We're Not So Different

We're Not So Different episodes:

• 05.15.2024

  Napoleon feat Everett Rummage from Age of Napoleon

  folks, you've been asking when we're doing a review of Ridley Scott's 2023 film, Napoleon, and it's finally here but with a twist! instead of just doing an entire review episode for a movie that came out a few months...

  
• 05.08.2024

  Fall of Civs feat Paul M.M. Cooper

  folks, we're always thinking about falling civilizations, aren't we? whether it's the old civilizations that fell long ago or fretting over when our current empires will fall, it's often on our minds. and that's why we brought on Dr. Paul...

  
• 05.03.2024

  Weird Medieval 7: Weirdness Lightning Round

  folks, we're closing out our series on Weird Medieval shit with a few quick hitters of weirdness that we haven't gotten to yet. so we bounce around to a few of them before ending it where the Middle Ages probably...

  
• 04.24.2024

  Weird Medieval 6: Medieval Footloose

  folks, we're back with part 6 of our series on Weird Medieval shit and we start out in the Americas where the late Medieval Incan Empire was the most land of contrasts empire in all of history in order to...

  
• 04.18.2024

  Weird Medieval 5: Chinese Inventions and the Mongols

  folks, we're back with more weird, interesting, neat, and wild shit from the Middle Ages. this time, we explore the numerous Medieval inventions of Imperial China such as the compass, gunpowder, printing, and much more. we discuss why Imperial China...

  
• 04.10.2024

  Weird Medieval 4: Sweet Potatoes, Genetics, and Gold

  folks, we're back on our weird Medieval shit with part 4 in our series. this time, we focus on the amazing fact that Medieval Norse and Polynesian peoples crossed both the Atlantic and Pacific oceans to reach the Americas hundreds...

  
• 04.03.2024

  Medieval Women's Anatomy Understander (Patreon Ep Unlocked)

  as we said on the last episode, there's no new show this week due to travel and timing and all that, so we're unlocking a bonus episode from the Patreon for all listeners. if you're interested, this is the perfect...

  
• 03.28.2024

  Weird Medieval 3: Let's Rank Some Little Guys feat. Weird Medieval

  folks, we couldn't do a series on weird Medieval shit without talking about our favorite weird Medieval little guys who show up in marginalia of illuminated manuscripts from the era. and to do so, we brought on Olivia Swarthout, aka...

  
• 03.22.2024

  Weird Medieval 2: Medieval Supernovae

  we're back with the second episode of our Weird Medieval series and this time we're talking about space. in recorded history, only eight possible supernovae within the Milky Way have ever been witnessed by direct observation, and three of them...

  
• 03.13.2024

  Weird Medieval 1: Stealing the Secrets of Silk

  folks, we've started a new series and this one is all about Weird Medieval shit. the Middle Ages were an incredibly fascinating time and we want to celebrate and emphasize that by looking at the events, people, and things that...

  
• 03.08.2024

  Proto-nationalism: Tradwives feat. Dr. Lauren Hill Griffin

  we finish up our intermittent series on proto-nationalism and nationalism by discussing the modern concept of tradwives, or women who endorse a so-called traditionalist perspective and aesthetic online, either out of pure belief or as a grift. and to do...

  
• 02.28.2024

  Patron Mailbag Time

  we have had a lot of great interviews lately and that means we haven't had much time to answer the backlog of patron questions we have, so we decided to do a mailbag. we answer questions ranging from Robin Hood's...

  
• 02.21.2024

  Medieval Enshittification feat Cory Doctorow

  folks, things are getting worse everywhere but especially on the internet and so we decided to go to an expert to discuss how modern things are getting shittier all the time: author, blogger, and creator of the neologism "enshittification" joins...

  
• 02.15.2024

  German Peasants War feat November from Trashfuture

  this time, Luke and Eleanor welcome special guest November, co-host of the Trashfuture, Well There's Your Problem, and Kill James Bond podcasts to the show to talk about the German Peasants War, which turns 500 this year. we talk about...

  
• 02.08.2024

  Nationalism and Nostalgia feat Dr Rachel Moss

  this week, we're continuing our series on proto-nationalism and nationalism by talking to Dr. Rachel Moss about the ways nostalgia is used for evil and, specifically, how false nostalgia for a Middle Ages that didn't exist fuels modern nationalism. we...

  
• 01.31.2024

  Christian Nationalism Then and Now feat Bradley Onishi

  This week, we welcome Dr. Bradley Onishi, co-host of the Straight White American Jesus podcast, onto the show as part of our series on proto-nationalism in the Middle Ages. As we promised earlier this month, we had some guests lined...

  
• 01.24.2024

  Medieval Women: Theodora & Theodelinda

  this time, we return to our occasional series on Medieval women, where we look at the lives and times of ladies who were able to rise to positions of power and esteem despite the extremely patriarchal nature of the Middle...

  
• 01.18.2024

  Proto-nationalism: Borders and Rulers

  150th episode wooooo! this time, we continue our miniseries on what we're calling Proto-nationalism in the Middle Ages by talking about two very big materialist reasons why they couldn't really have nationalism back then: malleable borders and dynastic rulership. Medieval...

  
• 01.11.2024

  Nationalism in the Middle Ages?

  nationalism is, unfortunately, once again on the rise in the modern day and while you might think that it has very little to do with the Middle Ages, you'd be wrong. because while the nationalism we see today didn't exist...

  
• 01.04.2024

  Ep 148 - 2023 Year in Review

  it's our first episode of the new year but we're just not ready to move on quite yet, so we're taking a look back at 2023 and then taking a little peak ahead into 2024. we talk about Medieval news...

  
• 12.27.2023

  Dante's Inferno 1: Abandon All Hope (Patreon Ep Unlocked!)

  hello listeners! what you're about to hear is one of our patron-exclusive bonus episodes from March 2023, the first of our seven part book club series on Dante's Inferno. in it, we introduce Dante Alighieri's masterwork, The Inferno, by discussing...

  
• 12.20.2023

  Open Mailbag Fun

  folks, it's the holidays and so we decided to post some prompts on twitter and bluesky and answer some questions about history, life, and culture from the general audience. we cover everything from Chinese feudalism to the Panera lemonade that...

  
• 12.13.2023

  Medieval Dad-coded feat Patrick Wyman

  folks, we've got podcaster, historian, dad-aficionado, and friend of the show Patrick Wyman back on the show to talk about dad culture, what it means to be a dad as opposed to just a father, Medieval dads, dad-coded behavior, and...

  
• 12.06.2023

  Another Patron Mailbag

  this time, we take a dive into the backlog of questions from our patrons and answer a few of them. we tackle everything from how to explain the Middle Ages to a 5 year old, to how bad was Henry...

  
• 11.30.2023

  Princes in the Tower News

  as you may have heard, the Princes in the Tower are in the news again, 540 years after their supposed deaths. recently, Philippa Langley, who famously help find Richard III's body in a parking lot back in 2012, hosted a...

  
• 11.22.2023

  The Last Duel Review

  folks, we're finally doing a review of Ridley Scott's 2021 Medieval history film, The Last Duel, a film that asks the question: what if Ridley Scott just didn't do all the stuff he's known for and instead made an intimate...

  
• 11.15.2023

  Tudor Depictions feat. Phoebe Roy

  folks, in this episode we brought in a special guest and friend of the show, Phoebe Roy, co-host of the Ten Thousand Posts and Masters of Our Domain podcasts, to talk with us about depictions of Tudor England in books...

  
• 11.08.2023

  Arthuriana 6: The Death of the King

  Long cold open this time, actual episode starts around 18 mins in.Luke and Eleanor close our their series on the Medieval Arthurian canon in style, covering the rest of the post-Galfridian era to the end of the Middle Ages. finally,...

  
• 11.02.2023

  Arthuriana 5: Knights and Round Tables

  this time, the series on Arthuriana continues into the post-Galfridian era. following Geoffrey of Monmouth's Historia Regum Britanniae, which created the narrative structure and foundation of the Arthurian canon we know today, a whole bunch of writers got in on...

  
• 10.25.2023

  Arthuriana 4: Historia Regum Britanniae

  update: the last 3 minutes of this episode got cut off in the initial upload for unknown reasons, the file has now been fixed. sorry about that and enjoy!in our 4th installment in the Arthuriana series, we finally get to...

  
• 10.19.2023

  Arthuriana 3: Pre-Galfridian Stories

  our series on Arthuriana continues as we move past introductions and start talking about the stories that make up the early part of the Arthurian canon, known as the pre-Galfridian (aka before Geoffrey of Monmouth). these stories survive to us...

  
• 10.11.2023

  Arthuriana 2: The Once and Future King

  we're back with more talk of Arthurian legend. this time, we continue to trace the canon into the Modern era, from its nadir in the Early Modern period to its resurrection in the 19th century by Lord Alfred Tennyson and...

  
• 10.05.2023

  Arthuriana 1: Building a Medieval Canon

  folks, we're finally doing that series on King Arthur and the Arthurian Legends you've all been asking for. Luke and Eleanor start the series by talking about Arthur and the legends more broadly before discussing how a bunch of people...

  
• 09.27.2023

  How Often do You Think About the Roman Empire?

  Luke and Eleanor are back to talk about the meme that's been making the rounds for the past few weeks: How often do you think about the Roman Empire? we discuss how often we actually think about Rome and its...

  
• 09.20.2023

  Fabliau feat Kleio Pethainou

  today, we have on Kleio Pethainou, a doctoral candidate at the Univ. of Edinburgh, to talk about Medieval humor and the lesser-known but still awesome tradition of Fabliau. Fabliau are bawdy, humorous stories, often filled with some level of social...

  
• 09.13.2023

  Medieval Failsons: The Idiot Boys of Eleanor of Aquitaine

  last time, we talked about two famous Medieval women, Hildegard of Bingen and Eleanor of Aquitaine. they were both titans in their own respects but there's a small issue with Eleanor's legacy and that's her 4 idiot failsons. while Eleanor's...

  
• 09.06.2023

  Medieval Women: Hildegard of Bingen & Eleanor of Aquitaine

  in this one, we revisit our occasional series on the lives of prominent Medieval women as we discuss Hildegard of Bingen and Eleanor of Aquitaine. though they made their impacts felt in different ways, they were each monumentally important. Hildegard...

  
• 09.01.2023

  Medieval What If 2: Wrong Kid Died

  we're back for another episode off Medieval what if scenarios. it's late, we all know it's late, it's fine. What if the Norman Invasion failed? What if Constantinople held out in 1453? What if Arthur Tudor, Henry VIII's older brother,...

  
• 08.23.2023

  Medieval What If...

  folks, today we move out of the realm of actual history and into the realm of alternative history as we take a look at some Medieval "what if..." scenarios. We go through a series of historical events, change one small...

  
• 08.16.2023

  Medieval Fail Sons: Wenceslas IV & Sigismund

  this time, we embark on another occasional series we're going to do from time-to-time going forward and this one is all about Medieval fail sons who squandered the fortunes, power, and goodwill engendered by their parents and were just general...

  
• 08.11.2023

  Courtly Entertainers

  in this episode, we discuss the entertainment that you would see at a Medieval court: troubadours, dancers, jugglers, and, of course, jesters. we take a look at these professions, what their performances were like, how and why they were hired,...

  
• 08.02.2023

  Markets and Market Towns

  we're back to talk about a huge facet of Medieval life: going to the market. what were they like? what was a market town? what could you buy there? who went to market? how were they run? were Medieval goth...

  
• 07.26.2023

  Medieval Women: The Two Mary's

  in this episode, we start an intermittently recurring series where we explore the lives and times of two famous Medieval women. and while these will usually be about women who lived and rose to prominence during the Middle Ages, we...

  
• 07.19.2023

  Medieval Mining

  we are back and we're talking Medieval mining. we often discuss the elaborate jewels and metals used for ostentatious royal displays and the iron weapons shaped by blacksmiths for war but how does all that metal get out of the...

  
• 07.12.2023

  Ye Olde Patron Mailbag

  it's time for another mailbag episode from our backlog of questions from our patrons. since we usually answer one question an episode, we can't possibly get to all the questions, so we do these mailbags from time-to-time. in this one,...

  
• 07.06.2023

  Petro States for Wool

  we are back and this time we're doing a deep dive into Medieval wool production and how it undergirded the economies of much of Europe and turned places like England, Flanders, and the cities of the Hanseatic League into petro...

  
• 06.28.2023

  Wars of the Roses 5: One Rose to Rule Them All

  So we finally come to the end of our series on the Wars of the Roses and technically the Hundred Years War too. We conclude both by discussing the Treaty of Picquigny, which ended the Hundred Years Wars after 138...

  
• 06.24.2023

  Wars of the Roses 4: The Yorkists Reign

  better late than never, huh? we're back with part 4 of our series on The Wars of the Roses and this time it's the Yorkists turn to take full control and dash all their external enemies: Warwick the Kingmaker is...

  
• 06.14.2023

  Wars of the Roses 3 - Royal Hot Potato

  we're back with more wars and more roses. this time, the Yorkists finally take control of the conflict, depose the old king, and assume full regal power over the realm. they win some battles, the old king gets passed around...

  
• 06.07.2023

  Wars of the Roses 2: Loveday

  we're back continuing the series on the Wars of the Roses and this time we take a look at the early years. we've got the seesaw battle between Lancastrians and Yorkists, the last flourishes of English chivalry, King Henry VI...