Send us a text History isn’t just the tale of kings and queens, of armies and empires. It’s also the story of how we’ve suffered, how we’ve punished, and how far humanity has gone to make death a spectacle. In this Halloween special, The Hungry Historian ventures into the blackest corners of the past. To the places where execution was an art form, and pain was meant to echo. From the slow scrape of the blade to the crack of the rope, from ingenious devices of torment to punishments so ...

Send us a text "If a man can bridge the gap between life and death, if he can live on after he's dead, then maybe he was a great man." - James Dean Before he was a legend frozen in time, James Dean was a small-town boy with a hunger for something greater. In this episode, The Hungry Historian explores the brief but blazing life of one of Hollywood’s most enduring icons. Follow along through his humble beginnings in Indiana to his meteoric rise in 1950s cinema, as Dean captured the restl...

Send us a text "The men were simply mown down. They advanced in lines which seemed to melt away under the enemy’s fire." — British officer reflecting on the Battle of Loos In this episode join The Hungry Historian as he turns back to September 1915 and the bloody fields of northern France to examine the Battle of Loos. Often overshadowed today by the Somme and Passchendaele, Loos was nonetheless a watershed moment in Britain’s First World War experience. It marked the first large-...

Send us a text "Assassination has never changed the history of the world." - Benjamin Disraeli From Abraham Lincoln’s fateful night at Ford’s Theatre, to the near-misses that almost changed the course of American politics forever, presidential assassinations and assassination attempts have left lasting marks on the nation’s history. In this episode, join the Hungry Historian as he dives into the stories behind the tragedies, close calls, and how these moments of violence reshaped presid...

Send us a text “Travellers intending to embark on the Atlantic voyage are reminded that a state of war exists between Germany . . . and Great Britain . . . and that travellers sailing in the war zone on ships of Great Britain or her allies do so at their own risk.” - German Advertisement the day the Lusitania set sail On May 7th, 1915, the British ocean liner RMS Lusitania was torpedoed and sunk by a German U-boat off the coast of Ireland, killing nearly 1,200 people. The disaster unfolded at...

Send us a text “Canada emerged as a political entity with boundaries largely determined by the fur trade. … The present Dominion emerged not in spite of geography but because of it.” — Harold Innis From the fur-clad frontiers of Rupert’s Land to the corridors of British colonial power, the Hudson’s Bay Company stood as one of the most influential and controversial forces in North American history. In this episode, join The Hungry Historian as he paddles into the heart of Canada’s coloni...

Send us a text “The Beaver does everything perfectly well: it makes kettles, hatchets, swords, knives, bread; in short, it makes everything.” - Unknown Innu Hunter On this episode of The Hungry Historian, our historical hero ventures deep into the northern wilderness to trace the origins and rise of one of the oldest and most influential commercial enterprises in North America — the Hudson’s Bay Company. Founded in 1670, but rooted in the explorations of the 1660s, the HBC was mor...

Send us a text "From Paints to Saints and the beachs between, visit the Normandie region through the eyes of the Hungry Historian." On this second episode of a two part look back at his travels through France and Belgium, the Hungry Historian is once again joined by his Mrs (The Hungry Herstorian) as he leaves the beaches of Normandy in the rear view and heads for his next adventure. Follow along as he walks the beach at Dieppe, the trenches of Beaumont-Hamel and Vimy Ridge, and the f...

Send us a text "From Paints to Saints and the beachs between, visit the Normandie region through the eyes of the Hungry Historian." On this first episode of a two part look back at his travels through France and Belgium, the Hungry Historian lands in Paris and heads for his base of operations, the Normandie capital city of Caen. Follow along as he walks the beaches and bunkers that saw the D-Day invasions over 80 years ago. If that's not your cup of tea, don't fret, because the Hungry Histori...

Send us a text "Yeah-yeah, some folks inherit star-spangled eyes. Hoo, they send you down to war, Lord And when you ask 'em, "How much should we give?" Hoo, they only answer, "More, more, more, more" - "Fortunate Son" by Creedence Clearwater Revival On this last episode of his series that focused on The Vietnam War, The Hungry Historian is going to go through the most important and longest lasting legacy from the conflict. No, it's not the Vietnam Veteran's Memorial or the areas of Vietnam th...

Send us a text "The United States... will not turn from our obligation to help the remaining refugees... The situation in Vietnam is tragic, but America can’t fix every problem." - President Gerald Ford By 1974, the Vietnam War had entered its twilight. In this penultimate episode of his series on the conflict, The Hungry Historian, explores the war’s dramatic final years, beginning with the profound shifts in American politics and public sentiment that followed the Watergate scandal an...

Send us a text "Tin soldiers and Nixon's comin' We're finally on our own This summer I hear the drummin' Four dead in Ohio." - Neil Young, "Ohio" On this seventh episode of his series on the Vietnam War, join the Hungry Historian as he journeys through the tumultuous years of 1970 to 1973—a pivotal period for both the Vietnam War and the United States. As the conflict in Southeast Asia dragged on, US involvement took a sharp turn with President Nixon’s controversial “Vietnamization” str...

Send us a text “Let us understand: North Vietnam cannot defeat or humiliate the United States. Only Americans can do that.”—President Richard Nixon As the 1960s drew to a close, 1969 became a pivotal year that marked the end of an era—a time when the dreams of peace, love, and unity that defined the decade began to unravel. It was a year steeped in blood, both in the jungles of Vietnam and in the streets of America. The turbulent events of 1969 did not just signal the end of a decade, b...

Send us a text “You send the best of this country off to be shot and maimed. They rebel in the streets. They will take pot, and they will get high. They don't want to go to school, 'cause they're going to be snatched off from their mothers to be shot in Vietnam." - Eartha Kitt In Vietnam, 1968 marked the Tet Offensive—a massive, coordinated assault by North Vietnamese and Viet Cong forces that shocked the world and exposed the brutal reality of the war. It shattered any lingering illusi...

Send us a text “You could never tell who was the enemy and who was not. Therefore you treated everybody with suspicion and distrust. The enemy was everywhere and everybody at all times, and we were the foreigners in their country…" - Thomas Giltner, U.S. Soldier The two year run from 1965-66, was a period of intense escalation in Vietnam, as the U.S. became deeply entrenched in a war that became increasingly unpopular. At home, America was undergoing significant social change, with the ...

Send us a text “It’s silly talking about how many years we will have to spend in the jungles of Vietnam when we could pave the whole country and put parking stripes on it and still be home for Christmas.” —Ronald Reagan In 1961, the Vietnam War was a conflict that seemed far away to many Americans, but it was quickly becoming one of the most defining struggles of the Cold War. The US had been supporting South Vietnam for years, but it was under President John F. Kennedy that military ad...

Send us a text “We are not about to send American boys nine or ten thousand miles away from home to do what Asian boys ought to be doing for themselves.” —President Lyndon Johnson Between 1960 and 1964, the conflict in Vietnam escalated from a simmering insurgency to a full-blown international crisis. It was a time of political intrigue, military build-up, and ideological warfare. By the end of 1964, the stage was set for one of the longest and most controversial wars in U.S. history. Looking...

Send us a text “Just as Rome civilised the barbarians beyond its borders, we too have a duty to extend French culture and religion to the backwards peoples of the world.” - Paul Doumer, President of France On 8 March 1965, 3,500 US Marines landed near Da Nang in South Vietnam. This marked the beginning of the American ground war in Vietnam. It's important to distinguish this as the ground war because as you'll find out, this wasn't the start of the Vietnam War as it was often historic...

Send us a text "Christmas is doing a little something extra for someone." - Charles Schulz Twas the night before Christmas, and while everyone might be nestled all snug in their beds at your house, over at the House of the Hungry Historian him and the Hungry Herstorian were cooking up one last minute gift. That's right! Coming in hot on the heels of the first part of The Hungry Historian's 2024 Holiday Gift is the highly anticipated sequel! This time around, he is accompanied ...

Send us a text “Christmas is the season for kindling the fire of hospitality.” - Washington Irving With less than a week to go before the big bearded man in red makes his way down the chimney, the Hungry Historian is coming at you with a gift of his own. A holiday gift guide made up of his favourite historical reads! Sure, historical books might not be your bag, but when it comes to shopping for those hard to buy for people on your Xmas list, you might be thankful that you tuned in for this...