History Shorts

Dive into the past with award-winning historian Peter Zablocki in this captivating daily podcast! Uncover hidden stories you never knew existed. And don't miss Friday Conversations where Peter teams up with top experts for riveting, in-depth discussions that bring history to life.

WWII's Battle Against Venereal Disease 12/27/2025

WWII's Battle Against Venereal Disease During World War II, the U.S. military fought enemies on beaches, in jungles, and in the skies, but it also faced a quieter, deeply embarrassing crisis within its own ranks. Venereal disease sidelined hundreds of thousands of American servicemen, threatening combat readiness, morale, and the outcome of the war itself. In this episode, we explore how sexually transmitted infections became one of the most serious medical challenges facing the U.S. armed forces during World War II, and how the military responded with an unprecedented campaign of education, discipline, treatment, and propaganda. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39419290

Why History Matters, with David McCullough 12/26/2025

Why History Matters, with David McCullough In this interview episode, I’m joined by Dorie McCullough Lawson and Michael Hill, the editors behind History Matters, a powerful collection drawn from the words and work of David McCullough. Together, they open a window into how one of America’s most beloved historians understood the purpose of history, not as trivia or nostalgia, but as a civic responsibility. We talk about how the book was shaped, what guided their editorial choices, and how McCullough’s speeches, essays, and reflections speak directly to the present moment. From democracy and citizenship to curiosity, humility, and the moral weight of storytelling, Lawson and Hill reflect on what it meant to preserve McCullough’s voice in his own words, and why those words still matter. BUY THE BOOK: SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: EPISODE SPONSORED BY THE COLLECTOR: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39446485

JFK's Hidden Health Crisis 12/25/2025

JFK's Hidden Health Crisis To the American public, John F. Kennedy embodied youth, energy, and vigor—a president who promised a New Frontier and appeared to stride confidently into history. Behind the scenes, however, the reality was far different. In this episode, we examine the extensive and carefully hidden medical struggles that defined Kennedy’s life and presidency. From chronic pain and debilitating back injuries to Addison’s disease and a pharmacy of daily medications, JFK governed the United States while battling constant illness, often in silence. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39417645

The Teenager Who Invented the Television 12/24/2025

The Teenager Who Invented the Television Television reshaped the modern world, but its invention did not begin in a laboratory funded by a major corporation. It started in a plowed field. As a teenager growing up on a Utah farm, Philo Farnsworth sketched an idea that would change how humanity communicates: a system to transmit moving images electronically. Years later, that teenage insight became the foundation of television, setting off one of the most bitter and consequential patent battles in American history. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39414185

Bigfoot: America's Most Enduring Legend 12/23/2025

Bigfoot: America's Most Enduring Legend Long before grainy videos and blurry photographs flooded the internet, stories of a mysterious, human-like creature roaming the forests of North America were already deeply rooted in Indigenous traditions. Known by many names—Sasquatch, Skookum, or simply “the wild man”—Bigfoot has haunted campfire stories, newspaper headlines, and scientific debates for centuries. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39412270

What is the Secret to Happiness? Harvard's 80 Year Old Study's Findings 12/22/2025

What is the Secret to Happiness? Harvard's 80 Year Old Study's Findings In the late 1930s, Harvard researchers began an unprecedented study: tracking hundreds of people across their entire lives to answer a deceptively simple question: what makes us happy? For more than eight decades, through wars, marriages, careers, illnesses, triumphs, and heartbreaks, scientists followed participants from youth to old age, gathering tens of thousands of data points in what became the longest-running study of human happiness ever conducted. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39412210

The Forgotten Kingdom of Man and the Isles 12/21/2025

The Forgotten Kingdom of Man and the Isles Long before modern borders carved neat lines across the Irish Sea, there existed a maritime realm so unusual, so strategically placed, that its rulers commanded not just land, but the waters that bound Britain, Ireland, and Scandinavia together. Known as the Kingdom of Man and the Isles, this forgotten dominion once stretched across the Hebrides and the Isle of Man, a Viking-Gaelic hybrid monarchy where Norse warlords, Celtic chiefs, and Christian bishops all vied for legitimacy and tribute. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39328925

Killing George Washington 12/20/2025

Killing George Washington In the summer of 1776, just as the ink of independence was drying and the Continental Army staggered under inexperience, disease, and desertion, a silent threat crept dangerously close to General George Washington. This wasn’t a British field assault or naval bombardment. It was something more intimate, more treacherous: a conspiracy from within his own guard. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39329485

'The Greatest Generation' OR 'The 'Wounded Generation'? w/ David Nasaw 12/19/2025

'The Greatest Generation' OR 'The 'Wounded Generation'? w/ David Nasaw In this episode, Peter speaks with Dr. David Nasaw, a two-time Pulitzer Prize finalist, about his new book, The Wounded Generation: Coming Home After World War II. We discuss moving beyond the triumphant 'Greatest Generation' myth, toward uncovering the unhealed physical and psychological scars that millions of veterans carried home. CHECK OUT DAVID'S BOOKS: SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: EPISODE SPONSORED BY THE COLLECTOR: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39111900

The Freemasons 12/18/2025

The Freemasons For centuries, the Freemasons have stood at the crossroads of fact and myth, secrecy and symbolism. Presidents, revolutionaries, artists, and ordinary craftsmen have all taken oaths behind closed lodge doors, giving rise to a legacy both admired and feared. In this episode, we cut through conspiracy chatter and look at the institution itself: its medieval origins, its Enlightenment boom, its role in revolutions from Philadelphia to Paris, and the coded rituals still whispered today. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39328870

Napoleon’s Missing Penis: A History No One Asked For 12/17/2025

Napoleon’s Missing Penis: A History No One Asked For History remembers Napoleon as the iron-willed conqueror of Europe, the architect of empire, the man who crowned himself. But beneath the legend lies a stranger, more human story, one of what happened to his penis (and how it found itself in a shoebox in New Jersey). DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39323205

Sacagawea: Beyond the Myth 12/16/2025

Sacagawea: Beyond the Myth She has been cast as the smiling guide, the willing helper, the gentle symbol of American westward expansion. But the real Sacagawea was more than a footnote to Lewis and Clark; she was a kidnapped Shoshone girl who navigated not just mountains and rivers, but men, power, empire, and survival. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39323145

Belleau Wood: The Battle That Made the Marines 12/15/2025

Belleau Wood: The Battle That Made the Marines June 1918. A choking forest. Gas, machine-gun nests, and a German advance cutting toward Paris. Into that hell marched a fighting force the world barely knew: the United States Marine Corps. Belleau Wood was not just another World War I clash; it was the moment the Marines became the Marines. Their counterattacks were relentless, their losses staggering, and their reputation forged in blood and splintered timber. The Germans called them Teufelshunde -Devil Dogs - not out of poetry, but fear. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39323100

Killing Che Guevara 12/14/2025

Killing Che Guevara Few figures of the 20th century are as mythologized, or as polarizing, as Ernesto “Che” Guevara. To some, he was the heroic doctor-turned-revolutionary who fought against imperialism from Cuba to the Congo. To others, he was a ruthless ideologue whose vision demanded bloodshed. In this episode, we cut through the legend to uncover the real man behind the iconic image. The second half of the episode dives into Che’s final, and fatal, campaign in Bolivia. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39227965

'The Conqueror' Movie Curse 12/13/2025

'The Conqueror' Movie Curse In 1956, Hollywood set out to make an epic. Instead, it created one of the most cursed productions in film history. The Conqueror, starring John Wayne as Genghis Khan, was filmed in the Utah desert, downwind from a Nevada nuclear testing site. At the time, officials insisted the area was safe. Decades later, the cast and crew would look back in horror. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39227985

Conversations: Life and Legacy of King James VI and I, w/ Clare Jackson 12/12/2025

Conversations: Life and Legacy of King James VI and I, w/ Clare Jackson Dr. Clare Jackson, Honorary Professor of Early Modern History at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, and a renowned expert on 17th-century Britain, joins us to discuss her latest book, The Mirror of Great Britain: A Life of King James VI and I, a captivating biography that brings to life one of history's most intriguing monarchs. BUY CLARE'S BOOK: SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: EPISODE SPONSORED BY THE COLLECTOR: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/38577935

Jesse Strang & the Kingdom Hidden Inside America 12/11/2025

Jesse Strang & the Kingdom Hidden Inside America In one of the most extraordinary and almost forgotten chapters in American history, a man named James Jesse Strang crowned himself king on U.S. soil. This episode unravels the rise of the self-declared monarch who founded a breakaway kingdom in the mid-19th century, complete with royal robes, loyal subjects, political power, and a remote island realm in Lake Michigan. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39228160

Actium: The Battle That Shaped the Roman Empire 12/10/2025

Actium: The Battle That Shaped the Roman Empire The Battle of Actium was the moment the ancient world pivoted. On September 2, 31 BCE, in the waters off western Greece, two colossal visions for Rome collided: Octavian’s disciplined, expansionist republic-turned-empire, and the glamorous, multinational alliance of Mark Antony and Cleopatra. What unfolded was not just a naval showdown but a clash of personalities, propaganda, and political futures. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39228025

The Silk Road: Inside the World's First Global Network 12/09/2025

The Silk Road: Inside the World's First Global Network For over two thousand years, the Silk Road shaped the destiny of continents. More than a single road, it was a vast web of caravan routes stretching from the imperial courts of China to the markets of the Mediterranean, carrying not just silk but ideas, religions, technologies, and entire worldviews. This episode explores how merchants, monks, soldiers, and nomads turned deserts and mountain passes into the most influential trade network in human history. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39228070

Vietnam War's Secret Phoenix Program 12/08/2025

Vietnam War's Secret Phoenix Program The Phoenix Program remains one of the most controversial and least understood operations of the Vietnam War, a shadow war fought in the alleys, jungles, and hidden villages of South Vietnam. Created jointly by the CIA and U.S. military intelligence, the program aimed to dismantle the Viet Cong’s covert political infrastructure by any means necessary. Supporters saw it as a precise counterinsurgency tool that finally struck at the enemy’s hidden backbone; critics saw it as a morally corrosive campaign of interrogation centers, covert raids, and assassinations that blurred every ethical line in wartime. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39228100

The Short-Lived Fascist Republic of Salo 12/07/2025

The Short-Lived Fascist Republic of Salo In the final, collapsing chapter of World War II, Benito Mussolini re-emerged, not as the iron-fisted dictator who once ruled Italy, but as a puppet leader clinging to power in a crumbling regime known as the Italian Social Republic, or the Republic of Salò. Backed by Nazi Germany and despised by much of his own population, this fragile “state” became a dark, violent laboratory of fascist desperation. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39171500

Miracle Mike: The Headless Chicken 12/06/2025

Miracle Mike: The Headless Chicken In the summer of 1945, a small farm in Fruita, Colorado, became the stage for one of the strangest true stories in American history. This is the tale of Mike, the chicken who lived for eighteen months without a head. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39171360

Conversations: Why the Year 1776 Still Matters Today, w/ Edward J. Larson 12/05/2025

Conversations: Why the Year 1776 Still Matters Today, w/ Edward J. Larson What did America really declare in 1776, and why does it still matter today? In this episode of History Shorts, Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Edward J. Larson joins us to discuss his newest book, Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters. Together, we unpack the political courage, moral contradictions, and enduring ideals that shaped America’s founding moment, and explore how the debates of the 18th century still echo in today’s struggles over freedom, unity, and democracy. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! CHECK OUT EDWARD'S BOOK: SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: EPISODE SPONSORED BY THE COLLECTOR: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/38992630

How Mata Hari Became the World's Most Famous Spy 12/04/2025

How Mata Hari Became the World's Most Famous Spy She danced her way into the halls of Europe’s elite, captivated generals and diplomats, and became the most infamous alleged double agent of World War I. But behind the veils, the rumors, and the sensational headlines, who was Mata Hari really? DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39171000

The Forgotten World of House Detectives 12/03/2025

The Forgotten World of House Detectives Long before private eyes stalked dimly lit alleys in pulp novels, America had a different kind of detective, one who didn’t chase murderers or mobsters, but runaway maids, jewel thieves, con artists, adulterers, and anyone slipping in or out of a hotel under suspicious circumstances. They were called House Detectives, and from the 1890s through the 1950s, they were the quiet, watchful guardians of America’s great hotels. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39171225

How the Normans Changed the World 12/02/2025

How the Normans Changed the World In this episode, we explore how a small band of Viking descendants from Normandy reshaped medieval Europe forever. From William the Conqueror’s seismic victory at Hastings in 1066, which fused Scandinavian grit with French culture and permanently altered England’s language, law, and aristocracy, to their lightning conquest of southern Italy and Sicily, the Normans built empires, revolutionized castle warfare, and kick-started the Crusades with ruthless energy and astonishing adaptability. Join us to discover why these medieval adventurers were the ultimate game-changers of the 11th and 12th centuries. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39077280

The Final Days of Napoleon 12/01/2025

The Final Days of Napoleon He ruled Europe with an iron will, crowned himself emperor, and reshaped the modern world, but in the end, even Napoleon Bonaparte couldn’t conquer fate. In this episode of History Shorts, we trace the extraordinary final chapters of Napoleon’s life: from his first exile on the Mediterranean island of Elba, to his daring escape, his brief return to glory during the Hundred Days, and his ultimate downfall at Waterloo that sent him to his final prison, the lonely, windswept island of Saint Helena. DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/38984260

Weekend Show #2: History of the ‘Weekend’ 11/30/2025

Weekend Show #2: History of the ‘Weekend’ Welcome to the second episode of the History Shorts Weekend Show, a soon-to-be weekly Patreon-exclusive variety series offering a lighter, more reflective companion to the main podcast. Think storyteller’s lounge meets historian’s notebook: part commentary, part narrative, part behind-the-scenes look at the stories shaping both past and present. THIS WEEK: The unofficial dawn of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s. The surprising origins of the modern weekend. How a quiet fluctuation in recent economic data may one day mark the beginning of a major historical shift in America’s industrial identity. Preview clip from my upcoming conversation with Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Edward J. Larson about his new book Declaring Independence: Why 1776 Matters. A reflection on E.H. Carr’s foundational work What Is History? and why his ideas still matter today. If you enjoy this preview episode, consider joining our paid community on Patreon for ad-free episodes, bonus shows, early releases, and exclusive Weekend Show content: And don’t forget to check out our website for transcripts, notes, and more: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39168465

Conversations: Three Roads to Gettysburg, w/ Tim McGrath 11/30/2025

Conversations: Three Roads to Gettysburg, w/ Tim McGrath In the pivotal summer of 1863, three extraordinary paths converged on a small Pennsylvania town, forever altering the course of the American Civil War. Petert sits down with acclaimed historian Tim McGrath to explore his latest book, Three Roads to Gettysburg: Meade, Lee, Lincoln, and the Battle that Changed the War. BUY TIM'S BOOK: SUPPORT HISTORY SHORTS: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: EPISODE SPONSORED BY THE COLLECTOR: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/38726035

Eddie Slovik: The Only American Killed for Desertion in WWII 11/29/2025

Eddie Slovik: The Only American Killed for Desertion in WWII In this gripping episode, we tell the haunting story of Private Eddie Slovik, the only American soldier executed for desertion during World War II among tens of thousands who fled the front lines. Terrified of combat and repeatedly honest about his refusal to fight, Slovik was court-martialed and shot by firing squad in January 1945 as General Eisenhower sought to set a brutal example amid the carnage of the Battle of the Bulge. Seventy-five years later, his case still sparks fierce debate: was Slovik a coward, a scapegoat, or a tragic victim of a broken system? DON’T FORGET TO SUBSCRIBE AND LEAVE A RATING OR A REVIEW! THANK YOU IN ADVANCE! SUPPORT THE SHOW: ADVERTISE: LEARN MORE: SPONSORED BY: /episode/index/show/2c68e044-1b71-48bf-a5c5-2792f5a14f4c/id/39077060

History Shorts

TOPICS