History Unplugged Podcast

Kennedy vs. Chester A. Arthur Stats of Fighters: Name: John F. Kennedy Height: 6’0 Weight: 175 Military experience: Lieutenant (navy). Served in combat during World War II. Received the Navy and Marine Corps Medal and the Purple Heart. Special abilities: Incredible endurance under extreme pain. Kennedy suffered Addison’s disease his entire life, causing terrible physical suffering in his joints and abdomen. The left side of his body was smaller than the right, producing chronic back pain. He wore a metal brace and used crutches or even a wheelchair when the press was out of view. Despite this, when in August 1943 his boat the PT-109 was ripped apart by a Japanese destroyer, Kennedy (now with a ruptured spinal disk) swam four hours with his crew to an island while towing an injured crewman by the life-jacket strap with his teeth. Name: Chester A. Arthur Height: 6’2 Weight: 225 Military experience: Brigadier General, Quartermaster General and Inspector General of the New York Militia before and during the Civil War. Special abilities: Master manipulator. He was a fixture in America’s post-Civil War corrupt political machine politics, gaining power through wheeling and dealing and doling out favors. Before becoming Garfield’s vice president, he ran the New York Custom House and could choose political candidates by throwing donations and volunteers at them. Even as a child he could order others to do his bidding.

Franklin Pierce vs. Millard Fillmore Stats of Fighters: Name: Franklin Pierce Height: 5’10 Weight: 145 Military experience: Brigadier General; New Hampshire Militia, 1831–46; Mexican–American War; commanded Infantry Brigade at Battle of Contreras, Battle of Churubusco, and the Assault on Mexico City. Special abilities: Stone-cold ruthlessness. Pierce fought at the end of the Mexican-American War and led a brigade despite being thrown from his horse and injured on the battlefield. He continued to bark orders while completely immobile. While president, Pierce was charged with running over a woman with his horse; the case was thrown out due to a lack of evidence. He was also a chronic alcoholic praised by his opponents as “the victor of many a hard-fought bottle.” Name: Millard Fillmore Height: 5’9 Weight: 165 Military experience: Major, New York State Militia; Served in New York Militia in 1820s and 1830s; Organized Union Continentals home guard unit during the Civil War. Special abilities: The power of invisibility on account of being utterly forgettable. The thirteenth president was chosen as Taylor’s vice president only on account of being a Northeasterner. He failed to quell the oncoming Civil War. In that battle he formed a forty-five-man militia, but the only action they saw was marching in parades.

Teddy Roosevelt vs. John Adams Stats of Fighters: Name: Theodore Roosevelt Height: 5’10 Weight: 220 Military experience: Colonel, U.S. Army.New York National Guard, 1882 to 1886, captain and company commander. Spanish–American War service as second in command and then commander of the 1st United States Volunteer Cavalry (Rough Riders). Special abilities: Being the world’s most interesting man. Roosevelt was a champion intramural boxer in college, practiced judo while president, worked as a rancher in the Dakota territories and got in fist-fights with cowboys, arrested outlaws, gave a ninety-minute speech after being shot in the chest by a would-be assassin, and explored an uncharted river in the Amazon following his failed presidential bid for the Bull Moose Party. Name: John Adams Height: 5’7 1/2 Weight: 175 Military experience: None Special abilities: Supreme self-assurance. He defended the five British soldiers guilty of the Boston Massacre in 1770 in the city itself, the hotbed of anti-British sentiment, and won the case. He can also intimidate any opponent by his hideous ugliness. The opposition called him a hermaphrodite “which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.”

Calvin Coolidge vs. Chester A. Arthur Stats of Fighters: Name: Calvin Coolidge Height: 5’10 Weight: 150 Military experience: None Special abilities: Extreme caution. Coolidge would not make any hasty moves in a fight. However, he might not make any moves. He was chronically shy and feared meeting strangers well into adulthood. Coolidge’s health was little better. He suffered from chronic respiratory ailments. As president he underwent frequent asthma attacks, hay fever, bronchitis, and stomach upset. Coolidge coughed so much that he feared he had tuberculosis. Name: Chester A. Arthur Height: 6’2 Weight: 225 Military experience: Brigadier General, Quartermaster General and Inspector General of the New York Militia before and during the Civil War. Special abilities: Master manipulator. He was a fixture in America’s post-Civil War corrupt political machine politics, gaining power through wheeling and dealing and doling out favors. Before becoming Garfield’s vice president, he ran the New York Custom House and could choose political candidates by throwing donations and volunteers at them. Even as a child he could order others to do his bidding.

Millard Fillmore vs. Martin Van Buren Stats of Fighters: Name: Millard Fillmore Height: 5’9 Weight: 165 Military experience: Major, New York State Militia; Served in New York Militia in 1820s and 1830s; Organized Union Continentals home guard unit during the Civil War. Special abilities: The power of invisibility on account of being utterly forgettable. The thirteenth president was chosen as Taylor’s vice president only on account of being a Northeasterner. He failed to quell the oncoming Civil War. In that battle he formed a forty-five-man militia, but the only action they saw was marching in parades.   Name: Martin Van Buren Height: 5’6 Weight: 165 Military experience: None Special abilities: Master manipulator. He was known as the “little magician” or the “red fox” for his ability to control and mastermind elections. In 1832 he formed a political machine called the Albany Regency that controlled New York politics for years, rigging elections.

John Adams vs. John Quincy Adams Stats of Fighters: Name: John Adams Height: 5’7 1/2 Weight: 175 Military experience: None Special abilities: Supreme self-assurance. He defended the five British soldiers guilty of the Boston Massacre in 1770 in the city itself, the hotbed of anti-British sentiment, and won the case. He can also intimidate any opponent by his hideous ugliness. The opposition called him a hermaphrodite “which has neither the force and firmness of a man, nor the gentleness and sensibility of a woman.” Name: John Quincy Adams Height: 5’7 1/2 Weight: 175 Military experience: None Special abilities: Extreme versatility. He was the man of the house at age eight when his father left and the Revolutionary War happened right outside his house. He went with the elder Adams on his European diplomatic journeys at age 14, serving as private secretary and interpreter for the American minister to Russia. John Quincy Adams also swam the Potomac every morning, naked, at 5 a.m., even as a fifty-eight-year-old president.

Welcome to Presidential Fight Club: A battle royale among all 44 men who served as the U.S. president. This podcast is hosted by two history professors: Scott Rank and James Early. We are going to narrate each of the one-on-one fights between presidents in 44 short podcast episodes. Here's how the fight will go down. All the presidents are divided into four groups of eleven. The groups are based on the location of the presidents’ home states. Within each group, we have given them a “seed,” just like in the NCAA basketball tournament. The seed was based on how well we think they would do in hand-to-hand combat at about the age of 35 (no, FDR, won’t be fighting as a polio-riddled man in a wheelchair). In each fight we discuss the physical abilities of each president (their height, weight, etc.), military experience, and special abilities that would help them win. Did they have combat training? Were they generals? Were they wrestling champions in their town or county?

A special announcement about a special series that will be running this December - a battle royale among all 44 U.S. presidents!

Language not only defines humans as a species, placing us head and shoulders above even the most proficient animal communicators, but it also beguiles us with its endless mysteries. For example... How did different languages come to be? Why isn't there just a single language? How does a language change, and when it does, is that change indicative of decay or growth? How does a language become extinct?   In today's episode I speak with Dr. John McWhorter, a linguist from Columbia University. He, addresses these and other issues, such as how a single tongue spoken 150,000 years ago has evolved into the estimated 6,000 languages used around the world today. We go broad and deep. For the broad, we explore language families, starting with Indo-European, comprising languages from India to Ireland including English. Other language families discussed are Semitic, Sino-Tibetan, Austronesian, Bantu, and Native American. This gets us into the heated debate over the first language. For the deep, we get into pidgins and creoles. When people learn a language quickly without being explicitly taught, they develop a pidgin version of it. Then if they need to use this pidgin on an everyday basis it becomes a real language, a creole. Some people argue that Black English is a creole, and Professor McWhorter really gets into this issue.    

In the wreckage of World War 1, Germany was slapped with a war reparations bill worth billions and the loss of much of its land. This and many other reasons launched the Second World War. 

The reasons for the Great War go way beyond the assassination of Franz Ferdinand. Learn about the causes of one of humanity's most vicious wars.

Hannibal's crossing of the Alps with war elephants is considered one of the most daring move of the Punic Wars. But is it professionally accepted among historians that he actually crossed the Alps, and if so, is there any physical evidence?

When did the ancient Greeks stop making armies or supplying fighting men? One moment they're beating up the the Persian empire and conquering the known world, and the next, they're slave tutors for the Romans or philosophers in their major cities.  Learn about why the Greeks dominated the Eastern Mediterranean in the ancient world and why their star fell against the Romans.

You and your ancestor from 1,000 years ago have almost nothing in common. Your clothes are different. Your worship rituals are different. Your thoughts about the opposite sex are definitely different. Almost the only similarity is that both of you are driven to obtain food. In fact, one could say that civilization itself began in the quest for food. Epicure Jean-Anthelme Brillat-Savarin said it best: “Gastronomy governs the whole life of man.” In this episode, Professor Ken Albala of the University of the Pacific puts the subject of food and its importance in history on the table. Ken has studied widely on the types of cuisine that would be featured at a Roman feast, a medieval banquet, or a Renaissance Italian civic celebration. He’s ground Italian flour to make the sort of bread one would eat in Pompeii. He’s made stewed rabbit in a homemade clay pot the way an Elizabethean peasant would. He hasn’t tried field-mouse-on-a-stick (a popular Roman delicacy) but probably not for lack of trying. In this episode we discuss How Roman food reflected social rank, wealth, and sophistication The Middle Ages produced some of history’s most outlandish and theatrical presentations of food, such as gilded boars’ heads; “invented” creatures, mixing parts of different animals; and cooked peacocks spewing flames. The sophistication and complexity of Renaissance-era food culture in the writings of Platina, Ficino, and Messisbugo, and the extravagance of banquets at the court of Ferrara. The aesthetics of French 17th-century cookery, based in refinement and pureness of flavors and study four Gallic cookbooks that revolutionized culinary history. In the 21st century, the phenomenon of “molecular gastronomy”—technology-enhanced food creations designed to titillate and amaze the palate.

The Electoral college is one of the most confusing—and, after the 2016 election, contentious—parts of American democracy. After losing two of the past five presidential races in the Electoral College (EC), Democrats are determined to never let it happen again. And many Americans—on both the left and the right—find it to be a confusing and antiquated system we would do well to get rid of.   But others think it's an indispensible part of American democracy. One of them is today's guest, Tara Ross, a legal scholar and author of The Indispensable Electoral College: How the Founders’ Plan Saves Our Country from Mob Rule. Tara argues the EC is neither outdated nor unfair—and the stability of the United States depends on it.   She argues the Founding Fathers knew what they were doing. They ingeniously balanced the will of the majority and the interests of minorities, avoiding the instability that has bedeviled every other democracy.   In this interview we discuss:   Why the Electoral College safeguards national unity How the Electoral College prevents political crises in tight elections How the Founders came up with the Electoral College—and why they thought it was so important Why the Electoral Colege was meant to be more important than the popular vote Why the Electoral College doesn’t favor one party over the other Why the Electoral College is inappropriately—and incorrectly—labeled a “relic of slavery”       ABOUT TARA ROSS   Tara Ross has spent much of her legal career studying and defending the Electoral College. She is the author of two previous books, Enlightened Democracy: The Case for the Electoral College and We Elect a President: The Story of Our Electoral College and her tutorial “Do You Understand the Electoral College?” is one of Prager University’s most popular videos ever, with more than fifty million views. She has written for the National Law Journal, USA Today, the Washington Times, National Review, and the Weekly Standard.   RESOURCES FOR THIS EPISODE The Indispensable Electoral College: How the Founders' Plan Saves Our Country from Mob Rule  Tara Ross's website