wnsdpod

Ep 191 - Let's Review the Mail

patrons, here is your ad-free version of this week's regular episode. we answered a number of questions in this one.

folks, we're back with another mailbag episode. our patrons have written questions and now we're going to answer them. we discuss a wide range of topics from wedding rings to mylings to the Charter of the Forest to why Medieval European empires couldn't really expand out like Asian and African empires and more!

but first, we talk about the US election for about 15 mins, so skip right ahead if you don't want to hea...

Request for Book Club Questions

hello, patrons, we wanted to send out a quick message to let you know about the upcoming bonus episodes for November and December. So, Eleanor and I got to talking and, frankly, there's no way we can cram all of days six and seven of The Name of the Rose plus final thoughts and wrapping up into a single episode. It would be too long and unwieldy and just won't work, so we're splitting it up into two episodes to cover everything better. It's just more The Name of the Rose for your buck and will also allow us to clo...

Ep 191 - Twelve Medieval Ghost Stories

patrons, here if your ad-free version of this week's regular episode. no question this time due to time constraints.

folks, it's spooky season and we've reached back into the Middle Ages to find twelve ghost stories to celebrate. actually, these twelve were already compiled together and are known as the Byland Abbey ghost stories, which is where the manuscript containing these stories was initially discovered. these stories, all written around the year 1400 give us a great view into how Medieval people told scary stories. spoiler: the...

Bonus Ep 73 - The Name of the Rose Mentioned (feat. Josh Sawyer)

patrons, here's your second bonus episode for the month of October. the final episode in our book club series on The Name of the Rose will be released in early November.

folks, since we're approaching the end of our book club series on Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, we felt it high time to bring former guest and the internet's foremost TNOTR stan, Josh Sawyer, back to chat about the book. as you might recall, Josh is a video game designer for Obsidian Entertainment and has directed a number of ...

Ep 190 - The Work of God

patrons, here is this week's ad-free version of the regular episode, we answered questions from Nem1874 and Gaffsey. the interview with Josh Sawyer will be released Friday morning, eastern time.

folks, it's time to talk about Opus Dei, the shadowy "church within a church" of the Catholic Church. why are we talking about Opus Dei? well, mostly because it's been in the news and we were chatting about it via text and decided to do an episode about it. so we talk about the brief history of Opus Dei, some of the controversies surrounding th...

Bonus Ep 72 - The Name of the Rose 6: The Inquisition Strikes Back

patrons, we're back with part 6 of our book club series on Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose, which covers Day Five. this time, we finally get to the big theological disputation, which quickly turns into a giant monk wrestling match, Severinus the herbalist is murdered in a way that satisfies the Seven Trumpets theory, and the evil Bernard Gui manipulates events so expertly that he gets someone to confess to all the murders at the abbey and to implicate a widespread Dolcinian heresy in hiding. that's right, things are going from bad to wors...

Ep 189 - The Travels of Ibn Ba2ta (feat Derek Davison)

patrons, here's your ad-free version of this week's bonus episode, we answered a question from Princess Sparkle Pants. Part 6 of The Name of the Rose book club series drops Friday morning.

folks, we're back with part two of our miniseries on the life and travels of Ibn Battuta, the most well-traveled man of the Middle Ages, and Derek Davison is back to help us out. this time, we look at the final two big journeys of Ibn Battuta's life that take him from Turkey to India to China and back over a 15-year span and then a much shorter one f...

Ep 188 - The Travels of Ibn Battuta 1 (feat Derek Davison)

patrons, here's your ad-free version of this week's regular episode. no questions this week since we have a guest.

folks, we're talking Medieval travelers today and that means we're talking about the man, the myth, the legend: Ibn Battuta. Even if he doesn't have quite the same western name recognition as Marco Polo, Ibn Battuta traveled much more extensively, taking three huge journeys that took him through Africa, Europe, and Asia. He walked the Silk Road and touched the Rock of Gibraltar, he was the Medieval traveler extraordinaire....

Bonus Ep 71 - We're Very Very Different: Irony

patrons, here's your second bonus episode for the month of September. it's a few days late but we trust you'll understand. the next part in our book club series on The Name of the Rose will be out in the next couple of weeks. thanks and enjoy!

in this episode, we actually talk about a way in which we're very very fucking different from the people of the past, not just those in the Middle Ages, but even our own parents and grandparents: Irony. obviously, dramatic and rhetorical irony have been around since storytelling began but a fully...

Ep 187 - Episode Request: Day in the Life of (Fill in the Blank)

patrons, here is your ad-free version of this week's regular episode. we answered a question from Taurion and topics from Jon Mot and I Would Whack 500 Moles.

folks, after a brief weather delay, we're here to close out our Day in the Life series with a grab bag of Medieval jobs we haven't gotten to thus far. this time, we jump around between five different topics suggested by our patrons: how were the famous English archers trained? what did ladies-in-waiting wait on all the damn time? what backbreaking chores did household servants do...

Ep 186 - The Name of the Rose 1: An Introduction (bonus ep unlocked)

hey patrons, we're unlocking an old bonus episode this week because a hurricane in the Gulf has forced Luke to flee for a few days. don't worry, he's fine. but we didn't have time to do the normally scheduled episodes this week. we will be back with a regular episode and the second bonus of September some time next week. thanks for understanding!

In this introduction, we bring you up to speed on the background you need before we get into the book itself next time. We start with a question that is simple in theory but not in practice: w...

Ep 185 - Day in the Life of the Clergy

patrons, here is your ad-free version of this week's regular episode. we answer questions from Professor Science and Quixotic in this one.

so far in our Day in the Life series, we've covered peasant farmers, knights, merchants, and royalty, which means that the only major group in Medieval Europe we've yet to cover is the clergy. but the clergy wasn't just stuffy archbishops in their giant cathedrals, the humble parish priest provided spiritual comfort as well as social services and material aid to his parishioners while the monks and ...

Bonus Ep 70 - The Name of the Rose 5: Of Unicorns and Trumpets

Patrons, this if your first bonus episode for the month of September and the FIFTH in our book club series on Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.

Day four at the abbey finds William and Adso continuing to investigate the series of mysterious murders but time is running very short. The previous number one suspect, Berengar, was himself found murdered in grisly fashion, so they have very little to go and the hostile papal legation will arrive later in the day for the big theological disputation scheduled for day five. Our detectives cont...

Ep 184 - Day in the Life of a Royal

patrons, this is your ad-free version of this week's bonus episode, we answered questions from dogspotter and Michael Wright.

folks, we're back and continuing our Day in the Life series and this time we're talking about those fat cat royals in their palaces. sure, their positions could only exist based off the exploitation and suffering of like 98% of the populace but still, what the hell did they do all day? What did it mean to hold court? How were early Medieval courts different from their later counterparts and when did that start t...

Ep 183 - Episode Request: Day in the Life of a Merchant

patrons, this is your ad-free version of this week's regular episode, we answered questions from MGinyourface and Rita Patina and an episode request from David.

folks, we're back and continuing our run of answering patron episode requests and our Day in the Life series by talking about what a normal day was like for a Medieval merchant. how was city life different from living on a farm? what was it like to live on a continent where most people made transactions on the barter system but also use coins for trade? what was Medieval curren...

Ep 182 - Episode Request: A Day in the Life of a Tourney Knight

patrons, here is your ad-free version of this week's regular episode. we answer questions from Nem1874 and Mansa Musa's Nipple Rings. episode topic requested by Gaffsey.

folks, after consulting our very own sacred chickens, we decided to turn a few of these patron episode requests into a short series, focusing on a Day in the Life of various medieval European people. Last week was the peasant farmer, and this time, it's the High and Late Medieval tournament knight. we discuss the differences between earlier conceptions of knights, the...

Bonus Ep 69 - House of the Dragon review 2

patrons, here is your second bonus episode for the month of August 2024.

House of the Dragon season 2 just wrapped up and so we decided to review it as is our wont. We reviewed season 1 back in 2022 and here we are for season 2. if all goes as planned, we'll be back for part 3 in 2026. anyway, this season sees real dragon fights, Aemond being emo as hell, the return of Daemon's mischief-making cloak, and, most importantly, like three (3) seconds of Bloodraven showing up many years before his actual birth. we had fun, check it out.

Ep 181 - Episode Request: Down on the Farm

patrons, here is your ad-free version of this week's regular episode. we answer questions from Bardic Inspiration and Gafsey in this one.

folks, throughout the history of the show, we've gotten a ton of questions that we answer at the beginning of almost every episode but we also get episode requests on broader topics. since we have something of a backlog of these, we figured we would start to address them and so we answer a request from our patron Dogspotter, who asked us to do an episode about what life was like down on the farm for ...

Ep 180 - Conquest & Anarchy 6: Total Angevin Victory

patrons, this is your ad-free version of this week's regular episode, we answered a question from HRH Princess Denise in this one.

folks, we're back with the 6th and final episode in our series on the Norman Conquest and English Anarchy. we close our the Anarchy in style by talking about the strange course of the conflict, Empress Matilda's high point of power in England, London's rejection of the Empress, the stalemate that followed, the eventual rise of Matilda's son, Henry FitzEmpress, and the eventual collapse of Stephen's rule as ...

Bonus Ep 68 - The Name of the Rose 4: Medieval Stand By Me

patrons, here's your first bonus episode for August 2024 and the fourth in our series on The Name of The Rose. In this episode, we talk through Day Three at the abbey, wherein there are more mysteries, more murder most foul, and a ton of character development for our narrator Adso. While trying to unravel the mystery of Fra Dolcino and why he means so much to William, Adso also learns how to be a good detective, has some casual sex with a peasant woman, and finds a dead body. We also discuss Eco's repeated dialogues about Late Medie...

Ep 179 - Conquest & Anarchy 5: Too Many Matildas

patrons, here's your ad-free version of this week's regular episode. we answer questions from My Bartoli and White Trash Historian. part 4 of the series on The Name of the Rose will be out Friday.

folks, it's part 5 of our series on the Norman Conquest and English Anarchy and we're finally getting to the Anarchy part. We talk about the state of England in 1135 at the time of Henry I's death, what kind of anarchy we mean here, the main players and their claims to the throne, early political jockeying, and then the formal o...

Ep 188 - Conquest & Anarchy 4: Succession Crises

patrons, here's your ad-free version of this week's regular episode. we answer questions from Dog God and Evelyn in this one.

folks, we're back with part four of our series on the Norman Conquest and English Anarchy. this time, the best laid succession plans of mice and men go awry. Despite a decade of relative peace toward the end of his reign and dying with three male heirs in line, William the Conqueror's sons immediately begin quarreling with the help of some more rebellious barons. William Rufus wins the right to the English thron...

Bonus Ep 67 - Current Events: Nothing Ever Happens... Until it Does

patrons, here's your second bonus episode for the month of July 2024. we hope you enjoy. our next bonus on The Name of the Rose will probably be out in the next couple of weeks.

friends, it's time once again for us to visit the terrifying world of current events as we talk recent happenings in politics in the Anglosphere once again. first, Eleanor gets us up to speed on life under the Glorious Regime of Keith and your new Labour overlords. as you might have guessed: even with the Tories out of power, it's a lot of "here's the new boss,...

Ep 177 - Conquest & Anarchy 3: The Norman Yoke

patrons, here's a quick update: we were going to record two episodes this week, a regular and a bonus, but Eleanor got a stomach bug and we didn't have time to record two, so the second bonus episode of July will drop next week, possibly toward the end of the week, which is technically in August. just wanted to give y'all an update on that.

here's your ad-free version of this week's regular episode, we answer questions from Paul Carraba and White Trash Historian

folks, we're back with part three of our series on the Norman Conque...

Conquest & Anarchy 2: 1066 and All That

patrons, here's the ad-free version of this week's regular episode. we answer questions from Gafsey in this one.

note: yes, there is echo on Eleanor's audio because she is travelling and the only place where she could record had tall ceilings and thus an echo. this also caused some weird feedback on Luke's track too. we have done our best to minimize it, so please just bear with us.

folks, we're back with part 2 of our series on the Norman Conquest and English Anarchy. last time, we introduced you to pre-Norman England and the N...

Bonus Ep 66 - The Name of the Rose 3: Heresies and Hijinks

patrons, there is your first bonus episode for the month of July and our third entry in the book club series on Umberto Eco's The Name of the Rose.

folks, we're back in our sleepy Italian monastery in 1327 for Day Two of the story and, wouldn't you know it, these monks are at it again. there's more murder most foul, more solemn thoughts on the nature of heresy, more arguments about Christ laughing, more shady dealings uncovered, a break-in at the library, and so many pratfalls. we've got more suspects than you can shake a stick at and ...

Conquest & Anarchy 1: Before the Normans

patrons, here's your ad-free version of this week's regular episode. we answered questions from Evelyn and Dog God in this one.

folks, we're back with a new series, this one covering the Norman Conquest of England and then the Anarchy that followed about seventy years later. we were originally just going to do the Anarchy but decided to do the Conquest as well because it's kind of a big deal. this episode serves as an introduction to pre-Norman England and the Normans themselves. we talk about prehistoric England, Roman Britain, the He...

Ep 174 - More Patron Mailbag, More, More

patrons, here is your ad-free version of this week's regular episode. we answered questions from Shiloh, dogspotter, dog god, Paul Carraba, Colin Keese, Tichy Ijon, Nem1874, Ollie Cant, Quixotic, and Benjamin Cisko. the next bonus episode, part 3 of The Name of the Rose, will be published next Friday (07/12).

folks, we're back with another patron mailbag episode, as promised. in this one, we answer a bunch of questions ranging from the justifications for predestination, usage of the term "Anglo-Saxon," the culture shock of being a Chin...

Bonus Ep 65 - Elden Ring

SPOILER WARNING: this episode contains spoilers for all of Elden Ring, including the recently released Shadow of the Erdtree DLC

patrons, here's your second bonus episode of June 2024, enjoy!

folks, we're back and it's finally time to go in-depth on Elden Ring. we've talked about the dark Medievalist fantasy video game here and there ever since it dropped two years ago, taking the world by storm, and with its DLC, Shadow of the Erdtree, releasing just last week, we figured it was time to discuss the whole thing. ...

Ep 173 - Patreon Mailbag Time

patrons, here's your ad-free version of this week's regular episode. we answered questions from Gafsey, Abandoned Line, Dogspotter, Ollie Cant, Jas the Texican, Jenny, My Bartoli, A Weeb for Italy is a Mama Miaboo, and Lemonduck.

the second bonus episode of June will be out Friday.

folks, it's time for another mailbag episode to answer some of our backlog of patron questions! in fact, this is the first of two mailbags we're doing in a row, so there's more to look forward to next week. this time, we answer questions on investigati...