Best Steven Tudor Podcasts (2025)

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Steven Gunn and Tomasz Gromelski, "An Accidental History of Tudor England: From Daily Life to Sudden Death" (Hachette UK, 2025) 40:56

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19d ago40:56

40:56

How did ordinary people live in Tudor England? This unique history unearths the ways they died to find out. Uncovering thousands of coroners' reports, An Accidental History of Tudor England: From Daily Life to Sudden Death (Hachette UK, 2025) explores the history of everyday life, and everyday death, in a world far from the intrigues of Hampton Cou…

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#Ramshackle - Dan Hughes and Coraquest 1:11:27

1h ago1:11:27

1:11:27

In this special Ramshackle episode, Sid and Rory are joined by none other than Dan Hughes—co-designer of CoraQuest (with his daughter, Cora), Dice Tower regular, and co-host of Sporadically Board. We chat with Dan about the origins of CoraQuest, from a lockdown project to a full-blown published success, and what it’s like designing games with kids.…

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Susan Juster, "A Common Grave: Being Catholic in English America" (UNC Press, 2025) 54:16

5d ago54:16

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From Nevis to Newfoundland, Catholics were everywhere in English America. But often feared and distrusted, they hid in plain sight, deftly obscuring themselves from the Protestant authorities. Their strategies of concealment, deception, and misdirection frustrated colonial census takers, and their presence has likewise eluded historians of religion…

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Cynthia Paces, "Prague: The Heart of Europe" (Oxford UP, 2025) 1:40:09

8d ago1:40:09

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Prague: The Heart of Europe (Oxford University Press, 2025) traces Prague's origins in the ninth century through the end of the Cold War. Highlights include the golden ages of Charles IV and Rudolph II; the religious conflicts of the Hussite and Thirty Years Wars; the rich culture of Europe's largest Jewish community; the rivalry between the city's…

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Episode 173 – Pax Pamir, Fate of the Fellowship, Sengoku, Ink & a Dash of Cthulhu 1:01:56

2d ago1:01:56

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In Episode 173 of the Polyhedron Collider Cast, we tackle Pax Pamir, The Lord of the Rings: Fate of the Fellowship, General Orders: Sengoku Jidai, and Ink, while Sid shares his eldritch adventures at a live Call of Cthulhu show in Edinburgh. Why not buy a board game from our sponsors Kienda: kienda.co.uk/polyhedroncollider In Episode 173 of the Pol…

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Jeremy Black, "British Politics and Foreign Policy, 1744-57" (Routledge, 2016) 53:08

5d ago53:08

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The years between 1744 and 1757 were a testing time for the British government as political unrest at home exploded into armed rebellion, whilst on the continent French armies were repeatedly victorious. Providing an analytical narrative, supported by thematic chapters, this book examines the relationship between Britain's politics and foreign poli…

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Steven Veerapen, "Witches: A King's Obsession" (Birlin, 2025) 39:42

6d ago39:42

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Witches – whether broomstick-riding spell-casters or Wiccan earth-worshippers – have been culturally relevant for centuries. For centuries, too, belief in the potency of witchcraft has been debated, accused witches have been hunted and punished, and film and TV productions have brought the witch and the witch-hunter to big and small screens. But wh…

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Rhys Kaminski-Jones, "Welsh Revivalism in Imperial Britain, 1707-1819: True Britons and Celtic Empires" (Boydell & Brewer, 2025) 58:31

16d ago58:31

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In the long eighteenth century, as Britain grappled with the aftermath of the 1707 Acts of Union and consolidated a global empire, Welsh ‘Cambro-Britons’ developed a movement of cultural awakening, reinventing their traditions for a new age. Amid profound local, national and imperial transformations, Welsh authors and activists sought to reimagine …

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Ḥannā Diyāb, "The Book of Travels" (NYU Press, 2022): A Conversation with Johannes Stephan 51:22

16d ago51:22

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The Book of Travels Ḥannā Diyāb: A Conversation with Johannes Stephan The Book of Travels is Ḥannā Diyāb’s remarkable first-person account of his travels as a young man from his hometown of Aleppo to the court of Versailles and back again, which forever linked him to one of the most popular pieces of world literature, the Thousand and One Nights. D…

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Maren A. Ehlers, "Give and Take: Poverty and the Status Order in Early Modern Japan" (Harvard U Asia Center, 2018) 1:08:51

17d ago1:08:51

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Maren A. Ehlers’s Give and Take: Poverty and the Status Order in Early Modern Japan (Harvard University Asia Center, 2018) examines the ways in which ordinary subjects—including many so-called outcastes and other marginalized groups—participated in the administration and regulation of society in Tokugawa Japan. Within this context, the book focuses…

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#Ramshackle 001 - Our Favourite Books 50:09

10d ago50:09

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Welcome to the very first episode of #ramshackle - our new show for all things off-topic, guests, best-of lists, and anything else that doesn't fit into the normal format. Rory and Steve kick things off by talking about their favourite books, talking about Sanderson, Abercrombie and Pratchett. For a 10% discount at Tabletop Dominion (the amazing ma…

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Jérémy Filet, "The Jacobites and the Grand Tour: Educational Travel and Small-States' Diplomacy" (Manchester UP, 2025) 36:04

22d ago36:04

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The Jacobites and the Grand Tour: Educational travel and small-states' diplomacy (Manchester University Press, 2025) by Dr. Jérémy Filet is the first monograph to fully examine the intersecting networks of Jacobites and travellers to the continent. In the book, Dr. Filet considers how small states used official diplomacy and deployed soft power - e…

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Timothy Messer-Kruse, "Slavery’s Fugitives and the Making of the United States Constitution" (LSU Press, 2024) 1:00:33

25d ago1:00:33

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Slavery's Fugitives and the Making of the United States Constitution (LSU Press, 2024) unearths a long-hidden factor that led to the Constitutional Convention in 1787. While historians have generally acknowledged that patriot leaders assembled in response to postwar economic chaos, the threat of popular insurgencies, and the inability of the states…

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Episode 172 - Altay, Ponzi Scheme, Gwent, Burnt Moon, and Compile 1:07:07

23d ago1:07:07

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In Episode 172 of the Polyhedron Collider Cast, we share our highlights from PeachCon (and meeting Chris Peach from Peachy Tips) while diving into Altay, Ponzi Scheme, Gwent, Burnt Moon, and Compile—all with the usual mix of board game chat and PhC nonsense. Why not buy a board game from our sponsors Kienda: kienda.co.uk/polyhedroncollider In Episo…

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David de Boer, "The Early Modern Dutch Press in an Age of Religious Persecution" (Oxford UP, 2023) 34:47

27d ago34:47

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David de Boer returns to the podcast to talk to Jana Byars about his first book, The Early Modern Dutch Press in the Age of Religious Persecution (Oxford UP, 2023). This book is available open source here. For victims of persecution around the world, attracting international media attention for their plight is often a matter of life and death. This…

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Charly Coleman, "The Spirit of French Capitalism: Economic Theology in the Age of Enlightenment" (Stanford UP, 2021) 1:02:34

1M ago1:02:34

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Charly Coleman's latest book, The Spirit of French Capitalism: Economic Theology in the Age of Enlightenment (Stanford University Press, 2021) is at once a history of ideas, the economy, religion, and material culture. Pursuing the imbrication of the economy and theology with respect to both worldly and spiritual value and wealth, the book explores…

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Russell Shorto, “Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom” (Norton, 2017) 1:03:24

1M ago1:03:24

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Russell Shorto‘s Revolution Song: A Story of American Freedom (Norton, 2017) is a history of many revolutions, kaleidoscopic turns through six individual lives. There is Cornplanter, a leader of the Seneca Indians; George Germain, who led the British war strategy during the Revolution; Margaret Moncrieffe Coghlan, the daughter of a British major; t…

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David D. Hall, "The Puritans: A Transatlantic History" (Princeton UP, 2019) 1:18:36

1M ago1:18:36

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This book is a sweeping transatlantic history of Puritanism from its emergence out of the religious tumult of Elizabethan England to its founding role in the story of America. Shedding critical new light on the diverse forms of Puritan belief and practice in England, Scotland, and New England, David D. Hall provides a multifaceted account of a cult…

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Alexander Mikaberidze, "Kutuzov: A Life in War and Peace" (Oxford UP, 2022) 1:11:47

1M ago1:11:47

1:11:47

Every Russian knows him purely by his patronym. He was the general who triumphed over Napoleon's Grande Armée during the Patriotic War of 1812, not merely restoring national pride but securing national identity. Many Russians consider Field Marshal Mikhail Illarionovich Golenischev-Kutuzov the greatest figure of the 19th century, ahead of Pushkin, …

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Ronald C. Po, "Shaping the Blue Dragon: Maritime China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties" (Liverpool UP, 2024) 1:15:46

1M ago1:15:46

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Shaping the Blue Dragon: Maritime China in the Ming and Qing Dynasties (Liverpool UP, 2024) offers a vivid look at China's dynamic and longstanding relationship with the sea. Through the lives of pirates, maritime advisors, cartographers, admirals, writers, and travelers, Ronald C. Po brings maritime China to life — revealing a world far more conne…

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Episode 171 - Jackpot Set the Reel, Fathom, Cyclades, and Transgalactica 1:04:50

1M ago1:04:50

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Why not buy a board game from our sponsors Kienda: kienda.co.uk/polyhedroncollider In Episode 171 of the Polyhedron Collider Cast, we blast off into space, dive into the depths, battle for ancient Greek supremacy, and try our luck at the slot machine of strategy—all in one beautifully unhinged episode. We kick things off with Jackpot: Set the Reel,…

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Sasha D. Pack, "The Deepest Border: The Strait of Gibraltar and the Making of the Hispano-African Border" (Stanford UP, 2019) 1:00:54

2M ago1:00:54

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In his new book, The Deepest Border: The Strait of Gibraltar and the Making of the Hispano-African Border(Stanford, 2019), Sasha D. Pack considers the Strait of Gibraltar as an untamed in-between space—from “shatter zone” to borderland. Far from the centers of authority of contending empires, the North African and Southern Iberian coast was a place…

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Glenn Richardson, "WOLSEY" (Routledge, 2020) 44:15

2M ago44:15

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Through a thematic and broadly chronological approach, WOLSEY (Routledge, 2020) offers a fascinating insight into the life and legacy of a man who was responsible for building Henry VIII’s reputation as England’s most impressive king. The book reviews Thomas Wolsey’s record as the realm’s leading Churchman, Lord Chancellor and political patron and …

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Christopher Ocker, "Luther, Conflict, and Christendom: Reformation Europe and Christianity in the West" (Cambridge UP, 2018) 37:34

2M ago37:34

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Martin Luther - monk, priest, intellectual, or revolutionary - has been a controversial figure since the sixteenth century. Most studies of Luther stress his personality, his ideas, and his ambitions as a church reformer. In Luther, Conflict, and Christendom: Reformation Europe and Christianity in the West (Cambridge UP, 2018), Christopher Ocker br…

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Ünver Rüstem, "Ottoman Baroque: The Architectural Refashioning of Eighteenth-Century Istanbul" (Princeton UP, 2019) 1:12:03

2M ago1:12:03

1:12:03

In Istanbul, there is a mosque on every hill. Cruising along the Bosphorus, either for pleasure, or like the majority of Istanbul’s denizens, for transit, you cannot help but notice that the city’s landscape would be dramatically altered without the mosques of the city. In Ottoman Baroque: The Architectural Refashioning of Eighteenth-Century Istanb…

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Jo Teeuwisse, "Fake History: 101 Things That Never Happened" (Ebury Press, 2022) 37:23

2M ago37:23

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Fake news about the past is fake history. Did Hugo Boss design the Nazi uniforms? Did medieval people think the world was flat? Did Napoleon shoot the nose off the Sphinx? *Spoiler Alert* The answer to all those questions is no. From the famous quote 'Let them eat cake' - mistakenly attributed to Marie Antoinette - to the apocryphal horns that ador…

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Michael John Witgen, "Seeing Red: Indigenous Land, American Expansion, and the Political Economy of Plunder in North America" (UNC Press, 2021) 58:32

2M ago58:32

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Against long odds, the Anishinaabeg resisted removal, retaining much of their land in the Old Northwest—what’s now Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Their success rested partly on their roles as sellers of natural resources and buyers of trade goods, which made them key players in the political economy of plunder that drove white settlement and U…

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How ClioVis is Transforming Education and Historical Research 22:14

2M ago22:14

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Today I’m speaking with Marcus Golding, historian and Director of Educational Operations at ClioVis. ClioVis is an incredible software and learning tool that allows educators and studies to create digital timelines, network visualizations, and interactive presentations. Founded by UT Austin history professor Erika Bsumek, ClioVis is made for profes…

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Renay Richardson and Arisa Loomba, "Human Resources: Slavery and the Making of Modern Britain" (Profile Books, 2025) 1:03:50

2M ago1:03:50

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Ordinary items take on new meanings when you cast them in different light. The origins of tea, coffee and sugar are well known, but when you discover that gym treadmills were pioneered on plantations or that denim jeans were once clothing for enslaved people, you can't help but ask where else the legacy of slavery hides in plain sight. Through the …

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Episode 170 - Fighting Fantasy Adventures, Luthier, Take the Throne 1:04:27

2M ago1:04:27

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Why not buy a board game from our sponsors Kienda: kienda.co.uk/polyhedroncollider In Episode 170 of the Polyhedron Collider Cast, we dive into three very different games that prove once again how gloriously diverse the tabletop hobby can be, from classic fantasy adventures that make Steve feel old, to courtly power plays and master-crafted violins…

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Rosemary Goring, "Exile: The Captive Years of Mary, Queen of Scots" (Berlinn, 2025) 36:17

2M ago36:17

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From the moment Mary, Queen of Scots set foot on English soil in 1568 until her execution at Fotheringhay Castle on 8 February 1587, she was the prisoner of her cousin, Elizabeth I. Unlike Mary’s time on the Scottish throne, the dramatic events of these years – almost half her life – took place while she was a captive. But while trouble was perpetu…

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Samuel Kline Cohn, "Popular Protest and Ideals of Democracy in Late Renaissance Italy" (Oxford UP, 2022) 32:10

2M ago32:10

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Samuel K Cohn, Jr. joins Jana Byars to talk about Popular Protest and the Ideals of Democracy in Late Renaissance Italy (Oxford University Press, 2025). This work, now out in paper, is the first study to analyse popular protest across the Italian peninsula and the Venetian colonies during the early modern period, 1494 to 1559. Drawing on over 100 c…

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Michael Green and Ineke Huysman eds., "Private Life and Privacy in the Early Modern Low Countries" (Brepols Publishers, 2023) 31:03

2M ago31:03

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Michael Green joins Jana Byars to talk about his volume with co-editor Ineke Huysman, Private Life and Privacy in the Early Modern Low Countries (Brepols, 2023). This volume investigates the origins of one of the most important notions of the contemporary society: privacy. Based on case studies from the early modern Low Countries, privacy is tackle…

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Episode 169 – Sankoré, Civolution, and Timber Town 1:10:03

2M ago1:10:03

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Why not buy a board game from our sponsors Kienda: kienda.co.uk/polyhedroncollider In Episode 169 of the Polyhedron Collider Cast, we’re back to the normal format with a jam-packed episode full of cardboard strategy, wooden meeples, and the occasional alcahol related tangent. We’ve got three fresh games on the table—each offering a different flavou…

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Alice Hunt, "Republic: Britain's Revolutionary Decade, 1649–1660" (Faber and Faber, 2024) 45:51

3M ago45:51

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Alice Hunt’s Republic: Britain’s Revolutionary Decade 1649-1650 (Faber and Faber, 2024) takes a chronological look at the current events, personalities, political struggles and cultural highlights of Britain’s short-lived but intense experiment in republicanism. From the deeply controversial execution of Charles I in January 1649 to the similarly c…

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Violet Moller, "Inside the Stargazer's Palace: The Transformation of Science in 16th-Century Europe" (OneWorld, 2024) 37:38

3M ago37:38

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In 1543, Nicolaus Copernicus declared the earth revolved around the Sun, overturning centuries of scholastic presumption. A new age was coming into view – one guided by observation, technology and logic. But omens and elixirs did not disappear from the sixteenth-century laboratory. Charms and potions could still be found nestled between glistening …

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Mark Somos, Matthew Cleary, Pablo Dufour, Edward Jones Corredera, and Emanuele Salerno, "The Unseen History of International Law" (Oxford UP, 2025) 1:01:37

3M ago1:01:37

1:01:37

The Unseen History of International Law (Oxford University Press, 2025) locates and describes almost one thousand surviving copies of the first nine editions of Hugo Grotius' De iure belli ac pacis (IBP) published between 1625 and 1650. Meticulously reconstructing the publishing history of these first nine editions and cataloguing copies across hun…

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Andreas Beyer, "Benvenuto Cellini and the Embodiment of the Modern Artist" (Reaktion, 2025) 43:53

3M ago43:53

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Andreas Beyer joins Jana Byars to talk about his new book, Benvenuto Cellini and the Embodiment of the Modern Artist (Reaktion, 2025). Benvenuto Cellini was a murderer, thief, lover of all genders, rival of popes and princes, as well as an ingenious artist. In his legendary autobiography, the Vita, Cellini describes his activities vividly and in lu…

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Enrique Fernández and Darlene Abreu-Ferreira, "Death and Gender in the Early Modern Period" (Brill, 2024) 43:02

3M ago43:02

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Enrique Fernández and Darlene Abreu-Ferreira, eds. Death and Gender in Early Modern Europe (Brill, 2024). In premodern Europe, the gender identity of those waiting for Doomsday in their tombs could be reaffirmed, readjusted, or even neutralized. Testimonies of this renegotiation of gender at the encounter with death is detectable in wills, letters …

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Episode 168 - The Best of UK Games Expo 2025 1:13:31

3M ago1:13:31

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Why not buy a board game from our sponsors Kienda: kienda.co.uk/polyhedroncollider In this special post-convention episode of the Polyhedron Collider Cast, we unpack all the chaos and cardboard from UK Games Expo 2025! We hit the NEC halls hard, so hard in fact that our feet are still hurting and Steve caught con-crud, but now we’re back behind the…

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David de Boer and Geert H. Janssen eds.,"Refugee Politics in Early Modern Europe" (Bloomsbury Academic, 2024) 32:45

3M ago32:45

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David de Boer and Geert H. Janssen, eds. Refugee Politics in Early Modern Europe (Bloomsbury, 2024). This book is available as an open source publication here. Refugees have existed since ancient times but it was in the early modern era that they first became a distinct social and political category. This open access book maps the early modern 'inv…

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Quinn Slobodian and Philip J. Stern on Political Economy 1:03:52

3M ago1:03:52

1:03:52

• Philip J. Stern, Empire, Incorporated. The Corporations That Built British Colonialism (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press in 2023), by. • Quinn Slobodian, Crack-Up Capitalism: Market Radicals and the Dream of a World Without Democracy (Penguin, 2023). Adam Smith wrote that, “Political economy belongs to no nation; it is of no country: it …

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Kathleen Miller, ed., "Doctrine and Disease in the British and Spanish Colonial World" (Penn State UP, 2025) 34:24

4M ago34:24

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Kathleen Miller talks about her new edited volume, Doctrine and Disease in British and Spanish Colonial World (Penn State University Press, 2025). In the sixteenth century, unprecedented migration caused diseases to take hold in new locales, turning illness and the human body into battlegrounds for competing religious beliefs as well as the colonia…

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Polyhedron Collider Live from UK Games Expo 2025 55:09

3M ago55:09

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Recorded live at UK Games Expo 2025, the boys are excited to talk about the board games, RPGs and everything else that got opur attention during the press preview, as well as, well the usual nonsense you can expect from PhC! Games Mentioned 02:22 Cubyria - Eccentric Design 05:14 Fathom - Paper Fort Games 07:21 Revelation Games - Prowl 10:10 Altay -…

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Jana Dambrogio and Daniel Starza Smith, "Letterlocking: The Hidden History of the Letter" (MIT Press, 2025) 43:48

4M ago43:48

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Before the invention of the gummed envelope in the 1830s, how did people secure their private letters? The answer is letterlocking—the ingenious process of securing a letter using a combination of folds, tucks, slits, or adhesives such as sealing wax, so that it becomes its own envelope. This almost entirely forgotten practice, used by historical f…

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Julia McClure, "Empire of Poverty: The Moral-Political Economy of the Spanish Empire" (Oxford UP, 2025) 41:51

4M ago41:51

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Empire of Poverty: The Moral-Political Economy of the Spanish Empire (Oxford University Press, 2024) by Dr. Julia McClure examines how changing concepts of poverty in the long-sixteenth century helped shape the deep structures of states and empires and the contours of imperial inequalities. While poverty is often understood to have become a politic…

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Yosie Levine, "Hakham Tsevi Ashkenazi and the Battlegrounds of the Early Modern Rabbinate" (Littman Library, 2024) 39:43

4M ago39:43

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My recent interview with Rabbi Dr. Yosie Levine about his book, Hakham Tsevi Ashkenazi and the Battlegrounds of the Early Modern Rabbinate (Littman Library, 2024), illuminated the dynamic interplay between Sephardi and Ashkenazi traditions-a theme that resonates deeply with our mission at the Unity Through Diversity Institute. From the outset, Rabb…

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Dan Sperrin, "State of Ridicule: A History of Satire in English Literature" (Princeton UP, 2025) 51:06

4M ago51:06

51:06

Satire is a funny, aggressive, and largely oppositional literature which is typically created by people who refuse to participate in a given regime’s perception of itself. Although satire has always been a primary literature of state affairs, and although it has always been used to intervene in ongoing discussions about political theory and practic…

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Quentin Skinner, "Liberty as Independence: The Making and Unmaking of a Political Ideal" (Cambridge UP, 2025) 55:23

4M ago55:23

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What does liberty entail? How have concepts of liberty changed over time? And what are the global consequences? Liberty as Independence: The Making and Unmaking of a Political Ideal (Cambridge UP, 2025) surveys the history of rival views of liberty from antiquity to modern times. Quentin Skinner traces the understanding of liberty as independence f…

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Camilla Annerfeldt, "Clothing and Identity in Early Modern Rome" (Bloomsbury, 2025) 29:22

4M ago29:22

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Camilla Annerfeldt joins to discuss Clothing and Identity in Early Modern Rome (Bloomsbury, 2025). This is the first book-length exploration of the clothes worn in early modern Rome and provides novel insights into the city of Rome during one of its most fascinating periods. It also challenges the notion – well-established in dress historical resea…