PODCAST · history
The Medieval Podcast
by Danièle Cybulskie
A friendly podcast on all things medieval. Join host Danièle Cybulskie each week as she interviews the world's experts on topics ranging from pigs, to Persian poetry, to the Plantagenets.
Episodes
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The Fifth Crusade with Thomas Smith
Last week, we took a look at the first hundred years of crusading, and the tactics involved in fighting in and around the crusader kingdoms of the Middle East. In this episode, we follow the crusaders as they shift their lens southward to Egypt, and make a bold attempt to capture one of the…
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The Crusader Storm with Nicholas Morton
If there’s one topic that continually draws people to the Middle Ages, it’s the Crusades. Templars, assassins, nomadic horse archers, in what is at times a very hostile environment makes for a history that regularly turns on a knife edge. But the story of the Crusades is much bigger,...
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Harald Hardrada with James Turner
In this episode, we’re looking at a legendary figure who thought ruling England would be one more step in his quest to be the dominant power in the North Sea. His legendary prowess in battle was known from Sicily to Orkney, and his name was Harald Hardrada. This week, Danièle speaks with James...
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Offa with Rory Naismith
Early medieval kings come to us in glimpses, with legends, a few chronicles, and some archaeological finds sketching faint portraits of figures who were larger than life in their own time. One of these kings left a literal impression on Britain that speaks to the power he had in the eighth…
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A Medieval Law for Noncombatants with James Houlihan
While there was more violence in the medieval world than there is today on the whole, much of that was in the context of warfare. And even in medieval warfare, there were many people who felt the need for limits. This week, Danièle speaks with James Houlihan about medieval perspectives on…
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Justice for Jehanne with Sara McDougall
In the fifteenth-century, a woman named Jehanne reported a sexual assault to the city authorities of Dijon, setting in motion a detailed criminal investigation that has survived in the records. This week, Danièle speaks with Sara McDougall about what Jehanne's story can tell us about truth and...
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Translating Hell with Stephen C.E. Hopkins
From gruesome visions of torment, to Sunday holidays from the flames, to absolutely epic images of Jesus freeing lost souls at the point of a sword, medieval people couldn’t get enough of their fire and brimstone. The question is: why? This week, Danièle speaks with Stephen C.E. Hopkins about…
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Early Medieval Crowds with Shane Bobrycki
One of the more popular clichéd images of the medieval world is an angry mob with torches and pitchforks, ready to cause wanton destruction. And while there were rebellions on occasion, the truth is much more complex. This week, Danièle speaks with Shane Bobrycki about how the nature of crowds –...
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The Ming Dynasty with Craig Clunas
When it comes to powerful and impressive dynasties of the Middle Ages, it’s hard to compete with China’s Ming Dynasty. And yet, a lot of us didn’t learn much about the Ming in school. If you’re looking to start your journey on all things Ming, this is the episode for you. This week, Danièle…
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Motherhood in Medieval Romance with Kirsty Bolton
Motherhood is different for each person who experiences it, and yet one thing is for certain: everyone has an opinion about it. This week, Danièle speaks with Kirsty Bolton about the places mothers appeared in medieval romance, from birthing rooms to otherworldly forests, and what this can tell…
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Scotland and the Wars of the Roses with Michael Brown
There’s a beautiful country that every once in a while comes to the forefront of our collective consciousness to steal our hearts. But Scotland isn’t a country that just appears out of the mist from time-to-time. It’s always been an integral part of European politics, especially during the late...
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The Travels of Mar Yahballaha and Rabban Sawma with Thomas A. Carlson
Pretty much everyone has heard about Marco Polo and his thirteenth-century journey from Italy to China. But just as the Polos were making their way east, two other intrepid travellers were making the journey in reverse. This week, Danièle speaks with Thomas A. Carlson about two Eastern Christian...
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350 Episodes: A Celebration
In honour of 350 episodes of The Medieval Podcast, Danièle celebrates the amazing progress that's been made in Medieval Studies since 2019. This podcast is made possible by the generous support of listeners like you! To find out how to help spread the joy of medieval history, please visit...
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Replay: Live at Leeds with Eleanor Janega
It’s summertime and your friendly neighbourhood medievalist is taking a much-needed week off, so here's a blast from the not-so-distant past. This episode was recorded live at the International Medieval Congress at the University of Leeds in 2023 with everyone’s other favourite medievalist…
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Widow City with Anna Wainwright
Although death is just a natural and expected part of life – especially in the Middle Ages – it’s also an event that forever alters the lives of those left behind. For medieval women, widowhood changed everything. This week, Danièle speaks with Anna Wainwright about what it was like to be an...
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A Medieval Paper Armoury with Chassica Kirchhoff
To picture the Middle Ages is to picture knights in shining armour. Custom-made, fashionable, and often beautiful, medieval armour was more than just practical: it was art. And in the late Middle Ages, a collection of talented artists captured the functional elegance of armour on paper. This…
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The Peasant Kitchen with Luis Almenar Fernández
So often, we see the homes – and lives – of peasants represented as drab and empty. But the reality is bright, busy, fashionable, and colourful. This week, Danièle speaks with Luis Almenar Fernández about how peasants stored and cooked their food, how they used food culture to build…
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Royal Receipts with Abigail S. Armstrong
You can tell a lot about people by their spending habits. What do they buy for themselves? And what do they buy for other people? This week, Danièle speaks with Abigail S. Armstrong about royal financial records, what they can tell us about Margaret of France during Edward I’s last days, and what...
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Medieval Pubs with Peter Dobek
It’s the local watering hole. The place where business is done, and moments are celebrated. And it’s the place where you can literally see a man about a horse. It’s the medieval pub. This week, Danièle speaks with Peter Dobek about the public houses of medieval Krakow, what they looked like…
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Europe's Last Pagan Peoples with Francis Young
A couple of weeks ago, we looked at the practices of ancient and medieval Celts, and how those practices were transformed and integrated into Christianity over time. Today, we’re shifting the lens eastward to investigate some of the last Europeans to accept Christianity. What did these people...
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Medieval Mass Expulsions with Rowan Dorin
The medieval period is well known for several large-scale and horrific persecutions, especially ones based on religious grounds. One of these is a succession of expulsions of the Jews from one kingdom after another. Persecutions like these don’t just come out the blue. So, if we’re going to...
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Celtic Magic with Brigid Ehrmantraut
Have you ever wanted to put a curse on someone? How about ask a river goddess for some healing? Or maybe speak a charm that’ll make your life better? If so, today’s episode is for you. This week, Danièle speaks with Brigid Ehrmantraut about Celtic magic, druidic haircuts, and what Celtic curses...
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The Life and Voyages of St. Brendan with Gordon Barthos
Just in time for his feast day on May 16, we’re looking at St. Brendan, an Irish saint whose holy encounters included island-sized whales, lava-slinging smiths, and rodents of unusual size. This week, Danièle speaks with Gordon Barthos about St. Brendan’s epic odyssey, his long-standing…
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Mary Magdalene on Stage with Joanne Findon
In the medieval world, people interacted with Biblical history and the adventures of their favourite saints in all sorts of ways – including through plays. One of the most beloved saints – Mary Magdalene – is the main character in an English play that has it all: raging tyrants, perilous sea...
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Financing Queenship with Michele Seah
The English queens of the fifteenth century have had a serious popularity boost in the last twenty years, thanks to novels and TV series showing the glamour and drama of their lives. Queenship could have serious advantages – fame and fortune included. But eventually, you do have to pay the piper....
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Five Life Lessons from Ten Years as an Author
This week, Danièle celebrates ten years of The Five-Minute Medievalist by sharing some of the life lessons she's learned since the book came out - and some of the lessons that she just keeps on having to learn. This podcast is made possible by the generous support of listeners like you! To find…
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Medieval Musical Romances with Nigel Bryant and Matthew P. Thomson
It’s always a great moment when you’re watching a play or a movie, and suddenly one of your favourite songs appears to heighten the mood. All of a sudden, you’re even more deeply emotionally invested in the lives of the characters, and what’s going to happen next. Believe or not, the hit music of...
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Self-Help and the Seven Deadly Sins with Peter Jones
We’ve all been there: suddenly face-to-face with our ugliest selves, wrestling with pride, envy, anger, sloth, avarice, gluttony, or lust. AKA the Seven Deadly Sins. In the Middle Ages, Christian thinkers divided moral missteps into these seven familiar categories, allowing them to ponder the…
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Patterns of Plague with Lori Jones
There are some very entrenched cultural ideas about the plague these days, involving big, beaky masks, and agonized people flagellating themselves in the street. But the way people thought about and treated plague changed over time, as the disease revisited populations regularly over the course…
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Comparing Women's Work with Nena Vandeweerdt
Last week, we talked about a woman whose work was to support her husband’s dreams of conquest – and her son’s dreams of rebellion. But what about the medieval women whose work was a little more ordinary? What was the 9-5 like for the women who kept households, shops, and towns running? And how…
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Mathilda of Flanders with Laura Gathagan
They say that behind every successful man is a woman, and when it comes to one of the biggest medieval stories of personal success, that seems to have been true. Everyone’s heard of William the Conqueror, the illegitimate duke of Normandy who became king of England in 1066, but fewer people have...
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On the Supremacy of the Pope with Patrick Nold
When the king is semi-divine and the pope speaks for God, himself, who is the boss of whom? It’s a question most of us don’t spend our days contemplating, but in the Middle Ages, this philosophical debate loomed large. Just who had the final say on planet Earth? And how did you prove it? This…
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The Welles-Ros Bible with Kathryn A. Smith
Much in debate in England in the fourteenth century was how – and even if – the Bible should be translated into everyday language. Enter Maud de Ros, Lady Welles, the woman responsible for the most complete surviving translation of the Bible in the Anglo-Norman language. This week, Danièle speaks...
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Sir Tristrem with Thomas H. Crofts
As we wrap up the month, we have time to squeeze in one last love story. A tale packed full of potions, princesses, and even puppies, this one is right up there with Lancelot and Guinevere. It’s the story of Tristan and Isolde. This week, Danièle speaks with Thomas H. Crofts about the Middle...
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Medieval Silesia with Sébastien Rossignol
One of the best things about podcasting on all things medieval is the opportunity to learn about lesser-known places – especially when those places are full of examples of long-ago thinking on cross-cultural contact, integration, and immigration. So, today, we’re taking a trip to central Europe…
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The Art of War in Byzantium with Georgios Theotokis
From the social media buzz we saw a couple of years ago, it seems a lot of people spend a lot of time thinking about the ancient Roman Empire and its military activities, but less time thinking about how it evolved into the Middle Ages. With the heart of the empire now in the city of Byzantium…
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Listening to the Middle Ages with Jonathan Berger
Since the new year, we’ve heard about both the development of medieval music and what it was like to live in the cultural hotbed of fifteenth-century Florence. And now, we’re going to bring it together in a way that has only been heard by a handful of people in almost six hundred years. This…
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Africa and the Middle Ages with D. Vance Smith
Despite its vast cultural, spiritual, and material wealth, medieval Africa has too often been sidelined in the study of the Middle Ages. Or it's been peppered with asterisks to explain why its history is different, odd, or otherwise somehow “doesn't count”. Fortunately, the tide seems to be...
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Magic Books with Anne Lawrence-Mathers
One of the fun things about humans is our constant desire to engage with the supernatural, especially when it comes to getting a peek at the future. From reading bones, to tea leaves, flower petals, or online horoscopes, we can't help but look for a little bit of certainty in an uncertain world -...
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Alberti: Renaissance Man
If you’re going to be a writer, it’s best to find yourself in a place where there’s plenty to write about, and fifteenth-century Italy was definitely one of those places. For a young member of the powerful Alberti family, it was the perfect place to study everything from law, to theology, to...
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Romanos the Melodist with Thomas Arentzen
Songs have a way of making us see and feel things unlike other forms of writing, which is why so many of us treasure the words of lyricists. And when it comes to early Christianity, no songs were more treasured and influential than those of Romanos. This week, Danièle speaks with Thomas Arentzen...
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Medieval Beauty
Who’s the fairest of them all? And, more importantly, how did they get that way? This week, a new biography of Marilyn Monroe sends Danièle down the rabbit hole of medieval beauty, how it was achieved, and how it’s still influencing beauty standards today. This podcast is made possible by the...
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2025: The Medieval Year in Review
If there’s one thing we can say about 2025 it’s that it was certainly full of surprises. From political bridge-burning to bridge-building, to the destruction and the restoration of priceless artifacts, there was never a dull moment this year. This week, in keeping with tradition, Danièle speaks...
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Robin Hood and the Christmastime Tradition with Alex Kaufman
He’s a hero. He’s an outlaw. And it turns out he’s also Christmastime favourite. Given his many incarnations, from a foxy cartoon heartthrob, to the gruff and grizzled Hugh Jackman that previewed this week, it’s hard not to fall in love with some version or other of Robin Hood. And as we’ll find...
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Richard the Lionheart with Heather Blurton
Love him or hate him, it’s hard to take one step into the medieval world without running into the larger-than-life figure of Richard the Lionheart. Rebel, crusader, prisoner, castle-builder Richard is one of the most colourful and quotable kings of the Middle Ages. This week, Danièle speaks with...
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The Medieval Order of Assassins with Steve Tibble
In the last twenty years, the shadowy Assassins of the medieval Middle East have seen a serious resurgence in popularity. And yet, like so many medieval people and groups, it’s still hard to tell the legend from the reality - and that’s just the way the Assassins wanted it. This week, Danièle...
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Best Medieval Books of 2025
It's the most wonderful time of the year: time to celebrate the best medieval books of 2025. This week, Danièle speaks with Peter Konieczny, editor of Medievalists.net, about their favourite reads this year - and she announces some exciting news about the future of The Medieval Podcast. This...
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The Medieval Moon with Ayoush Lazikani
In the last century we’ve witnessed people set foot on the moon, and seen even the dark side in high-res images, and yet the moon still evokes a sense of romance and mystery, just as it did in the Middle Ages. This week, Danièle speaks with Ayoush Lazikani about what – and who – medieval people...
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The Language of Heresy with Erin Wagner
With just one word, we can evoke a world of assumptions, stereotypes, and even accusations, clearly marking the difference between who’s in and who’s out. And when it comes to legal terminology, the stakes are even higher. This week, Danièle speaks with Erin Wagner about what late medieval people...
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Balthild of Francia with Isabel Moreira
This year, we’ve spent some good quality time with early medieval queens, digging into their mysterious and spectacular lives and reigns. And when it comes to the spectacular, it’s hard to compete with the star of this week’s episode, a woman who arrived in Francia a slave, rose to become a…
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Frequently Asked Questions
How many episodes does The Medieval Podcast have?
The Medieval Podcast currently has 364 episodes available on PodParley. New episodes are automatically indexed when they're published to the podcast feed.
What is The Medieval Podcast about?
A friendly podcast on all things medieval. Join host Danièle Cybulskie each week as she interviews the world's experts on topics ranging from pigs, to Persian poetry, to the Plantagenets.
How often does The Medieval Podcast release new episodes?
The Medieval Podcast publishes regularly with 364 episodes available. Check the episode list for the typical release schedule.
Where can I listen to The Medieval Podcast?
You can listen to The Medieval Podcast on PodParley by clicking any episode. We provide an embedded audio player for direct listening, and you can also subscribe via your preferred podcast app using the RSS feed.
Who hosts The Medieval Podcast?
The Medieval Podcast is created and hosted by Danièle Cybulskie.
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