History In Five Minutes Podcast

Nancy Wake was a World War II spy and saboteur who operated behind enemy lines to organize the French Resistance, helping soldiers and escaped prisoners flee the country. She was a high-society hostess-turned-decorated-war hero who led a guerrilla army of seven thousand men, blew up German supply depots and even killed a man with her bare hands. German intelligence dubbed her the “White Mouse” for her ability to elude capture. She may have looked like a Hollywood starlet, but between 1940 and 1943 she saved the lives of hundreds of Allied soldiers. Wake was the most decorated woman in World War II.  Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

  Richard Sorge was a hard-drinking journalist and Nazi Party member, widely respected by the German embassy for his intuition of Japanese politics. By day he charmed German ambassadors in Tokyo and earning their trust to the point of accessing classified diplomatic intelligence. By night he worked as Russia's most embedded spy and an officer in the Soviet foreign military intelligence service. Sorge's reports of German-Japanese military plans were so valuable that he likely prevented the Soviet Union's collapse during the war. Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

Mata Hari was Europe's most famous exotic dancer and courtesan in pre-World War I times, sleeping with high society's most important politicians and military officers. She was also a spy and honey pot in World War I. But was she a mastermind or caught in a game far beyond her ability? Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

Before James Bond had his M, Queen Elizabeth had her Francis Walsingham. Learn about the original spymaster, who uncovered multiple plots against Elizabeth in the 16th century and managed the extraordinary feat of preventing her assassination. Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

Everyone knows the Greeks are important throughout history. But what is their secret for maintaining a language and culture for 3,000 years. It's easier than you think -- write books! Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

What if you met somebody claiming to be from the Roman Empire? You would hopefully disbelieve their sanity. But the idea of a modern person with a direct connection to an ancient civilization isn't all that far-fetched. Today we look at such a group today, the Chaldeans. Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

  What do the telegraph, balloon surveillance, the submarine, land mines, machine guns, tin cans, and standard shoe sizes have in common? They became commonplace, thanks to the Civil War! Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes  

  Think there are a million ways to die in the West? There are even more ways to die in the Middle Ages! They include, but are limited to, indigestion from eating an entire goose, being dragged 16 miles by a deer, and literally being crushed by a dwarf. Here is a great post from medievalist.net that inspired this podcast: http://www.medievalists.net/2014/05/14/top-10-strangest-deaths-middle-ages/ Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

And the walls came tumbling down! Or did they? Today we step into the world of archeology and look at the evidence for and against the Biblical account of Israel's conquest of the city of Jericho. Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

Despite what most people think about the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, the pope wasn't all that powerful. In fact -- it was easy to manipulate him for your own ends. One such woman who did just that was Marozia of Rome: Mother to one pope, lover to another, grandmother to yet another. Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

  The Varangians, Cossacks, and inhabitants of Ryukyu lived in very different places and times. The Varagians were Vikings that controlled trade between Arabia, Byzantium, and Europe during the 1000s and lived on the borders of Byzantium. The Cossacks lived on Russia's frontier and formed the core of the military. Ryukyu island became a trade hub between Japan and China before the modern era. Find out why it paid to  be an outsider of an empire. Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

  Why is it that all news broadcasters talk with a Midwestern accent? For many reasons, but partly because Iowa standardized the English language by sending lots of talent to California during Hollywood's golden age. Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

  Iowans have more political power proportionally than anyone else on earth. Do you want to be the U.S. president? Prepare to spend months in all of Iowan's 99 counties, meeting groups of 20 at Pizza Ranches, and shaking hands with factory works at 6 a.m., in -10 F weather. Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

You don't think of diversity or multicultural when you think of Iowa -- more likely, thoughts of middle aged white farmers in Carhartt overalls come to mind. But in this podcast, I will show that not only is Iowa more exotic than most people realize, it is has been an engine for developing unique cultures in America throughout its history. Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

Did you graduate from college? Whether it was in America, the UK, Turkey, Brazil, or Kazakhstan, there is a strong chance that the direct inspiration for your university is Iowa State University -- considered by coastal elites as a forgettable farm college. How did this university -- which literally started out as a large farm house that housed two dozen students who split their time between tilling the soil and learning about crop rotation --  create the global system of higher education? Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

You probably didn't know that Iowa saved over a billion lives in the 20th century. You also probably didn't that Iowa is the greatest cultural force in the world. This is the first part of a podcast series in which I will make a case for just that. Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

Ernest Shackleton set out in a tiny 22-foot-long lifeboat with a few helpers to brave an 18-day voyage across open Antarctic sea in order to save his stranded crew. How did he manage to succeed despite the terrible odds against him? Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

Ernest Shackleton's attempted crossing of Antarctica and the disaster that befell the expedition led to one of the greatest moments of bravery in the 20th century. Find out about the terrible conditions his crew faced, and their daring rescue attempt in this episode. Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

Richard Francis Burton -- sword fighter, explorer, learner of 29 languages, is quite possibly the real life World's Most Interesting Man. Learn the many fascinating exploits of this Victorian traveler. Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes

Everyone knows that Magellan's circumnavigation of the globe was hard, but they don't know how hard. Nor do they realize how tragic and unnecessary his death was. Learn more about the explorer that boldly ventured into an ocean that took 95 days longer to cross than his original estimate of 3. Like this podcast? Click here to subscribe to the podcast via iTunes