12,000 years ago, human history changed forever when the egalitarian groups of hunter-gathering humans began to settle down and organize themselves into hierarchies. The few dominated the many, seizing control through violence. What emerged were “Goliaths”: large societies built on a collection of hierarchies that are also terrifyingly fragile, collapsing time after time across the world. Today, we live in a single, global Goliath—one that is precariously interdependent—under threat from nuclear war, climate change, and the existential risks of AI. The next collapse may be our last. 

Today’s guest is Luke Kemp, author of Goliath’s Curse. He conducts a historical autopsy on our species, from the earliest cities to the collapse of modern states like Somalia. Drawing on historical databases and the latest discoveries in archaeology and anthropology, he uncovers groundbreaking revelations: 
More democratic societies tend to be more resilient.
A modern collapse is likely to be global, long-lasting, and more dire than ever before 
Collapse may be invisible until after it has occurred. It’s possible we’re living through one now.
Collapse has often had a more positive outcome for the general population than for the 1%.
All Goliaths contain the seeds of their own demise. 

12,000 years ago, human history changed forever when the egalitarian groups of hunter-gathering humans began to settle down and organize themselves into hierarchies. The few dominated the many, seizing control through violence. What emerged were &ldquo;Goliaths&rdquo;: large societies built on a collection of hierarchies that are also terrifyingly fragile, collapsing time after time across the world. Today, we live in a single, global Goliath&mdash;one that is precariously interdependent&mdash;under threat from nuclear war, climate change, and the existential risks of AI. The next collapse may be our last.&nbsp; Today&rsquo;s guest is Luke Kemp, author of&nbsp;Goliath&rsquo;s Curse. He conducts a historical autopsy on our species, from the earliest cities to the collapse of modern states like Somalia. Drawing on historical databases and the latest discoveries in archaeology and anthropology, he uncovers groundbreaking revelations:&nbsp;
<ul>
<li>More democratic societies tend to be more resilient.</li>
<li>A modern collapse is likely to be global, long-lasting, and more dire than ever before&nbsp;</li>
<li>Collapse may be invisible until after it has occurred. It&rsquo;s possible we&rsquo;re living through one now.</li>
<li>Collapse has often had a more positive outcome for the general population than for the 1%.</li>
<li>All Goliaths contain the seeds of their own demise.&nbsp;</li>
</ul>

For history lovers who listen to podcasts, History Unplugged is the most comprehensive show of its kind. It's the only show that dedicates episodes to both interviewing experts and answering questions from its audience. First, it features a call-in show where you can ask our resident historian (Scott Rank, PhD) absolutely anything (What was it like to be a Turkish sultan with four wives and twelve concubines? If you were sent back in time, how would you kill Hitler?). Second, it features long-form interviews with best-selling authors who have written about everything. Topics include gruff World War II generals who flew with airmen on bombing raids, a war horse who gained the rank of sergeant, and presidents who gave their best speeches while drunk.

A show about American history, world history, World Wars 1 & 2, the Civil War, and much more.

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged is one of the longest-running history podcasts of its kind, with over 1,000 episodes covering everything from Alexander the Great's plans for European colonization to the untold story of Alabamians who fought for Sherman deep inside Confederate territory. Topics range from the Bronze Age Collapse to the naval campaigns of the Barbary Wars to Daniel Boone's forced adoption by a Shawnee chief. Guests on the show include history professors, Pulitzer Prize winners, consultants for historical films, and outsiders like Joakim Brodén from Sabaton. The show is hosted by Scott Rank, a history professor specializing in the Ottoman Empire and author of 12 books. And for those who love to spin the wheel of what-if, the show regularly ventures into alternate history, exploring questions like what the USSR's victory in the Cold War would have meant for the modern world, or how our current map might look if the Confederacy had survived the Civil War.

 

History Unplugged is one of the longest-running history podcasts of its kind, with over 1,000 episodes covering everything from Alexander the Great's plans for European colonization to the untold story of Alabamians who fought for Sherman deep inside Confederate territory. Topics range from the Bronze Age Collapse to the naval campaigns of the Barbary Wars to Daniel Boone's forced adoption by a Shawnee chief. Guests on the show include history professors, Pulitzer Prize winners, consultants for historical films, and outsiders like Joakim Brod&eacute;n from Sabaton. The show is hosted by Scott Rank, a history professor specializing in the Ottoman Empire and author of 12 books. And for those who love to spin the wheel of what-if, the show regularly ventures into alternate history, exploring questions like what the USSR's victory in the Cold War would have meant for the modern world, or how our current map might look if the Confederacy had survived the Civil War.
&nbsp;

History Unplugged

Don’t Use Rome as a Model of Why Societies Collapse; Use Crime Syndicates and Somalia Instead

When Russia's Dowager Empress was pregnant with the future Tsar Nicholas II in 1868, she dreamed that a peasant would one day kill her son. The idea terrified her, and for the rest of her days she lived under the fear of this prophecy. It may have come true with the arrival at court of a mysterious, barely literate wandering monk from Siberia, Grigori Rasputin. He had a pale face, long hair and penetrating eyes gave him an almost hypnotic quality. Though he had no official position at court, Rasputin’s hold over the Romanovs became the stuff of legend. Exaggerated accounts of political and financial corruption swirled around him, to say nothing of the stories of his debauchery with the Empress and even her daughters. The consequences of the rumor and conspiracy theories were devastating—when the February revolution broke out in 1917, hardly a sword was raised in the Tsar’s defense.

Today's guest is Antony Beevor, author of Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs. We look at how Rasputin was able to wield such power, mostly by tricking the Royal Family into thinking he could heal Tsarevich Alexei’s hemorrhages. We also look at his legendary assassination, in which conspirators allegedly fed him cyanide-laced cakes, shooting him twice, and throwing him into the freezing Neva. Despite his death, nothing changed, as the Romanov dynasty collapsed three months later in the February Revolution and the entire family was murdered by Bolsheviks a year after that. We see that Rasputin was less the cause of the Romanov collapse than its most visible symptom, explaining that when a government is ruled by an isolated royal family, it creates a vacuum that only a swindler or visionary can fill.

When Russia's Dowager Empress was pregnant with the future Tsar Nicholas II in 1868, she dreamed that a peasant would one day kill her son. The idea terrified her, and for the rest of her days she lived under the fear of this prophecy. It may have come true with the arrival at court of a mysterious, barely literate wandering monk from Siberia, Grigori Rasputin. He had a pale face, long hair and penetrating eyes gave him an almost hypnotic quality. Though he had no official position at court, Rasputin&rsquo;s hold over the Romanovs became the stuff of legend. Exaggerated accounts of political and financial corruption swirled around him, to say nothing of the stories of his debauchery with the Empress and even her daughters. The consequences of the rumor and conspiracy theories were devastating&mdash;when the February revolution broke out in 1917, hardly a sword was raised in the Tsar&rsquo;s defense.
Today's guest is Antony Beevor, author of Rasputin: The Downfall of the Romanovs. We look at how Rasputin was able to wield such power, mostly by tricking the Royal Family into thinking he could heal Tsarevich Alexei&rsquo;s hemorrhages. We also look at his legendary assassination, in which conspirators allegedly fed him cyanide-laced cakes, shooting him twice, and throwing him into the freezing Neva. Despite his death, nothing changed, as the Romanov dynasty collapsed three months later in the February Revolution and the entire family was murdered by Bolsheviks a year after that. We see that Rasputin was less the cause of the Romanov collapse than its most visible symptom, explaining that when a government is ruled by an isolated royal family, it creates a vacuum that only a swindler or visionary can fill.

Rasputin and the Downfall of the Romanovs

Everyone knows the American Revolution was won at Yorktown in 1781, when Cornwallis’s Army was trapped, but almost no one knows that victory depended on a Spanish intelligence operative who raised 500,000 pieces of silver in Havana in just 24 hours, convincing Cuban residents to liquidate their jewelry, gold ornaments, and diamonds to fund the French fleet's journey to trap Cornwallis. Francisco de Saavedra was Spain's ultimate shadow architect, operating like a CIA station chief or Charlie Wilson funneling weapons to topple Soviet Afghanistan, coordinating resources across the Caribbean through the Council of the Indies while gathering intelligence on British naval movements. The silver he raised, equivalent to roughly $1 billion in World War II war bond drives when adjusted for inflation, paid French sailors and provisioned Washington's Continental Army for the decisive siege. Without Saavedra's behind-the-scenes diplomacy, Spain and France would never have coordinated their fleets, and the Mississippi River supply line that smuggled Spanish gunpowder and uniforms to the rebels would have remained closed.

Today's guest is James Giesler, author of Francisco De Saavedra's American Revolutionary War: The Spanish Contribution to the Battle of Yorktown. We discuss the unlikely career of Saavedra, an intelligence officer for the Spanish Crown who had such adventures as being capture by the British in 1780 and talked his way out of Jamaican captivity by pretending to be a civilian, why he forced joint Spanish action to capture Pensacola in May 1781 and eliminate the British southern strategy, how he negotiated a treaty for French and Spanish military planning for the first time, and why he planned the 1782 capture of the Bahamas to keep British ships tied up in the West Indies instead of reinforcing Cornwallis. Giesler explains that Saavedra wasn't a boots-on-the-ground commander like Lafayette but a strategic fixer who rose to become Spain's Prime Minister in the 1790s, proving that revolutions are won as much by financial wizardry and intelligence networks as by battlefield heroics.

Everyone knows the American Revolution was won at Yorktown in 1781, when Cornwallis&rsquo;s Army was trapped, but almost no one knows that victory depended on a Spanish intelligence operative who raised 500,000 pieces of silver in Havana in just 24 hours, convincing Cuban residents to liquidate their jewelry, gold ornaments, and diamonds to fund the French fleet's journey to trap Cornwallis. Francisco de Saavedra was Spain's ultimate shadow architect, operating like a CIA station chief or Charlie Wilson funneling weapons to topple Soviet Afghanistan, coordinating resources across the Caribbean through the Council of the Indies while gathering intelligence on British naval movements. The silver he raised, equivalent to roughly $1 billion in World War II war bond drives when adjusted for inflation, paid French sailors and provisioned Washington's Continental Army for the decisive siege. Without Saavedra's behind-the-scenes diplomacy, Spain and France would never have coordinated their fleets, and the Mississippi River supply line that smuggled Spanish gunpowder and uniforms to the rebels would have remained closed.
Today's guest is James Giesler, author of Francisco De Saavedra's American Revolutionary War: The Spanish Contribution to the Battle of Yorktown. We discuss the unlikely career of Saavedra, an intelligence officer for the Spanish Crown who had such adventures as being capture by the British in 1780 and talked his way out of Jamaican captivity by pretending to be a civilian, why he forced joint Spanish action to capture Pensacola in May 1781 and eliminate the British southern strategy, how he negotiated a treaty for French and Spanish military planning for the first time, and why he planned the 1782 capture of the Bahamas to keep British ships tied up in the West Indies instead of reinforcing Cornwallis. Giesler explains that Saavedra wasn't a boots-on-the-ground commander like Lafayette but a strategic fixer who rose to become Spain's Prime Minister in the 1790s, proving that revolutions are won as much by financial wizardry and intelligence networks as by battlefield heroics.

The Revolutionary War’s Charlie Wilson: A Spanish Spy Chief Funded the Siege of Yorktown, Helping Washington Win

Why did the West dominate all rivals on Earth? How did a group of states that were nearly wiped out in the late Middle Ages by enemies to the south and east grow to conquer the globe by the 16th century? To answer that question, we need to go back to its beginning and see what made Europe, Europe. As good a point as any is the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, when Athens preserved democracy from Persian conquest. It consolidated further in 146 BC when Rome began continental integration, and more so under Charlemagne when it became defined as wherever Christian rulers governed rather than by Hadrian's fixed borders six centuries earlier. Overall, it’s a mix of Greek political systems, Roman law, Christianity's moral architecture, and Niall Ferguson's "killer app" of competition where states and merchants constantly vied to outdo each other in ways China's unified empire never experienced.

Today's guest is Roderick Beaton, author of Europe: A New History. We discuss why the Scientific Revolution happened in Europe and not Asia or China (the reintroduction of Greek scholarship into universities combined with the printing press allowing radical ideas to bypass censorship), how representative government emerged when Dutch and English merchant classes traded tax revenue for permanent voice in state policy, and why the European Union's visionary supranational system with open borders under rule of law did not mark the end of history as America celebrated in 1991. Beaton explains that while Princeton dropped even the language requirement for Classics majors in recent years, Europe as an idea and collective identity cannot simply be deconstructed without offering any replacement for the framework we all still use.

Why did the West dominate all rivals on Earth? How did a group of states that were nearly wiped out in the late Middle Ages by enemies to the south and east grow to conquer the globe by the 16th century? To answer that question, we need to go back to its beginning and see what made Europe, Europe. As good a point as any is the Battle of Marathon in 490 BC, when Athens preserved democracy from Persian conquest. It consolidated further in 146 BC when Rome began continental integration, and more so under Charlemagne when it became defined as wherever Christian rulers governed rather than by Hadrian's fixed borders six centuries earlier. Overall, it&rsquo;s a mix of Greek political systems, Roman law, Christianity's moral architecture, and Niall Ferguson's "killer app" of competition where states and merchants constantly vied to outdo each other in ways China's unified empire never experienced.
Today's guest is Roderick Beaton, author of Europe: A New History. We discuss why the Scientific Revolution happened in Europe and not Asia or China (the reintroduction of Greek scholarship into universities combined with the printing press allowing radical ideas to bypass censorship), how representative government emerged when Dutch and English merchant classes traded tax revenue for permanent voice in state policy, and why the European Union's visionary supranational system with open borders under rule of law did not mark the end of history as America celebrated in 1991. Beaton explains that while Princeton dropped even the language requirement for Classics majors in recent years, Europe as an idea and collective identity cannot simply be deconstructed without offering any replacement for the framework we all still use.

Don’t Use Rome as a Model of Why Societies Collapse; Use Crime Syndicates and Somalia Instead

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