Episodes

Fiction and reality come together in a modern crisis afflicting the Middle East and Europe.

A short update on what's been going on with the FHP.

Dr. Bonnie Effros explains how French soldiers & scholars uncovered & destroyed Roman ruins in Algeria as part of their civilizing mission.

Warriors in their own Words kindly shares an episode of their podcast following a soldier in the Normandy landings.

Dr. Lauren Quigley talks about modern interpretations of the City of Lights.

Scholar Marie Martine talks about one of the most popular woman authors of the Belle Époque.

Melek Chekili talks about the reinterpretation of Frantz Fanon's ideas in the post-Algerian War by one of Algeria's most famous writers.

We introduce the seven great lords who led the holy war.

"The General." "The Great Asparagus." "A man with the most oversized personality." Charles de Gaulle was President of France from 1959-69, and his near-mythological status had been building up for decades before then. His debut appearance in Billy's song is because of his critical involvement in the May 1958 Crisis, which saw Algerian Nationalists rise up and, after nearly 130 years of French colonization, fight for freedom. Dr Arthur Asseraf is an expert in modern France and North Africa, and g...

Is it better to be a hero or great? What is the difference? What makes someone a hero or great in France? Pierre talks all about that and how to get into the Panthéon

Scholar Michelle Chun-Han Hsu looks at what a Belle Époque play can tell us about France's understanding of China.

The pope ordered that only soldiers should fight God's enemies. But a mystic from Amiens leads unnumbered masses to holy war and their doom.

Arazoo Ferozan discusses how the Sun King remade the port city of the Marseille, France's gateway to the Mediterranean.

Pope Urban II's call to kill the enemies of God inspires zealots across France and Germany. Yet, many see an enemy amongst them that needs addressing first.

A humorous episode where we test the limits of AI creativity using French history.

An examination of the world-changing speech at the Council of Clermont to discover what Pope Urban II actually said.

Pope Urban II calls a holy war like no other for motives that are...complex.

Opium, morphine, ether, chloroform, cocaine and hashish. How did these drugs become popular in 19th century France, who used them & what were their effects?

An episode by the podcast Conflicted, part of the Evergreen Podcast family.

The Eastern Roman Empire faces an all new threat that brings it to the brink of ruin. The situation becomes so hopeless that the Emperor begs the West for aid.

The beginning of an epic saga about an Emperor, a Pope, a sacred city & a holy war that would change the course of history forever.

Dr. Bauer talks all about the lettres de cachet, conspiracies and the Bastille prison.

The story of industrial seafaring ships, the people who made them, the World Wars and the decline of their garden city.

An episode covering night time culture in the French Caribbean.