Everywhere around us are echoes of the past. Those echoes define the boundaries of states and countries, how we pray and how we fight. They determine what money we spend and how we earn it at work, what language we speak and how we raise our children. From Wondery, host Patrick Wyman, PhD (“Fall Of Rome”) helps us understand our world and how it got to be the way it is.
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Dr. John Schneider rode into town like a character out of a Western: an outsider on a Harley-Davidson, in trademark cowboy boots. He promised relief to patients suffering in Wyoming and Montana. He seemed like the hero they needed. But when surgeries go wrong and a strange letter exposes a bitter feud, medical professionals and government officials search for the truth about this cowboy doctor. They discover claims of broken bodies, bullying, fraud, and lawsuits. From Audible, the fifth season o...
Is what’s happening on OnlyFans real? Or is it only a fantasy? In this provocative investigation into OnlyFans—the adult platform where subscribers around the world spent more than $7 billion in 2024—journalist Leon Neyfakh teams up with comedian and OnlyFans creator Gracie Canaan for a one-of-a-kind exploration into the current state of human connection. Throughout, they discover that the site originally built for spicy adult content has quietly and surprisingly become something more complicate...
At long last, we've reached the end of Tides of History, and I can't thank you all enough for coming along on this long journey. We end with a series of vignettes set throughout the long ages we've covered, from the Paleolithic up to early modernity. If you want to stay in touch, be sure to follow my new podcast, Past Lives, and read my new book, Lost Worlds. Be well, friends! Patrick has a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who l...
Author Craig Fehrman's new book on Lewis and Clark, This Vast Enterprise, is one of the best things I've read in years. We discuss the richness of our understanding of the expedition and how that allows us to understand it, and the world of the early 19th century, from many different points of view. Buy the book: bit.ly/tvecfb Patrick has a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now: https://bit.ly/PWP...
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 . Patrick has a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real pers...
Does history repeat itself? Not really, but that's not the reason it's worth studying: Our past is nothing more or less than the collective record of our species' achievements and failures, and it contains a variety of lessons, few of them easy and straightforward. In this episode, we explore how history helps us in the present, and how it doesn't. Patrick has a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe n...
Gladiators are one of the most instantly recognizable yet alien aspects of Roman society, and Dr. Harry Sidebottom's new book - Those Who Are About to Die - offers a cutting-edge view of these fascinating entertainers based on the most recent research. We discuss what recent research has revealed about their lives, why the Romans were so intrigued by them, and why they matter today. Patrick has a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person...
The city of Babylon has appeared in our episodes time and again over the past several years: as the center of empires, a victim of vicious conquest, a wealthy center of economic innovation, and even the place where Alexander the Great drew his last breath. Professor Lloyd Llewelyn-Jones joins me to discuss his new, comprehensive, and fascinating new book on Babylon's long and engaging history. Patrick has a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a ...
Academic history and popular history are very different things, but what is their purpose? And how should we, as people who like and consume history, understand and use them? Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now: https://bit.ly/PWPLA And don't forget, you can still Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook (re...
If we want to understand how and why the human story has unfolded in the way it has, then we have to understand migration: large numbers of people moving long distances. It's a surprisingly difficult topic to understand, but in the past couple of decades, we've developed better ideas and more tools for making sense of migration, past and present. Follow along for an overview of the topic, how it's been studied in the past, and how we understand it now. Patrick launched a brand-new history show! ...
It's time for one last mailbag! I cover everything from which historical figure would be the best Poster on social media to how ancient authors collected their letters for publication to how making Tides has shaped my interests in the past. Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now: https://bit.ly/PWPLA And don't forget, you can still Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and For...
The ability to recover ancient DNA from archaeological remains is one of the greatest scientific innovations of our time, but how has it impacted archaeology and ancient history? And where is the study of ancient DNA going? We explore in this week's episode. Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now: https://bit.ly/PWPLA And don't forget, you can still Get The Verge: Reformation, Re...
What did the Mediterranean look like at the moment of Rome's triumph in 146 BC? Join me as we go on one final trip around the wine-dark sea, checking in with each major region and seeing how they changed as Roman armies triumphed everywhere from Iberia to Anatolia. Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now: https://bit.ly/PWPLA And don't forget, you can still Get The Verge: Reformat...
he Atlantic World is one of the major concepts in academic history, a way of linking together all the various places around the fringes of the great ocean during a time of extraordinary change, the early modern period. Professor Keith Pluymers joins me once more to discuss the Atlantic World and how the concept is useful to us in trying to make sense of a massively important time in human history. Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the l...
The best way to understand the impact slavery had on a person's life is to follow their journey through the institution, but the ancient world provides few examples that we can use. Instead, we have to assemble a composite character from bits and pieces. We'll call him Publius, and watch him as he's abducted, enslaved, and lives out his life in a new, Roman, world. Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in...
Slavery was foundational to ancient societies, but it was never a single thing: The experiences of the enslaved varied dramatically depending on when and where they lived, who owned them, and most of all, the jobs they had to do. Slavery was never good, but there were better and worse versions, and in this episode, we'll explore some of the variation that shaped the lives of enslaved people. Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of...
Check out Patrick's new show, Past Lives ! You can listen on your platform of choice through the links here , and be sure to subscribe to the Patreon for tons of bonus content - Q and As, interviews with fantastic historians, and much more. 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. See Privacy Policy at https...
It's been quite a while since I've answered listener questions, so here are a bunch on everything from the best depictions of siege warfare in movies to the pre-Indo-European languages of Europe. Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now: https://bit.ly/PWPLA And don't forget, you can still Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy, eb...
Professor Shane Miller discusses new archaeological discoveries in the ancient Americas, examining the reliability of initial reports, and the challenges of ancient DNA research. The episode delves into ongoing debates about pre-Clovis sites like the White Sands footprints and the influence of academic publishing. Miller emphasizes the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration for accurate interpretations.
The rise of the Roman Republic was built on conquest and war, but also on the massively expanding economy of Italy as a whole and Rome in particular. What was it like to live through that, and what did an expanding economy actually mean? Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now: https://bit.ly/PWPLA And don't forget, you can still get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty ...
Runic writing carries connotations of magic and fantasy, but it was a widespread, useful, and long-lasting system of writing. Professor Tom Birkett has written a fantastic overview of runic writing that returns it to the real time and place in which it existed - Runes: A Concise History . Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now: https://bit.ly/PWPLA And don't forget, you can still...
Let's imagine a Macedonian soldier during the time of Alexander the Great. How did this man, whom we'll call Red Cleitus, spend the vast amounts of coin he plundered and earned as he and his comrades fought their way across Asia? Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now: https://bit.ly/PWPLA And don't forget, you can still get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years th...
Patrick's new book, Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World, launches May 5th, 2026! Check out this audiobook preview chapter on two murders around 5,300 years ago, hear about everything we can learn from Otzi the Iceman in the Alps and Gebelein Man in Egypt, and be sure to preorder the book in your medium of choice through the link here: https://bit.ly/PWLostWorlds. Patrick launched a brand-new history show on December 3rd! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode...
Check out a scripted episode of Patrick's new show, Past Lives ! 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. Subscribe to Past Lives on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or the podcast platform of your choice. Become ...
We've talked about how rich classical Athens was, but what did that mean for an average person living at the time? In this episode, we follow the life of a composite character, an Athenian citizen farmer named Megakles, to see how the economic developments of the classical age shaped daily life in Athens. Patrick launched a brand-new history show on December 3rd! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now: https://bit.ly/PWPL...
Like many of you, I first fell in love with history through the movies. Dr. Jason Herbert hosted a podcast called Historians at the Movies , now retitled Reckoning with Jason Herbert , that focuses on films depicting the past and what historians think about them. We have a delightful conversation about some of our favorite history movies, what makes them good or bad, and what we can learn from them. Patrick is launching a brand-new history show on December 3rd! It’s called Past Lives, and every ...
Patrick has a new history podcast, Past Lives ! It's all about the experiences of real, everyday people throughout the human past, people just like you. Listen to the first full episode, "On Historical Storytelling," right here, and then go subscribe to the Past Lives feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast platform of choice. Past Lives is an independent production supported through Patreon, where you can subscribe for $7 a month and receive tons of great bonus content: interviews with...
Ancient Greece was rich compared to other ancient societies, and Athens was the richest place of all within ancient Greece. But why? The answer lies not just in the silver lodes of Attica or access to the sea; it was about democracy, law, and institutions, which made people feel safe doing business in Athens. Patrick is launching a brand-new history show on December 3rd! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Be sure to subscribe to th...
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 (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/past-lives/id1852618120) so you get our first three episodes delivered straight to you on the same day for our series premiere drop. Become a member now ...
The Hundred Years War was the defining conflict of the Middle Ages, but today's guest - Professor Michael Livingston of the Citadel - argues that it actually lasted for 200 years. That's just one problem with the way we've learned about the Hundred Years War, and Livingston's new book, entitled Bloody Crowns: A New History of the Hundred Years War, is a fantastic corrective. Patrick is launching a brand-new history show on December 3rd! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life...
