Episodes

  • Episode 26: The myth and reality of medieval Crusader States

    Episode 26: The myth and reality of medieval Crusader States
    Aug 6 2026
    In the aftermath of the First Crusade, four Christian kingdoms were established in the near east. In this episode we explore the history of the Crusader States, and the many myths that surround them. Edessa, Antioch, Tripoli and Jerusalem. Four Christian kingdoms were all established after 1098. The popular image of these kingdoms is as fortified outposts, ruling over poor and often barren lands. Lands where they were treated as an occupying force. Yet the reality of the Crusader States is far more complex. The states were often in political conflict with themselves or newcomers from the west, as much as their perceived enemies. They had a love-hate relationship with the Byzantines to their north, the Muslim rulers on their borders and eventually both the Mamluks and Mongols. They were also vibrant, rich and often multicultural kingdoms thanks to the nature of the trade routes and geography over which they sat. Kingdoms that were not guaranteed to fail. Indeed the Kingdom of Jerusalem would survive, in some form, for almost 200 years. Guest Dr Nic Morton is an associate professor at Nottingham Trent university, he specialises in medieval middle eastern history and is the author of Mongol Storm which looks at the Mongol invasions of the middle east from multiple perspectives, and most recently Crusader Storm, which takes the same approach but for the 12th century. Cats present Cecilia Useful links Nic on Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:53uj5t35g6salgtelolzsrmq Nick at the University of Nottingham Trent: https://www.ntu.ac.uk/staff-profiles/arts-humanities/nicholas-morton The Crusader Storm: https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/the-crusader-storm-a-global-history-of-the-wars-for-the-middle-east-nicholas-morton/c0bd72f03740cfae?ean=9781399818728&bkshp-astro=t Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Host: Gareth Edwards More about Gareth Edwards: https://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-history#host To comment and ask questions, please join our community: https://untitled-history.com/supporters Use our code: Rabbit and get one month free as a Captain, or join as a free member. Support via Paypal: http://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-paypal Merchandise and Shop: https://untitled-history.com/collections/all Our WW1 Podcast: @NSQPod Our WW2 Podcast: @BSOWPod Battle Guide YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BattleGuideVT If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what the team at Battle Guide have been getting up to, why not sign up to our monthly newsletter: https://battleguide.co.uk/newsletter Gareth socials BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/garius.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.me.uk/@garius Battle Guide Twitter: https://x.com/BattleguideVT General Enquiries: untitled@battleguide.co.uk Credits: - Host: Gareth Edwards - Editing: Hunter Christensen - Production: Linus Klaßen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    54 mins
  • Episode 25: 18th Century letter writing and the hidden history of women

    Episode 25: 18th Century letter writing and the hidden history of women
    Jul 30 2026
    In 1740, Samuel Richardson published Pamela, a novel purporting to be the letters of a young woman. In 1748, he followed this up with Clarissa, written on the same principle.Richardson’s subjects were fake. But the activity he showed them engaging in was very real. The creation of reliable and regular postal services after the English Civil War led to an explosion in letter writing, especially for women. Through letters they could build and maintain relationships, share opinions on society or politics and reflect on life. Just as we do through messaging platforms or social media today. Indeed the intimacy and information contained within those letters could even provoke questions on how those letters should be handled after death.Collections of those letters which do survive provide historians with a remarkable insight into the lives of people - and particularly women - within this period.GuestDr Natasha Simonova is a writer and academic specialising in English literature in the long 18th century. She is currently working on a book called The Grey Ladies: The Secret Lives of 18th-Century Women.Cats presentCecilia, Penny (Guest kitty)Useful linksNatasha’s website: https://natashasimonova.comPublishing 18th Century Women’s Manuscript letters (conference talk): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BM0rCa4JUo&t=15895sPamela by Samuel Richardson: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/6124 Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Host: Gareth Edwards More about Gareth Edwards: https://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-history#host To comment and ask questions, please join our community: https://untitled-history.com/supporters Use our code: Rabbit and get one month free as a Captain, or join as a free member. Support via Paypal: http://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-paypal Merchandise and Shop: https://untitled-history.com/collections/all Our WW1 Podcast: @NSQPod Our WW2 Podcast: @BSOWPod Battle Guide YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BattleGuideVT If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what the team at Battle Guide have been getting up to, why not sign up to our monthly newsletter: https://battleguide.co.uk/newsletter Gareth socials BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/garius.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.me.uk/@garius Battle Guide Twitter: https://x.com/BattleguideVT General Enquiries: untitled@battleguide.co.uk Credits: - Host: Gareth Edwards - Editing: Hunter Christensen - Production: Linus Klaßen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    50 mins
  • Episode 24: How Games Workshop changed the world with Jordan Sorcery

    Episode 24: How Games Workshop changed the world with Jordan Sorcery
    Jul 23 2026
    In 1975, three young men sat in a grotty flat in West London decided to launch a games company. Over the next few years, they would find themselves at the centre of the growing revolution in roleplay, and then miniature gaming. Today, we’re going to talk about the history of Games Workshop and the universe it launched: Warhammer Today, Games Workshop, with its line of Warhammer games, books and more stands as one of the most successful British companies in history. So successful has it been that as of December 2024 it is a member of the FTSE 100. But behind the global business is a story of a company that played a critical role in the explosion of gaming in the UK and beyond. One whose artists, designers and writers have influenced almost every aspect of how we view fantasy and science fiction today. All launched from a small flat in Shepherd’s Bush. Guest Jordan Sorcery is a Warhammer Historian who has studied the history of Games Workshop and its various products extensively. This includes work as a documentarian and interviewer of over 100 former GW figures and employees. Cats present Cecilia, Martha (Guest kitty) Useful links Jordan Sorcery - https://www.youtube.com/@jordansorcery Designers & Dragons - https://www.designers-and-dragons.com Fighting Fantasy - https://www.fightingfantasy.com Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Host: Gareth Edwards More about Gareth Edwards: https://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-history#host To comment and ask questions, please join our community: https://untitled-history.com/supporters Use our code: Rabbit and get one month free as a Captain, or join as a free member. Support via Paypal: http://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-paypal Merchandise and Shop: https://untitled-history.com/collections/all Our WW1 Podcast: @NSQPod Our WW2 Podcast: @BSOWPod Battle Guide YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BattleGuideVT If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what the team at Battle Guide have been getting up to, why not sign up to our monthly newsletter: https://battleguide.co.uk/newsletter Gareth socials BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/garius.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.me.uk/@garius Battle Guide Twitter: https://x.com/BattleguideVT General Enquiries: untitled@battleguide.co.uk Credits: - Host: Gareth Edwards - Editing: Hunter Christensen - Production: Linus Klaßen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 1 min
  • Episode 23: Robin Hood: The Truth Behind the Myth

    Episode 23: Robin Hood: The Truth Behind the Myth
    Jul 16 2026
    Lythe and listin Gentilmen, That be of freebore blode I shall tell you of a gode Yeman His name was Robyn Hode These are the opening words to The Gest of Robin Hood, first published by Wynkin de Worde in written form in 1506. They represent the first literary mention of a man who was almost certainly never real, but who has existed in the British consciousness since the middle ages. In this episode, we’re going to explore the medieval origins of Robin Hood, and how he has always reflected the society and time in which his story is being told. Guest Madeline is an architectural and cultural historian. She works on medieval Britain, and how medieval beliefs shaped the built world that we have inherited. Cats present None Useful links Madeline’s website: https://madelineodent.com Madeline on BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/oldenoughtosay.com The Gest of Robin Hood: https://metseditions.org/read/976AKyAFRDDQFWvztV5Meuxbpld4M6V The Downfall of the Earl of Huntingdon: https://archive.org/details/downfallofrobert00munduoft/page/n5/mode/2up Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Host: Gareth Edwards More about Gareth Edwards: https://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-history#host To comment and ask questions, please join our community: https://untitled-history.com/supporters Use our code: Rabbit and get one month free as a Captain, or join as a free member. Support via Paypal: http://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-paypal Merchandise and Shop: https://untitled-history.com/collections/all Our WW1 Podcast: @NSQPod Our WW2 Podcast: @BSOWPod Battle Guide YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BattleGuideVT If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what the team at Battle Guide have been getting up to, why not sign up to our monthly newsletter: https://battleguide.co.uk/newsletter Gareth socials BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/garius.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.me.uk/@garius Battle Guide Twitter: https://x.com/BattleguideVT General Enquiries: untitled@battleguide.co.uk Credits: - Host: Gareth Edwards - Editing: Hunter Christensen - Production: Linus Klaßen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    49 mins
  • Episode 22: How Piracy Actually Worked

    Episode 22: How Piracy Actually Worked
    Jul 9 2026
    Ask most people to describe a pirate and their ship, and they’ll likely conjure up an image of an eye-patch-wearing man commanding a huge ship. An image that, in most cases, could not be farther from the truth. From the middle of the 17th century onwards, European nations expanded their influence and trade into the Americas and the Indian Ocean. In doing so, they created an environment in which piracy began to flourish. That period, and the men and women who operated as pirates within it, have captured the imagination of the world ever since. Yet most of the common ideas and images about how piracy worked during that period are based on myth. On this episode, we’re going to look at how some of those myths came about, and also the equally interesting - and far more nuanced - reality hidden behind them. Guest Dr Rebecca Simon is a historian of the golden age of piracy. She is the author of The Pirates' Code: Laws and Life Aboard Ship. Pirate Queens: The Lives of Anne Bonny & Mary Read. Why We Love Pirates: The Hunt for Captain Kidd and How He Changed Piracy Forever, She has appeared in documentaries such as Histories Greatest Mysteries and is a lecturer in history at California State University Nortridge. Cats present Cecilia Useful links Rebecca Simon’s books: https://rebecca-simon.com A General History of The Pyrates https://archive.org/details/generalhistoryof00defo Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Host: Gareth Edwards More about Gareth Edwards: https://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-history#host To comment and ask questions, please join our community: https://untitled-history.com/supporters Use our code: Rabbit and get one month free as a Captain, or join as a free member. Support via Paypal: http://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-paypal Merchandise and Shop: https://untitled-history.com/collections/all Our WW1 Podcast: @NSQPod Our WW2 Podcast: @BSOWPod Battle Guide YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BattleGuideVT If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what the team at Battle Guide have been getting up to, why not sign up to our monthly newsletter: https://battleguide.co.uk/newsletter Gareth socials BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/garius.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.me.uk/@garius Battle Guide Twitter: https://x.com/BattleguideVT General Enquiries: untitled@battleguide.co.uk Credits: - Host: Gareth Edwards - Editing: Hunter Christensen - Production: Linus Klaßen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    59 mins
  • Episode 21: America’s Influence on Tudor England

    Episode 21: America’s Influence on Tudor England
    Jul 2 2026
    The 16th Century saw a two way exchange of objects, ideas and people between Europe and the Americas to a far greater extent than is often understood. Much of that exchange is visible in the everyday objects and trade that took place between these two different worlds. Exchange that can get lost when we frame history through the eyes and acts of individuals of recognition, renown or infamy. Today we’re going to explore the influence of the Americas on Tudor England and beyond. Guest Lauren Working is a historian at the University of York who specialises in literary sociability, material culture, and colonialism in the age of Shakespeare. Her academic work includes The Making of an Imperial Polity: Civility and America in the Jacobean Metropolis (published by Cambridge University Press in 2020) and a new introduction to The Tempest for Oxford World’s Classics. A Golden World: How the Americas Transformed Renaissance England just came out a few weeks ago with Faber & Faber. It is her first trade book. Cats present Cecilia (tail), Napoleon Useful links A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia: https://archive.org/details/briefetruereport00harr/ The Discoverie of Guina: https://archive.org/details/discoveryofguian00rale A Golden World: How the Americas Transformed Renaissance England https://uk.bookshop.org/p/books/a-golden-world-how-the-americas-transformed-renaissance-england-lauren-working/67c60316d60d6557?ean=9780571393831&next=t Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Host: Gareth Edwards More about Gareth Edwards: https://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-history#host To comment and ask questions, please join our community: https://untitled-history.com/supporters Use our code: Rabbit and get one month free as a Captain, or join as a free member. Support via Paypal: http://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-paypal Merchandise and Shop: https://untitled-history.com/collections/all Our WW1 Podcast: @NSQPod Our WW2 Podcast: @BSOWPod Battle Guide YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BattleGuideVT If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what the team at Battle Guide have been getting up to, why not sign up to our monthly newsletter: https://battleguide.co.uk/newsletter Gareth socials BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/garius.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.me.uk/@garius Battle Guide Twitter: https://x.com/BattleguideVT General Enquiries: untitled@battleguide.co.uk Credits: - Host: Gareth Edwards - Editing: Hunter Christensen - Production: Linus Klaßen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    52 mins
  • Episode 20: When Radium Was Put in Everything

    Episode 20: When Radium Was Put in Everything
    Jun 25 2026
    The discovery of Radium in 1898 opened up new frontiers of science and medicine. But the sheer difference between the behaviour of radium and every element that had been discovered before, led to wild claims about its properties. These claims, and the mystery surrounding the new element, led to a period sometimes known as the ‘Radium Craze’. For decades, this potentially dangerous element would be used for medical experimentation and in consumer products, with news of its effects - real and exaggerated - making headlines around the world. Guest: Lucy Jane Santos is a historian whose work ranges across beauty, science, technology, popular entertainment and nightlife, uncovering fresh angles and new insights into the moments that have shaped the modern world. Cats present: Napoleon, Cecilia Useful links: https://lucyjanesantos.com https://lucyjanesantos.com/half-lives/ https://daily.jstor.org/the-serpentine-career-of-loie-fuller/ https://fuel-design.com/publishing/soviet-sanatoriums/ https://www.theradiumgirls.com/the-girls Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Host: Gareth Edwards More about Gareth Edwards: https://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-history#host To comment and ask questions, please join our community: https://untitled-history.com/supporters Use our code: Rabbit and get one month free as a Captain, or join as a free member. Support via Paypal: http://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-paypal Merchandise and Shop: https://untitled-history.com/collections/all Our WW1 Podcast: @NSQPod Our WW2 Podcast: @BSOWPod Battle Guide YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BattleGuideVT If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what the team at Battle Guide have been getting up to, why not sign up to our monthly newsletter: https://battleguide.co.uk/newsletter Gareth socials BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/garius.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.me.uk/@garius Battle Guide Twitter: https://x.com/BattleguideVT General Enquiries: untitled@battleguide.co.uk Credits: - Host: Gareth Edwards - Editing: Hunter Christensen - Production: Linus Klaßen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    56 mins
  • Episode 19: Demonology and the Dead Sea Scrolls

    Episode 19: Demonology and the Dead Sea Scrolls
    Jun 18 2026
    The period of the Second Temple was a time of cultural change for Jewish communities, including in how they regarded concepts such as magic and demons. But evidence for what that meant on the ground was limited until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1946, and the wealth of scholarship that followed. The picture painted is of a society looking to understand how the world, and the beliefs of other cultures around them, should be considered in relation to the Hebrew bible and beyond. Guest Tupá Guerra is a Brazilian historian specializing in demons on the Dead Sea Scrolls, with a PhD from the University of Birmingham - UK. Tupá is also a public historian and has been recording podcasts since 2015, mostly in Portuguese. Cats present None Useful links https://www.youtube.com/@umatupanotempo https://open.spotify.com/show/5g9cA7pE0CKJPphPMkD0fF Papers mentioned available to podcast members by request on our forum. Do you like our podcast? Then please leave us a review, it helps us a lot! Host: Gareth Edwards More about Gareth Edwards: https://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-history#host To comment and ask questions, please join our community: https://untitled-history.com/supporters Use our code: Rabbit and get one month free as a Captain, or join as a free member. Support via Paypal: http://battleguide.co.uk/untitled-paypal Merchandise and Shop: https://untitled-history.com/collections/all Our WW1 Podcast: @NSQPod Our WW2 Podcast: @BSOWPod Battle Guide YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@BattleGuideVT If you want to keep your finger on the pulse of what the team at Battle Guide have been getting up to, why not sign up to our monthly newsletter: https://battleguide.co.uk/newsletter Gareth socials BlueSky: https://bsky.app/profile/garius.bsky.social Mastodon: https://mastodon.me.uk/@garius Battle Guide Twitter: https://x.com/BattleguideVT General Enquiries: untitled@battleguide.co.uk Credits: - Host: Gareth Edwards - Editing: Hunter Christensen - Production: Linus Klaßen Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    55 mins