Geography in Game of Thrones with Elly Truitt

February 16, 2017 Adam Leave a comment

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I have finally done the thing – I’ve had a couple of people ask me about doing something on medievalism (Fantasy…Lord of the Rings…you know, your basic medieval themed pop culture production.) And in this case, we’re talking about Game of Thrones (yes, that’s Tyrion Lanniser eating Lamprey Pie over there). There are lots of blogs and podcasts dedicated to this sort of thing, so I’ve always hesitated, but I finally struck on a topic that didn’t seem well represented out there in the interwebs and I found a great accomplice to talk with me and make sure I (an admittedly weak fan of the show) didn’t make any really glaring mistakes. Continue reading Geography in Game of Thrones with Elly Truitt →

Soup and Sandwiches

Brexit and Nationalism

November 8, 2016 Adam Leave a comment

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So as I say in the first two minutes of the podcast – I somehow
recorded and even edited this podcast back in June when England voted to leave the European Union and then I failed to post it. (And then I go on to say that I want to get through editing and posting fasted. Ha!) But anyway, the night of election 2016 here in the US seems like a plenty opportune time to post the same ideas since Trump’s campaign has often been compared to Brexit itself. Although as I write this it is not really yet clear if the surprise Brexit victory will repeat itself. Continue reading Brexit and Nationalism →

Full Dinner

The Hedgehog and the Fox with Clare Gillis

October 12, 2016 Adam Leave a comment

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This month (bi-month? Something like that – I wish these happened
a little more frequently) I’m again talking with my friend, medievalist and journalist Clare Gillis. In part in response to the topic popping up in the news from time to time, I figured we should have a conversation about Isaiah Berlin’s essay on Leo Tolstoy’s War and Peace titled The Hedgehog and the Fox. Continue reading The Hedgehog and the Fox with Clare Gillis →

Soup and Sandwiches

A Visit to an Archive

March 13, 2016 Adam Leave a comment

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This month (bi-month? I’ve not been the most regular about getting something out even every other month!) I talk about one of my visits to the Cathedral archive in Spain. Archives form the core of most (though not all) historical work. Every major city or town has some form of archive with the documents and records produced in that place and for Europe, that means documents about the place often going back centuries.

Continue reading A Visit to an Archive →

Full Dinner

Islam, Pirenne, and Historiography with Clare Gillis

January 1, 2016 Adam Leave a comment

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Welcome to 2016!

I’ve been a bit delinquent with podcasts for a couple of months, but here, finally, is a new one. This one was inspired a few months back by the youtube comment stream (crazy but true!) on a John Oliver Last Week Tonight clip: the “How is this still a thing?” on Columbus Day. Don’t ask how I ended up reading that far into the comment stream…in general I’m a fan of John Oliver, but not an avid reader of youtube comments. Continue reading Islam, Pirenne, and Historiography with Clare Gillis →

Full Dinner

History Cafe visits the Met with Lauren Mancia – Archeological Reconstruction

August 11, 2015 Adam Leave a comment

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Here is the last installment of the History Cafe visits the Metropolitan museum in New York. If you didn’t hear the first two, they are all separate topics. The first two cover the twelfth century, and late-medieval mysticism. This time, we’re talking about archeological reconstructions. Most of the archeological sites and many of the ruins we look at are in part repaired or reconstructed and it isn’t always obvious how. Continue reading History Cafe visits the Met with Lauren Mancia — Archeological Reconstruction →

Soup and Sandwiches

Medieval Bells in Valencia Spain

June 3, 2015 Adam Leave a comment

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This month I have another “live” cast recorded in the city of Valencia. Over the course of the podcast, I walk up the main bell tower of the Cathedral of Valencia to listen to the huge bell at the top, nicknamed the “micalet,” strike noon. Along the way, with a few other bells woven in for good measure, I talk about how large cast bells first came to be used in late Medieval Europe and what they symbolized for the Christians who rang them. Continue reading Medieval Bells in Valencia Spain →

Full Dinner

Anti-Jewish Riots in Valencia, Spain, 1391 with Abigail Agresta

March 23, 2015 Adam Leave a comment

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As a follow-up to last month’s shot about violence, this month I have an interview with Abigail Agresta talking about a series of anti-Jewish riots that hit numerous cities in Spain in 1391, starting with Seville and spreading across most of Spain. We focused mostly on the interpretations of one of the worst riots in the city of Valencia. On the way, we talk quite a bit about how scholars think about anti-Jewish violence in the medieval period, what relationship that violence has to modern anti-semitism, and the changing character of Christianity’s relationship to Judaism. Continue reading Anti-Jewish Riots in Valencia, Spain, 1391 with Abigail Agresta →

Coffee and Pastries

History Cafe Shot – What do we mean by Violence in history?

February 9, 2015 Adam 2 Comments

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This month on the History Cafe, we’re trying something new. This is a relatively short podcast (10 minutes) that asks a question with a handful of examples. It is in no way exhaustive, but hopefully sparks a fair amount of thought. It is also an example (to me, anyway) of how history often plays out in its roll as an explainer of the world today. The podcast is about historical violence – I ask the question: how do we argue that a certain ideology, religion, or group is violent?
Continue reading History Cafe Shot — What do we mean by Violence in history? →

Full Dinner

History Cafe visits the Met with Lauren Mancia – Medieval Mysticism

January 8, 2015 Adam 1 Comment

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This is part two of our History Cafe Visits the Met series and Lauren Mancia is back to talk about how objects and images interacted with Medieval ideas of mystical experience. This is the podcast where we talk about the little bed (see the image below). We were down in the main museum, not in the cloisters, and we looked at a seemingly random set of images connected by their very close connection to the spiritual practices of mysticism.

Continue reading History Cafe visits the Met with Lauren Mancia — Medieval Mysticism →