December Mailbag

folks, it's time to talk about some fun, important, and symbolic dates from the Middle Ages. we discuss what days of the year they found significant, their attempts at numerology, the fact that the Anno Domini calendar system is off by a few years, and then talk about some of our favorite Medieval dates and what they mean. enjoy and happy holidays!

folks, we're back with another installment of our patron mailbag episodes. we get a lot of great questions from our patrons and so dive in every month to do some catching up. this time, we talk Medieval parades, 9/11 conspiracies, Medieval views on animal and plant extinction, an alternate history, and what TV shows would Medieval people like. enjoy and have a happy holiday!

folks, it's episode 250 and since we love our big, round numbers, we take the time to celebrate. we look back at the show, talk our favorite segments, series, bits, and more. thanks so much for listening to 250 episodes, we're excited to do 250 more in the future!

folks, today we talk about a couple of real big Medieval blunders. Incredibly stupid, shortsighted, and ill-fated decisions that resulted in outsized disasters that changed the course of history. first, Eleanor discusses the White Ship Disaster, which finally answers the age-old question: is it smart to be the heir to the throne, get stinking drunk, have the crew get stinking drunk and then race boats across the English Channel at night? turns out, it's not smart at all and this decision would lead to the English Anarchy. then, Luke looks at one of the biggest blunders in history: the decision by Khwarazamshah Mohammad of the Khwarazmian Empire to execute traders and ambassadors from Genghis Khan and go to war with the Mongol Empire. what are a bunch of steppe archers going to do, adopt siege weapons and become the most powerful fighting force the planet has ever seen? yeah, right! enjoy!

folks, Luke just returned from a vacation to Disney and is here to give us a firsthand update on how the normies are doing and whether they're ready for the return of woke or not. then we catch up on some news of the past week or so, focusing on the continuing decline of the Labour govt in England, the new Epstein files info, the total breakdown of the American Empire, what's going on with the AI economy, and much more. enjoy!

folks, this week we review 28 Years Later, Danny Boyle's 2025 film about the horrors of being British and, a sneaky Medievalist tale, although with a twist. we go in-depth about the Medieval aspects of the small community on Lindisfarne and why the film turns this bucolic nostalgia on its head. but there's more, including talk of zombie members, life finding a way, memento mori, and the horrific introduction of the Jimmy gang. we had a lot of fun with this one and it's a truly thought-provoking film, enjoy!

folks, we're back with another mailbag answering questions dutifully submitted by our amazing patrons. we do these every month to catch up on things and we're back to hit a broad range of topics including: ninjas, siege weapons, Leon Trotsky(?), dancing plagues, papal gifts, and the Peace of God. enjoy!

folks, it's time to talk about music. friend of the show, Dr Eleanor Chan, recently released a new book entitled Duet: An Artful History of Music. so we had her on the show to talk about the universal appeal of music, cave music, Hildegard of Bingen, bagpipes, and much more. enjoy and check out Dr. Chan's work at https://eleanorchan.com/

folks, it's spooky season again and we take a look at the revenant, a lesser-known monster today but one that positively terrified Medieval people. we take a look at a number of stories spanning across all of Northern Europe about dead bodies rising from the grave and causing mischief and horror in the physical world. they were so worried about this that they even did so-called deviant burials, where bodies were covered in heavy stones or with bricks shoved in the mouth, to prevent them from coming back as revenant dead. we talk all about these guys, why the stories were so prevalent, how it connects to stories of vampires and zombies, archaeological evidence of deviant burials, and more.

folks, we're back after convalescing for a week and it's time to get rage-baited into reviewing a Dan Brown book. the latest entry in Brown's ongoing series about Robert Langdon is called The Secret of Secrets and it's set in Prague, so it's tailor-made to really annoy Dr. Eleanor. we review Brown's most recent bad Umberto Eco ripoff, talk about the Dan Brown mania of early-2000s America, bad history, and much more. enjoy!