340 episodes

Everywhere around us are echoes of the past. Those echoes define the boundaries of states and countries, how we pray and how we fight. They determine what money we spend and how we earn it at work, what language we speak and how we raise our children. From Wondery, host Patrick Wyman, PhD (“Fall Of Rome”) helps us understand our world and how it got to be the way it is.
New episodes come out Thursdays for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. Listen ad-free on Wondery+ or on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.

Tides of History Wondery

    • History
    • 4.5 • 15 Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

Everywhere around us are echoes of the past. Those echoes define the boundaries of states and countries, how we pray and how we fight. They determine what money we spend and how we earn it at work, what language we speak and how we raise our children. From Wondery, host Patrick Wyman, PhD (“Fall Of Rome”) helps us understand our world and how it got to be the way it is.
New episodes come out Thursdays for free, with 1-week early access for Wondery+ subscribers. Listen ad-free on Wondery+ or on Amazon Music with a Prime membership or Amazon Music Unlimited subscription.

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    The Birth of the Roman Republic

    The Birth of the Roman Republic

    This episode comes out for free on 06/13 and is available early and ad-free for Wondery+ subscribers.

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    In 509 BC, the last king of Rome - Tarquinius Superbus - was expelled from the city, and the Republic was born. But what do we actually know about the early years of the Republic? Not much, and what we do know is at odds with the much later traditions on which we tend to rely.

    Patrick's book is now available! Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook (read by Patrick) here: https://bit.ly/PWverge. And check out Patrick's new podcast The Pursuit of Dadliness! It’s all about “Dad Culture,” and Patrick will interview some fascinating guests about everything from tall wooden ships to smoked meats to comfortable sneakers to history, sports, culture, and politics. https://bit.ly/PWtPoD

    Listen to new episodes 1 week early, to exclusive seasons 1 and 2, and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App https://wondery.app.link/tidesofhistory

    The Greatest Dynasty of Medieval France: Interview with Professor Justine Firnhaber-Baker

    The Greatest Dynasty of Medieval France: Interview with Professor Justine Firnhaber-Baker

    It's been a while since Tides of History has gone to the Middle Ages, and a wonderful new book - House of Lilies: The Dynasty that Made Medieval France - provides us with the opportunity to return. Professor Justine Firnhaber-Baker is one of the world's leading experts on medieval France, and she joins the show to talk about her new book, the Capetian dynasty, and how medieval politics actually worked.




    Patrick's book is now available! Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook (read by Patrick) here: https://bit.ly/PWverge. And check out Patrick's new podcast The Pursuit of Dadliness! It’s all about “Dad Culture,” and Patrick will interview some fascinating guests about everything from tall wooden ships to smoked meats to comfortable sneakers to history, sports, culture, and politics. https://bit.ly/PWtPoD




    Listen to new episodes 1 week early, to exclusive seasons 1 and 2, and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App https://wondery.app.link/tidesofhistory

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    • 48 min
    Sicily, Defeat, and the End of the Athenian Empire

    Sicily, Defeat, and the End of the Athenian Empire

    The Peloponnesian War lasted for nearly 30 years, decades of ceaseless battles, sieges, and human misery that covered the whole of Greece. In the end, Athens' fate was decided not in Greece itself but in faraway Sicily, where the course of the war turned against Athens once and for all.




    Patrick's book is now available! Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook (read by Patrick) here: https://bit.ly/PWverge. And check out Patrick's new podcast The Pursuit of Dadliness! It’s all about “Dad Culture,” and Patrick will interview some fascinating guests about everything from tall wooden ships to smoked meats to comfortable sneakers to history, sports, culture, and politics. https://bit.ly/PWtPoD




    Listen to new episodes 1 week early, to exclusive seasons 1 and 2, and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App https://wondery.app.link/tidesofhistory

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    • 45 min
    Understanding the Alien World of Ancient Greece: Interview with Professor Greg Anderson

    Understanding the Alien World of Ancient Greece: Interview with Professor Greg Anderson

    It's often said that the past is a foreign country, where our basic assumptions about how the world is supposed to work don't apply. But what does that mean for the practice of history? Professor Greg Anderson has fascinating ideas about how to actually understand the people of the past on their terms, with specific regard to ancient Greece.




    Patrick's book is now available! Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook (read by Patrick) here: https://bit.ly/PWverge. And check out Patrick's new podcast The Pursuit of Dadliness! It’s all about “Dad Culture,” and Patrick will interview some fascinating guests about everything from tall wooden ships to smoked meats to comfortable sneakers to history, sports, culture, and politics. https://bit.ly/PWtPoD




    Listen to new episodes 1 week early, to exclusive seasons 1 and 2, and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App https://wondery.app.link/tidesofhistory

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    • 56 min
    The Peloponnesian War, Part 1: Plague, Attrition, and a Decade of Bloodshed

    The Peloponnesian War, Part 1: Plague, Attrition, and a Decade of Bloodshed

    When the Peloponnesian War between Athens and Sparta finally broke out in 431 BC, it was small conflicts on the fringes of the Greek world that pulled the two states into conflict. Thousands upon thousands would pay the price for that over the first decade of the war.




    Patrick's book is now available! Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook (read by Patrick) here: https://bit.ly/PWverge. And check out Patrick's new podcast The Pursuit of Dadliness! It’s all about “Dad Culture,” and Patrick will interview some fascinating guests about everything from tall wooden ships to smoked meats to comfortable sneakers to history, sports, culture, and politics. https://bit.ly/PWtPoD




    Listen to new episodes 1 week early, to exclusive seasons 1 and 2, and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App https://wondery.app.link/tidesofhistory

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    • 44 min
    The Athenian Empire and the Coming of the Peloponnesian War

    The Athenian Empire and the Coming of the Peloponnesian War

    The Peloponnesian War, the epic 30-year conflict between Athens and Sparta for control of Classical Greece, was a long time in coming. In fact, its roots went back to the Persian Wars, when Athens seized the opportunity to create an empire in the aftermath.




    Patrick's book is now available! Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook (read by Patrick) here: https://bit.ly/PWverge. And check out Patrick's new podcast The Pursuit of Dadliness! It’s all about “Dad Culture,” and Patrick will interview some fascinating guests about everything from tall wooden ships to smoked meats to comfortable sneakers to history, sports, culture, and politics. https://bit.ly/PWtPoD




    Listen to new episodes 1 week early, to exclusive seasons 1 and 2, and to all episodes ad free with Wondery+. Join Wondery+ for exclusives, binges, early access, and ad free listening. Available in the Wondery App https://wondery.app.link/tidesofhistory

    See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

    • 40 min

Customer Reviews

4.5 out of 5
15 Ratings

15 Ratings

M!ke Cash ,

Kill the Music

Probably a very fascinating podcast in terms of content, but I find it impossible to concentrate on the message when the message has to compete with cheesy, swelling, over-the-top video game background music.

The host is to be commended on his knowledge and enthusiasm, but his inability to resist engaging in seemingly endless strings of hypotheticals to set a scene is more than a little annoying, as is the tendency to lard the podcast with quotes. Just give a bibliography and I'll go read those other authors myself if I want to hear what they have to say.

The subject is fascinating on its own and the host's zeal can more than sell it to the listener. Hiring a "sound designer" who distracts the listener by having the music compete with the host was a counterproductive exercise in lily gilding.

The hypothetical setups and the heavily-used attributed direct quotations stylistically clash. It is as though he can't decide whether he is writing fan fiction or a footnoted research paper. Pick one.

Sad to say I'll be unsubscribing this podcast for the same reasons I unsubscribed his Roman history podcasts a few months ago, and just as quickly.

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