Past Lives

Around 1800 years ago, a man was bitten by a lion in the city of York, in what is now northern England. Lions aren't native to York, so how did it get there, and why was it biting this man? The answers to those questions tell us a great deal about the Roman Empire as an interconnected, wide-ranging world, and the sometimes strange practices that interconnection made possible. Go see Patrick, Dr. Claire Aubin, and Manny Fidel draft teams of the greatest assholes in American history on Tuesday, September 29th in New York! Tickets available here: https://admitone.com/events/new-york/community/comedy/tgs-presents-draft-of-shame/54UI98 Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

What if, despite all the challenges we face, humanity is actually making progress? Check out the podcast What Could Go Right, by the Progress Network. It’s a current affairs show that tries to find a more balanced way of looking at what’s happening in the world. We at Past Lives have become regular Monday and Wednesday listeners.

Around 270 BC, a woman died of breast cancer in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia. Her tomb, cut into the permafrost, is one of the best-preserved archaeological sites on the planet. Thanks to the ice, everything from her extraordinary tattoos to the silk garments she wore has survived, providing a direct window onto the forgotten world of the Iron Age steppe and the Scythians who dominated it. Go see Patrick, Dr. Claire Aubin, and Manny Fidel draft teams of the greatest assholes in American history on Tuesday, September 29th in New York! Tickets available here: https://admitone.com/events/new-york/community/comedy/tgs-presents-draft-of-shame/54UI98 Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

What if, despite all the challenges we face, humanity is actually making progress? Check out the podcast What Could Go Right, by the Progress Network. It’s a current affairs show that tries to find a more balanced way of looking at what’s happening in the world. We at Past Lives have become regular Monday and Wednesday listeners.

When we think of Scandinavia, it seems to be a long way from the Roman Empire, with hundreds of miles separating the Rhine and Danube frontiers from the bogs of Jutland and Sweden. Why, then, were hundreds upon hundreds of Roman-made weapons intentionally thrown into these bogs in the third and fourth centuries AD? The answer opens the gate that will eventually lead, many centuries down the road, to the warrior-kings of the Viking Age. Go see Patrick, Dr. Claire Aubin, and Manny Fidel draft teams of the greatest assholes in American history on Tuesday, September 29th in New York! Tickets available here: https://admitone.com/events/new-york/community/comedy/tgs-presents-draft-of-shame/54UI98 Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Professor Peter Mancall is one of the finest historians of colonial America working today, and he's written a banger of a book, the newest entry in the wonderful Oxford History of the United States series. It's entitled Contested Continent , and it's a book everyone who enjoys American history should read. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

More than 2,400 years ago, a man living in southern Denmark was hung from a plaited leather cord, then buried in a bog. There he stayed until 1950, when his perfectly preserved face emerged from the peat. We know him as Tollund Man, but who was he in life, and what can we know about the world he inhabited? Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Bog bodies - the age-old remains of people who were submerged in bogs - are an eerie sight. Soft tissue remains, often to an even greater extent than mummies, bringing us face to face with people who died thousands of years ago. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Over more than two centuries, the rulers of Bronze Age China's Shang Dynasty sacrificed at least 13,000 people. Who were they? Where had they come from, and what were their lives like? Thanks to new studies, we can finally take our focus off the Shang elite and move it onto the victims. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

What can we learn from the past? Professor James Romm, celebrated classicist and prolific author, joins me to discuss his new book Since You're Mortal: Life Lessons from the Lost Greek Plays . We chat about eternal wisdom, dad advice, and whether ancient authors really did have some insights worth sharing. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

More than 3,000 years ago, a queen was buried in the city of Anyang, China. Hundreds of bone, jade, and bronze artifacts were buried with her, and so were sixteen human sacrifices. This was Fu Hao, a priestess, queen mother, and general, and her tomb tells us precisely how the Shang Dynasty - China's first entry into recorded history - operated. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

I've been waiting for someone to write a comprehensive, up-to-date history of the Black Death for years, and if that were all Professor Thomas Asbridge did with his new book The Black Death: A Global History , it would be a monumental achievement. Yet he's also succeeded in capturing the essence of an age in which societies were being crushed under the weight of mass death, the experiences of those who lived through it, and the plague's impact on the world that followed. A delightful conversation with one of the best medieval historians working today. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Who built the extraordinary tombs for Egypt's rulers in the Valley of the Kings? The residents of the nearby village of Deir el-Medina, where for centuries, a specialized workforce trudged back and forth to the Valley to carve out and decorate the stunning final resting places for generations of rulers. Now, thanks to incredible new archaeology, we can understand their lives and experiences. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Considering the richness of our evidence about ancient Egypt, for much of the country's long history we know surprisingly little about the lives of its least humble residents. At the purpose-built new capital of the New Kingdom pharaoh Akhenaten, however, the lowest of Egypt's low were buried in their thousands. Thanks to their bones, we can reconstruct their short, difficult lives. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Shannon Chakraborty is a bestselling author of wonderful historical fantasy (Daevabad Trilogy, The Adventures of Amina al-Sirafi, The Tapestry of Fate ). We chat about creating better fantasy worlds, how history has inspired her, the Cairo Geniza and the medieval Islamicate world, and much more. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Thirty-five hundred years ago, an Egyptian king was killed in ghastly fashion. How and why did Seqenenre Tao meet his end? Using a combination of his mummy, advanced techniques of analysis, and old-fashioned history, we explore the death of an Egyptian king. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

When we think of mummies, ancient Egypt is the first place to come to mind, and with good reason. But it's probably been a while since most of us have had a refresher on Egypt's long and fascinating history, so today, come with me on a journey along the Nile from the days before the pharaohs to the Bronze Age Collapse. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Nearly 4,000 years ago, a young woman was buried in the sands of the Tarim Basin in western China. When her coffin was opened just a few decades ago, her face was almost perfectly preserved. We know her as the Princess of Xiaohe, but what was her world really like? Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

Tim Haines ( Walking with Dinosaurs, Primeval ) joins me to discuss making high-quality documentaries about the distant past in the lead-up to the premiere of his new series on mass extinctions, Surviving Earth, which debuts June 10th on Peacock. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .

While Xinjiang - in the extreme west of present-day China - is today a tightly controlled and repressed periphery, but for most of the past 4,000 years, it has been the crossroads at the heart of Eurasia. Practically every important technological and cultural innovation from the Neolithic onward has passed through this corridor, skirting the massive mountains and impassable deserts that block transit across the continent. New archaeological research is transforming how we think about this remarkable place and its history over the long term. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-percent independent production, and your support is what allows us to make this show. So, thank you. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .