history

#1170 Walter Scheidel: What Is Ancient History?

Oct 31, 2025

Dr. Walter Scheidel is Dickason Professor in the Humanities and Professor of History at Stanford University. Dr. Scheidel's research ranges from ancient social and economic history and premodern historical demography to the comparative and transdisciplinary world history of inequality, state formation, and human welfare. He is particularly interested in connecting the humanities, the social sciences, and the life sciences. He is the author of several books, the most recent one being What Is Ancient History? More»
#1160 Edward Watts - The Romans: A 2,000-Year History

Oct 9, 2025

Dr. Edward Watts is presently the Vassiliadis Professor of Byzantine Greek History at the University of California, San Diego. His research interests center on the intellectual and religious history of the Roman Empire and the early Byzantine Empire. He is the author of several books on ancient history, including Mortal Republic: How Rome Fell Into Tyranny, and The Eternal Decline and Fall of Rome: The History of a Dangerous Idea. His latest book is The Romans: A 2,000-Year History. More»
#1159 Michael Hudson - Temples of Enterprise: Creating Economic Order in the Bronze Age Near East

Oct 6, 2025

Dr. Michael Hudson is President of the Institute for the Study of Long-Term Economic Trends (ISLET), a Wall Street Financial Analyst, and Distinguished Research Professor of Economics at the University of Missouri, Kansas City. He is the author of several books, including Temples of Enterprise: Creating Economic Order in the Bronze Age Near East. More»
#1155 Adam Chandler - 99% Perspiration: A New Working History of the American Way of Life

Sep 26, 2025

Adam Chandler is a journalist and author based in New York. A former staff writer at The Atlantic, his work has also appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, WIRED, Vox, Slate, New York Magazine, Texas Monthly, Esquire, TIME, and elsewhere. He is the author of Drive-Thru Dreams: A Journey Through the Heart of America's Fast-Food Kingdom; and 99% Perspiration: A New Working History of the American Way of Life. More»
#1154 Michael Cook: A History of the Muslim World (Part 2)

Sep 25, 2025

Dr. Michael Cook is Class of 1943 University Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He is the author of several books, with the latest one being A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity. More»
#1149 Sean McMeekin: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism

Sep 12, 2025

Dr. Sean McMeekin is Francis Flournoy Professor of European History and Culture at Bard College. His main research interests include modern German history, Russian history, communism, and the origins of the First and Second World Wars and the roles of Russia and the Ottoman Empire. He is the author of To Overthrow the World: The Rise and Fall and Rise of Communism. More»
#1109 Stefanos Geroulanos: The Invention of Prehistory

Jun 12, 2025

Dr. Stefanos Geroulanos is the Director of the Remarque Institute and a Professor of European Intellectual History at New York University. He usually writes about concepts that weave together modern understandings of time, the human, and the body. He is the author or co-author of several books, with the latest one being The Invention of Prehistory: Empire, Violence, and Our Obsession with Human Origins. More»
#1101 Laura Betzig - The Badge of Lost Innocence: A History of the West

May 23, 2025

Dr. Laura Betzig is a Ph.D. in anthropology at Northwestern University; she’s held research and teaching positions at Northwestern, the University of California, and the University of Michigan Museum of Natural History. She’s lectured all over the US and Europe in departments of biology, anthropology, history, economics, philosophy, political science, psychology and religion; at interdisciplinary conferences; and to general audiences. She’s also the author of four books, the latest one being The Badge of Lost Innocence: A History of the West. More»
#1075 Michael Cook: A History of the Muslim World (Part 1)

Mar 24, 2025

Dr. Michael Cook is Class of 1943 University Professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University. He is the author of several books, with the latest one being A History of the Muslim World: From Its Origins to the Dawn of Modernity. More»
#1073 David Wolpert: History as a Stochastic Process

Mar 20, 2025

Dr. David Wolpert is a Professor at the Santa Fe Institute, external professor at the Complexity Science Hub in Vienna, adjunct professor at ASU, and research associate at the ICTP in Trieste. He has over 30,000 citations, with most of his papers in thermodynamics of computation, foundations of physics, dynamics of social organizations, machine learning, game theory, and distributed optimization / control. More»