What's Coming Up
Hello, I just wanted to give an update on what’s coming up for the podcast. As you may know, I have a special, 13-part series on the history of the Louvre on our Patreon. This podcast does need subscriber support, so after a long time making episodes for the public I am taking a short break to finish up the Louvre series and make another special miniseries on the history of Mont St. Michel. The Louvre series is 10 hours long so far and among my finest work, so if you like the show, want more, and cannot wait for new episodes there is a whole lot of stuff on our Patreon page, and all episodes have no advertisements. We also offer merchandise for select tiers so there is a whole lot of reasons why you should sign up today. We depend on your support so please consider joining our Patreon.
While I am taking a break from main series episodes, I will continue to produce guest episodes.
When I return the main series will look at Normandy, Brittany, the west, southwest and the south between the reigns of Hugh Capet and Louis VIII; basically, the show has been very north-centric since it's been focused on the Capetians, and I want to give a whole picture of France. The south should be particularly exciting since southern France had such a unique history and culture, separate from the north, before the Albigensian Crusade crushed the south in favor of northern supremacy. Mixed in with our Tour de France I'll do an episode on the history of castle development, how we went from simple stone forts to Norman castles and then to more complex ones. We'll cover Cluny Abbey and changes in French religion. I'll talk culture, science, the whole shebang. I even intend on doing a super-long episode on Frankokratia: the Fourth Crusade took a strange turn when the crusaders ignored their mission to attack the Middle East and instead sacked Constantinople, which led to French and Flemish rulers ruling over the former Byzantine Empire, southern Italy and (briefly) Sicily. I'll stick to one episode rather than a whole series ala the Normans, but I think it will be fun to cover a largely ignored part of history when French people ruled over the Greek world.
Finally, once we get a good picture of what mid-Medieval France looked like, we'll return to the central political narrative with a series on the Albigensian Crusade. That will lead us back to our main narrative by French kings, starting with Louis IX, aka Saint Louis, one of France's greatest kings.
Just wanted to give you an update. I have been hard at work on this and many guest episodes, but a lot has happened in the past few months. I got sick and that really set my work schedule back. I moved from Oklahoma to southern Florida for a new professorship job. As much as I wanted to teach an underserved community, the Oklahoma state government continually cuts education and with Congress passing the recent One Big Beautiful Bill there will be huge cuts to federal spending on education. With constant attacks on education I knew I needed to get a job that had more security. The world has been crazy but just know I am committed to this project and am working hard to make things as awesome as possible. If you want to help me out, please consider joining our Patreon as we go through this incredible journey together. Thank you.