Michael Rank's Blog, page 15
May 19, 2014
HFM 070 | Marozia of Rome: The Woman who Ruled the Papacy
Despite what most people think about the Catholic Church in the Middle Ages, the pope wasn’t all that powerful. In fact — it was easy to manipulate him for your own ends. One such woman who did just that was Marozia of Rome: Mother to one pope, lover to another, grandmother to yet another.
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May 12, 2014
HFM 069 | Why People on the Fringes and Borderlands of Empires Mattered Just as Much as Those Living in the Hinterlands
The Varangians, Cossacks, and inhabitants of Ryukyu lived in very different places and times. The Varagians were Vikings that controlled trade between Arabia, Byzantium, and Europe during the 1000s and lived on the borders of Byzantium. The Cossacks lived on Russia’s frontier and formed the core of the military. Ryukyu island became a trade hub between Japan and China before the modern era. Find out why it paid to be an outsider of an empire.
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May 5, 2014
H5M 068 | How Iowa Conquered the World, Part 5: Why Iowa Standardized the English Language
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Why is it that all news broadcasters talk with a Midwestern accent? For many reasons, but partly because Iowa standardized the English language by sending lots of talent to California during Hollywood’s golden age.
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April 28, 2014
HFM 067 | How Iowa Conquered the World, Part 4: Why Iowa Controls Your Political Destiny, Wherever You Live on Earth
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Iowans have more political power proportionally than anyone else on earth. Do you want to be the U.S. president? Prepare to spend months in all of Iowan’s 99 counties, meeting groups of 20 at Pizza Ranches, and shaking hands with factory works at 6 a.m., in -10 F weather.
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April 21, 2014
HFM 066 | How Iowa Conquered the World, Part 3: Why Iowa is the Multicultural Center of the World
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ou don’t think of diversity or multicultural when you think of Iowa — more likely, thoughts of middle aged white farmers in Carhartt overalls come to mind. But in this podcast, I will show that not only is Iowa more exotic than most people realize, it is has been an engine for developing unique cultures in America throughout its history.
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April 14, 2014
HFM 065 | How Iowa Conquered the World, Part 2: The State that Created the Global University System
Did you graduate from college? Whether it was in America, the UK, Turkey, Brazil, or Kazakhstan, there is a strong chance that the direct inspiration for your university is Iowa State University — considered by coastal elites as a forgettable farm college.
How did this university — which literally started out as a large farm house that housed two dozen students who split their time between tilling the soil and learning about crop rotation — create the global system of higher education?
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April 7, 2014
HFM 064 | How Iowa Conquered the World, Part 1: The State that Saved Billions of Lives in the 20th Century
You probably didn’t know that Iowa saved over a billion lives in the 20th century. You also probably didn’t that Iowa is the greatest cultural force in the world. This is the first part of a podcast series in which I will make a case for just that.
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March 31, 2014
HFM 063 | Explorers that Pushed the Boundaries of the Known World, Part 5.5: Ernest Shackleton’s Daring Anatarctic Rescue of His Stranded Crew
Ernest Shackleton set out in a tiny 22-foot-long lifeboat with a few helpers to brave an 18-day voyage across open Antarctic sea in order to save his stranded crew. How did he manage to succeed despite the terrible odds against him?
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March 24, 2014
HFM 062 | Explorers that Pushed the Boundaries of the Known World, Part 5: Ernest Shackleton’s Frozen March at the Bottom of the World
Ernest Shackleton’s attempted crossing of Antarctica and the disaster that befell the expedition led to one of the greatest moments of bravery in the 20th century. Find out about the terrible conditions his crew faced, and their daring rescue attempt in this episode.
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March 20, 2014
New Book ‘Off the Edge of the Map’ Has Launched!
My new book on history’s greatest travelers and explorers has launched! You can get it by clicking here.
Synopsis:
From the #1 bestselling author of History’s Greatest Generals comes an exciting new paperback book on the greatest explorers in history and how their discoveries shaped the modern world
Whether it is Rabban Bar Sauma, the 13th-century Chinese monk commissioned by the Mongols to travel West form a military alliance against the Islam; Marco Polo, who opened a window to the East for Europe; or Captain James Cook, whose maritime voyages of discovery created the global economy of the 21st century, each of these explorers had an indelible impact on the modern world.
This book will look at the 11 greatest explorers in history. Some travelled for religious piety, such as Ibn Battuta, who travelled from North Africa to Indonesia in the 1300s, visiting every Islamic pilgrimage site between — and becoming counselor to over 30 heads of state. Others travelled for profit, such as Ferdinand Magellan, who wanted to consolidate Spain’s holdings on the spice trade. Still others travelled for discovery, such as Ernest Shackleton, who led two dozen men to the bottom of the world in an attempt to cross Antarctica on foot.
Whatever their reason for discovery, these explorers still inspire us today to push the limits of human achievement — and discover something about ourselves in the process.
