The Oklahoman Empire

The vox populi has been heard, so we went with a listener-suggested guest on this episode of The Remnant. Kyle Harper is an incredibly knowledgeable historian of the Roman Empire who specializes in the origins of Christianity, but that doesn’t quite do him justice. As Jonah (or, Jonas Magnus) discovers, he’s effectively a polymath who knows about everything from the gnostics to the history of infectious disease - which is, uh, convenient? Watch out for his Oklahoma nationalism, though; he might be trying to annex the rest of the country.

Show Notes:

-The deep human history of respiratory viruses

-Kyle’s latest book, The Fate of Rome

-Hunter-gatherers as the “original affluent society”

-Romans were short

-Calvin Coolidge’s son

-Tacitus: “they make a desert and call it peace.”

-Michael Munger on EconTalk, speaking to the ideological history of slavery

-Jamelle Bouie’s argument about the Enlightenment and racism

-“Climate essentialism” in Hippocrates

-Let’s all move to Oklahoma

-DoorDash, promo code REMNANT for $5 off, and zero delivery fees for the first month

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices