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PODCAST

Reflecting History

Reflecting History

Reflecting History is an educational history podcast that explores significant historical events and themes without losing track of the ordinary people involved. Covering a wide variety of topics, it explores the connection between history, psychology, and philosophy.

history philosophy

All Episodes

29:58

Episode 113: The Taiping Civil War Part IV-The Outsiders

Reflecting History ·

2022/08/15

The Taiping Civil War is often seen as a product of clashing belief systems and a testament to the power of belief. This episode provides some analysis for how the belief systems of the 3 major players in the conflict interacted and converged: the Taiping version of Christianity, the Qing appeal to Confucian tradition, and the western imperial civilizing mission. This is the fourth episode in a series on the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Rebellion in China. It focuses on the ways that the belief

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20:52

Episode 112: The Taiping Civil War Part III-The Rebel

Reflecting History ·

2022/07/25

How did Hong Xiuquan transform from ordinary school teacher into the leader of the largest rebellion in modern history and the younger brother of Jesus? What started out as one man's fever dream would slowly reveal itself to be a nightmare in reality for millions of people in China. This is the third episode in a series on the Taiping Civil War or the Taiping Rebellion in China. It focuses on the origin story of Hong Xiuquan, his interpretation of Christian scripture in the context of the

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27:27

Episode 111: The Taiping Civil War Part II-The Mixing...

Reflecting History ·

2022/07/04

The “Great Man” style of history is often scoffed on, but does it have a part to play in the story of the Taiping Civil War? Which plays a bigger role in history-individual choices and decisions made by powerful individuals, or the larger contextual trends acting on those individuals? Ultimately a mix of these two styles of history may help us understand how mixed cultural and religiously syncretic systems of belief, combined with translated religious texts and Christian teachings wound up in the

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37:16

Episode 110: The Taiping Civil War Part I-The...

Reflecting History ·

2022/06/13

From 1850-1864, China was swallowed by a wave of chaos and destruction that was bizarre, unprecedented, and apocalyptic. Some historians estimate that the Taiping Civil War left more than 20 million dead in it's wake. The tale is often told as the strange story of the Taiping leader Hong Xiuquan, who claimed to be the younger brother of Jesus and essentially started his own version of Christianity in China. But there is more to the story, and understanding the Taiping Civil War starts with

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40:02

BONUS: The Bear

Reflecting History ·

2022/05/23

Hey everyone, this is a bonus episode from my Patreon feed. Hope you enjoy it. If you want to support the podcast, you can click the link here: https://www.patreon.com/reflectinghistory "The Bear" by William Faulkner is one of the legendary stories in American literature. Written many decades ago, I think it still has something important to tell us about Manifest Destiny, nature, unity, truth, beauty, and more. A boy's journey to find and hunt a mythical bear can also teach us something about the

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54:13

Episode 109: On Full Automatic with William V. Taylor

Reflecting History ·

2022/05/02

In this episode, I sat down with Vietnam War veteran and now best selling author William V. Taylor to talk about his memoir “On Full Automatic: Surviving 13 Months In Vietnam.” During the discussion we talked about his enlistment and training process, the types and nature of combat during his time there, the role of the environment and how factors like heat and terrain affected him, his relationship to civilians in Vietnam, his changing view of the nature of the enemy as the war went on, the ways

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58:13

Episode 108: Dear John with Susan Carruthers

Reflecting History ·

2022/04/11

In this episode I sat down with historian Susan Carruthers to discuss her new book "Dear John: Love and Loyalty in Wartime America." We discuss the history of the Dear John letter in times of war, how relationships and emotional life are stressed during times of war, social norms and gender roles in regards to letter writing in times of war, the sweeping changes in the technology of communication between spouses of military members, the psychology surrounding these topics, the nature of institutions

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19:49

Episode 107: Freedom and Tyranny

Reflecting History ·

2022/03/21

What is freedom? Is it possible to truly make free decisions? How does this relate to the political concept of tyranny? In a world where freedom is often seen as one of the highest ethical priorities, it's worth taking a closer look at what freedom really is. Questions about freedom have been pondered since the beginnings of humanity, including the Ancient Greek philosophers Socrates and Plato offering analysis on the topic that is still relevant today. Read Book IX of Plato's Republic here:

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22:12

Episode 106: History at a Crossroads

Reflecting History ·

2022/02/28

"There are decades where nothing happens, and there are weeks where decades happen." Vladimir Lenin's famous words beg the question: are some moments in history more significant than others? Are there "crossroads" time periods in history where a given path can branch into multiple different pathways? What are some examples of these crossroads moments and what creates these seismic shifts in the trajectory of history? -Consider Supporting the Podcast!- Leave a rating or review on apple podcasts or

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21:21

Episode 105: The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas

Reflecting History ·

2022/02/07

Is it possible to ever be truly happy? What if your happiness rests on a backbone of degradation and exploitation? Is it right to sacrifice the few for the many? What should be done about injustice in the world? All of these questions and more are contemplated in Ursula Le Guin's amazing short story "The Ones Who Walk Away From Omelas." Read the story here: https://learning.hccs.edu/faculty/emily.klotz/engl1302-6/readings/the-ones-who-walk-away-from-omelas-ursula-le-guin/view -Consider Supporting

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44:52

Episode 104: Education in Nazi Germany

Reflecting History ·

2022/01/17

From universities down to the Hitler Youth, the education system in 1930's Germany was co-opted by Nazi ideology. In what ways did the endorsement of Nazi ideals by prominent thinkers and intellectuals impact popular opinion? In what ways did the education system change to align itself with Nazi beliefs? How did this impact ordinary people? -Consider Supporting the Podcast!- Leave a rating or review on apple podcasts or spotify! Support the podcast on Patreon:

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33:33

Episode 103: The Man Who Ended History

Reflecting History ·

2021/12/27

For as long as there has been history, there has been a struggle to interpret and analyze that history. Different perspectives, ideologies, and approaches permeate the study of the past. So which interpretation of history is the correct one? Could we all come to a consensus? What if we had a time machine that allowed us to all go back to the same moment and take the guess work and perspective out of history, leaving behind only the facts and the evidence? What would thinking about these questions

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16:59

Episode 102: On Fantasy

Reflecting History ·

2021/12/06

Can something be valuable, good, or useful if it isn't real? Depending on your answer to that and your definition of real, fantasy and science fiction may not qualify. But in this episode I argue for the positive benefits of reading and watching fantasy, why it's inherently valuable, how it helps the study of history, and how it can be useful in the real world. For a different (and much better) reading of the George RR Martin quote I cite in this episode: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUMs1E_ZjLE

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22:22

BONUS: History as a Process

Reflecting History ·

2021/11/23

Hey everybody, here is a bonus episode I released a few months ago on my Patreon feed. Hope you enjoy and have a great Thanksgiving. The recent discovery of "Dragon Man" and it's potential relationship to early humanity has created some level of controversy in history and archaeology circles. What does this new discovery tell us about the "process" of history? Is history something that is set in stone? Or does it change as humanity changes? Questions worth pondering. Thanks for the support! Here is

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14:44

Episode 101: Is the Human Element of History...

Reflecting History ·

2021/11/15

Is there a conflict between a zoomed-out historical approach that is focused on facts, events, and dates, versus a more bottom up approach that is focused on ordinary people and their experience of those facts, events, and dates? More recent popular histories and storytellers have focused on the human element (myself included) to bring more emotion and weight to the arguments that they are making. But can the use of this human element be exploitative at times? Can it go over the top into the realm

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37:09

Episode 100: Cast Away

Reflecting History ·

2021/10/25

Well, I never thought I would make it to 100 episodes. But here we are. A sincere thank you to everyone reading this right now and to everyone who has ever taken the time to listen to this podcast. In this episode I do a deep dive into the movie "Cast Away" starring Tom Hanks from the year 2000. In my view, this movie stands the test of time and is about a lot more than a guy stranded on an island with a volleyball. It's about meaning and purpose, time and resilience, letting go and remembering,

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25:07

Episode 99: Humanistic Psychology Part II

Reflecting History ·

2021/10/04

"Don't reach for the stars, reach for the flowers." One of the appealing aspects of humanistic psychology is it's embrace of the ordinary and it's emphasis on the fundamental goodness of human beings. Is it true that human nature is fundamentally good as humanists like Abraham Maslow say? Or is there too much evidence of greed and malevolence from the historical past? Should we focus on what human beings have been? Or what they could be? This episode concludes a two part series on humanistic

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28:35

Episode 98: Humanistic Psychology Part I

Reflecting History ·

2021/09/20

In popular culture, there is often a morbid fascination with the psychology of evil, but what about the psychology of good? Social Psychology may get most of the headlines, but Humanistic Psychology could have just as much to say about human behavior. In his book "Transcend," psychologist Scott Barry Kaufman investigates humanistic psychology from Maslow's hierarchy of needs to Harlow's infant monkeys. He provides a reimagining of the hierarchy of needs and a new way to think about universal needs

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20:59

Episode 97: Mono No Aware

Reflecting History ·

2021/08/30

In a massive and seemingly uncaring universe, fatalism and the resignation of inevitability is one way to look at the world. The philosophical concept of Mono No Aware and Ken Liu's powerful short story "Mono No Aware" offer an alternative point of view through concepts of inherent beauty, the transient nature of life and death, and the recognition of the impermanent nature of the moment. Read the story here: http://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/fiction/mono-no-aware/ -Consider Supporting the

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44:29

Episode 96: Running From Bondage with Karen Cook Bell

Reflecting History ·

2021/08/09

In this episode I sat down with historian Karen Cook Bell to talk about her book Running from Bondage: Enslaved Women and Their Remarkable Fight for Freedom in Revolutionary America. We discussed life as a female slave in the Revolutionary period, forms of overt and covert resistance to slavery, the sexual exploitation and abuse of slave women, what made slaves decide to run away, maroon communities of runaway slaves, the difficulty of researching the history of lived experience, the paradox of

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178 results

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