 112 | The sample chapters: Victarion I, with Sean T. Collins

BLAH 111 | The Weimar Republic - Revolution, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 110 | The sample chapters: Tyrion II, with Sean T. Collins

BLAH 109 | The sample chapters: Barristan I+II, with Sean T. Collins

BLAH 108 | Plagues and diseases in Westeros, with Steven Attewell

BLAH 107 | A dozen at dinner, and other atrocities, with Jim McGeehin

BLAH 106 | The sample chapters: Arianne II, with Sean T. Collins

BLAH 105 | The sample chapters: Arianne I, with Sean T. Collins

BLAH 104 | The Iron Bank and Communist Revolution in Westeros, with Steven Attewell

BLAH 103 | So say we all, with Bret Devereaux

BLAH 102 | The sample chapters: Alayne I, with Sean T. Collins

BLAH 101 | The Laws of Ice and Fire, part 2, with Clint Woods