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PODCAST

Tides of History

Audible / Patrick Wyman

Everywhere around us are echoes of the past. Those echoes define the boundaries of states and countries, how we pray and how we fight. They determine what money we spend and how we earn it at work, what language we speak and how we raise our children. From Wondery, host Patrick Wyman, PhD (“Fall Of Rome”) helps us understand our world and how it got to be the way it is.Audible subscribers can listen to all episodes of Tides of History ad-free right now. Join Audible today by downloading the

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All Episodes

00:47:30

Mailbag!

Tides of History ·

2026/01/22

It's been quite a while since I've answered listener questions, so here are a bunch on everything from the best depictions of siege warfare in movies to the pre-Indo-European languages of Europe. Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now: https://bit.ly/PWPLA And don't forget, you can still Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy,

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00:52:41

Recent Discoveries in the Ancient Americas: Professor...

Tides of History ·

2026/01/15

Every year, new archaeological discoveries claim to rewrite what we think we knew about the ancient Americas, but how much can we trust the initial reports we see? Professor Shane Miller, now of the University of Alabama, joins me again to place the White Sands footprints and other key sites in their proper context.Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now: https://bit.ly/PWPLA And

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00:33:24

Doing Business in Mid-Republican Rome

Tides of History ·

2026/01/08

The rise of the Roman Republic was built on conquest and war, but also on the massively expanding economy of Italy as a whole and Rome in particular. What was it like to live through that, and what did an expanding economy actually mean?Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now: https://bit.ly/PWPLA And don't forget, you can still get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty

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00:42:48

Interview with Professor Tom Birkett on "Runes: A...

Tides of History ·

2026/01/01

Runic writing carries connotations of magic and fantasy, but it was a widespread, useful, and long-lasting system of writing. Professor Tom Birkett has written a fantastic overview of runic writing that returns it to the real time and place in which it existed - Runes: A Concise History.Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now: https://bit.ly/PWPLA And don't forget, you can still

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00:33:55

How Alexander the Great's Soldiers Spent Their Money

Tides of History ·

2025/12/25

Let's imagine a Macedonian soldier during the time of Alexander the Great. How did this man, whom we'll call Red Cleitus, spend the vast amounts of coin he plundered and earned as he and his comrades fought their way across Asia?Patrick launched a brand-new history show! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now: https://bit.ly/PWPLA And don't forget, you can still get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that

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00:27:07

Two Murders at the Dawn of History (Lost Worlds...

Tides of History ·

2025/12/18

Patrick's new book, Lost Worlds: How Humans Tried, Failed, Succeeded, and Built Our World, launches May 5th, 2026! Check out this audiobook preview chapter on two murders around 5,300 years ago, hear about everything we can learn from Otzi the Iceman in the Alps and Gebelein Man in Egypt, and be sure to preorder the book in your medium of choice through the link here: https://bit.ly/PWLostWorlds.Patrick launched a brand-new history show on December 3rd! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode

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00:24:21

Past Lives: Nanaya'ila'i and the Bleeding Edge of the...

Tides of History ·

2025/12/15

Check out a scripted episode of Patrick's new show, Past Lives!Nearly 2,700 years ago, a woman and her daughter were ripped away from their homes in what is now Iran by the soldiers of the Assyrian Empire. Nanaya'ila'i was one of thousands upon thousands of people to experience the violence that accompanied conquest, but she's one of the very few whose name we know and life we can reconstruct. Subscribe to Past Lives on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or the podcast platform of your choice. Become a

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00:35:40

The Economic Life of Megakles, Farmer of Classical...

Tides of History ·

2025/12/11

We've talked about how rich classical Athens was, but what did that mean for an average person living at the time? In this episode, we follow the life of a composite character, an Athenian citizen farmer named Megakles, to see how the economic developments of the classical age shaped daily life in Athens.Patrick launched a brand-new history show on December 3rd! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Subscribe now:

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00:48:25

Doing History through Movies: Interview with Dr....

Tides of History ·

2025/12/04

Like many of you, I first fell in love with history through the movies. Dr. Jason Herbert hosted a podcast called Historians at the Movies, now retitled Reckoning with Jason Herbert, that focuses on films depicting the past and what historians think about them. We have a delightful conversation about some of our favorite history movies, what makes them good or bad, and what we can learn from them.Patrick is launching a brand-new history show on December 3rd! It’s called Past Lives, and every

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00:19:56

Listen to Patrick's New History Podcast, Past Lives

Tides of History ·

2025/12/03

Patrick has a new history podcast, Past Lives! It's all about the experiences of real, everyday people throughout the human past, people just like you. Listen to the first full episode, "On Historical Storytelling," right here, and then go subscribe to the Past Lives feed on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your podcast platform of choice.Past Lives is an independent production supported through Patreon, where you can subscribe for $7 a month and receive tons of great bonus content: interviews with

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00:38:17

Why Was Classical Athens So Rich?

Tides of History ·

2025/11/27

Ancient Greece was rich compared to other ancient societies, and Athens was the richest place of all within ancient Greece. But why? The answer lies not just in the silver lodes of Attica or access to the sea; it was about democracy, law, and institutions, which made people feel safe doing business in Athens.Patrick is launching a brand-new history show on December 3rd! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life of a real person who lived in the past. Be sure to subscribe to the

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00:07:49

Listen Now: American Scandal | The West Memphis Three

Tides of History ·

2025/11/25

On May 5, 1993, three 8-year-old boys were brutally murdered in West Memphis, Arkansas. The tiny local police department launches an investigation but finds little physical evidence to lead them to a suspect. Eventually, outside pressure pushes them to charge someone with the killings, whether or not the evidence supports their conclusions.American Scandal takes you deep into the heart of America’s dark side to look at what drives someone to break the rules and what happens when they’re caught. In

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00:02:37

Patrick's New History Show, Past Lives, Launches...

Tides of History ·

2025/11/21

From Patrick Wyman (host of Fall of Rome and Tides of History) comes Past Lives, a brand new podcast! Every week, we’ll focus on the lived experiences of real people from the past, bringing their stories to life.The first season of Past Lives is available December 3rd! Be sure to subscribe to the feed now (https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/past-lives/id1852618120) so you get our first three episodes delivered straight to you on the same day for our series premiere drop. Become a member now at

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00:39:34

Why the Hundred Years War Actually Lasted Two Hundred...

Tides of History ·

2025/11/20

The Hundred Years War was the defining conflict of the Middle Ages, but today's guest - Professor Michael Livingston of the Citadel - argues that it actually lasted for 200 years. That's just one problem with the way we've learned about the Hundred Years War, and Livingston's new book, entitled Bloody Crowns: A New History of the Hundred Years War, is a fantastic corrective. Patrick is launching a brand-new history show on December 3rd! It’s called Past Lives, and every episode explores the life

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00:38:02

The Phoenicians, the Greeks, and the Iron Age...

Tides of History ·

2025/11/13

As the Bronze Age gave way to the Iron Age, the economy of the Mediterranean shifted dramatically. It expanded to encompass the entire sea for the first time, everywhere from the Levant to Iberia, and laid the foundations for what would eventually become the Roman Empire.Patrick's new book - Lost Worlds: The Rise and Fall of Human Societies from the Ice Age to the Bronze Age - is now available for preorder, and will be released on May 5th! Preorder in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook (read by

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00:53:44

Love, War, and Diplomacy in the Late Bronze Age:...

Tides of History ·

2025/11/06

Professor Eric Cline, author of the outstanding book 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed, returns to the show to discuss his new book: Love, War, and Diplomacy: The Discovery of the Amarna Letters and the Bronze Age World They Revealed. We talk about the dynamics of Bronze Age states, how such an extraordinary treasure trove of texts was discovered and translated, and what we can know about a long-past world.Patrick's new book - Lost Worlds: The Rise and Fall of Human Societies from the

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00:03:31

Listen Now: American History Tellers | The Mayflower

Tides of History ·

2025/11/05

The Cold War, Prohibition, the Gold Rush, the Space Race. Every part of your life - the words you speak, the ideas you share - can be traced to our history, but how well do you really know the stories that made America? We'll take you to the events, the times and the people that shaped our nation. And we'll show you how our history affected them, their families and affects you today. Hosted by Lindsay Graham (not the Senator). Listen to American History Tellers: https://Wondery.fm/AHT_IFDSee

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00:43:55

Building the Pyramids and the Valley of the Kings

Tides of History ·

2025/10/30

Millions of people called ancient Egypt home, and the vast majority of them weren't kings or high priests; they were humble farmers and laborers making their living from the rich black soil surrounding the Nile. That extraordinary land produced so much surplus grain that thousands upon thousands of people could be spared from agricultural labor and put to work building some of the most stunning monuments in the ancient world.Patrick's new book - Lost Worlds: The Rise and Fall of Human Societies

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00:42:33

The Story of Carbon Dioxide is the Story of...

Tides of History ·

2025/10/23

Carbon dioxide is central to the story of Earth from its beginning more than 4 billion years ago all the way up to the present. Peter Brannen joins me to discuss his new book - The Story of CO2 Is the Story of Everything: How Carbon Dioxide Made Our World - an extraordinarily long-term view of the planet's past and future, and why our current path is so unprecedented.Patrick's book is now available! Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy,

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00:40:40

Living and Working in Imperial Babylonia

Tides of History ·

2025/10/16

We don't usually think of the Neo-Babylonian Empire as one of the economic powerhouses of the ancient world, but this short-lived state actually oversaw one of the most stunning periods of economic growth anywhere before the Industrial Revolution.Patrick's book is now available! Get The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance, and Forty Years that Shook the World in hardcopy, ebook, or audiobook (read by Patrick) here: https://bit.ly/PWverge. And check out Patrick's new podcast The Pursuit of Dadliness

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