When Rome Burns

By Michael Stevens

Fifteen years of making teenagers care about dead people taught Michael Stevens one thing: the best history lessons happen when everything's falling apart. The former high school teacher turned podcas... more

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FAQs about When Rome Burns:

How many episodes does When Rome Burns have?

The podcast currently has 73 episodes available.

When Rome Burns episodes:

April 03, 2026 The $4 Billion Scam That Nearly Bankrupted England in 1720
What happens when an entire country gets caught up in a get-rich-quick scheme? In 1720, England found out the hard way when the South Sea Company pulled off what might be history's most audacious financial con. Michael Stevens breaks down how a company that barely traded anything convinced a nation to hand over its entire debt.
🎯 What You'll Learn:
• How the South Sea Company's stock rocketed from £128 to over £1,000 in eight months using pure hype
• The genius (and corrupt) debt conversion plan that would have given one company control over £31 million in government debt
• Why letting people buy stock for just 10% down was financial suicide waiting to happen
• The £1.2 million bribery operation that bought off everyone from Parliament members to the king himself
👤 Perfect for: anyone who's ever wondered how financial bubbles actually work and why people keep falling for them.
📍 Chapters:
[00:00] Michael Stevens introduces England's most expensive lesson in greed
[01:45] The South Sea Company's too-good-to-be-true pitch to buy Britain's debt
[03:30] Stock price mania: from reasonable to completely unhinged
[05:15] The subscription scam that let anyone "buy" stock with borrowed money
[07:00] Inside the £1.2 million corruption machine that bought a government
[09:30] Why this "brilliant" plan was doomed from the start
[11:00] What this 300-year-old bubble teaches us about today's markets
The South Sea Bubble wasn't just about bad investments. It was about how ordinary people get swept up in collective delusions, how governments enable financial disasters, and why the promise of easy money always ends the same way.
🔔 Never miss an episode:
Follow When Rome Burns and turn on notifications. New episodes drop daily, and next week Michael Stevens is covering how Rome's grain supply crisis brought down an empire. Your next favorite historical disaster is one tap away.
🔍 Topics: South Sea Bubble, financial bubbles, stock market crash, government corruption, 1720 England
Stream the full show at When Rome Burns
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Keywords: d-day, empire decline, operation citadel, political meltdowns, australian history, economic collapse, historical failures, fall of empires

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17min
April 02, 2026 How Cities: Skylines Beat EA's SimCity at Their Own Game
What happens when a scrappy 13-person Finnish studio takes down EA's multi-million dollar SimCity franchise? In this episode, Michael Stevens breaks down how Cities: Skylines became the city-building champion that fans actually wanted, proving that sometimes David really can beat Goliath in the gaming world.
🎯 What You'll Learn:
• How Cities: Skylines sold over 1 million copies in just 30 days with zero marketing budget
• Why EA's SimCity 2013 disaster created the perfect opening for a tiny competitor
• The genius design choices that let players build cities with over 1 million citizens
• How Steam Workshop's 200,000+ mods turned players into co-developers
👤 Perfect for: gamers, history buffs, and anyone fascinated by how underdogs can disrupt entire industries through smart strategy and timing.
📍 Chapters:
[00:00] Michael Stevens introduces the David vs. Goliath story of city builders
[01:45] SimCity 2013's spectacular failure opens the door
[03:30] Meet Colossal Order: 13 people who changed gaming
[05:15] The technical magic that made unlimited cities possible
[08:00] Steam Workshop transforms players into content creators
[10:30] Why passion projects sometimes beat corporate machines
[12:15] Key lessons for any underdog facing industry giants
This isn't just a gaming success story. It's a masterclass in how understanding your audience, learning from competitors' mistakes, and building community can topple even the biggest players. Stevens connects this modern David vs. Goliath tale to historical patterns of disruption that repeat across industries and centuries.
The best part? Cities: Skylines didn't just win by being different. It won by being what SimCity used to be before corporate priorities got in the way. Sometimes the best way forward is remembering what made something great in the first place.
🔔 Never miss an episode:
Follow When Rome Burns on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and turn on notifications. New episodes drop daily, your next favorite insight is one tap away.
🔍 Topics: Cities Skylines, SimCity, gaming history, underdog stories, Finnish game development
Stream the full show at When Rome Burns
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Keywords: fall of empires, byzantine empire, gold standard

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16min
April 02, 2026 How Cities: Skylines Killed SimCity (And Why EA Still Won't Admit It)
What if one indie game with 13 employees completely destroyed a gaming giant's 30-year empire? In this episode, Michael Stevens breaks down how Cities: Skylines didn't just beat SimCity, it made EA's franchise completely irrelevant.
🎯 What You'll Learn:
• How a tiny Finnish studio sold 12 million copies while EA's SimCity flopped spectacularly
• Why 300,000 player-created mods matter more than fancy graphics
• The exact moment EA realized they'd lost the city-building crown forever
👤 Perfect for: curious listeners who love underdog stories and want to understand how massive companies can get blindsided by scrappy competitors.
📍 Chapters:
[00:00] Michael Stevens introduces the David vs. Goliath of city builders
[01:30] SimCity's always-online disaster that killed player trust
[04:00] How Colossal Order studied every SimCity complaint for years
[07:00] The traffic system that changed everything about city building
[10:00] Why EA still pretends Cities: Skylines doesn't exist
[12:00] What this teaches us about listening to your customers
This isn't just about video games. It's about how ignoring what people actually want will get you destroyed by someone who's paying attention. Stevens connects this modern corporate collapse to the same patterns that have toppled empires throughout history.
🔔 Never miss an episode:
Follow When Rome Burns on Apple Podcasts and turn on notifications. New episodes drop daily, your next favorite insight is one tap away.
🔍 Topics: Cities Skylines, SimCity, EA games, indie gaming, corporate failures
Stream the full show at When Rome Burns
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Keywords: nazi germany, political meltdowns, founding fathers, economic collapse, war stories, world war 2, gold standard, catherine the great

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16min
April 02, 2026 The $1.2 Billion Company That Nearly Destroyed England in 1720
What if Britain's first "too big to fail" bailout happened 300 years ago? In 1720, the South Sea Company became so massive and so politically connected that when it collapsed, the government had no choice but to rescue it. Michael Stevens breaks down how a single company nearly brought down the entire British economy and why their solution sounds eerily familiar.
🎯 What You'll Learn:
• How the South Sea Company accumulated £30 million in government debt (roughly $4 billion today)
• Why King George I and Parliament members personally owned shares, making regulation impossible
• The exact two-week period when stock prices crashed from £1,000 to under £200 per share
• How Britain's bailout strategy created the template for modern financial rescues
👤 Perfect for: anyone who's ever wondered if our current financial crises are really that different from the past.
📍 Chapters:
[00:00] Michael Stevens reveals Britain's first government bailout
[01:45] How the South Sea Company became untouchable
[03:30] When your customers are also your regulators
[05:15] The two-week collapse that changed everything
[07:00] Why the government couldn't let it fail
[09:30] Patterns that repeat across three centuries
[11:00] What this teaches us about today's economy
This isn't just ancient history. Stevens connects the South Sea Bubble directly to modern bailouts, showing how the same political pressures and economic realities that forced Britain's hand in 1720 still drive government decisions today. The names change, but the game stays the same.
🔔 Never miss an episode:
Follow When Rome Burns on your podcast app and turn on notifications.
New episodes drop daily, your next favorite historical insight is one tap away.
🔍 Topics: South Sea Bubble, financial crisis, government bailout, British history, economic collapse
Stream the full show at When Rome Burns
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Keywords: d-day, civilization collapse, fall of empires, american revolution

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16min
April 01, 2026 John Blunt: The Financial Genius Who Created History's First Stock Market Crash
What if the smartest financial mind in 1720s England single-handedly created history's first stock market crash? In this episode, Michael Stevens reveals how John Blunt, a former clerk turned financial mastermind, turned England's crushing debt into a speculative bubble that nearly destroyed the economy. Here's the wild part: Blunt knew exactly what he was doing.
🎯 What You'll Learn:
• How England's £50 million debt (equivalent to the entire government's annual income) became Blunt's opportunity
• The psychological tricks Blunt used to drive South Sea Company stock from £128 to over £1,000 in eight months
• Why Spain's trade restrictions didn't stop investors from pouring money into a company that couldn't actually trade
👤 Perfect for: anyone who's ever wondered how financial bubbles actually start and why smart people make terrible investment decisions when greed takes over.
📍 Chapters:
[00:00] Michael Stevens introduces the man behind history's first stock crash
[02:00] From scrivener to schemer: John Blunt's rise to power
[04:30] The brilliant con: turning government debt into investment gold
[07:00] How Blunt manipulated public perception and stock prices
[09:30] The warning signs everyone ignored
[11:00] Why this pattern keeps repeating in modern markets
The craziest part? Blunt's scheme was technically legal. He found loopholes in a system that wasn't ready for someone this clever and ruthless. Stevens connects Blunt's tactics to modern financial manipulation, showing how the same psychological triggers still work today.
🔔 Never miss an episode:
Follow When Rome Burns and turn on notifications. New episodes drop daily, and tomorrow Stevens covers what happened when Blunt's bubble finally burst. Your next favorite historical disaster is one tap away.
🔍 Topics: South Sea Bubble, stock market crash, financial history, John Blunt, 18th century England
Stream the full show at When Rome Burns
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Keywords: ancient rome, political meltdowns, civilization collapse, hitler

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16min
April 01, 2026 Japan's 150-Year Civil War That Created the Greatest Warriors in History
What if 150 years of constant warfare actually created the most skilled warriors in human history? Michael Stevens breaks down Japan's Sengoku period, when the country completely collapsed into warring states and somehow emerged stronger than ever.
From 1467 to 1615, Japan had no central government. Over 250 independent warlords carved up the islands, fighting epic battles that make Game of Thrones look tame. But here's what's wild: this chaos didn't destroy Japanese culture. It perfected it.
🎯 What You'll Learn:
• How the 10-year Onin War turned Kyoto into a battlefield and triggered centuries of conflict
• Why Oda Nobunaga's 3,000 matchlock rifles at Nagakute changed warfare forever (spoiler: samurai swords became pretty useless)
• The surprising economic boom that happened during all this fighting, creating thriving castle towns and trade networks
• How constant war actually strengthened Japanese society instead of destroying it
👤 Perfect for history buffs who want the real story behind legendary samurai battles, not the Hollywood version.
📍 Chapters:
[00:00] Michael Stevens introduces Japan's century of chaos
[02:00] The Onin War: how one succession dispute broke everything
[04:30] Rise of the daimyo: 250 warlords carve up Japan
[07:00] Guns vs. swords: how firearms ended samurai dominance
[09:30] The economic miracle nobody talks about
[11:00] Why chaos sometimes builds stronger civilizations
Stevens connects this historical meltdown to modern lessons about resilience, adaptation, and how societies rebuild from collapse. Sometimes the best way forward is through complete destruction.
🔔 Never miss an episode:
Follow When Rome Burns and turn on notifications. New episodes drop daily, covering history's most spectacular disasters and what they teach us about surviving our own chaotic times.
🔍 Topics: Sengoku period, samurai warfare, Japanese history, Oda Nobunaga, medieval Japan
Stream the full show at When Rome Burns
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Keywords: civilization collapse, catherine the great, war stories, battleships, australian history

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18min
March 31, 2026 How a College Assignment Accidentally Built Gaming's Most Influential Channel
What if a random college assignment accidentally created one of gaming's most powerful educational forces? In this episode, Michael Stevens breaks down how Extra Credits transformed from Daniel Floyd's simple 2008 class project into the channel that literally changed how an entire industry thinks about game design.
🎯 What You'll Learn:
• How a college student's assignment analysis sparked a movement that reached millions
• The exact moment when academic content jumped from classroom to cultural phenomenon
• Why figuring out live streaming technology in 2012 was like building the plane while flying it
• What happens when educational content accidentally becomes industry-standard viewing
👤 Perfect for: gamers, creators, and anyone curious about how accidental success really works.
📍 Chapters:
[00:00] Michael Stevens introduces the Extra Credits origin story
[02:15] Daniel Floyd's college assignment that started it all in 2008
[04:30] The unexpected online traction that changed everything
[06:45] Live Q&A sessions and real-time audience engagement challenges
[09:00] How streaming technology limitations forced creative solutions
[11:30] Why accidental movements often beat planned ones
Stevens connects this gaming education breakthrough to broader patterns of how influence actually spreads. It's not about perfect planning or massive budgets. It's about genuine insight meeting the right moment, then adapting fast enough to keep up with your own success.
The Extra Credits story reveals something crucial: the most impactful educational content often starts as something else entirely. Floyd wasn't trying to revolutionize gaming education. He was just trying to pass a class. But when authentic expertise meets genuine curiosity, accidents become empires.
🔔 Never miss an episode:
Follow When Rome Burns on your podcast app and turn on notifications. New episodes drop daily, your next favorite insight is one tap away.
🔍 Topics: Extra Credits, gaming education, content creation, accidental success, educational influence
Stream the full show at When Rome Burns
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Keywords: cultural disasters, hitler, d-day, civilization collapse, military history

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24min
March 30, 2026 Cloud Chamber: The Game Where 10,000 Players Solve Mysteries With No Combat
What if a video game with no combat, no points, and no way to "win" could captivate 10,000 players at once? Michael Stevens explores Cloud Chamber, a revolutionary experiment that's rewriting the rules of what games can be.
🎯 What You'll Learn:
• How Cloud Chamber turns fragmented storytelling into a collaborative puzzle that requires an entire community to solve
• Why thousands of players are spending hours discussing narrative clues instead of fighting enemies or collecting items
• The science fiction literary influences that shaped this "Massively Multiplayer Story Game" concept
• How multiple valid interpretations can emerge from the same source material, creating richer discussions
👤 Perfect for: anyone curious about innovative storytelling, whether you're a gamer, sci-fi fan, or just fascinated by how communities form around shared mysteries.
📍 Chapters:
[00:00] Michael Stevens introduces the game that broke all the rules
[01:45] What happens when story becomes the only mechanic
[03:30] How 10,000 players collaborate without traditional gameplay
[05:15] The sci-fi literature roots that inspired everything
[07:00] Why fragments require community discussion to unlock meaning
[09:30] Multiple interpretations, same story: how it actually works
[11:00] What this means for the future of interactive storytelling
This isn't just about gaming. It's about how humans naturally want to solve puzzles together, how stories can create communities, and why sometimes the most engaging experiences happen when you remove everything we think makes something "fun."
🔔 Never miss an episode:
Follow When Rome Burns on Spotify or Apple Podcasts and turn on notifications. New episodes drop daily, your next favorite insight is one tap away.
🔍 Topics: massively multiplayer games, collaborative storytelling, science fiction, community building, experimental game design
Stream the full show at When Rome Burns
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Keywords: paper money, operation citadel, founding fathers, ned kelly, historical catastrophes, nazi germany, catherine the great, hitler

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13min
March 30, 2026 The 6 Impossible Coincidences That Started World War 1
What if I told you that World War I started because a driver took a wrong turn? Michael Stevens breaks down the six impossible coincidences that turned a routine royal visit into the assassination that changed everything.
June 28, 1914. Franz Ferdinand decides to visit Sarajevo on the worst possible day. Seven amateur assassins position themselves along his route. One throws a bomb that bounces off his car. Then the driver makes a fatal wrong turn and stops directly in front of another conspirator. You can't make this stuff up.
🎯 What You'll Learn:
• Why Franz Ferdinand picked the anniversary of a Serbian defeat to visit Sarajevo (spoiler: nobody thought this through)
• The bomb that bounced and how it actually made the real assassination possible
• The wrong turn that put the Archduke face-to-face with his killer
👤 Perfect for: anyone who's ever wondered how random events can reshape history and change millions of lives forever.
📍 Chapters:
[00:00] The worst possible day for a royal visit
[01:45] Seven young men with a terrible plan
[03:30] The bomb that bounced off Franz Ferdinand's car
[05:15] How a failed attack led to the real one
[07:00] The driver's wrong turn that changed everything
[09:30] From amateur hour to world war
Stevens connects these amateur-hour mistakes to the massive war that followed, showing how the smallest human errors can trigger the biggest disasters. This isn't just about one assassination. It's about how incompetence and bad timing can literally reshape civilization.
The patterns here are wild, and they're still playing out today. One moment of bad judgment, one wrong turn, one person in the wrong place at exactly the wrong time.
🔔 Never miss an episode:
Follow When Rome Burns on your podcast app and turn on notifications. New episodes drop daily, and next week we're covering how the Roman Empire's tax system destroyed itself. Your next favorite disaster story is one tap away.
🔍 Topics: World War 1, Franz Ferdinand assassination, Sarajevo 1914, historical coincidences, chain of events
Stream the full show at When Rome Burns
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Keywords: historical failures, ancient rome, economic collapse, historical disasters

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14min
March 30, 2026 Hannibal's Insane 37 Elephant March That Almost Destroyed Rome
What if I told you that 37 war elephants once came within miles of ending the Roman Empire forever? In this episode, Michael Stevens breaks down Hannibal's absolutely bonkers decision to march an army and a zoo across the Alps to surprise attack Rome itself.
🎯 What You'll Learn:
• Why Hannibal chose the "impossible" Alpine route when he could have sailed directly to Italy
• How he lost 45,000 soldiers in just 15 days but still terrified Rome more than any enemy before or since
• The brilliant psychological warfare behind bringing elephants that local tribes had never even imagined
• What Rome's diplomatic response to the 8-month siege of Saguntum reveals about their fatal overconfidence
👤 Perfect for: history buffs who love stories about audacious military gambles that nearly changed everything.
This isn't just ancient warfare tactics. It's about how one man's willingness to attempt the impossible almost toppled a superpower that thought it was untouchable. Sound familiar?
📍 Chapters:
[00:00] Michael Stevens sets up Hannibal's impossible choice
[01:45] The siege of Saguntum: 8 months that should have been a warning
[04:15] Building an army of enemies: Africans, Spaniards, and Gauls united against Rome
[06:30] The Alpine crossing: 90,000 men enter, 45,000 emerge
[09:00] Why elephants were the ancient world's psychological nuclear weapons
[11:15] Rome's reaction: panic in the streets of an "invincible" empire
🔔 Never miss an episode:
Follow When Rome Burns on Apple Podcasts or Spotify and turn on notifications. New episodes drop daily, and next week we're covering what happened when Hannibal actually reached Rome's gates.
🔍 Topics: Hannibal, Punic Wars, Roman Empire, Alpine crossing, ancient warfare
Stream the full show at When Rome Burns
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Keywords: ancient rome, military history, historical disasters, history podcast, fall of empires, d-day, world war 2

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15min

FAQs about When Rome Burns:

How many episodes does When Rome Burns have?

The podcast currently has 73 episodes available.