Historian and veteran Middle East journalist Michael Rank looks into the most exciting events and personalities of history in this podcast and explains them in five-minute episodes so that you can absorb the facts in the fastest way possible. Learn about the lives of Genghis Khan, Vlad Dracul, and Richard the Lionheart, and such events as the Crusades and the Black Death in these highly entertaining and informative episodes. Michael has sold thousands of books with his unique take on the past with such best-selling titles as "History's Most Insane Rulers: Lunatics, Eccentrics, and Megalomaniacs From Emperor Caligula to Kim Jon Il," and he brings the same energy to this podcast. He focuses on world history, Roman history, military history, the history of the United States, the most famous rulers in history, biographies, biography of famous people, the most famous people in history, the most powerful rulers, medieval history, violent history, world history, United States history, and how to put all these pieces together. This is a great podcast if you know nothing about a topic and need a good launching point into a deeper study.
http://www.michaelrank.net
Gesamtlänge aller Episoden: 21 hours 44 minutes
HFM 129 | The Step-by-Step Guide to Building a 13th-Century French Castle
In a remote forest clearing in Burgundy, France, a 13th-century castle is slowly being constructed using only the tools, techniques, and materials that would have been available to the builders of the day. It’s archaeology in reverse.
HFM 128 | Europeans in the Far East Before Marco Polo
Marco Polo is the most famous European explorer to the Far East, but he definitely wasn’t the first. His father and uncle came there years before. And they found a small colony of Europeans who lived permanently in China.
HFM 127 | Damascus Steel: The Medieval Blade That We Still Can’t Top Today
Damascus swords, which were generally made in the Middle East anywhere from 540 A.D. to 1800 A.D., were sharper, more flexible and harder/stronger than other contemporary blades. According to legend, the blades can cut a piece of silk in half as it fal...
HFM 126 | Useful Skills That People Had in the Middle Ages That We Don’t Today, Part 2: Making Things With Your Hands
Can you sew your own clothing? That one is easy. What about making your own shoes, butchering an animal, removing its skin, tanning the leather, then rending the fat to make candles? If you can answer ‘yes’ to all those things,
HFM 125 | Useful Skills That People Had in the Middle Ages That We Don’t Today, Part 1: Ars Memoriae – The Art of Memory
Think you have a good memory? The average peasant of 1,000 years ago had 10x more memorized than you ever will. Learn more about people trained in the ars memoriae, who were living databases of information. Like this podcast?
HFM 124 | The Origin of “The Finger”: Why Do We Call it The Bird?
We’ve all done it in moments of anger. But why do we use our middle finger to express anger? And why do we call it “the bird.” Suggestions range from The Battle of Agincourt in 1415 to Ancient Rome. We find out the history everyone’s favorite one-finge...
HFM 123 | The Most Productive People in History, Part 6: Elon Musk
Elon Musk is the inspiration for Tony Stark. The 43-year-old native South African is also CEO of SpaceX, the first private rocket company able to send payloads to the International Space Station. On top of that he is the CEO and chief product architect...
HFM 122 | The Most Productive People in History, Part 5: Thomas Aquinas
Thomas Aquinas is arguably the greatest theologian in Catholic Church. During his lifetime he wrote over 60 tomes of philosophy and theology, most the size of a scholar’s magnum opus. The total word count of his extant writings exceeds 6 million words,...
HFM 121 | The Most Productive People in History, Part 4: Theodore Roosevelt
Theodore Roosevelt won the presidency twice, was the first American to earn a belt in judo, hunted, wrote numerous books, and read four hours a day even during the busiest moments of his political life. For good measure he also won a Nobel Peace Priz...
HFM 120 | The Most Productive People in History, Part 3: Leonardo da Vinci
Few Renaissance figures have as many legends swirling around their life as Leonardo da Vinci. The myths persist because of the unconventional nature of his life. Leonardo was a painter, architect, sculptor, mathematician, engineer, musician, inventor,