History is built by people like you, and Past Lives is here to bring their stories to life. Every week, we’ll focus on the lived experiences of real people in the past, from the Stone Age to the near-present. Peasants, laborers, artisans, merchants, soldiers, and the enslaved are far too often overlooked in favor of kings, generals, and politicians; not here. On Past Lives, we keep the focus where it belongs: on the real people who populate our shared past. By understanding them, we can strive to better understand ourselves. These people were us, and we are them. They mattered, and so do you.
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In hindsight, ancient Egypt appears to be both eternal and inevitable, but in reality it was neither. Until his untimely death 5,300 years ago, Gebelein Man lived in the Upper Nile Valley, the heartland of the warring petty kingdoms that would eventually morph into the kingdom of the pharaohs. The forces that shaped his life were those that gave birth to the ancient Egypt we recognize later. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord ser...
Of all the many people who lived in the distant past, we might know Ötzi the Iceman the best. Found in the Ötztal Alps of northern Italy in 1991, Ötzi lived more than 5,300 years ago, but the icy conditions where he died preserved his remains to an extraordinary degree. We know what Ötzi ate for his last meals, where he spent his youth, what materials his clothing was made out of, and even what kinds of parasites infected his digestive tract. The result is an illuminating portrait of a long-dead...
Nine thousand years ago, a special woman was buried in central Germany. She was her band's shaman, and they interred her with all of the tools of her craft: a feathered headdress with deer antlers, dozens of clinking animal teeth, an extraordinary variety of unusual objects. Who was she, and what can she teach us about the Mesolithic society to which she belonged? Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus...
Patrick's new book Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World comes out May 5th! Check out a free preview of the first chapter of the audiobook, "The World As It Was," and learn about the Clovis people and reindeer hunters in Europe at the end of the last Ice Age. Preorder in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook (read by Patrick) here: https://bit.ly/PWLostWorlds. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and ...
In July of 1996, a skeleton was discovered on the banks of the Columbia River. It belonged to a man who died 8,500 years ago, in a world so distant from our own it hardly seems real, but thanks to detailed studies of his remains, we know more about that man than almost anybody else in the distant past. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club,...
Thirteen thousand years ago, a baby died in what's now Montana. His people buried him under a rock ledge, and there his bones stayed for millennia. Today, we know the infant as Anzick-1, and he's the only human being we can associate with the widespread and extraordinarily important archaeological group we know as the Clovis Culture - some of the first people to inhabit the ancient Americas. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord ser...
When we think about the past, whether we know it or not we're usually thinking in terms of texts: written sources that provide the information we use to understand what happened before our time. But there are many other potential sources of information, and the richest of them all is the human body. In this new season of Past Lives, we explore the experiences of dozens of people who lived over thousands of years through the lens of their remains: skeletons, mummies, and bog bodies. Become a memb...
Today we’re sharing a podcast that Patrick really loves: History Daily. History Daily tells the fascinating stories of what happened “on this day” in history, and new episodes come out every weekday. Since we just finished our season on slavery, the first episode focuses on the uprising that led to freedom for the captives on the slave ship Amistad in the 19th century and the second on the Roman siege of Masada way back in the first century AD. Enjoy! Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/Pa...
Slavery is a huge topic, but we've covered an enormous amount of ground from ancient Assyria to the 20th century, and now we can come to some conclusions about why slavery matters. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is w...
In July of 1860, the last slave ship to reach the United States arrived in Mobile Bay. The Clotilda held 103 captives, Yoruba people from present-day Nigeria. Eighty years later, one of those captives - known by then as Matilda McCrear - died in Alabama. She was the last known survivor of the Middle Passage experienced by more than 12 million Africans. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per...
Olaudah Equiano is one of the most fascinating people in human history: enslaved as a child in West Africa, trained as a sailor who traveled from the Equator to the Arctic and everywhere in between, but later in life, one of the most impactful writers of his age. Equiano's autobiography is a firsthand guide to the world of Atlantic slavery and what it did to those whom it touched. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and fou...
While the horrors of the Middle Passage are familiar to most, it's less well known that countless indigenous people were trafficked into slavery in the Americas. One of them was Moll, who was abducted in the Carolinas, transported to Boston, and lived for years before eventually making her escape. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q an...
We don't usually think of the Italian Renaissance - the time of Leonardo, Michelangelo, and the Borgias - as a world of slaves, but there were many enslaved people in Florence, Rome, Venice, and Genoa. One of them was Maddalena, whose life took her from the Black Sea to the household of Cosimo de Medici, one of the richest and most powerful men in Europe. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content ...
Discover the remarkable story of Sultan Baybars, a Kipchak Turk enslaved as a boy who rose through the ranks of military slavery to become a formidable Mamluk leader, stopping the Mongol invasion of West Asia. The episode delves into the unique institution of military slavery in the Islamic world, where enslaved youths were trained as elite soldiers, gaining power and responsibility. Despite the opportunities for some, the system remained inherently violent and exploitative, underscoring the complex realities of Mamluk life and the human cost of empire-building.
My dear friend Professor Keith Pluymers joins me to discuss a man listed in a Philadelphia city account book as "Negro Joe," and we try to reconstruct what his life, work, and experience of the city would have been. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independen...
Saint Patrick is one of the most famous individuals who lived in the late Roman Empire, but long before he became the apostle of the Irish, he was a Romano-British teenager who was abducted from his home and enslaved for six years. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia . You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-p...
On May 24th, 166 AD, a seven-year-old boy was sold for the price of 200 denarii in the city of Seleucia Pieria. How did Abbas get there, and what happened to him afterward? The answers shed a great deal of light on how the Roman slave trade actually worked in practice. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and eviden...
Standing just outside Rome's Porta Maggiore is a unique funeral monument to a successful baking entrepreneur named Eurysaces, who was proud of his occupation and his prosperity. But Eurysaces' wealth rested on the brutalized laborers who worked in his hellish industrial bakery, and through Eurysaces, we can understand them. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian...
The Spartacus Rebellion is one of the most famous events in all of human history, told and retold time and again. But how and why did it happen, and who participated in it aside from Spartacus himself? Here we focus on Crixus, one of Spartacus's lieutenants, and what we can know about the life of an enslaved gladiator who had had enough. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (includi...
Terence was one of ancient Rome's most popular playwrights and a founder of Latin literature, read by schoolchildren for centuries to come. He had also been enslaved in his youth, and when we look closely, it turns out that early Roman writers were mostly outsiders just like Terence. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sou...
Sex work is work, and it has a long history. In ancient Athens, prostitution was everywhere, but what do we know about the people who chose or were more often forced to engage in it? Neaira is one of the few sex workers whose life story we know, and it tells us more than we could dream about real lives in ancient Greece. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian in...
Slavery is often considered a throwback to an older, less efficient way of organizing an economy, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Sosias, a mining overseer from Thrace, was one of the most expensive slaves ever sold in classical Athens. What made him worth so much money? The answer reveals a great deal about classical Athens, its economy, and slavery's place in a sophisticated economic world. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Liv...
Nearly 2,700 years ago, a woman and her daughter were ripped away from their homes in what is now Iran by the soldiers of the Assyrian Empire. Nanaya'ila'i was one of thousands upon thousands of people to experience the violence that accompanied conquest, but she's one of the very few whose name we know and life we can reconstruct. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a h...
Slavery was there at the beginning of recorded history in Mesopotamia more than 5,000 years ago, and it's still with us today. But how should we make sense of an institution that has defined the lives of hundreds of millions of people all across the world? Are there better and worse varieties of slavery? How important did slavery have to be before it defined a society? These are the big-picture questions that will help us understand the experiences of enslaved people over the millennia. Become a...
Most of the history we're taught revolves around "Great Men," the Napoleons and Alexander the Greats of the world, but they're hardly typical of the human experience. History actually revolves around advisors, merchants, laborers, farmers, and slaves, the common clay of humanity and the raw material for any good story of our shared past. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (includi...
From Patrick Wyman (host of Fall of Rome and Tides of History) comes Past Lives, a brand new podcast! Every week, we’ll focus on the lived experiences of real people from the past, bringing their stories to life. The first season of Past Lives is available December 3rd! Be sure to subscribe to the feed now so you get our first three episodes delivered straight to you on the same day for our series premiere drop. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the P...
Nov 12, 2025•3 min
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