Episode 136: What’s The Deal with St. Paul?

• In Our Time. 2009. St Paul. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00kjk8z 

• Karen Armstrong. 2015. St. Paul: The Apostle We Love to Hate. 

• Acts and Letters of St. Paul. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Acts%201&version=NIV 

• Tom Wright. 2018. Paul: A Biography. 

• Bruce W. Longnecker. (ed). 2020. The New Cambridge Companion to St. Paul. 

• Marko Marina. 2025. Pauline Epistles in Order (With Summaries) https://www.bartehrman.com/pauline-epistles/

Episode 135: What’s the Deal with Switzerland?

• https://www.ow.ch/_docn/57539/Text_und_Uebersetzung_Chronik_Weisses_Buch.PDF 

• Andreas Fankhauser: "Helvetic Republic", in: Historical Dictionary of Switzerland (HLS), version from 2006 (article from the HLS print version, edited on 27.01.2011). Online: https://hls-dhs-dss.ch/de/articles/009797/2011-01-27/, consulted on 24.07.2026.  

• Roman Studer (2008). When did the Swiss get so rich?: comparing living standards in Switzerland and Europe, 1800-1913. Journal of European Economic History, 37(2), 405-452. https://www.oberrieden.ch/sites/default/files/2023-04/92_wann-wurde-die-schweiz-so-reich.pdf 

• Guex, Sébastien. “The Origins of the Swiss Banking Secrecy Law and Its Repercussions for Swiss Federal Policy.” The Business History Review 74, no. 2 (2000): 237–66. https://doi.org/10.2307/3116693.  

• Sherman, Gordon E. “The Neutrality of Switzerland.” The American Journal of International Law 12, no. 2 (1918): 241–50. https://doi.org/10.2307/2188141. 

• Jessi Jezewska Stevens 2026. “Could Switzerland Become the First Country to Cap its Population? The New Yorker June 8 2026. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2026/06/15/could-switzerland-become-the-first-country-to-limit-its-population 

Episode 134: What’s the Deal with Marcus Camillus?

Sources

• Plutarch Life of Camillus https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Camillus*.html#ref2 

• Livy The History of Rome Book 5 https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Liv.+5+1&fromdoc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0026 

• Mary Beard. 2015. SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome. 

• Mark Hyden. 2023. Marcus Furius Camillus: A Life of Rome’s Second Founder.

Episodes 132-133: What’s the Deal with Maximilian I of Mexico?

• Edward Shawcross. 2021. The Last Emperor of Mexico: The Dramatic Story of the Hapsburg Archduke Who Created A Kingdom in the New World.

• M.M. McAllen. 2014. Maximilian and Carlota: Europe's Last Empire in Mexico.

• Raymond Jonas. 2024. Habsburgs on the Rio Grande: The Rise and Fall of the Second Mexican Empire.

Episode 130: Short Answer Questions

• Alan Davidson et al. 2014. The Oxford Companion to Food 

• Andrew D. Blechman. Pigeons: The Fascinating Saga of the World’s Most Revered and Reviled Bird. 

• Matt. Soniak. 2016. The Origins of Our Misguided Hatred for Pigeons. https://www.audubon.org/magazine/origins-our-misguided-hatred-pigeons 

• Contemporary Reports of the Great Frost of 1684-84 https://www.pastpresented.info/frost1683.htm 

• Hans Beck. 2012. Cursus Honorum, Roman. In Roger S. Bagnall et al. (eds) The Encyclopedia of Ancient History.

• Frank Sear. 2006. Roman Theatres: An Architectural Study.

Episode 129: What’s the Deal with Roman Triumphs?

• Eder, Walter 2006. “Triumph, Triumphal procession”, in: Brill’s New Pauly, Antiquity volumes edited by: Hubert Cancik and , Helmuth Schneider, English Edition by: Christine F. Salazar, Classical Tradition volumes edited by: Manfred Landfester, English Edition by: Francis G. Gentry.

• Mary Beard. 2006. The Roman Triumph. 

• H.S. Versnel. 1970. Triumphus: An Inquiry into the Origin, Development and Meaning of the Roman Triumph. 

• Fasti Triumphalis. https://www.attalus.org/translate/fasti.html

Episode 128: What’s the Deal with Ranavalona and the Kingdom of Madagascar?

https://www.africanbiographies.com/ranavalona

• Paula Akpan. 2025. When We Ruled: The Rise and Fall of Twelve African Queens. 

• History of Africa 4:21: How Mad was the Mad Queen of Madagascar? https://historyofafricapodcast.blogspot.com/2023/09/s4e21-how-mad-was-mad-queen-of.html 

• Stephen Ellis. 2002. Witch-Hunting in Central Madagascar 1828-1861. Past & Present. 2002;175(1):90-123.

• Gwyn Campbell. 2005. An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750–1895: The Rise and Fall of an Island Empire.

• Stephen Ellis and Solofo Randrianja. 2009. Madagascar: A Short History. 

• Rachel A. Rakotonirina.  2000. Re-Reading Missionary Publications: The case of European and Malagasy Martyrologies, 1837-1937. Studies in Church History Subsidia , Volume 13: Missions and Missionaries , pp. 157 - 169

• Patreonhyiamu: Gwyn Campbell's Numerical Troubles https://www.patreon.com/c/historyofafrica/posts 

Episode 127: What’s the Deal with Ancient Stoicism?

Sources

• William O. Stephens. Stoic Ethics. In Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/stoiceth/ 

• Brad Inwood, ed., 2003. The Cambridge Companion to the Stoics,

• Brad Innwood. 2018. Stoicism: A Very Short Introduction. 

• Brad Innwood. 1999. ‘Stoicism’ in David Furley (ed.) The Routledge History of Philosophy Volume II: From Aristotle to Augustine, pp. 222-252.

Episode 126: What’s the Deal with the Spartans?

Sources

• Andrew Baylis. 2025. Sparta: The Rise and Fall of an Ancient Superpower.

• Andrew Baylis. 2022. The Spartans: A Very Short Introduction

• Bret Devereaux. 2019-2022. This Isn’t Sparta (7 Parts) https://acoup.blog/2019/08/16/collections-this-isnt-sparta-part-i-spartan-school/ 

• Paul Cartledge. 2003. The Spartans. 

Primary:

• Xenophon. Constitution of the Spartans.

• Herodotus. Thermopylae in Histories begins Life of Lycurgus.

• Plutarch. Life of Lycurgus. https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Lycurgus*.html

Episode 125: What’s the Deal with the Tynwald?

• George Broderick. 2003.  Tynwald: a Manx cult-site and institution of pre-Scandinavian origin? https://web.archive.org/web/20141213041925/http://dbweb.liv.ac.uk/manxstudies/sm/articles/gb.htm#1 

• Official Tynwald Site https://www.tynwald.org.im/about 

• Jonathan King. 2013. The Isle of Man: Tynwald. In Nicolas D.J Baldwin (ed.) The Legislatures of Small States: A Comparative Study. 

• E.H. Stenning. 1951. The Isle of Man. County Books Series. 

• Jennifer Jane Woodcock. 2001. In search of a cultural identity: A study of the Manx Bronze Age in its Irish Sea context. Vol 2. The Appendices. Appendix I: A Gazetteer of Sites, Monuments and Cultural Material of the Manx Bronze Age. https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/3176197/1/250560_vol2.pdf  

Episode 122-124: The Medici

Sources

• Mary Hollingsworth. 2017. The Family Medici: The Hidden History of the Medici Dynasty. 

• Mary Hollingsworth. 2025. Catherine De Medici: The Serpent Queen. 

• Catherine Fletcher. 2016. The Black Prince of Florence: The Spectacular Life and Treacherous World of Alessandro de’ Medici

• Christopher Hibbert. 1974. The Rise and Fall of the House of Medici. 

• Paul Strathern. 2017. The Medici: Money, Power and Ambition in the Italian Renaissance. 

Episode 121: Aiofe MacMurrough and Isabelle de Clare

Sources

• Marie Therese Flanagan. 2009. Aife, Aoife, Eva. Dictionary of Irish Biography https://www.dib.ie/biography/aife-aoife-eva-a0069 

• David Beresford, Isabella Marshal. Dictionary of Irish Biography https://www.dib.ie/biography/marshal-isabella-a5461 

• The National Gallery of ireland. The Marriage of Aiofe and Strongbow. https://www.nationalgallery.ie/what-we-do/collections-and-research/conservation/marriage-strongbow-and-aoife-history 

• Richard Lomas. 2022. The Normans in Ireland, Leinster 1167-1247.

• Paddy Nary. 2024. The Wife’s Tale, Isabel Marshal and Ireland (Radio Talk) https://kilkennyarchaeologicalsociety.ie/the-wifes-tale-isabel-marshal-and-ireland/ 

• Julia A. Hickey. 2024. William Marshal’s Wife: Isabel de Clare, Woman of Influence. 

• The History of William Marshall. Trans. Nigel Bryant (2016). 

• Marie Therese Flanagan. 2019. ‘Negotiating across legal and cultural borders: Aife, daughter of Diarmait Mac Murchada, king of Leinster, and marriage, motherhood and widowhood in twelfth-century Ireland and England’ Perita 25. Pp.71-95.

Episode 120: Who Were the Merovingians?

• Merovingian Family Tree https://www.reddit.com/r/UsefulCharts/comments/1d4bneh/family_tree_of_the_merovingians_monarchs_of_the/#lightbox 

• Extracts from Gregory of Tours’ History of the Franks https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/gregory-hist.asp 

• The Chronicle of Fredegar (PDF) https://almuslih.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/Wallace-Hadrill-J-Fourth-Book-of-the-Chronicle-.pdf 

• Shelley Puhak. 2022. The Dark Queens: The Bloody Rivalry that Forged the Medieval World. 

• Ian Wood. 1994. The Merovingian Kingdoms 450-751. 

• E.T. Dailey. 2022. Queens, Concubines and Consorts: Gregory of Tours and Women of the Medieval Elite

• Emma Southon. 2018. Marriage, Sex and Death: The Family and the Fall of the Roman West.

Episode 119: Who Was Imhotep? (Copy)

• Jamieson B. Harry. 1926. Imhotep: The Egyptian God of Medicine. (Republished 2011)

• Chris Naughton. 2019. Searching for the Lost Tombs of Egypt. 

• Julia Troche. Death, Power and Apotheosis in Ancient Egypt: The Old and Middle Kingdoms

• Dietrich Wilding. 1977. Egyptian Saints: Deification in Pharaonic Egypt. 

• Song of the Harper: https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/harper-song/ 

• Roger Luckhurst. (2010), The mummy's curse: a study in rumour. Critical Quarterly, 52: 6-22. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8705.2010.01948.x

• Jasmine Day. 2006. The Mummy’s Curse: Mummy-Mania in the English-Speaking World. 

• David Robson, 2012. The Mummy.

• Barking mad website about Imhotep being Joseph of the amazing technicolour Dreamcoat Fame. https://josephandisraelinegypt.wordpress.com/2014/01/23/the-tomb-of-imhotep-found-the-coffin-was-empty-and-orientated-to-the-north/ 

Episode 118: Why is Charles II Our Favourite King?

• https://www.londonmuseum.org.uk/collections/london-stories/frost-fairs-festivities-frozen-river-thames/  

• Claire Jackson. 2016. Charles II: The Star King. Penguin Monarchs Series. 

• Linda Porter. 2020. Mistresses: Sex and Scandal at the Court of Charles II. 

• Ronald Hutton. 1989. Charles II: King of England, Scotland and Ireland.

• https://horriblehistoriestv.wixsite.com/horriblehistoriestv/song-charles-ii-king-of-bling 

Episode 117: Did Humans Develop Beer before Bread?

https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/bji698/is_there_now_a_scholarly_consensus_or_whether/

• Grosman L. and Munro, N.D. 2017. ‘The Natufian Culture: The Harbinger of Food-Producing Societies.’ In: Enzel Y, Bar-Yosef O, eds. Quaternary of the Levant: Environments, Climate Change, and Humans. Cambridge University Press, 699-708.

• A. Arranz-Otaegui, L. Gonzalez Carretero, M.N. Ramsey, D.Q. Fuller, & T. Richter, 2018. ‘Archaeobotanical evidence reveals the origins of bread 14,400 years ago in northeastern Jordan,’ Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 115 (31) 7925-7930

• Zeldovich, L. 2019. ‘Did Humans Once Live by Beer Alone? An October Fest Tale.’ JSTOR Daily. https://daily.jstor.org/did-humans-once-live-by-beer-alone-an-oktoberfest-tale/ 

• Li Liu, Jiajing Wang, Danny Rosenberg, Hao Zhao, György Lengyel, Dani Nadel, 2018. ‘Fermented beverage and food storage in 13,000 y-old stone mortars at Raqefet Cave, Israel: Investigating Natufian ritual feasting, Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports,’ 21 783-793,

• Braidwood, Robert J., et al. 1953. ‘Symposium: Did Man Once Live by Beer Alone?’ American Anthropologist, 55 (4), 515–26. 

• Hayden, B., Canuel, N. and Shanse, J. 2012. ‘What was Brewing in the Natufian? An Archaeological Assessment of Brewing Technology in the Epipaleolithic.’ Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 20 (1), 102-150. 

• Juan Ibáñez, Patricia Anderson, Amaia Arranz-Otaegui et al. The Evolution of Plant Harvesting at The Dawn of Agriculture: Perspectives from Sickle Gloss Texture Analyses, 04 January 2021, PREPRINT (Version 1) available at Research Square [https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-136472/v1] 

Episode 116: What Were the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World?

• Tim Parkin’s Idiosyncratic Guide to Researching the Seven Wonders: https://web.archive.org/web/20041011114644/http://www.clas.canterbury.ac.nz/wonders.html 

• Bettany Hughes. 2024. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

• Peter A. Clayton and Martin J. Price. (eds). 1988. The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World

Episode 115: What’s the Deal with Eleanor of Aquitane

• Alison Weir. 1999. Eleanor of Aquitaine: By the Wrath of God, Queen of England 

• Ralph V. Turner. 2009. Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of France, Queen of England. 

• You’re Dead to Me on Eleanor of Aquitaine https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p087r8kb

• Rex Factor Episodes on Eleanor of Aquitaine https://open.spotify.com/episode/6AxKtfNxryCKdP6dfPz3xt

• Karen Sullivan. 2023. Eleanor of Aquitaine, As It Was Said: Truth and Tales about The Medieval Queen.

Episode 114: Was Pope Joan Real?

• Peter Stanford. 1999. The She Pope: A Quest for the Truth Behind the Mystery of Pope Joan. 

• Emily Maguire. 2025. Rapture. 

• Thomas X. Noble. 1999. The Legend of Pope Joan: In Search of the Truth by Peter Stanford (review). The Catholic Historical Review 85 (4), 603-4

• Thomas X. Noble. 2013. Why Pope Joan? The Catholic Historical Review 99 (2), 219-38

• Kirkus. 1999. Review of The Legend of Pope Joan. https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/peter-stanford/the-legend-of-pope-joan/. 

• Alain Boureau. 2001. The Myth of Pope Joan (trans. Lydia G. Cochrane). 

• Emmanuil Roidis. 1979. La Papessa Giovanna.

• The chairs in the Vatican: https://www.flickr.com/photos/redreplicant/5233270697

Episode 113: (Ant)Arctic Exploration Gone Wrong

• Frank Hurley’s Photos of the Endurance Expidition https://www.australiangeographic.com.au/history-culture/2015/01/gallery-frank-hurleys-antarctic-images-of-shackleton/ 

• Timeline and Map of the Endurance Expedition https://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/History/Ernest_Shackleton_map_time_line.php 

• John Franklin (1823) Narrative of a journey to the shores of the Polar Sea, in the years 1819, 20, 21, and 22 https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/ssd?id=uc1.c106106342&seq=1 

• Photos from the Andree Balloon Expedition https://web.archive.org/web/20070930154931/http://www.zwoje-scrolls.com/zwoje41/text08p.htm 

• Riddenburgh Beau (2018). Into the Mists: SA Andree’s Balloon Expedition Towards the North Pole. 

• Alfred Lansing (1959). Endurance: Shackleton’s Incredible Voyage.