December 22nd 2025
Attacking the largest empire the world had ever seen is a huge endeavor at any age, but try doing it at 21. Alexander, fusing the qualities of a Napoleon with a gladiator, aims for immortality. The Persians are just in his way.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE Hardcore History feed: 2025-12-25 02:36:45 +0000 UTC View Post
Description: Dan visits with Professor Alex Wellerstein, whose new book about Truman and the dropping of the atomic bombs will challenge everything you think you know about the subject.
Keywords: Nuclear weapons, atomic, bomb, hydrogen, Truman, Second World War, World War Two, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Wellerstein, Franklin Roosevelt, Japan, P...
2025-11-29 07:42:00 +0000 UTC View PostDescription: “Henry Sledge, son of Eugene Sledge, writer of the classic war memoir “With the Old Breed at Peleliu and Okinawa” has released a book that includes tons of material left out of his dad's memoir along with details about growing up as the son of “Sledgehammer”.
Show Notes:
1. “With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and...
2025-07-05 03:08:00 +0000 UTC View PostDescription: Dan has an extended and completely unplanned conversation with TV and podcast host Mike Rowe about jobs, history, media, politics and the current zeitgeist.”
Keywords: Mike Rowe, dirty jobs, podcast, history, middle class jobs, working class, labor, media, TV, economy, news
Show Notes:
1. Mike Rowe Works
Description: “Dan talks with writer, broadcaster and journalist Zeinab Badawi about the ancient African kingdom of Kush and her book on African history.”
Keywords: Zeinab Badawi, Kush, Egypt, Libya, ancient, history, Africa, Assyria, biblical, pharaoh, 25th dynasty, Pianky, Meroe, Nubia, Judea, Sudan
Show Notes:
<... 2025-01-14 20:19:39 +0000 UTC View PostJanuary 3rd 2025
Is it safe to hand control of the deadliest army in the world to a 20-year old? If you are Thracian, Triballian, Illyrian or Theban, the answer is definitely no. Alexander becomes king and fights off threats to his rule in all directions.
SUBSCRIBE TO THE Hardcore History feed: 2025-01-03 23:01:05 +0000 UTC View Post
This show could also have been called “Violent Reflections” as Dan repurposes old work he did on the revolutionary era of the late 1960s. This is NOT a deep HH-style look at the period, but is instead a brief gaze at a potential “Past is Prologue” moment.
Keywords: 1960s, 1970s, revolution, New Left, politics, Nixon, Vietnam, prote...
2024-08-01 06:35:00 +0000 UTC View PostJune 7th 2024
What's the recipe for making a historically world-class apex predator? In the case of Alexander the Great, it might be the three Ns: Nature, Nurture, and Nepotism.
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2024-06-07 19:00:00 +0000 UTC View PostInvestigative journalist Annie Jacobsen joins Dan to discuss the contents of her new book which, using insider and expert information, dramatically outlines how a nuclear war might unfold.
Keywords: nuclear, atomic, war, missile, North Korea, attack, radiation, Russia, United States, history, protocols, secrets, scenario, bombing
Sho...
2024-04-05 20:04:28 +0000 UTC View PostThis show starts off with an extended discussion of the genocide of Jews in the Holocaust and the associated dangers of extreme governmental power followed by an interview with Holocaust expert and historian Dan Stone.
Keywords: Holocaust, Jews, Nazis, Genocide, anti-semitism, Germany, Second World War, World War Two, fascism, communism, D...
2024-04-04 18:57:15 +0000 UTC View PostNovemeber 19th 2023
Pagan Viking Sea Kings spend the 10th and 11th centuries morphing into Christian monarchs. But with rulers like Harald Bluetooth and Svein Forkbeard it's debatable whether things will be any less horrific for Scandinavia's neighbors
Huns, Mongols, Turks, Scythians and other nomadic steppe tribes are longtime interests of Dan's. In this show he interviews historian Kenneth W. Harl who specializes in the study of those fascinating peoples.
Keywords: Huns, Mongols, Scythians, Turks, Attila, Genghis Khan, Rome, Byzantium, history, Steppe, nomads, China, Russia, Eurasia, S...
2023-08-16 23:57:21 +0000 UTC View PostHey, this is Dan Carlin writing this note to you.
In the 11 years we have been selling our older Hardcore History shows we have never sent an email to anyone on our customer list. We are breaking that tradition now because we think you will want the information in this note.
In a nutshell, we have to cull some of the names and ...
2023-07-17 16:52:19 +0000 UTC View PostDescription: Daniele Bolelli the fabulous host of “History on Fire” and I fanboy out over archaeology. We had some inexplicable audio problems at times with the recording, so hopefully that doesn't detract from the greatness of the guest.
1.“Uncovering the Past: A history of Archaeology” by William H Stiebing Jr.
2.“Empire of ...
Dan tries focusing a much wider historical lens on perennial human issues like war, land ownership, immigration, ethnicity, environmental worries and the double-edged sword that is human inventiveness.
1. “Agricola and Germania” by Tacitus
2. “A Most Dangerous Book: Tacitus's Germania from the Roman Empire to the Third Reich...
Rick Rubin joins Dan to discuss human creativity. This unusual show evolves as it goes though and by the end covers a wide array of subjects and topics. By the end it isn't even clear who is asking questions and who is answering them.
1. “Broken Record” with Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell
2023-02-14 05:30:27 +0000 UTC
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This show picks up where Dan's Thor's Angels show left off. In the early Middle Ages Pagan Germanic-language speakers like the Vikings are a dying breed. Many of their contemporaries wish they'd die faster.
Notes:
Viewable Soon
Ready for an argument? Like Dan's quote voice? Waiting to hear Dan discuss boxing? Then you've hit the trifecta. Boxing expert Mike Silver and Dan discuss whether today's modern fighters could compete with those of yesteryear.
Show Notes:
1. The Arc of Boxing: The Rise and Decline of the Sweet Science by Mike Silver
2. The Night the...
Bill Barrett has been the voice of Dan Carlin’s podcasts since they began in 2005. In this retrospective Dan looks back at samples of Bill’s catalog of work.
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook stop by to continue the conversation with Dan that began on their own podcast The Rest is History.
Show notes:
1. “Rubicon” by Tom Holland
2. “Dominion” by Tom Holland
3. “Persian Fire” by Tom Holland
Professor Barry Strauss and Dan talk about Cleopatra, Mark Antony, Julius Caesar, Augustus Caesar and a host of historical luminaries in a tale worthy of Shakespeare as the Roman Republic goes down with the ships at Actium.
Show Notes:
1. “The War That Made the Roman Empire: Antony, Cleopatra, and Octavian at Actium” by Barry St...
2022-07-28 07:01:30 +0000 UTC View PostThe Atlantic Slave Trade mixes centuries of human bondage with violence, economics, commerce, geo-political competition, liberty, morality, injustice, revolution, tragedy and bloody reckonings. That sounds like a lot, yet this show merely scratches the surface of this enormous subject.
Pubdate: Sun, 6 Mar 2022
Publish Date: Tue, 1 Mar 2022 15:20:00 PST
Duration: 40:18 minutes – Size: 29.7mb
Show Description: Vladimir Putin has instantaneously reignited the Cold War by savagely attacking Ukraine this week. In response to requests, Dan shares a few thoughts.
Show Notes:
“Buchanan on Empire” - Common Sense 71 Publish date: Mon, 3...
Author, actor and senior fellow at the Modern War Institute Max Brooks joins Dan to discuss asymmetrical warfare and related societal issues.
Show Notes:
1. "On War" by Gen. Carl von Clausewitz
2. “The Art of War” by Sun Tsu
3. "War and Anti-War: Survival at the Dawn of the 21st Century” by Alvin and Heidi Toffler
Iranian-born historian John Ghazvinian's new book is about the history of the U.S.-Iranian relationship. He and Dan discuss coups, oil, religion, history, arms deals, Shahs, U.S. presidents and wars.
Iran, U.S., Britain, Russia, Soviet Union, Shah, Persia, Ayatollah, Khomeini, Iraq, oil, Iran-Iraq War, Operation Ajax, Mohammad Mosaddegh, 1...
2022-02-07 03:34:40 +0000 UTC View PostElon Musk and Bill Riley from SpaceX join Dan to discuss the underappreciated role of science and engineering in war. As you might imagine, military aircraft feature prominently in the conversation.
Show Notes
1. The Wages of Destruction: The Making and Breaking of the Nazi Economy by Adam Tooze 2. The Art Of War by Sun Tzu
3. On ...
Historian Dan Jones’ specialty is the Middle Ages. Dan Carlin adores the Middle Ages. Normans anyone?
Show notes:
1. Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages by Dan Jones
2. The Templars: The Rise and Spectacular Fall of God's Holy Warriors by Dan Jones
3. The Wars of the Roses: The Fall of the Plantagenets and th...
Author Ian W. Toll who has written extensively on the Pacific Theater in the Second World War joins Dan to put the finishing touches on the Supernova in the East subject matter.
Show notes:
1. Pacific Crucible: War at Sea in the Pacific, 1941–1942 by Ian W. Toll
2. The Conquering Tide: War in the Pacific Islands, 1942–...
Dan discusses his background in miniature wargaming and then talks to one of the architects of a popular Second World War themed video game about the genre, its development, growth and challenges.
Show Notes:
1. War Games through the Ages 3,000BC to 1,500AD by Donald F. Featherstone
2. How to Play War Games in Miniature: A Forg...
2021-08-09 17:47:10 +0000 UTC View Post
MacArthur’s return to the Philippines and an extended take on the battle of Leyte Gulf.
2021-06-30 19:39:54 +0000 UTC View Post