War Stories

By War Stories

What's War Stories about?

War Stories is a narrative show that takes the broad arcs of warfare and shares the stories behind crucial points their development. In each season, the show revolves around a single topic and traces a path from before its invention to the modern-day with a focus on the people who made it happen.

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War Stories episodes:

06.23.2021
A Most Unlikely Race
Hey listeners, did you know we're not just trying and failing to come up with new podcast ideas every week? Staffer and Adin have been away working on books. Adin's is out next week; Staffer interviewed him about it. Sprinting...
11.12.2020
The 82nd's Almost Mission to Rome
There were a lot of crazy ideas in World War II. But possibly none more than dropping the 82nd Airborne Division on Rome in order to seize it after Italy capitulated. In this episode, Angry Staff Officer follows two US...
05.21.2020
Bats! The Musical
Nearly every one of our episodes focused on humans' interactions with a particular type of inanimate object on the battlefield, sometimes the way in which the object is wielded by others, sometimes the actions those humans have to take in...
04.12.2020
A Very Special Lexington and Concord Reading
Hello! We've missed you during our extended hiatus. As both Staffer and Adin have been holed up in their respective bunkers and finishing up their book projects, they found some extra time to talk to one another. After hearing from...
12.03.2018
Loose Rounds #9 - AUSA Live Show
To wrap up the season of Loose Rounds, Adin and Angry Staff Officer ventured to Washington, DC and the Association of the United States Army's annual conference. There, they held a live show, brought together by Nammo, which covers everything...
09.17.2018
Loose Rounds #8 - Wheels
What's the simplest item that's changed the shape of warfare? The bullet? The boot? How about the humble wheel? In this episode of Loose Rounds, Adin and Angry Staff Officer trace the development of the wheel throughout history, and how...
08.21.2018
Loose Rounds #7 - Ship Design
For nearly as long as people have been fighting, they've had ships to take them to the fight, or to use as weapons of war themselves. From the coracle to the trireme to the battleship, has there been an overall...
07.16.2018
Loose Rounds #6 - Cartography
Before compasses, sextants, and the telescope, there was the map. They were simple things to begin with. Then they became essential, allowing explorers and conquerors to leave their home lands for far off destinations. Then they became something even more....
06.18.2018
Loose Rounds #5 - Field Rations
Members of the military oftentimes talk about how little they need to get by. Without the creature comforts the everyday person may come to expect. But there's one thing they've needed from the first days we fought wars. Food. In...
05.18.2018
Loose Rounds #4 - Communications
Until someone invents a solution to time travel, distance on the battlefield will define how wars are fought. Communications have attempted to solve for this problem since wars first began: first with runners, up to the present day with radio...
04.16.2018
Loose Rounds #3 - Logistics
Amateurs talk tactics, professionals talk logistics. Right? In the third episode of the series, Adin and Staffer discuss the incorporation of logistics into professional militaries and how, in some ways, logistics helped bring about an international trading system. www.warstoriescast.com
04.09.2018
2.9 - The Once and Future Sniper
What's the quality that defines a sniper? Is it the pulling of the trigger? The skilled stalking of their target in the hours or days prior to making a shot? The mathematical and physics-based knowledge that prevents them from making...
03.19.2018
Loose Rounds #2 - Blood Transfusions
For something so central to our lives, the role of blood wasn't something we could explain for much of our history. We knew it was important, and when someone was bleeding out on the battlefield, you needed to fix them,...
03.05.2018
2.8 - The White Feather
In the Vietnam War, snipers returned to some of their earliest environmental roots while simultaneously reaching the pinnacle of their development: taking part in long missions, independently, where high value targets were taken out. Carlos Hathcock, a Marine from Arkansas,...
02.19.2018
Loose Rounds #1 - Mortars
In our first episode of Loose Rounds, a mini-series produced in partnership with Nammo, we discuss the humble mortar. You know, the tubes that fire grenade-looking munitions into the air? It turns out they have a far deeper and wider...
02.12.2018
Loose Rounds Trailer
On War Stories, we often focus on what’s happening at the proverbial tip of the spear: the latest and greatest, at least for the time, weapons platforms, how militaries shifted their fighting styles to accommodate these technologies, and what it...
02.05.2018
2.7 - A Soviet Sniper's American Journey
By the time Lyudmila Pavlichenko joined the rest of her peers at the International Student Assembly at American University in Washington, DC, much of the country knew her name. As well as the Nazis who despised her for the deadly...
01.08.2018
2.6 - The White Death
When the Soviet Union invaded Finland in late 1939—the action that kicked off the Winter War—they expected an easy fight, if there was one at all. Instead, they found a military with an intimate knowledge of Finland's terrain, and one...
12.04.2017
2.5 - A Duel in the Trenches
We know World War I for a number of things: trenches, poison gas, the ever-present thrum of artillery. But it also served as the birthplace of the sniper. And one of the best couldn't be found on the Western, or...
10.31.2017
2.4 - The Fighters of the Black Snake's Den
On a scraggly hill in Pennsylvania, a unit of sharpshooters took part in some of the most fierce, if not frequently discussed, fighting of Gettysburg. Many only know them from the accessories riding atop their heads: bucktails. www.warstoriescast.com Become a...
10.02.2017
2.3 - Individualism Comes to Warfare
While Napoleon swept through Europe, the rifle took up a central location on the battlefield with the 95th Rifles of the British Army. The impact of their weapon would reach far and wide beyond technological platforms. www.warstoriescast.com Become a...
09.04.2017
2.2 - Morgan's Lucky (or Unlucky) Riflemen
From the time of the French and Indian War, Daniel Morgan had a bone to pick with the British Army. Over the following decades, he and the riflemen he led would do their best to even the score. www.warstoriescast.com Become...
08.20.2017
Bonus Episode - The U.S.S. Indianapolis
After hearing the news about the discovery of the Indianapolis wreck, we thought we should unlock this Patreon episode that we recorded over the course of the summer. Make sure you sign up if you'd like more of them hitting...
08.07.2017
2.1 - Edward Braddock Walks into a Bullet
What is it that makes a good marksman? Is it their training? Their weapon? Maybe they’re just born that way, or raised with a rifle in their hands. In our Season Two premiere, we take a look at the shift...
07.31.2017
Season Two Trailer
Next week, Season Two of War Stories launches, but for those of you who can't wait to figure out the subject we're covering, we've got a shot trailer for you. Enjoy. www.warstoriescast.com Become a War Stories supporter on Patreon
07.17.2017
Interseason #3 - World War III, Almost
While the world watched Cuba as it became a potential nuclear missile launch site, another threat lay off the east coast in the Sargasso Sea. Four Soviet submarines waited for the outbreak of hostilities, and each carried the power to...
04.24.2017
Interseason #2 - Armor from a Long Time Ago...
In our second interseason episode, Angry Staff Officer and Adin look at the tragic decline of armor in the Star Wars universe and explore why it might have occurred. www.warstoriescast.com Become a War Stories supporter on Patreon
04.03.2017
Interseason #1 - Operation Vengeance
In the first of our interseason episodes, Adin tells the story of the encrypted messages received by the United States on the 13th and 14th of April 1943 and arguably the most important decapitation mission of history that followed. www.warstoriescast.com...
03.13.2017
1.8 - Where Do We Go From Here?
Over the past seven episodes, we've traced the development of armored warfare through the end of traditional, horse-driven cavalry to the armored warfare of Desert Storm. But as military planners and politicians face asymmetric threats and limited conflicts around the...
02.20.2017
1.7 - A (Desert) Storm is Brewing
The battles of 73 Easting, Medina Ridge, and Norfolk. Were they the pinnacle of the near century of tank warfare we've covered in season one, or the last gasp? www.warstoriescast.com Become a supporter of War Stories on Patreon
01.16.2017
1.6 - Task Force Zvika
The Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) of the 1970s emphasized a number of qualities: proactive leadership, heroism, and a recognition of the young life of their country that rose in the wake of great tragedy. These qualities weren't just given lip service, but...
12.12.2016
1.5 - Tigers on the Eastern Front
Nazi Germany fielded a military with many components designed to amaze as much as to destroy. While this philosophy meant that many designs never left the drawing board, one that did was the Tiger Tank—a relatively beastly model whose gun...
11.14.2016
1.4 - The Tank Destroyers of El Guettar
The 601st Tank Destroyer Battalion, the first of its kind, was stood up in 1941. The theory governing their use had yet to be tested on the field of battle. In November of the following year, Lieutenant Colonel Hershel Baker...
10.17.2016
1.3 - Seseña: The Interwar Proving Ground
Well before the threat of World War II entered societies' collective minds, smaller regional conflicts gradually simmered away across Europe. One of these, the Spanish Civil War, might not have drawn much notice from leaders in the United States, but the...
09.19.2016
1.2 - Patton at the Saint-Mihiel Salient
Near the end of 1917, a young captain by the name of George S. Patton received orders from the chief of the newly created U.S. Tank Corps, Colonel Samuel Rockenbach. His task was to launch the light tank school of the...
09.06.2016
1.1 - High Wood (Prologue)
In Northern France on July 14th, 1916, a cavalry unit from Hyderabad made what most consider to be the final cavalry charge of World War I before the invention of tanks. The unit, Deccan Horse, represented the last gasp of...

What's War Stories about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

War Stories episodes:

A Most Unlikely Race

The 82nd's Almost Mission to Rome

Bats! The Musical

A Very Special Lexington and Concord Reading

Loose Rounds #9 - AUSA Live Show

Loose Rounds #8 - Wheels

Loose Rounds #7 - Ship Design

Loose Rounds #6 - Cartography

Loose Rounds #5 - Field Rations

Loose Rounds #4 - Communications

Loose Rounds #3 - Logistics

2.9 - The Once and Future Sniper

Loose Rounds #2 - Blood Transfusions

2.8 - The White Feather

Loose Rounds #1 - Mortars

Loose Rounds Trailer

2.7 - A Soviet Sniper's American Journey

2.6 - The White Death

2.5 - A Duel in the Trenches

2.4 - The Fighters of the Black Snake's Den

2.3 - Individualism Comes to Warfare

2.2 - Morgan's Lucky (or Unlucky) Riflemen

Bonus Episode - The U.S.S. Indianapolis

2.1 - Edward Braddock Walks into a Bullet

Season Two Trailer

Interseason #3 - World War III, Almost

Interseason #2 - Armor from a Long Time Ago...

Interseason #1 - Operation Vengeance

1.8 - Where Do We Go From Here?

1.7 - A (Desert) Storm is Brewing

1.6 - Task Force Zvika

1.5 - Tigers on the Eastern Front

1.4 - The Tank Destroyers of El Guettar

1.3 - Seseña: The Interwar Proving Ground

1.2 - Patton at the Saint-Mihiel Salient

1.1 - High Wood (Prologue)