Podcast Episodes

Rentier Capitalism and neo feudalism

Is modern capitalism beginning to resemble a feudal system? This episode of Explaining History explores the provocative argument, drawn from the work of the late anthropologist David Graeber, that co…

Published on 4 months ago

Nation In Arms: Lessons from Five Armies That Made Europe

What can the Roman legions of Constantine, the Ottoman forces of Mehmet the Conqueror, and the US Army of World War II teach us about modern military power?

In this timely episode of the Explaining Hi…

Published on 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Anglo American rivalries in the Middle East

At the heart of Britain's war time alliance was a deep wariness at what the outcome of the war would portend. Churchill was desperate for the USA to enter the war and Roosevelt saw the struggle again…

Published on 4 months, 2 weeks ago

Economic Sanctions: Crimes against humanity.

In this episode, we tear away the euphemisms and expose a grim reality: sanctions kill.

Drawing on a 2025 study from The Lancet Global Health, we show how economic sanctions imposed by the U.S. and o…

Published on 4 months, 3 weeks ago

From Powell Memo to Policy Powerhouse: How Right-Wing Think Tanks Hijacked America’s Future since 1973

How did neoliberalism go from fringe idea to ruling ideology in the United States? In this deep-dive episode of Explaining History, we trace the hidden rise of America’s most influential right-wing t…

Published on 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Britain's Austerity Trap

Britain’s Austerity Trap

Why is one of the world’s richest countries still behaving like it’s broke?

In this episode of Explaining History, we dive into Yanis Varoufakis’s searing critique of Britain’s…

Published on 4 months, 4 weeks ago

A Gaza coalition emerging

The extent to which western soft power and legal and moral authority has been shredded by Gaza is lost upon British, American and European populations for the most part, but across the global south a…

Published on 5 months ago

Moral justifications for modern war

Warfare had to be re-propagandised in the 20th Century, particularly in the western world, as a moral crusade. Mass democracy determined that leaders needed to present war as a manichean struggle bet…

Published on 5 months ago

Maoist struggle sessions and the Cultural Revolution

This episode draws from the excellent book Red Memory by Tania Brannigan, an oral history of the Cultural Revolution. Here we examine the role of thought, how Mao sought to stimulate public thought d…

Published on 5 months ago

Violeta Parra: Chile’s Folk Revolutionary, Cold-War Exile & Mother of Nueva Canción

***PLEASE LISTEN TO THE END***

Chilean folk icon Violeta Parra (1917-1967) was far more than the singer of “Gracias a la Vida.” In this episode, Erica Verba—Director of Latin American Studies at Cal …

Published on 5 months ago