folks, we got a bit of a split episode today. we start with talking about the state of the world in the cold open before moving to a discussion about periodization and efforts to move away from western conceptions and why it's really hard to make broad, accurate periods sometimes. then, we turn to the world of modern Christianity and talk about all the baffling and insane things people are cooking up these days, why we're not so different from our predecessors, and then, why we are somewhat diff...
Aug 15, 2025•1 hr 33 min•Ep. 233
folks, in our neverending struggle to defeat the overflowing mailbag of patron questions, we've started doing one mail episode a month and here we are for August. this time we answer questions about which Simpson family member corresponds to the Medieval humors, the tradition of smoking and curing meats, Medieval automatons, everyone's favorite biblical glup shitto Simon Magus, and what Medieval event we'd go back in time to watch! check it out!
Aug 06, 2025•45 min•Ep. 232
NSFW, just saying. folks, some people might try to tell you that humans only started engaging in BDSM in the 1960s, like it's a very recent invention. but, we're here to tell you that's wrong as people have been engaging in such practices since before the advent of writing! so we go deep on the subject, talking about some ancient BDSM practices before talking about how it was done in the Middle Ages. we talk about Abelard and Heloise, Guibert of Nogent, Saints Sebastian and Martha, and more!...
Jul 30, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 231
the Book Club series is back and we're here to introduce you to the Italian peninsula in 1348 or, as they might have called it: the end of the fucking world. the Black Death hit the densely-populated boot like a nuke, killing millions in just a few months. why are we talking about something so depressing and that we've already covered extensively? well, frankly, that's the backdrop of The Decameron and how Boccaccio introduces it. the plague sets the stage for the widespread breakdown of social ...
Jul 23, 2025•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 230
folks, we kinda got carried away talking about current events and, whoops, wouldn't you know it, we just decided to do a whole current events episode. we will dive back into the Middle Ages next time but this week we're more concerned with the contemporary politics of the failed states of America and England as the two old friends compete to see who can fuck up and kill the golden goose the fastest. while things are bleak, they are also darkly and undeniably funny, so there's that!
Jul 16, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 229
folks, our 2025 quest to visit places in the Medieval world we haven't tackle yet takes us to Bohemia. now, before you pillory me because we've spent so much time there already, we're going back to the old Bohemia, the Bohemia before it was famous as a center of religious heterodoxy and throwing guys out windows. the Bohemia back before it became a kingdom and got Daddy's Specialist Boy status from the Holy Roman Empire. that's right, we're talk Bohemia from the start of the Middle Ages to the e...
Jul 10, 2025•1 hr 26 min•Ep. 228
folks, we're back with more patron questions, this time for the month of July. we talk everything from which weapon we'd want in a Medieval battle, Hanseatic League piracy, Medieval Futurism, the connections between Lollards and Hussites, throat singing, and more!
Jul 02, 2025•57 min•Ep. 227
folks, we're back in our ongoing quest to catch up on Patron questions and so we've got 10 more to discuss for the month of June. we talk about what Medieval people smelled like, bi kings, Medieval footwear, gambling, animal welfare, and the King Asleep in the Mountain trope! it's so much fun, check it out!
Jun 25, 2025•1 hr 7 min•Ep. 226
folks, what you'll hear today are two episodes from a brand new, limited edition podcast series that we did with Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison from American Prestige called Welcome to the Crusades: The First Crusade. it's a ten-episode deep dive into the famous and infamous First Crusade, undertaken by Catholic Europe at the instigation of the Byzantines in 1095 to retake Anatolia and Jerusalem. given it is one of the most fascinating and important events in human history, we thought it would...
Jun 17, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 225
folks, what you'll hear today are two episodes from a brand new, limited edition podcast series that we did with Daniel Bessner and Derek Davison from American Prestige called Welcome to the Crusades: The First Crusade. it's a ten-episode deep dive into the famous and infamous First Crusade, undertaken by Catholic Europe at the instigation of the Byzantines in 1095 to retake Anatolia and Jerusalem. given it is one of the most fascinating and important events in human history, we thought it would...
Jun 17, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 224
folks, we tried to stay out of the game but they keep pulling us back in. we don't want to do episodes where we solely focus on misconceptions about the Middle Ages but the new crop of Christian Nationalists and reactionaries make it unavoidable. there's little they love more than coming up with bullshit narratives about the Middle Ages and, specifically, Medieval Europe. so we take a look at 6 of the these new misconceptions, which are actually just ones that have been around forever but are be...
Jun 11, 2025•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 223
folks, we're gathered here today to pay respects to Al-Andalus. All good things must come to an end and this is no different. so we trace how it all came apart for Muslim Iberia as the disunified, quarreling Christian states of Iberia began working together and the Christian reconquest effort became a reality. but there's also some rays of sunshine here as we get to talk about the staying power of the Emirate of Granada, Alhambra, the lasting legacy of Al-Andalus, and much more.
Jun 06, 2025•1 hr 16 min•Ep. 222
folks, we're back with part 3 of our series on Al-Andalus, aka Muslim Iberia from 711-1492. this time, we trace the history of Al-Andalus up through the rise of the Almoravid dynasty in the late 11th century and how the Christian response coalesced almost from nothing in 1063 with the Siege of Barbastro thanks to a little help from the Pope. we talk about how this is different from the standard Christian Nationalist Reconquista narrative and then a bit about El Cid. then, finally, we talk about ...
May 28, 2025•1 hr 21 min•Ep. 221
folks, we are back with our series on Al-Andalus, aka Muslim-controlled Medieval Iberia, and it's time to talk about one of the most famous incidents in its 700-year history: the Battle of Tours. though it was a large battle for the time and contemporary accounts give us a decent picture, Tours and Christian leader Charles Martel have been the benefactors of over a millennia of propaganda, painting it as the first salvo in the big, "civilizational conflict" between Christianity and Islam. we dis...
May 21, 2025•1 hr 19 min•Ep. 220
folks, today we embark on a new series about a place in the Medieval world we haven't covered much yet, Al-Andalus, aka the Muslim rule over the Iberian Peninsula. Al-Andalus is incredibly important to the formation of European states and the growth and power of the Catholic Church as well as a vital center for Islamic martial, political, and cultural influence for more than 700 years. so, we needed to cover it and now we are. we start with the background on the Iberian Peninsula following the f...
May 15, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 219
folks, we're back with a new mailbag episode as we continue to catch up on the backlog of patron questions. why are we doing it right after the last Q&A? well, frankly, Luke had to travel and didn't have time to write and research a full new episode, so here we are. we answer questions about Medieval joke foods, Qin Shi Huang's mercury-laden tomb, pigeons, Medieval publication timing, the overlapping mystical traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and more!
May 08, 2025•1 hr 13 min•Ep. 218
folks, as you might know, there's a papal conclave coming up, what with the passing of Pope Francis and all that, so we decided to talk about the Medieval conclaves. now, technically, conclaves didn't begin until 1059 CE but we're not letting that stop us, we're going all the way back to The Rock himself, Peter, and talking about papal succession through the ages. mostly because, if you only start in 1059, you miss a lot of fun stuff like a barbarian king imposing a law on the Church to tell the...
Apr 30, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 217
folks, we're back with more patron questions to answer. we are still catching up, so we dive in and discuss Medieval reclamation of pagan myths, land management practices, political pragmatism, funerary customs, regional political differences, weird English town names, and whether the Catholic Church could've successfully reformed itself enough to stave off the Reformation. check it out! English town names mentioned: Wolfardisworthy Goonhilly Westward Ho! Polzeath Tredinnick Alnwick Leominster F...
Apr 23, 2025•1 hr 10 min•Ep. 216
folks, we have once again stumbled upon some hilariously-insane social media posts and have decided to relate them back to the Middle Ages. the main gist is this: a twitter user posted about how the Catholic Virgin Mary was an unaging smokeshow and objectively the most beautiful woman to ever live as compared to that ugly hag Protestant Virgin Mary, who is apparently a totally separate individual. She then decided to do some clarifications and here we are. since this view is quite similar to tha...
Apr 16, 2025•58 min•Ep. 215
folks, we're back with another installment of our occasional Medieval women series where we look back at two influential women from the Middle Ages. today, we look at two who couldn't be more different in most respects: the Byzantine princess and historian, Anna Komnene, and the English anchoress, mystic, and visionary, Julian of Norwich. we talk about what made each of them influential and how they made their marks in male-dominated fields of history, politics, and religion. check it out!
Apr 11, 2025•1 hr 11 min•Ep. 214
folks, we're back and it's time to talk about polling! specifically, a recent YouGov poll that asked Americans for their opinions on the European Middle Ages. and before you think the worst, the responses were quite heartening! the Dark Ages myth is now below 50% and seems to be far more popular with older generations and more Americans think about the Middle Ages on a weekly basis than they do about the Roman Empire. there's a lot more, which you can check out at the link below. but we good new...
Apr 02, 2025•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 211
folks, it's time for us to catch up on some more patron questions with another mailbag! we cover a whole host of topics including our favorite mad king and scheming vizier combos, fascist representations of the Middle Ages, whether city life or country life was preferable, Medieval snow shoveling, manly crying, and much more! Enjoy and subscribe to the patreon to have your questions answered: patreon.com/wnsdpod
Mar 26, 2025•1 hr 9 min•Ep. 212
folks, we are behind on our patron questions and so we're making it up starting today. we answer questions on everything from Medieval children's toys, pregnancy tropes, what the HRE would've looked like with sustained hegemony over Italy, the least worst rulers, and more!
Mar 21, 2025•1 hr 14 min•Ep. 211
folks, we love the weird side of Medieval life and one of the weirdest was the mystery play. these were living tableaux depictions of biblical stories that became huge, elaborate stage productions, which were performed during mass before the popes got mad and forbade the clergy from participating, at which point they became secularized by the guilds. but even better, we have guests to share in this weird Medieval fun with us as we welcome Josh, Brian, and AJ from The Worst of All Possible Worlds...
Mar 15, 2025•1 hr 15 min
folks, we've made it 209 episodes into the show and we still haven't done one on the end of the Middle Ages, well that stops now. we conclude out series on Constantinople with The Fall. and this one really lives up to the name, unlike the Western Roman Empire. we say goodbye to Constantinople, the Eastern Roman Empire, the Theodosian Walls, and all the rest as the Ottomans wash it away in a tide of gunpowder, olive oil, and so many soldiers. enjoy the spectacle as we talk the Fall of Constantino...
Mar 05, 2025•1 hr 23 min•Ep. 209
folks, we continue the series on Constantinople with the real decline hours. last week, we started looking at the long, slow decline of the Queen of Cities and the Byzantine Empire but that pales in comparison to the final 400 years. after the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, it's all downhill as the Byzantines step on rakes, shoot themselves in the foot, and are the victims of just plain bad luck and historical circumstance. from Manzikert to the Fourth Crusade to the Black Death to the final, blea...
Feb 26, 2025•1 hr 8 min•Ep. 208
folks, we're back after a brief hiatus, and back into our series on Constantinople. this time, we take a look at the beginning of the decline of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire, which started in 567 after Justinian I's death. but, as civilizational declines go, it wasn't so bad for the first 500 years or so. however, the myriad factors that would lead to the fall of Constantinople were beginning to pile up even before Justinian's reign and they would only get worse as things went along. ...
Feb 20, 2025•1 hr 17 min•Ep. 207
we decided to take a look at some Holy Roman Empire and Habsburg news that has come up in the past month. first, and more seriously, we look at a study of how Holy Roman Emperors governed from the road through a practice known as itinerant rule and it can be used to trace the rise and decline of the power of the imperial office. then, we move onto the real fun: an article about the recent Habsburg convention in Plano, Texas that occurred in April 2024. and folks, if the first part seems a little...
Feb 14, 2025•1 hr 15 min•Ep. 206
folks, we're continuing our series on Constantinople. last time we introduced the city via its geography, Constantine making it the capital of the Roman Empire, and the Theodosian Walls. this time, we get into the early Medieval history of the city, which also happens to be the real golden age for Constantinople. beginning under Emperor Justinian I, Constantinople took the mantle of "Rome" seriously and began a long revanchist campaign to take back parts of the former Western Roman Empire, turne...
Feb 05, 2025•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 205
folks, we were delayed one week due to the storm of the century in the American southeast but things have thawed a bit and we're back on track just in time to start a series on the Queen of Cities, Constantinople. Eventually, it would become the crown jewel city of Medieval Europe, a hub of culture, religion, trade, defense, and more, and, briefly, the most important city in the world before falling to the Ottomans and gunpowder. But that's a story for later in the series, for now we must introd...
Jan 29, 2025•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 204
