Welcome to "The Pursuit of Dadliness." This is a podcast for folks who want to enjoy their passions and their hobbies, whatever those might be, and genuinely strive to get better at doing stuff and more knowledgeable about the world around them

Interview: Historian Kyle Harper on Disease, Climate and the Fall of the Roman Empire

Apr 3rd, 2018 38m 9s

How did a changing climate and plague play into the fall of the Roman Empire? I'm joined by Kyle Harper, Professor of Classics at the University of Oklahoma, to discuss his important new book The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and the End of a

Tides of History: Natural Disasters and the End of the Roman Empire

Mar 20th, 2018 43m 55s

Justinian was the last great Roman emperor, but his reign was plagued by disasters beyond his control: volcanic eruptions, a changing climate, and a plague of epic proportions. Those disasters created a turning point that we can, with good reas

Tides of History: Justinian the Great and the Reconquest of the Western Empire

Mar 6th, 2018 46m 25s

Justinian is one of the defining figures of the Roman Empire. In many ways, he marks the boundary between Antiquity and the Middle Ages. In this episode, we explore his ambitious reform program and his reconquest of the lost provinces of the We

Tides of History: How the Eastern Roman Empire Survived Attila the Hun and the Disastrous Fifth Century

Feb 20th, 2018 50m 4s

While the western half of the Roman Empire was collapsing, the east managed to weather the storm of the disastrous fifth century. In this episode, we examine how and why it survived Attila the Hun and a host of other problems through the eyes o

Introducing Business Wars

Feb 13th, 2018 10m 10s

Netflix vs. HBO. Nike vs. Adidas. Business is war. Sometimes the prize is your wallet, or your attention. Sometimes, it’s just the fun of beating the other guy. The outcome of these battles shapes what we buy and how we live. Business Wars give

Tides of History: Why Didn't The Eastern Empire Fall?

Feb 6th, 2018 40m 18s

When we talk about the fall of the Roman Empire, we're only talking about the western half - France, Spain, Italy, North Africa, and Britain. The eastern half of the Roman Empire survived the disastrous fifth century and would last in one form

Interview: Christianizing the Roman Empire with Professor Lisa Bitel

Jan 16th, 2018 43m 46s

How did the Roman Empire, and barbarian Europe after it, become Christian? To find out, I talked to Professor Lisa Bitel of the University of Southern California, a world-class expert on medieval Christianity and Christian conversion.

Introducing American History Tellers

Jan 3rd, 2018 10m 19s

The Cold War, the Gold Rush, the Space Race. Every part of your life -the words you speak, the ideas you share- can be traced to our history, but how well do you really know the stories that made America? American History Tellers takes you to t

Tides of History: How Latin Became the Romance Languages

Dec 14th, 2017 50m 43s

How did Latin splinter into the Romance languages? In this episode, we explore how Latin transformed from a single, widely dispersed language into a series - French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Romanian, and so on - of related but no longer m

Tides of History: The Decline and Fall of the Roman City

Nov 14th, 2017 33m 40s

Cities were what made the Roman world Roman, but as the Empire fell apart, so did its cities. They shrank drastically or disappeared entirely between 400 and 600. In today's episode, we'll find out how and why.Subscribe today so you never miss

Tides of History: The Roman City

Oct 24th, 2017 38m 31s

Cities were what made the Roman world, well, Roman. They were centers of culture and political life, and they were the bedrock that tied together its economy. Today we'll explore how those cities came into being, what sustained them, and what m

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Introducing Tides of History

Jul 20th, 2017 14m 3s

History does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme, said Mark Twain. From the fall of the Roman Empire to the rise of the modern world: history ebbs and flows over the centuries, driven by great tides of economic, social, political, religious, a

Could the Roman Empire Have Survived?

Jun 22nd, 2017 37m 59s

Could the Roman Empire have survived past the fifth century? To answer that question, we examine some other points when the Empire could have fallen apart but didn't, and what brought it back together after Caesar's assassination and the Crisis

The Brilliance of Saint Augustine. An Interview with Elizabeth Bruenig

Jun 15th, 2017 42m 34s

Saint Augustine is one of the foundational figures of Christianity and one of the most influential thinkers of all time. He was also a complex and fascinating figure in his own right. Elizabeth Bruenig, an editor at the Washington Post and writ

Rome's Legacy and the Barbarian Kingdoms

Jun 8th, 2017 42m 58s

As central government disappeared from what had been the Western Roman Empire, the barbarian kingdoms stepped into the void, creating new forms of rulership and institutions that would lay the groundwork for the fragmented, fractured medieval w

The Anglo-Saxon Migration, the North Sea World, and the Birth of England

May 25th, 2017 51m 38s

Roman Britain fell fast, and it fell hard. Into the ruins of this world stepped a wave of migrants from the North Sea coast of the Continent whom we know as the Anglo-Saxons. This migration, a complex and dynamic movement of people over the cou

Why Didn't Rome Rise Again? An Interview with Professor Walter Scheidel

May 18th, 2017 33m 30s

Why didn't Rome rise again? Everywhere else in the world, the appearance of one great empire was marked by their recurrent resurgence, but in Europe it happened only once. Professor Walter Scheidel of Stanford University - the author of numerou

The Warlords of Northern Gaul and the Rise of the Franks

May 11th, 2017 48m 10s

As the Roman Empire disintegrated, northern Gaul turned first into a military province and then into a playground for warlords, some Roman and some barbarian. This episode is the story of how one warlord and one group navigated this environment

Ostrogothic Kingdom or the Western Empire Reborn?

Apr 27th, 2017 47m 40s

Under the leadership of their great king Theoderic, the Ostrogoths built a kingdom for themselves in Italy. But was this a kingdom, and Theoderic a king, or was he an emperor and his new realm the Western Empire reborn? Watch a preview of Geni

The Kingdom of the Visigoths

Apr 13th, 2017 43m 44s

The ashes of the Roman Empire produced a host of new states built on the foundations it left behind. The first of these was the Visigothic Kingdom of Toulouse, which dominated southern Gaul and helped bring about the end of the Roman Empire.Wa

Introducing I Hate My Boss

Apr 3rd, 2017 22m 7s

Today, we're introducing I Hate My Boss, a career advice podcast from our friends at Wondery. Hosts Liz Dolan and Larry Seal will help you make the big decisions, navigate the small stuff and get more fulfillment from your work life. Plus, a c

The Death of the Roman Political System

Mar 30th, 2017 44m

Taxes, soldiers, and loyalty: these were the foundations, the structures, of the Roman political system. This episode explores how and why they fell apart over the course of the disastrous fifth century, which saw the provinces gradually slip a

The Calamitous Fifth Century - A Narrative History

Mar 16th, 2017 43m 30s

It took just 80 years for the Roman Empire to fall apart completely, from a ponderous but functional state at the death of Theodosius the Great 395 to nonexistence by 476. How and why did that happen? In this narrative, we examine the major fig

The Unraveling of the Roman World

Mar 2nd, 2017 46m 4s

The Roman world was more than just an empire; it was a cultural, social, economic, and political space built on the easy movement of goods, people, beliefs, and practices from place to place. It was a broad unity, and when the Roman Empire fel