Episodes

  • Episode 490: The Fall of the Bastille

    Episode 490: The Fall of the Bastille
    Oct 31 2025
    The French Revolution gets serious as the people of Paris rise up and storm the Bastille.

    Western Civ Podcast 2.0
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    21 mins
  • War and Power: Who Wins Wars—and Why

    War and Power: Who Wins Wars—and Why
    Oct 28 2025
    In this bonus interview, I sit down with Phillips Payson O'Brien and we discuss his latest book: War and Power: Who Wins Wars—and Why.

    For nearly two centuries, international relations have been premised on the idea of the “Great Powers.” As the thinking went, these mighty states—the European empires of the nineteenth century, the United States and the USSR during the Cold War—were uniquely able to exert their influence on the world stage because of their overwhelming military capabilities. But as military historian Phillips Payson O’Brien argues in War and Power, this conception of power fails to capture the more complicated truth about how wars are fought and won.

    Our focus on the importance of large, well-equipped armies and conclusive battles has obscured the foundational forces that underlie military victories and the actual mechanics of successful warfare. O’Brien suggests a new framework of “full-spectrum powers,” taking into account all of the diverse factors that make a state strong—from economic and technological might, to political stability, to the complex logistics needed to maintain forces in the field.
    Drawing on examples ranging from Napoleon’s France to today’s ascendant China, War and Power offers a critical new understanding of what makes a power truly great. It is vital reading in today’s perilous world.

    Buy The Book Here

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    50 mins
  • Episode 489: The Estates-General

    Episode 489: The Estates-General
    Oct 26 2025
    An oath on a tennis court, of all things, sparks the French Revolution.

    Western Civ Podcast 2.0
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    13 mins
  • Episode 488: The Flood

    Episode 488: The Flood
    Oct 24 2025
    Efforts to reform France under Louis XV and Louis XVI fail, plunging the kingdom into the flood of revolution.

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    29 mins
  • Bloody Crowns: A New History of the Hundred Years War

    Bloody Crowns: A New History of the Hundred Years War
    Oct 21 2025
    Today I sit down with historian Michael Livingston and talk about one of my favorite subjects: the Hundred Years War.

    Henry V at Agincourt. Edward III at Crécy. The Black Prince at Poitiers. Joan of Arc at Orléans. The period we call “the Hundred Years War” was a cascade of violence bursting with some of the most famous figures and fascinating fights in history. The central combatants, England and France, bore witness to uncountable deaths, unbelievable tragedy, and uncompromising glory. But there was much more to this period than a struggle between two nations for dominance.

    Bloody Crowns tells a new story of how medieval Europe was consumed, not by a hundred years’ war, but by two full centuries of war from 1292 to 1492. During those years, blood was spilled far beyond the borders of England and France. The Low Countries became war zones. Italy was swept up. So, too, the Holy Roman Empire, the Iberian Peninsula, Scotland, and Wales. The conflict drove enormous leaps forward in military technology and organization, political systems and national identities, laying the groundwork for the modern world.

    With a keen eye for military intrigue and drama, Bloody Crowns critically revises our understanding of how modern Europe arose from medieval battlefields.

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    40 mins
  • Episode 487: The Old Regime

    Episode 487: The Old Regime
    Oct 17 2025
    Also known as the Ancien Regimé, the system of France going into the revolution was maddeningly complex and, seemingly, designed to fail.

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    35 mins
  • Episode 486: The Young Republic

    Episode 486: The Young Republic
    Oct 10 2025
    The Americans won their independence, but what would they do with it?

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    30 mins
  • The Romans: A 2,000 Year History

    The Romans: A 2,000 Year History
    Oct 7 2025
    Today I sit down with historian Edward J. Watts and talk about his latest book: The Romans.

    When we think of “ancient Romans” today, many picture the toga-clad figures of Cicero and Caesar, presiding over a republic, and then an empire, before seeing their world collapse at the hands of barbarians in the fifth century AD.

    The Romans does away with this narrow vision by offering the first comprehensive account of ancient Rome over the course of two millennia. Prize-winning historian Edward J. Watts recounts the full sweep of Rome’s epic past: the Punic Wars, the fall of the republic, the coming of Christianity, Alaric’s sack of Rome, the rise of Islam, the Battle of Manzikert, and the onslaught of the Crusaders who would bring about the empire’s end. Watts shows that the source of Rome’s enduring strength was the diverse range of people who all called themselves Romans. This is the Rome of Augustus, Marcus Aurelius, and Constantine, but also Charlemagne, Justinian, and Manuel Comnenus—and countless other men and women who together made it the most resilient state the world has ever seen.

    BUY THE BOOK HERE

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    1 hr and 2 mins