Best Prussia Podcasts (2025)

1
The Siege of Sevastopol, WWII 1941-42. The Largest Military Invasion in Recorded History. 21:55

1h ago21:55

21:55

The battle for Sevastopol, and the wider fight for Crimea, siphoned off critical German divisions from the southern push toward the Caucasus, delaying the drive for oil and momentum. At the same time, it gutted Soviet naval power in the Black Sea, silencing it for nearly two years and leaving the coastline exposed and vulnerable. Sevastopol. Octobe…

1
The Siege of Khe Sanh, 1968. The Killing Stroke of Communist Vietnam's Final Major Offensive. 20:12

34m ago20:12

20:12

The North Vietnamese defeat marked the terminal collapse of their ambitious 1968 campaign: an orchestrated “General Offensive” designed to fracture American resolve and ignite a nationwide uprising, brought to its knees by the very forces it sought to outmaneuver. Khe Sanh. January 21 - April 5, 1968. American and South Vietnamese Forces: ~ 6,000…

1
Fernanda Gallo, "Hegel and Italian Political Thought: The Practice of Ideas, 1832-1900" (Cambridge UP, 2024) 48:06

3d ago48:06

48:06

Political Theorist Fernanda Gallo (Homerton College, University of Cambridge) has a fascinating new book, Hegel and Italian Political Thought: The Practice of Ideas, 1832-1900 (Cambridge UP, 2024), about how Georg Hegel’s philosophical thought made its way to Italy and how it was integrated into the various schools of thought within Italy. This is …

1
Farouk Yahya, "Magic and Divination in Malay Illustrated Manuscripts" (Brill, 2015) 32:26

4d ago32:26

32:26

Magic and Divination in Malay Illustrated Manuscripts (Brill, 2015) offers an integrated study of the texts and images of illustrated Malay manuscripts on magic and divination from private and public collections in Malaysia, the UK and Indonesia. Containing some of the rare examples of Malay painting, these manuscripts provide direct evidence for t…

1
Stolen Fragments: Black Markets, Bad Faith, and the Illicit Trade in Ancient Artefacts 58:33

6d ago58:33

58:33

In 2012, Steve Green, billionaire and president of the Hobby Lobby chain of craft stores, announced a recent purchase of a Biblical artefact—a fragment of papyrus, just discovered, carrying lines from Paul's letter to the Romans, and dated to the second century CE. Noted scholar Roberta Mazza was stunned. When was this piece discovered, and how cou…

1
Insects as a Natural and Cultural Resource across Southeast Asia 32:22

8d ago32:22

32:22

Every year, World Wildlife Conservation Day is observed on 4 December. It reminds us of the importance of protecting our biodiversity, a message that is all the more urgent in the face of polycrises intensifying across the globe. At the foundational level of our ecosystems lie insects, which provide invaluable services to maintain healthy environme…

1
The Siege of Fort Stanwix, American Revolution. 1777. Where an Insurrection Turn into a Revolution. 20:19

10d ago20:19

20:19

Britain’s failure to seize Fort Stanwix played a critical role in the collapse of their strategy to divide the colonies. Without control of the fort, they were unable to secure the Hudson River corridor or dominate central New York, objectives that had been essential to cutting the American rebellion in half. That one position, held against the odd…

1
Episode 141 - Special Guest

14d ago

—

Episode 141 Notes: Where on the internet can you find a podcast that compares Sharon Van Etten to “Beyond the Black Rainbow”? One at the most We talk about Monte, Ty, Sharon Van Etten & the Attachment Theory. Kendrick Lamar, Klaus Nomi, and Julia and the Squeezettes. All this and a special guest drops by to plug current and future projects Sorry to…

1
What Was The Best Tank of WWII? 23:25

14d ago23:25

23:25

“Of the 403,272 tank soldiers (including a small number of women) who were trained by the Red Army in the war, 310,000 would die. Even the most optimistic troops knew what would happen when a tank was shelled. The white-hot flash of the explosion would almost certainly ignite the tank crew’s fuel and ammunition. At best, the crew—or those at least …

1
Kate Raworth on Donella Meadows 27:56

14d ago27:56

27:56

Born in Illinois in 1941, Dana Meadows studied Chemistry and Molecular Biology, before turning her back on a post doc position at Harvard, to pursue environmentalism. She joined her husband Dennis Meadows as part of the team working on Professor Jay Forester's World3 computer model of the world economy at MIT and wrote the report on the results of …

1
Rebecca Zorach, "Temporary Monuments: Art, Land, and America's Racial Enterprise" (U Chicago Press, 2024) 1:04:41

15d ago1:04:41

1:04:41

Art has long played a key role in constructing how people understand and imagine America. Starting with contemporary controversies over public monuments in the United States, in Temporary Monuments: Art, Land, and America’s Racial Enterprise (University of Chicago Press, 2024), Dr. Rebecca Zorach carefully examines the place of art in the occupatio…

1
Stefanie Fischer and Kim Wünschmann, "Oberbrechen: a German Village Confronts Its Nazi Past" (Oxford UP, 2024) 1:00:37

16d ago1:00:37

1:00:37

Oberbrechen: A German Village Confronts Its Nazi Past (Oxford UP, 2024) is a new title in OUP's Graphic History Series that chronicles the events of the Holocaust and its aftermath in a small village in rural Germany. Based on meticulous research and using powerful visual storytelling, the book provides a multilayered narrative that explores the ex…

1
Bruno Leipold, "Citizen Marx: Republicanism and the Formation of Karl Marx’s Social and Political Thought" (Princeton UP, 2024) 55:23

17d ago55:23

55:23

In Citizen Marx: Republicanism and the Formation of Karl Marx’s Social and Political Thought (Princeton UP, 2024), Bruno Leipold argues that, contrary to certain interpretive commonplaces, Karl Marx’s thinking was deeply informed by republicanism. Marx’s relation to republicanism changed over the course of his life, but its complex influence on his…

1
The Viking Siege of Paris, 886 AD. Just 200 Parisian Men Held Paris Against 30,000 Vikings. 21:00

18d ago21:00

21:00

The siege didn’t just test the walls of Paris, it revealed its worth to all of France. In holding the city, the defenders exposed the spine of the realm. And when Charles the Fat chose appeasement over action, he sealed his fate. The dynasty of Charlemagne ended not with a charge, but with a negotiation. The Carolingians fell... because Paris refus…

1
The Siege of Plataea, 429-427 BC. First Recorded Use of Chemical Warfare. Executions. Collapse of Hellenistic Honor. 23:48

20d ago23:48

23:48

Plataea represented the first large-scale deployment of siege technology and engineered tactics in Greek warfare: an evolution that redefined how cities were attacked and defended. But its legacy reached further. It signaled the beginning of a deeper collapse: the unraveling of the social fabric and psychological cohesion that had once bound the He…

1
The Siege of Stalingrad, 1943. Hitler's Critical Error. 17:35

22d ago17:35

17:35

Germany’s failure to take Stalingrad did more than cost them a city, it collapsed the entire southern campaign. With the 6th Army destroyed and the line of advance broken, the push toward the Caucasus oil fields disintegrated. Those fields were the key to strangling the Soviet war effort, cut them off, and the Red Army’s engines would fall silent. …

1
Dorothea Heiser and Stuart Taberner, eds., "My Shadow in Dachau: Poems" (Camden House, 2014) 1:08:10

22d ago1:08:10

1:08:10

Poems by and biographies of inmates of the Dachau Concentration Camp, testimonies to the persistence of the humanity and creativity of the individual in the face of extreme suffering. The concentration camp at Dachau was the first established by the Nazis, opened shortly after Hitler came to power in 1933. It first held political prisoners, but lat…

1
The Siege of Boulogne, 1544. The Collapse of a Throne Built on Defiance. 19:07

22d ago19:07

19:07

King Henry, having taken Boulogne through sheer force of will, stood at the height of his final campaign, but he could not convert occupation into dominance. The victory, though real, yielded no strategic transformation. Faced with financial strain, dwindling supplies, and an unreliable ally in Emperor Charles, he abandoned further escalation. The …

1
Joanne Miyang Cho, et al., "German-Speaking Jewish Refugees in Asia, 1930-1950" (Routledge, 2025) 1:06:51

28d ago1:06:51

1:06:51

Although most perished, hundreds of thousands of Central European Jews escaped the Holocaust; tens of thousands of these Jewish refugees ended up in East Asia, Southeast Asia, or South Asia. Taking a global and transnational approach, German-Speaking Jewish Refugees in Asia, 1930-1950 (Routledge, 2025) examines the cultural, political, and socioeco…

1
The Siege of Basra, 1982-87. Chemical Warfare. Nerve Gas. A Million Casualties. 25:26

30d ago25:26

25:26

The fighting around Basra was the bloodiest of the Iran-Iraq War, grinding through thousands of lives as both sides hurled everything they had into the struggle. It was here that Iraq unleashed chemical weapons on a massive scale, forcing the world to take notice... not out of moral outrage, but out of the cold realization that modern warfare had c…

1
Thomas P. Bernstein, "Holocaust: German History and Our Half-Jewish Family" (Cherry Orchard, 2024) 1:27:19

1M ago1:27:19

1:27:19

This compelling family history spans from the 1890s to the 21st century, weaving personal stories into the broader fabric of German history to reveal a deeply moving account of survival, courage, and resilience. At the heart of this narrative is Paul Bernstein, a Jewish WWI veteran who was awarded for his bravery but ultimately perished in Auschwit…

1
Andrew Long, "BRIXMIS and the Secret Cold War: Intelligence Collecting Operations Behind Enemy Lines in East Germany" (Pen and Sword, 2024) 1:51:27

1M ago1:51:27

1:51:27

The German Democratic Republic, or East Germany, was the frontline in the Cold War, packed with hundreds of thousands of Soviet and East German troops armed with the latest Warsaw Pact equipment, lined up along the 1,400 km Inner German Border. However, because of the repressive East German police state, little human intelligence about these forces…

1
The Siege of Badajoz, 1812. Total Carnage, Absolute Gore. Napoleon's Spanish Divisions Decimated by Wellington. 23:27

1M ago23:27

23:27

When the guns fell silent and the blood-soaked ruins of Badahose lay under British control, the last obstacle between Wellington and Spain was gone. The fortress had been the key, the final lock on the door that led into Napoleon’s empire. Now, the British held that key, and there would be no turning back. The invasion of Spain had begun: not as a …

1
The Siege of Gibraltar, 1779- 1783. The Longest Siege in British History. Key to WWII Centuries Later. 26:16

1M ago26:16

26:16

The last great effort to reclaim Gibraltar ended in defeat, sealing Britain’s hold over the gateway to the Mediterranean. The Rock remained under the Union Jack, and with it, Britain maintained the power to dictate the movement of fleets, the flow of commerce, and the balance of influence in one of the world’s most contested waterways. Every empire…

1
The Siege of Carthage, 146 BC. Rome Annihilates an Entire Civilization. A General Shames Himself Before his Wife. 27:08

1M ago27:08

27:08

Carthage... was annihilated. Its streets, once filled with merchants and soldiers, became killing grounds. Its walls, once impenetrable, were torn apart stone by stone. Its people, once masters of the sea, were either slaughtered in the ruins of their homes or marched away in chains. The war was over, but this was not a victory. It was an executio…

1
Laurel Leff, "Well Worth Saving: American Universities' Life-And-Death Decisions on Refugees from Nazi Europe" (Yale UP, 2019) 1:19:25

1M ago1:19:25

1:19:25

In Well Worth Saving (Yale University Press, 2019), Professor Laurel Leff explores how American universities responded to the sudden and urgent appeals for help from scholars trapped in Nazi-dominated Europe. Although many scholars were welcomed into faculty or research positions in the US, thousands more tried to find a way over and failed. Those …

1
Anne Greenwood Mackinney, "Nature on Paper: Documenting Science in Prussia, 1770-1850" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2024) 42:59

1M ago42:59

42:59

Over the past two decades, natural things—especially those collected, exchanged, studied, and displayed in museums, such as animals, plants, minerals, and rocks—have emerged as fascinating protagonists for historical research. Nature on Paper: Documenting Science in Prussia, 1770-1850 (U Pittsburgh Press, 2024) follows a different, humbler set of o…

1
Kobi Kabalek, "Rescue and Remembrance: Imagining the German Collective After Nazism" (U Wisconsin Press, 2025) 58:12

1M ago58:12

58:12

In Rescue and Remembrance: Imagining the German Collective After Nazism (U Wisconsin Press, 2025), Kobi Kabalek examines how the rescue of Jews during the Holocaust has been understood and represented in Germany from the Nazi period to the present. In many regions outside Germany, a small number of known Holocaust rescuers are often held up as exem…

1
William Blakemore Lyon, "Forged in Genocide: Migrant Workers Shaping Colonial Capitalism in Namibia, 1890-1925" (de Gruyter, 2024) 1:29:12

1M ago1:29:12

1:29:12

Forged in Genocide traces the early history of colonial capitalism in Namibia with a central focus on migrants who came to be key to the economy during and as a result of the German genocide of the Herero and Nama (1904-1908). It posits that Namibia, far from being a colonial backwater of the early 20th century, became highly integrated into the la…

1
Anne Greenwood Mackinney, "Nature on Paper: Documenting Science in Prussia, 1770-1850" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2024) 42:59

1M ago42:59

42:59

Over the past two decades, natural things—especially those collected, exchanged, studied, and displayed in museums, such as animals, plants, minerals, and rocks—have emerged as fascinating protagonists for historical research. Nature on Paper: Documenting Science in Prussia, 1770-1850 (U Pittsburgh Press, 2024) follows a different, humbler set of o…

1
The Siege of Vicksburg, 1863. The Death Knell Moment of the Rebellion. The South Reduced to Eating Rats. 35:04

1M ago35:04

35:04

With the fall of Vicksburg, the Union seized the entire length of the Mississippi River, cleaving the Confederacy in half. The South’s western states... Texas, Louisiana, and Arkansas... were now isolated, their soldiers and resources cut off from the Eastern war effort. What had once been a united rebellion was now a fractured resistance, fighting…

1
The Siege of Port Arthur, 1905. Russia Humiliated. Mechanized Slaughtering Ushered in as New War Standard. 23:22

1M ago23:22

23:22

Japan’s triumph sent a shockwave through Russia... a psychological wound as devastating as the battlefield losses. Defeat at the hands of an Asian power shattered the empire’s confidence and exposed the weaknesses of its military. Meanwhile, Japan now held a strategic gateway, a fortified port that would fuel its next offensives. From here, men, we…

1
The Siege of Malta, 1565. Ottoman Power Halted in its Tracks. Muslim Invasion of the Central and Western Mediterranean Sea Ends, Forever. 29:09

1M ago29:09

29:09

The triumph of the Knights of Malta shattered the momentum of Sultan Suleiman’s ambitions, halting the Ottoman drive for total dominance over the Mediterranean. Though his empire still loomed over the region, the siege had exposed its vulnerabilities. That dream of turning the sea into an Ottoman stronghold lingered for a few more years, only to be…

1
Harriet Atkinson, "Showing Resistance: Propaganda and Modernist Exhibitions in Britain, 1933-53" (Manchester UP, 2024) 37:45

1M ago37:45

37:45

How did exhibitions become a vital tool for public communication in early twentieth century Britain? Showing resistance reveals how exhibitions were taken up by activists and politicians from 1933 to 1953, becoming manifestos, weapons of war and a means of signalling political solidarities. Drawing on dozens of examples mounted in empty shops, work…

1
The Siege of Rhodes, 1522. One Small Order of Knights Stops Islam from an Open Door to Europe. 20:48

1M ago20:48

20:48

With the fall of the city and the island, Suleiman secured uncontested Ottoman dominance over the eastern Mediterranean. No Christian stronghold remained to challenge his fleets, no force lingered to disrupt his empire’s control over these waters. The sea, once a battleground, was now an Ottoman domain, its trade routes and strategic ports firmly i…

1
Lea David, "A Victim's Shoe, a Broken Watch, and Marbles: Desire Objects and Human Rights"(Columbia UP, 2025) 1:17:09

1M ago1:17:09

1:17:09

Everyday items found at the sites of atrocities possess a striking emotional force. Victims’ garments, broken glasses, wallets, shoes, and other such personal property that are recovered from places of death including concentration camps, mass graves, and prisons have become staples of memorial museums, exhibited to the public as material testimony…

1
Sabrina P. Ramet and Lavinia Stan, "East Central Europe Since 1989" (Routledge, 2025) 1:32:32

2M ago1:32:32

1:32:32

East Central Europe Since 1989 (Routledge, 2025) examines politics, economics, media, religious institutions, transitional justice, gender inequality, and literature, highlighting the overt functions, latent functions, and side effects associated with each sphere. Communism in East Central Europe had cracks from the beginning, as uprisings in East …

1
Alexandra F. Morris, "Disability in Ptolemaic Egypt and the Hellenistic World: Plato’s Stepchildren" (Routledge, 2024) 40:20

2M ago40:20

40:20

Through a thoughtful investigation, Disability in Ptolemaic Egypt and the Hellenistic World: Plato’s Stepchildren (Routledge, 2024) reveals often-overlooked narratives of disability within Ptolemaic Egypt and the larger Hellenistic world (332 BCE to 30 BCE). Chapters explore evidence of physical and intellectual disability, ranging from named indiv…

1
The Siege of Imphal, 1944. Japanese Army Left to Rot. British and Indian Refusal to Surrender Alters History. 25:57

2M ago25:57

25:57

The road to India was within the Japanese Imperial Army's grasp, but at Imphal and Kohima, the Japanese advance was not just halted, it was broken. Their columns had fought, bled, and died to reach the gates of British India, but when the final shots were fired, they had nothing left. Their supply lines had collapsed. Their men were starving. Their…

1
The Siege of Grozny, 1994-95. Total Russian Military Command Failure. Grozny's Apocalyptic Destruction Breeds Insurgency. 16:28

2M ago16:28

16:28

Russia’s failure to impose enduring control over Chechnya exposed a fundamental erosion of its military strength and the brittle resolve of its leadership. What should have been a swift and decisive campaign instead unraveled into a prolonged disaster, revealing an army plagued by disorganization, low morale, and tactical ineptitude. The war laid b…

1
Simona Valeriani, "The Royal Albert Hall: Building the Arts and Sciences" (Brepols, 2024) 1:00:19

2M ago1:00:19

1:00:19

The Royal Albert Hall: Building the Arts and Sciences (Brepols, 2024) by Dr. Simona Valeriani takes one of London’s most iconic buildings and deconstructs it to offer new insights into the society that produced it. As part of the new cultural quarter built in South Kensington on the proceeds from The Great Exhibition of 1851, the Royal Albert Hall …

1
The Siege of Baghdad, 1258. Islam Nearly Wiped from the Earth. Mongol Expansion. Wholesale Slaughter. 23:37

2M ago23:37

23:37

When the Mongols tore through Baghdad, they did not merely sack a city for its plunder or to claim power, this time they dismantled a civilization. The once-great capital of the Islamic world, a center of power, knowledge, and commerce for half a millennium, was left a husk of its former self. Its libraries, once holding the accumulated wisdom of c…

1
Mark Billingham chooses George Harrison 27:00

2M ago27:00

27:00

George Harrison was a musician, singer and songwriter who became one of the most famous people in the world as one quarter of the Beatles. That alone would merit a place in the Great Lives pantheon, but his work in the decades after the band broke up indicates a man of diverse and arguably underestimated talents. Erupting onto the pop music scene i…

1
Jake Arnott on John Gay 27:42

2M ago27:42

27:42

John Gay, eighteenth-century satirist and author of The Beggar's Opera, is nominated by the writer Jake Arnott - whose novels, including The Long Firm and He Kills Coppers, are also set in London's criminal underworld. Editor of Private Eye, Ian Hislop, is the presenter, and Dr Rebecca Bullard of the University of Oxford is on hand to help uncover …

1
László Borhi, "Survival under Dictatorships: Life and Death in Nazi and Communist Regimes" (Central European UP, 2024) 47:49

2M ago47:49

47:49

A complex array of individual responses to the abuse of power by the state is represented in this book in three horrific episodes in the history of East-Central Europe. The three events followed each other within a span of about ten years: the deportation and murder of Hungarian Jews in Nazi death and labor camps; the Arrow Cross terrorist rule in …

1
Episode 140 - Banana Organs

2M ago

—

Episode 140 Notes: As I look through this podcast, I see the secret theme is BUNNIES. Also we talk about Scowl, Sweat, Lambrini Girls, and Delivery (which (oops) we mistaking refer to as “Force Majeure”) Songs Featured in Episode 140: “Errors” – Sweat (Who Do You Think You Are) “Like a Million Bucks” – Delivery (Force Majeure) “No Homo” – Lambrini …

1
The Siege of Magdeburg, 1631. Wholesale Savagery. Slaughter of Faiths. 27:22

2M ago27:22

27:22

The annihilation of Magdeburg was more than a military defeat... it was a warning, one that sent shockwaves through the Protestant states of northern Germany. Those who had hesitated, those who had wavered in their allegiance, now saw the cost of inaction. The city's fall was not a mere state loss; it was an execution, carried out with fire and ste…

1
The Siege of St. Augustine, FL. 1702. Spanish Fort Unconquered. Delays British American Dominance. 21:36

2M ago21:36

21:36

Spain’s victory did more than just hold the line, it secured Florida as a critical bastion, shielding its Atlantic trade routes and standing as a barrier against the rising power of the American colonies. For decades to come, it would remain a Spanish stronghold, a thorn in the ambitions of an expanding America, a reminder that the old empire was n…

1
The Siege of Kut-Al-Amara, WWI. Longest Unrelieved Siege in British History. Iraq Formed. British Government Toppled. 21:18

2M ago21:18

21:18

Kut was the longest unrelieved siege ever suffered by a British force, and its fall sent shockwaves through the empire. It wasn't just a battlefield defeat, it was a total unraveling. The loss shattered illusions of invincibility, exposed the failures of British command, and forced a reckoning that reshaped military strategy and political leadershi…

1
Ellen E Jones nominates Florynce Kennedy 27:59

2M ago27:59

27:59

One dubbed "the biggest, loudest and indisputably the rudest mouth on the battleground", Florynce Kennedy was a force to be reckoned with. She was a lawyer, a vocal figure in the American civil rights and feminist movements of the 1960s and '70s, and a champion of numerous other causes besides; from legalising abortion to campaigning for sex-worker…

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