Ask a Medievalist

Apr 04 2025 91 ep. 75 mins 927
Ask a Medievalist Podcast artwork

Everything you always wanted to know about the Middle Ages, but were unable to ask.

  History  Education
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Episode 90: Ask a Memevalist

Apr 04 2025 75 mins  
Synopsis Memes. Love or hate them, they’re hard to escape. Let’s do a medieval meme review. Notes 1/ Sorry for the weird sound at the beginning. File errors. 2/ There are whole Bsky accounts like “weird medieval guys“. 3/ Cave Canum Know thyself 4/ The Book of Dog Names: Superdog’s name is Krypto 🙂 Livre du Chasse (see Episode 29 note 5 for more!)

Episode 89: The Three Hares on the Silk Road

Mar 21 2025 73 mins  
Synopsis Trade goods weren’t the only things that moved along the Silk Road. Join Em and Jesse as they trace the history of an interesting artistic motif that made it from China all the way to England! Notes 0/ Credit to Hither, Page, by Cat Sebastian, for bringing this topic to my attention. 1/ Previous episodes on trade routes were ep 83 (Old Silk Road, Take Me Home) and 84

Episode 88: The Peasants Are (Still) Revolting

Dec 22 2024 53 mins  
Synopsis In a first for Ask a Medievalist, Em sits down with Sebastian Nothwell to discuss his approach to writing historical/historical fantasy novels. In the process, they get into everything from Victorian steam power to the effects of the peasants revolt of 1381 on the chartists in the 1830s–50s. You can find Sebastian’s website at https://sebastiannothwell.com/. Notes

Episode 87: Resistance Is (Not) Futile

Dec 13 2024 86 mins  
Synopsis “Times are tough, but they could be worse” is the eternal message of our show. This time, we’re talking about persecution and rebellion–how certain groups were oppressed for political purposes in medieval (and early modern, and modern) Europe, and some people and groups who rebelled, in both a personal and more broadly political way. From Boudica to

Episode 86: Too Many Ramayanas

Nov 26 2024 76 mins  
Summary The Ramayana is not the oldest story in the world, but it’s definitely in the running. Composed starting in the 700s BCE, it has been carried to all corners of the earth and translated into many languages and cultures, traveling along several distinct lines of migration, yet it remains largely unknown in the west. In honor of Em’s new novel Troth, join Em and Jesse

Rebroadcast: Episode 29: D’you Like Dags?

Nov 19 2024 66 mins  
In memory of Wrigley Njus-Kirk, The Best Puppy (May 28, 2009–November 18, 2024), we’re reposting our episode on dogs this week! You can check out the original notes here: http://askamedievalist.com/2021/03/26/episode-29-dyou-like-dags/ We’ll be back with regular episodes next week! Until then, give your puppy a pat and keep it medieval!

Episode 85: It’s (not the) End of the World as We Know It

Nov 01 2024 72 mins  
Synopsis One time, Em got drunk and started texting Jesse about the bronze age collapse. This is the result. Notes 1/ Em studied abroad in Tianjin, China. It was very educational. I learned that black vinegar is good for your health, that there are mushrooms called ear mushrooms (wood ear, but I only recognized one character), and that I can explain that my stretched earlobes didn&

Episode 84: Trans-Saharan Trade

Oct 22 2024 82 mins  
Synopsis We talked about trade moving across Asia and into Europe, but what about trade going North–South? Like the Silk Road, there was a lot of Trans-Saharan trade going back a long time. Goods like salt, ivory, gold, beads, and metal goods–as well as enslaved people–crossed hostile conditions to travel from as far south as Ghana and Mali to northern Africa and the

Old Silk Road, Take Me Home

Sep 19 2024 79 mins  
Synopsis The Silk Road spanned four thousand years and lasted for centuries–it’s hard to think of anything comparable in scale. From the second century BCE until the mid-15th century, jade, silk, tea, horses, the plague, and more flowed across the Eurasian continent. Join Em and Jesse as they talk about it–and also about Route 66, the origin of the word “tea

Episode 82: Morebinogion

Aug 30 2024 85 mins  
Synopsis Join Em and Dr. Jesse as they talk about the last two branches of the Mabinogi. Em’s books can all be found here: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0C5XX9BH3 (or at many other fine internet sites.) Notes 1/ The previous episodes were: Episode 78 (introduction), and episode 79 (branches 1 and 2). Also, we’re still using The Mabinogion translated by Sioned Davies (2