Medieval Morsels

Lucas Miller
  • 5.0 (1)
  • HISTORY

Medieval Morsels serves up bite-size, story-rich history from the Middle Ages—without the boring textbook vibe. Each episode explores the castles, conflicts, odd customs, everyday life, and “wait…that’s real?!” moments that made the medieval world so fascinating. Expect curious questions, fun facts, and surprising twists—from plague myths to manuscript secrets, knights to kitchen life. New episodes for history lovers, casual learners, and anyone who wants the Middle Ages explained with personality.

Episodes

  1. Castle Life: Not Just Knights and Banners - The Weird, Clever World Inside the Walls

    2D AGO

    Castle Life: Not Just Knights and Banners - The Weird, Clever World Inside the Walls

    Step past the knights and banners—because castle life was mostly smoke, schedules, and a whole lot of work. In this episode of Medieval Morsels, we tour the castle as it really functioned: a home, a workplace, a courthouse, and a warehouse all wrapped in stone walls. From the great hall to the kitchens, chambers, stables, and even the less-glamorous necessities, we’ll meet the people who kept the place running and bust a few Hollywood myths along the way. Castles weren’t just built for war—they were built for living, governing, and surviving. If this episode changed the way you picture medieval life, follow Medieval Morsels for more bite-sized history with a storytelling twist. And next time, we’ll dig even deeper into what made the Middle Ages feel real—messy, fascinating, and very human.

    22 min
  2. Books, Power, and Truth: How Manuscripts Shaped the Medieval Mind

    JAN 26

    Books, Power, and Truth: How Manuscripts Shaped the Medieval Mind

    Books, Power, and “Truth”: How Manuscripts Shaped the Medieval Mind In a world before printing presses and paperbacks, books weren’t casual objects—they were handmade technologies of authority. This episode explores how medieval manuscripts shaped what people could know, who controlled knowledge, and how “truth” was established through institutions, commentary, and tradition. We follow the manuscript as both a physical artifact (parchment, ink, illumination, binding) and a social force—one that organized education, reinforced power, and preserved (and sometimes transformed) ideas as they traveled across time and place. Along the way, we examine the culture of glossing and marginalia, where medieval readers literally wrote their thinking into the page, and we zoom in on two key case studies: the devotional Book of Hours and the university book economy—including strategies like the pecia system that helped meet growing demand for texts. Ultimately, this is a story about how knowledge worked in the Middle Ages: not as endless information, but as curated tradition—guarded, copied, debated, and authorized. In this episode: Why manuscripts were expensive, scarce, and politically meaningfulThe manuscript-making process: parchment, scripts, layout, illumination, bindingWho accessed books (and how oral reading expanded their reach)Commentary culture: glosses, scholastic methods, and layered authorityMarginalia as evidence of real readers and real intellectual lifeCase study: Books of Hours as devotion, identity, and statusCase study: universities and the pecia system (scaling book production)How manuscripts shaped medieval “truth” through institutions and interpretation Key terms: Manuscript • Parchment • Vernacular • Gloss/Marginalia • Scholasticism • Illumination • Book of Hours • Pecia

    16 min
  3. Treating the Plague: Medieval Medicine, Bad Air, and Desperate Remedies

    JAN 23

    Treating the Plague: Medieval Medicine, Bad Air, and Desperate Remedies

    In this follow-up to our Black Death episode, we step inside the medieval sickroom to answer a haunting question: what did people actually do to treat the plague? Without germ theory or antibiotics, medieval communities relied on the medical framework they had—humor theory, environmental medicine, and the belief that disease traveled through corrupted air (“miasma”). We explore the remedies that followed logically from that worldview: herb bundles and fumigation, vinegar cloths, bleeding and purging, and attempts to “draw out” plague swellings with poultices and lancing. We also discuss complex apothecary mixtures like theriac, and why many “treatments” were as much about restoring control and meaning as they were about curing illness. Along the way, we include a brief primary-source moment to hear how medieval witnesses described fear, isolation, and the collapse of ordinary care—and we close with what these treatments reveal about medieval knowledge, culture, and survival under pressure. In this episode: The medieval medical “operating system”: the four humorsMiasma and the war on “bad air”Common responses: herbs, incense, vinegar, and household preventionPhysician practices: bleeding, purging, and regimen (diet + behavior)Buboes and “drawing out” remedies: poultices and lancingTheriac and the medieval pharmacyWhat may have helped accidentally: isolation and supportive careNext up (vote for the follow-up): Why quarantine becomes “40 days”Plague doctors: myth vs. timelineDaily life during outbreaks—work, family, fear, and survival

    18 min
  4. The Plague in the Middle Ages - The Black Death and the World it Remade

    JAN 21

    The Plague in the Middle Ages - The Black Death and the World it Remade

    The Middle Ages weren’t just castles and knights—sometimes they were silence, fear, and a bell that wouldn’t stop ringing. In this episode of Medieval Morsels, we step into the 14th century to explore the Black Death: how it spread, what medieval people believed was causing it, and the strange (and sometimes surprisingly logical) ways they tried to survive. But this isn’t only a story about death—it’s a story about transformation. The plague reshaped work and wages, power and protest, faith and doubt, art and memory, leaving Europe permanently changed. Join us for a curious, story-rich look at the pandemic that didn’t just devastate the medieval world… it remade it.

    21 min
  • 4 Episodes

Ratings & Reviews

About

Medieval Morsels serves up bite-size, story-rich history from the Middle Ages—without the boring textbook vibe. Each episode explores the castles, conflicts, odd customs, everyday life, and “wait…that’s real?!” moments that made the medieval world so fascinating. Expect curious questions, fun facts, and surprising twists—from plague myths to manuscript secrets, knights to kitchen life. New episodes for history lovers, casual learners, and anyone who wants the Middle Ages explained with personality.

Information

  • Creator
    Lucas Miller
  • Years Active
    2K
  • Episodes
    4
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Show Website
    Medieval Morsels