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History Miss

History Miss

By: Nathan Pali
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About this listen

History Miss is a history and leadership podcast about the stories history got wrong—or left out entirely.

While textbooks and documentaries focus on victories, heroes, and neat conclusions, this podcast digs into the missed warnings, bad leadership decisions, and quiet failures that actually shaped the world. These are the moments leaders ignored reality, trusted the wrong people, doubled down on failing strategies, or made choices that looked reasonable at the time—and disastrous in hindsight.

Each episode explores real historical cases of leadership failure, decision-making under pressure, power dynamics, and unintended consequences. From political and military disasters to corporate collapses and cultural breakdowns, the show examines what history missed about why things went wrong.

This isn’t a heroic history podcast or a collection of inspirational lessons. It’s a narrative-driven look at how leaders fail, why smart people make bad decisions, and how power quietly protects mistakes until it’s too late.

If you’re interested in leadership history, historical failures, bad decisions in history, power and leadership, and the hidden side of how the world was actually shaped—this podcast is for you.

History Miss Because history remembers the winners. It forgets the mistakes that made them possible.

© 2026 History Miss Podcast All rights reserved.
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Episodes
  • Nikolai Vavilov: Science vs. Ideology and Starvation
    Feb 15 2026
    In this episode, we explore the compelling story of Nikolai Vavilov, a botanist and geneticist who risked everything to collect seeds and prevent famine in the Soviet Union. We examine his conflict with Trofim Lysenko and illustrate how ideology and the pursuit of certainty can lead to devastating consequences when prioritized over scientific truth and reality.          Chapters    00:00 Introduction to Vavilov    00:37 Vavilov's Vision and Work    03:33 The Rise of Lysenkoism    08:21 Vavilov's Arrest and Legacy
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    8 mins
  • How Doing Nothing Became a Political Strategy
    Jan 19 2026

    James Buchanan mastered a specific kind of leadership skill: avoiding responsibility while appearing principled. This episode explores how “doing less” became a governing philosophy—and why it failed spectacularly as America approached civil war.

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    10 mins
  • The Irish Brigade at Fredericksburg's Mary's Heights
    Feb 14 2026
    In this episode, we explore the devastating leadership failure during the Battle of Fredericksburg, focusing on the Irish Brigade's doomed advance at Mary's Heights. We discuss the strategic missteps, the immense casualties, and the lingering questions about why the brigade was sent forward into an unwinnable battle.          Chapters    00:00 Introduction to Fredericksburg    00:43 Burnside's Ill-Fated Plan    04:44 The Irish Brigade's Advance    10:55 Lessons in Leadership Failure
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    9 mins
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