World History by the Numbers
The History Fangirl Podcast
In this episode, I chat with Daniel Hoyer from Seshat about looking at history through a statistical lens. We discuss the and his new book, Figuring Out the Past: The 3,495 Vital Statistics that Explain World History. Let's Stay in Touch! You can join the conversation in our Facebook Group, , or come say hi on ! My Travel Websites - Culture & History Travel Guides in the USA, Europe, and Beyond - Balkan Travel Blog - Travel in Oklahoma & Route 66 The theme music for the podcast is "Places Unseen" by Lee Rosevere.
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Veliko Tarnovo: Bulgaria's Medieval Capital
The History Fangirl Podcast
In this episode, I chat with Eric Halsey from the Bulgarian History Podcast about the hidden gem of Veliko Tarnovo. This once-important Bulgarian city is one of the most picturesque in Europe, and yet not many outside of Bulgaria know much about it. You can find Eric's podcast Let's Stay in Touch! You can join the conversation in our Facebook Group, , or come say hi on ! More on Veliko Tarnovo: If you are planning to visit Veliko Tarnovo, here are our Veliko Tarnovo travel guides. My Travel Websites - Culture & History Travel Guides in the USA, Europe,...
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Stalking Chernobyl
The History Fangirl Podcast
Yes, it's been two years, and for that I'm very sorry! But I'm back with new episodes next week. In the meantime, enjoy this interview on Chernobyl I did a few weeks ago with Darmon Richter, the author of the new book Chernobyl, a Stalker's Guide. The theme music for the podcast is "Places Unseen" by Lee Rosevere.
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The Great Kazakh Famine
The History Fangirl Podcast
On today’s episode of the History Fangirl Podcast, we talk with renowned travel blogger Megan Starr, whom we spoke to a few months back about Kiev. But this week, we’re talking in person, in Kazakhstan, at the site of the memorial to the Great Kazakh Famine, a historical event which not many people know about in the West but looms large in the history of Kazakhstan. And, we both have recovered from the Kazakhstani flu that has been going around, so we’re ready to get rolling!
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The World Nomad Games
The History Fangirl Podcast
This week’s episode is something a little different. I am in Isyk-Kul, Kyrgyzstan, covering the World Nomad Games, a festival of sports that’s sort of like the Olympics for nomadic peoples. The sports, though, are way more interesting than, say, basketball. My first interview this episode is with the co-captain of the American Kok Boru team (I’ll explain later), and the sports include horse archery, tug of war, arm wrestling and more.
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The Massacre at Srebrenica
The History Fangirl Podcast
Last year, Alex Cruikshanks came on the show to talk about Belgrade, a really detailed and wide-ranging episode. And we had such a great time, he’s back again to talk about more recent history in Yugoslavia, specifically the brutal massacre at Srebrenica. Yugoslavia, as anyone who was alive in the 1990s knows, was falling apart in the early part of the decade. The Bosnian War was raging, and in 1995, some 8,000 Bosniaks, mostly men and boys, were killed.
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The Strangely Competitive History of the CN Tower
The History Fangirl Podcast
Every city has that one landmark that seems like a tourist trap and practically begs you not to visit. For me, that was the CN Tower in Toronto. I didn’t go near it the first time I visited the city, and the second time, this past July, I planned to steer clear. But it turns out the joke was on me, as the CN Tower is an amazing building with a funny, competitive and ingenious bit of Canadian history.
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Traveling the Green Book
The History Fangirl Podcast
In the first half of the 20th century, the automobile became a symbol of freedom to American families. Middle-class families able to afford their own car were no longer restricted to train or bus timetables, and the great American road trip was born. But for black Americans, this new freedom collided with old hatred, prejudices and dangers. African Americans began using “the Green Book,” a guide to places that were friendly to them along their journey.
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The Best of The History Fangirl Podcast's First Year
The History Fangirl Podcast
We did it! Next week will mark a full year of publishing The History Fangirl Podcast, and this week marks the 50th episode, so it felt like the right time to do a retrospective of the first 12 months of the show. My producer picked a handful of his favorite clips (it was too hard for me to pick!) from the past year, and so this episode looks back on some of the fun and fascinating stories my amazing guests have told.
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Philadelphia's Elfreth's Alley
The History Fangirl Podcast
Philadelphia is by far one of my favorite American cities. I used to live there and run a photo-a-day website there, and it’s one of the best cities to live in if you’re a history buff. On today’s episode, we talk about the amazing Elfreth’s Alley, the oldest continually lived-on residential street in the country (hard to fit that on a title belt, but still pretty cool). I had the chance to take a tour of the street with the Elfreth’s Alley Association’s Board Member Brittany Thomas.
info_outlineOn today’s episode of the History Fangirl Podcast, we’re talking with someone who has arguably the coolest job in the field of history, and one you may not have even known about. My guest today is Fergus Brady, the archives manager at the Guinness Storehouse. The archives contain everything about one of the most famous beer companies in the world, including the founding documents of Guinness signed in 1759. As Fergus tells us, there’s a great tradition of record keeping within the Guinness company, and this episode we take a look at one of the most beloved companies in the world, and its place in Irish history.
A historic brewery needs a brewery historian
In case you needed any more evidence that Guinness is a cool company, Fergus told me that when the company decided to open the storehouse to visitors, it should also create historical exhibits about the company and its place in the country. So its staff of archivists creates and manage the exhibits. And in fact, Fergus told me that Guinness is opening a brewery with an exhibit in Baltimore, Maryland, the first time Guinness has had a brewery in the States since 1954. So I had to ask him why Baltimore and not the famously Irish cities of Boston and New York.
The #1 tourist destination in Ireland
The Storehouse was built at the turn of the 20th century, and as Fergus tells me in this interview, it wasn’t actually built for storing anything. Its first use was as a fermentation house (“store” in brewing lingo means to add yeast), and it was the first building erected in Ireland in the Chicago style, with steel girders rather than the walls holding the building up. The Storehouse is actually the number one tourist attraction in Ireland, with 1.7 million people visiting in 2017. If you’re headed to Ireland and it’s not on your itinerary well, you might be the only one.
The founding father of Guinness
Arthur Guinness, the man who started the famed brewing company, was born in 1725. There are a lot of myths about Arthur, of course, but Fergus sets us straight on this episode. And while Guinness may be best known as the “black stuff” as Fergus calls it, when Arthur started the brewery in 1759 he was actually brewing red ale. And then in the 1770s, he started brewing porter. And the porter became so popular that in 1779 he stopped brewing red ale altogether and his “stout” became his signature brew.
Ireland through the Guinness Archives
It’s impossible not to view the modern history of Ireland without factoring Guinness into the story. Fergus told me about Guinness during World War I, when not only did Guinness workers fight in the war, but barrels of the stout may have saved sailors’ live. A steamship had been torpedoed and the ship was going down, but according to the sailors, the barrels of Guinness floated up and actually helped them survive the attack. If you’re interested in Irish history or the history of the darkest beer around, you have to listen to this week’s episode.
Outline of This Episode
- [1:05] What is the Guinness Storehouse?
- [7:25] When was the Storehouse erected?
- [13:38] How Guinness was founded
- [17:39] Ireland through the Guinness archives
- [20:17] Lives of Guinness workers
- [26:51] Ireland and Guinness’s relationship
- [29:23] Visiting the Storehouse
- [33:41] St. Patrick's Day at the Storehouse
Resources Mentioned
Connect With Stephanie
Featuring the song “Places Unseen” by Lee Rosevere.
More info and photographs for this episode at:
https://historyfangirl.com/the-storied-history-of-the-guinness-storehouse