Episodes

  • How an Empire Ends: Gothic Paganism

    How an Empire Ends: Gothic Paganism
    Jul 3 2025
    ⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last episode about Amalasuintha and the end of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, we said we were next going to turn to the Visigothic Kingdom. But the story of the Visigothic Kingdom can’t be told without knowing a little more about the history of Gothic religion. Both Visigoths and Ostrogoths were Christian by the time they appear in ancient sources. They were the earliest Germanic group to convert to Christianity. But what was their religion like before that? We know almost nothing about it. But not nothing entirely. Join us as we draw back the curtain on a mysterious world lost to time—the world of Gothic paganism. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 27 mins
  • RE-RELEASE: Buzzballs and Buboes: The Plague of Justinian (a Drunk Deep Dive)

    RE-RELEASE: Buzzballs and Buboes: The Plague of Justinian (a Drunk Deep Dive)
    Jun 26 2025
    Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! ⁠ This is an episode about a plague that killed up to 100 million people by the time it was done—as many as 60% of its victims. It’s the first documented occurrence of a pandemic that we have, and it’s the first documented outbreak of the deadlyYersinia pestis. No, we're not talking about the Black Death of Medieval Europe. We're talking about the Plague of Justinian. The Plague of Justinian was just one part of the fallout of the global volcanic eruption of 536 AD. Three eyewitness accounts have survived--and, in the grand tradition of this podcast, we decided to read them to you whilst Yule-level drunk. Buckle up. It is a wild, plague-tastic ride. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 47 mins
  • How an Empire Ends: Life of Amalasuintha

    How an Empire Ends: Life of Amalasuintha
    Jun 19 2025
    ⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last episode, we told you all about the rise of Theodoric the Great and the founding of the Ostrogothic Kingdom in Italy. Now, we’re going to tell you all about the women in his family—and the effect they had on his kingdom. Theodoric had a wife, a sister, and three daughters—all of whom played an important role in his empire-building. His wife was the daughter of another powerful Germanic tribe—the Franks—and he married off his sister and two eldest daughters to form strategic alliances. But three times he married off his kin, and three times it blew up in his face. Amalasuintha was Theodoric’s youngest daughter—and when he died, she was the last woman standing. For a few years, the Ostrogothic Kingdom had a Queen—but these were turbulent times. Join us as we explore the rule of Amalasuintha and the lives of Theodoric’s other tough-as-nails female kin. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 11 mins
  • RE-RELEASE: 536 AD: A Volcanic Murder Mystery

    RE-RELEASE: 536 AD: A Volcanic Murder Mystery
    Jun 12 2025
    Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! ⁠ What was the worst year to be alive? Some researchers have a very specific answer to this question: 536 AD. This is a year when the global temperature dropped, and it was winter all year round—for multiple years. The sun disappeared for 18 months as the world was covered in a veil of sulfuric dust. Crops failed. People starved, and fell to eating each other and warring over scarce resources. From China to Mexico, thriving civilizations collapsed. And the culprit? A volcano. Or maybe multiple volcanoes. But which ones are still a mystery. This is a historical mass murder, and it’s still unsolved. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 34 mins
  • How an Empire Ends: Theodoric the Great and the Ostrogothic Kingdom

    How an Empire Ends: Theodoric the Great and the Ostrogothic Kingdom
    Jun 5 2025
    Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! After 75 years under Hunnic dominion, the Ostrogoths seized their freedom and set about taking over control of the Western Roman Empire. The man who led them was named Theodoric the Great. He was a member of an ancient Gothic family called the Amali, which went all the way back to the Crisis of the Third Century. Supposedly. Theodoric was the founder of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, which upended a thousand years of Roman rule in Italy. While Alaric sacked Rome, he couldn’t hold it. He didn’t try to hold it. Theodoric did hold it, and rule it. This is his story. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 40 mins
  • How an Empire Ends: 75 Years Under Hunnic Dominion

    How an Empire Ends: 75 Years Under Hunnic Dominion
    May 22 2025
    Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last episode, we talked about how the Visigoths came to be: forged in the fire of the Gothic War of 376-382 and the immigration crisis that went along with it. Now, we’ll take a look at what happened to their kin who stayed on the northern side of the Danube—the Greuthungi who were not allowed to cross. What happened to them was 75 years under Hunnic dominion. This time changed them. Some were brutally exploited. Still others were enriched beyond their wildest imaginings, riding at the head of a Wild Hunt that devoured all in its path—utnil, when next they met their kin who crossed the Danube, it was on opposite sides of a battlefield. Join us as we map the rise of the Ostrogoths. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 10 mins
  • How an Empire Ends: the Starving Camps

    How an Empire Ends: the Starving Camps
    May 8 2025
    Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last few episodes, we’ve told you what we know about pre-Roman Gothic archaeology, culture, and history. We’ve told you about conditions both inside and outside the Roman Empire that kicked off the Migration Era. And now we’re going to tell you the story of one of those Gothic Wars in detail: the war of 376-382 AD. A war that may have occurred during Alaric’s childhood—and that may have been a radicalizing event for him and for thousands of people who followed him. It’s the war—and the accompanying immigration crisis—that sets off a chain of events in which a people called the Visigoths rise—and the most famous of them, a man called Alaric, leads them all the way to the gates of Rome. This is where it all begins. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 16 mins
  • How an Empire Ends: Rome's Gothic Immigrants

    How an Empire Ends: Rome's Gothic Immigrants
    Apr 24 2025
    Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last episode, we took a look at the outside forces driving the engine of the Migration Era: Hunnic migrations and invasions, constant displacement and conflict at the Roman borders. But Goths lived inside Rome too—in the heart of the Italian peninsula, and also in the outer provinces, in territories that were conquered by force. This story isn’t just about Goths that lived outside Rome. It’s also about the Goths that lived inside the Empire—as everything from slaves to soldiers to free citizens. How they were treated within that empire fueled and fed the wheel of the Migration era. Hatred of immigrants played a major role in Migration-Era conflicts--in ways scarily similar to events today. Sponsors and Advertising This podcast is a member of Airwave Media podcast network. Want to advertise on our show? Please direct advertising inquiries to advertising@airwavemedia.com. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    1 hr and 13 mins