Episodes

  • Counterfactuals: Samoan Crisis of 1889

    Counterfactuals: Samoan Crisis of 1889
    Feb 10 2026
    On today’s episode, we talk about the beautiful islands of Samoa, which were the background to a clash between the relatively nascent empires of the United States and Germany in the 1880s. As the crisis came to a head, however, nature put a dramatic end to human ambition. But what if it had gone differently?
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    56 mins
  • Counterfactuals: Wine Extinction

    Counterfactuals: Wine Extinction
    Jan 27 2026
    On today's episode, we discuss the Blight that nearly wiped out wine, and how wine and indeed the world might be different if it had unfolded differently.
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    1 hr
  • Counterfactuals: The Sensational 1876 Election

    Counterfactuals: The Sensational 1876 Election
    Jan 13 2026
    On today’s episode we talk about one of the most fraught elections in American history, where violence, initmidation and outright fraud precipitated a constitutional crisis - the 1876 election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden.
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Counterfactuals: The Mutiny That Almost Lost the Revolution

    Counterfactuals: The Mutiny That Almost Lost the Revolution
    Dec 30 2025
    On today’s episode, we talk about the mutiny of the Pennsylvania Line on New Years Day, 1781, and how it might have altered the trajectory of the American Revolution, and everything after.
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    1 hr and 5 mins
  • Counterfactuals: The Battle of the Bulge at Elsenborn Ridge

    Counterfactuals: The Battle of the Bulge at Elsenborn Ridge
    Dec 16 2025
    On today's episode, we talk about a forgotten part of the Battle of the Bulge - Elsenborn Ridge, where outnumbered allied units held against veteran German divisions, and what the chances were that the Reich could have turned the tide in 1944.
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    1 hr and 7 mins
  • Counterfactuals: The Last Invasion of Britain

    Counterfactuals: The Last Invasion of Britain
    Dec 2 2025
    On today’s episode we talk about what is often called the last invasion of mainland Britain - a disastrous and almost farcical series of blunders that ended in abject disaster. But what if it didn’t?
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Counterfactuals: What if the Chicken Didn't Cross the Road?

    Counterfactuals: What if the Chicken Didn't Cross the Road?
    Nov 18 2025
    Today we talk about the most numerous bird on the planet - the chicken - and how the world might be different if we never domesticated it.
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • Counterfactuals: USS Boston and the New Navy

    Counterfactuals: USS Boston and the New Navy
    Oct 21 2025
    On today’s episode, we talk about some of the first steel-hulled ships the United States ever built, and how those first few ships might have set the tone for the entire 20th century.
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    1 hr and 4 mins