Podcast Episodes

Egypt and the Rise of the Pharaohs

Season 4 Episode 30

Kings are practically synonymous with ancient Egypt, and it's not just because their monuments - like the pyramids - still tower above the desert and the Nile. Egyptian society was organized around t…

Published on 4 years, 9 months ago

Hunter-Gatherers, Archaeology, and Prehistory: Interview with Professor Robert Kelly

Season 4 Episode 29

What can we learn about the deep human past by studying present-day hunter-gatherers? I asked that question to Professor Robert Kelly of the University of Wyoming, who's both one of the world's exper…

Published on 4 years, 10 months ago

Uruk and the Rise of Civilization

Season 4 Episode 28

More than 5,000 years ago, the city of Uruk in what's now Iraq was the heart of a new civilization. Cities, kings, armies, monumental temples, and writing were all new developments. But why here? Why…

Published on 4 years, 10 months ago

Egypt Before the Pharaohs

Season 4 Episode 27

Pyramids, mummies, and pharaohs define our understanding of ancient Egypt, a timeless and eternal land. But the Nile wasn't always ruled by god-like kings, and long before they emerged, Egypt was hom…

Published on 4 years, 10 months ago

Classic Tides | Boxing, Race, and the Gilded Age: An Interview with Professor Louis Moore

Season 3 Episode 62

Boxing has a long past, one deeply connected to race, labor, and broader developments in American history. Professor Louis Moore joins me to talk about those topics and about his outstanding book, I …

Published on 4 years, 10 months ago

Mesopotamia at the Dawn of History

Season 4 Episode 26

Civilization first emerged in the fertile floodplains of Mesopotamia - present-day Iraq - with priest-kings and cities full of temples and ziggurats, pictographs and cuneiform writing. But what were …

Published on 4 years, 10 months ago

What is Civilization?

Season 4 Episode 25

I'm not just talking about the wonderful Sid Meier game series, which I've spent far too many hours playing; how do we define "civilization," how does it come into being, and why does it matter?

Liste…

Published on 4 years, 11 months ago

Alcohol and Agriculture in Prehistoric East Asia: Interview with Professor Li Liu

Season 4 Episode 24

Stanford University's Professor Li Liu is one of the world's leading experts on prehistoric East Asia and one of the world's primary inventions of farming. I ask her about that, the deep continuities…

Published on 4 years, 11 months ago

Agriculture and Complex Societies in the Americas, 4000-1500 BC

Season 4 Episode 23

Agriculture was invented in no fewer than three, and probably four, places in the Americas. It went along with sedentary living and complex societies, but in complicated ways: fishing villages along …

Published on 4 years, 11 months ago

The Americas from Foraging to Agriculture, 10,000 BC-4000 BC

Season 4 Episode 22

The initial migrations to the Americas get most of the attention, but people didn't stop living there in the aftermath of those first movements of peoples; they spread out over the Great Plains and t…

Published on 4 years, 11 months ago