Wonders of the World

Perhaps the most ethereal and beautiful astronomical sight available to regular old humans, the auroras borealis and australis, the Northern and Southern Lights have amazed and inspired us for our whole existence on earth.

One of the better places to see the Northern Lights is northern Sweden, and this episode covers the five years in which Sweden was the dominant military force on the planet: the brief, happy campaign of Gustavus ...

The Rhine River flows through the heartland of western Germany, through a gorge passing an average of one castle per mile.  Reisling vineyards, charming villages, and castle after castle after castle surround you as you drift along the river.  But almost 400 years ago, this idyllic valley was caught up in the most devestating war in pre-20th century European history.

In this episode, we'll cover the first two stages of the Thirty ...

Nestled on a bend of the Vltava River, the beautiful town of Český Krumlov is one of the best preserved medieval towns in Europe. It's also the site of a horrific true crime! (Oo, let's get those true crime junkies in on this!) Rudolf II had troubles, and the mental illness of his son Julius only adds to the load.

But the decline and fall of Rudolf II and the murder of Markéta Pichlerová is only part of the story.  We're also goin...

They say a giant man of clay sits in the attic, waiting for centuries for his instructions.  The story of the Golem in Prague is one of the classics of western storytelling, yet did you know that the temple where the Golem is rumored to be is a real place? The Old New Synagogue, one of the oldest active synagogues in the world, sits in the heart of Josefov, Prague's Jewish district.

In this episode, we'll talk about Holy Roman Empe...

You've seen it on a million pizza boxes, in a thousand Italian restaurants, and in photos of your Dad pretending to hold it up.  It's the Leaning Tower! Why does it lean?  And why is it so gracefully elegant in its leaning?

Most of this episode, however, is about the most famous person to be associated with the tower: the astronomer Galileo.  Did he really drop weights from the tower? Probably not. But he did change our entire perc...

The youngest of the world's seven largest religions is Sikhism, founded in Punjab in the 16th century. Nanak, a guru, or teacher, from outside Lahore, spent three days lost along a river and returned with an undestanding of one God: the Ultimate Reality. Nanak created a religion founded on equality, service, and openness, yet his successors would soon find themselves under attack from vested interests, particularly the Mughal Empir...

One of the world's great museums of Renaissance art: the Uffizi.  Meaning "the offices," the Uffizi were quite literally built as an office buidling for the growing administration of Cosimo I de' Medici, the first Grand Duke of Tuscany, the leader who brought authoritarian rule, if also stablity, to Florence.

Bry Rayburn from the Pontifacts podcast, joins me once again to talk about Cosimo, her historic bae, the great museum, and t...

In the late 1500s Poland and Lithuania joined to create the Commonwealth, a remarkable, if flawed, experiment in constitutional monarchy that would last more than 200 years. Its legacy of religious tolerance and representative republicanism is strangely overlooked in American history books - and I would guess in other histories as well.

One of the chief economic engines of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was the Wielizcka Salt M...

Suleiman the Magnificent? Suleiman the Lawgiver? Suleiman the Bisexual Poet? No matter how you label him, Suleiman was a fascinating sultan of the Ottoman Empire who strode upon the world stage, and his private life was worthy of a scandalous Netflix show.  Among his greatest legacies was commissioning this phenomenal mosque, designed by Mimar Sinan, one of the history's most successul and significant architects.

Listener and trave...

The world-famous "lost city of the Inca".  It wasn't a city, and it wasn't lost, but yes, it was made by the Inca.  The incredibly scenic former estate of kings is a true marvel, as I can personally attest, but this episode is about so much more than the ruins that people come from all over the world to see.

Joined by Nick Machinski of the History of the Inca Empire podcast, we talk about the dramatic rise and fall of the Inca Empi...

He was from the richest city in Ming China, or one of the richest, and after his checkered political career, he came home and planted a garden.  500 years later, we can still visit his garden and marvel at the humility of Wang Xianchen, the Humble Administrator. This episode is a pleasant diversion beforewe get back to the big stories.

And we'll have Suzhou "smoked" fish while we're here!