Anti-Social Studies

Emily Glankler
  • 4.9 (408)
  • History
  • Updated Weekly

History class, but make it make sense for your group chat. Anti-Social Studies is the history podcast for people who follow the news, have opinions, and never quite got the full story in school. Each season takes on a different slice of the past — World History, U.S. History, and the current events that are basically history happening in real time — and breaks it down for people walking in with zero background and zero patience for boring. No jargon, no gatekeeping, no assuming you already know who these people are or why any of this matters. Just the context you actually need, delivered like your favorite teacher going on a very fun tangent. Hosted by Emily Glankler — 12-year high school history teacher turned full-time history-explainer — Anti-Social Studies exists on one belief: the world would be a better place if everyone paid a little more attention in history class. Consider this your second chance. New episodes contextualize the chaos, one historical tangent at a time.

  1. 19h ago ·  Video

    Washington warned us about political parties. Nobody listened.

    George Washington's Farewell Address is basically a 1796 subtweet aimed at the entire rest of American history. He warned the country against "the baneful effects of the spirit of party" — and by the time he finished writing it, political parties had already formed. Nobody listened. Nobody has ever really listened. This clip is a segment from one of my live monthly History Lecture Party sessions — the Patreon series where I do a full deep-dive lecture (plus live Q&A) for subscribers every month. August's topic was the history of the political party "switch." Here's the arc: the ratification fight over the Constitution split the country into Federalists (strong central government, hi Hamilton) and Anti-Federalists (deeply suspicious of that same strong central government). That fight didn't go away after ratification — it just put on a suit and became the first real party system, with Hamilton's Federalists squaring off against Jefferson and Madison's Democratic-Republicans. Washington watched this happen from inside his own cabinet, hated it, warned everyone about it on his way out the door in 1796 — and then it got worse anyway. The Federalists eventually collapsed (turns out flirting with disloyalty during the War of 1812 will do that to a party), and the Democratic-Republicans ended up so dominant that historians call the period that followed the "Era of Good Feelings" — a name that is doing a lot of heavy lifting, because "good feelings" is not exactly what one-party dominance actually produced. Want the full lecture, live Q&A, and invites to future History Lecture Parties? That's a Patreon-exclusive perk — link below. www.patreon.com/antisocialstudies ???? antisocialstudies.org ???? Instagram: @antisocstudies TikTok: @antisocialstudies ???? Want the deeper dive on this era? My Course 1 (1491–1877) covers the founding and early republic in full: course website. #ushistory #foundingfathers #politicalparties #history #patreon

  2. 4d ago ·  Video

    Tradwives or, "The Cult of Domesticity with Better Lighting"

    The TradWife trend is not new. We just used to call it the Cult of Domesticity — and back then it didn't come with a ring light. Every few decades, America falls back in love with the idea that women, especially moms, belong at home. It's happening again right now with linen aprons and homemade sourdough, but if you've sat through a U.S. history class with me, you already know this movie. I've seen this film before, and I didn't like the ending. In this video I'm tracing the very old, very repetitive story behind the TradWife trend: from Republican Motherhood in the earliest days of the republic (when a mom's job was literally to raise virtuous citizens for the new nation), to the "New Woman" of the late 1800s who terrified everyone by wanting an education and a bicycle, to the Victorian "Cult of Domesticity" that decided the home was a woman's entire moral universe, to Rosie the Riveter — when the country suddenly needed women in factories and decided domesticity could wait — and then the hard pivot right back to the kitchen the second the war ended. Here's my actual argument: this isn't a coincidence, and it was never really about aesthetics. People in power — political, economic, whoever benefits from things staying exactly as they are — want stability. And historically, a "stable" society starts with a stable home. Moms are the lynchpin of that home: they set the routines, model the values, and raise the next generation of voters, workers, and consumers. A "traditional" home is a predictable home — predictable in how it votes, how it spends, how it makes decisions. And predictability is extremely good for anyone trying to hold onto power or make money. So every time that stability feels threatened — economically, politically, socially — you can set your watch to a cultural push back toward "traditional" womanhood. It happened after the Revolution. It happened at the turn of the 20th century. It happened the moment WWII ended. And it's happening again right now, just with better lighting. This isn't a takedown of anyone's personal choices about how they want to live. It's a look at why this specific aesthetic keeps getting culturally rewarded at very specific moments — and who actually benefits when it does. Topics include: Republican Motherhood; early women's education; the "New Woman"; Jane Addams; Mary Rozet Smith; Hull House; Godey's Lady's Book; Sarah Josepha Hale; Cult of Domesticity; Vassar College; suffrage; temperance; World War II; Rosie the Riveter; 1950s housewife; feminism; Gloria Steinem; Shirley Chisholm If you're into this kind of pattern-spotting, this is basically the whole reason this channel exists — history explains a lot more of the present than we give it credit for. ???? antisocialstudies.org ???? Instagram: @antisocstudies · TikTok: @antisocialstudies ???? Want the deeper dive? My self-paced U.S. History courses (1491–1877 / 1865–1945 / 1945–present) and classroom-ready curriculum PDFs cover every era in this video in a lot more depth: Online Classes: https://emily-glankler-s-school.teachable.com/l/products?sortKey=name&sortDirection=asc&page=1 Curriculum: https://www.antisocialstudies.org/category/curriculum #tradwife #womenshistory #ushistory #feminism #culturaldomesticity #gloriasteinem

  3. Aug 31

    The National Debt or, "Is $40 trillion a lot? It seems like a lot..."

    The national debt just hit $40 trillion. If the U.S. decided to pay that off at a cool $1 billion a year, we'd be debt-free in about 40,000 years — so, cool, normal, not concerning at all. This week we're digging into how we actually got here. Turns out America has basically never not been in debt — we owed money before we even finished writing the Constitution. We'll trace the whole wild ride: how Alexander Hamilton picked a fight with half the founding fathers over who should pay for the Revolutionary War, how Andrew Jackson briefly got the debt down to zero (and immediately triggered an economic crash), how FDR and a British economist named Keynes convinced the country that borrowing money could actually be a strategy, and how the debt has ballooned, shrunk, and ballooned again through World War II, the Reagan years, the Clinton surplus, and the 2008 financial crisis. Spoiler: debt itself isn't the villain of this story. What we borrowed for, how fast the economy was growing, and who ended up footing the bill — that's where things get interesting (and a little infuriating). By the end, you'll never hear a headline about the national debt the same way again. If this type of history is your thing, this is basically the appetizer version of what's covered — in a lot more depth — in my self-paced U.S. History courses or in the individual curriculum units if you're a teacher who wants classroom-ready materials. ???? antisocialstudies.org ???? Courses: emily-glankler-s-school.teachable.com ???? Teacher curriculum PDFs: antisocialstudies.org/category/curriculum ???? @antisocstudies (IG) · @antisocialstudies (TikTok)

  4. Mar 6 ·  Bonus

    A Brief History of Egypt

    Welcome to a special episode I've created for my Historical Travel Society members who are traveling to Egypt! Click here for my History of Egypt TIMELINE to follow along

  5. 11/30/2023

    Henry George or, "Emily is forced to discuss economics!" (with guest Mr. Beat)

    Henry George was a guy with two first names and a Progressive dream to level the growing inequality through a land value tax. Mr. Beat (of YouTube fame) teaches me everything I never knew I needed to know...

  6. 10/25/2023

    The 1968 Mexico City Olympics or, "Emily finally uses her graduate thesis!"

    This week I force Seema Rao (@artlust) to hear me explain the incredible pop art / indigenous design elements of the 1968 Mexico City Olympics, because SOMEONE besides me should read my graduate thesis... Follow Seema for all things aesthetic and art history on TikTok!

  7. 10/04/2023

    Porcelain or, "People have always liked pretty things" (with Seema Rao)

    This week Seema Rao (@artlust) is explaining to me why they entire freakin' world wanted porcelain so badly they conquered whole continents for a nice tea set. Follow Seema for all things aesthetic and art history on TikTok!

  8. 09/27/2023

    Smedley Butler or, "The Making and Breaking of America's Empire" (with author Jonathan M. Katz)

    This week I'm joined by Jonathan Katz, author of Gangsters of Capitalism: Smedley Butler, the Marines, and the Making and Breaking of America's Empire. On today's episode we talk about ALL of it: American imperialism, the Bonus Army March of WWI vets, an attempted fascist coup against FDR, and the Imperialist-With-A-Heart-Of-Gold (?) at the center of it all: Smedley Butler.

See All (86)

4.9
out of 5
408 Ratings

About

History class, but make it make sense for your group chat. Anti-Social Studies is the history podcast for people who follow the news, have opinions, and never quite got the full story in school. Each season takes on a different slice of the past — World History, U.S. History, and the current events that are basically history happening in real time — and breaks it down for people walking in with zero background and zero patience for boring. No jargon, no gatekeeping, no assuming you already know who these people are or why any of this matters. Just the context you actually need, delivered like your favorite teacher going on a very fun tangent. Hosted by Emily Glankler — 12-year high school history teacher turned full-time history-explainer — Anti-Social Studies exists on one belief: the world would be a better place if everyone paid a little more attention in history class. Consider this your second chance. New episodes contextualize the chaos, one historical tangent at a time.

Information

  • Creator
    Emily Glankler
  • Years Active
    2018 - 2026
  • Episodes
    86
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Copyright 2026 Anti-Social Studies
  • Show Website
    Anti-Social Studies

You Might Also Like