Introducing The Morning History Show.

So, I've begun a new project that readers of this newsletter might find interesting. The Morning History Show is a brief rundown, a few times a week, of history-related items in the news and of public interest, in a series of short informative episodes. YouTube recently introduced a podcasting feature, which is less a traditional podcast platform than a way to aggregate a series of videos unified by a common theme and format. I got the idea to do The Morning History Show as a way that people with an interest in historical topics can start their day with something other than news, which to be honest these days is kind of depressing. I aim to keep the episodes under 20 or 25 minutes apiece and each one focuses on about three stories from numerous subject areas of history. On each of the stories I provide some historical context and commentary.

For example, in the first episode of TMHS, which went up on Thursday, I profiled a recent discovery of a Bronze Age skeleton, perhaps 3,500 years old, on the English Channel island of Alderney; an archaeological project to excavate the medieval King's Wharf in the harbor of Oslo, Norway; and the discovery of the wreck of a U.S. Navy ship, the USS Mannert L. Abele, sunk in 1945 at the Battle of Okinawa. I have embedded the episode below.

Friday's episode, May 26, 2023, involves the rediscovery of the foundations of a church on the German island of Rungholt, which sank into tidal flats in a storm in 1362; the British government's attempts to hold on to a ceremonial gun owned by the Sultan of Mysore, whom the British killed in 1799; and new questions about the theft of medieval German relics from a castle hoard by an American serviceman during World War II. Here is that episode.

Though it would lend itself well to a daily format, I don't have the time to do The Morning History Show every day. I hope to put up a few episodes a week. The YouTube podcast platform, I'm told, means that the show can be found (eventually?) in various podcast apps, as well as accessed directly on YouTube. Because they're audio-oriented there aren't a lot of exciting visuals. YouTube is not a natural fit for podcasts, but as long as they're trying the platform, I thought I'd give it a shot. I may publish updates or showcase episodes of TMHS in written posts here on the Garden from time to time.

So if you'd like to start your day with something other than news reports of advancing climate change, rising fascism and political corruption, The Morning History Show might be for you. Enjoy!

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