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Hollywood Hates History, Part 6: The Scarlett Letter (1995)

  Demi Moore did not win an Academy Award for her portrayal of 17th-century Puritan Hester Prynne. But she did succeed in transforming Nathaniel Hawthorne’s famous moral drama into a Cinemax movie that also features Indians, deadly fights, burning...

Hollywood Hates History, Part 5—The Conqueror (1956)

In our second John Wayne film, we watch the Duke put on a fake fu manchu mustache and yellow face makeup to play the role he was born NOT to play: Genghis Khan. Scott and Steve discuss the infamous film that, in addition to feature to worst casting choice in Hollywood...

Hollywood Hates History, Part 3—The Da Vinci Code (2006)

Based on Dan Brown’s mega best-selling instructional manual on how to write terrible English, Scott and Steve discuss “The Da Vinci Code,” the 2006 Ron Howard film that dares to ask the question: Has the secret life of Jesus been hidden by the...

Hollywood Hates History, Part 2: Agora (2009)

In the second episode of this series, Stephen tells us everything he doesn’t like about the 2009 film Agora, which is a lot. The movie stars Rachel Weisz (maybe the only good thing about the film) as Hypatia, a real-life 4th/5th-century philosopher in Alexandria...

Hollywood Hates History, Part 1: Kingdom of Heaven (2005)

This episode is the first in a mini-series that Scott is doing with fellow history podcaster Stephen Guerra (History of the Papacy, Beyond the Big Screen) about some of the most historically inaccurate movies that have ever appear. We kick off this series with Ridley...

A Vote of No Confidence: How to Obliterate Your Current Government

Americans and Europeans are confused by much about each other, especially their respective governmental systems. Europeans are baffled by American elections, the powers of the president, and most of all, the electoral college (how again is the popular vote winner not...

George Washington as Man, General, Leader, and Mule Pioneer

George Washington is nearly as famous for his character as he is a general and statesman. In this episode we look at his famed attributes for leadership and doing such things as keeping together the fragile Continental Army in the hungriest, coldest days of the...

A Shred to End All Shreds: World War I Meets Swedish Metal

This episode of History Unplugged is unlike any we’ve ever done. Scott interviews Joakim Brodén, lead singer of Swedish heavy metal band Sabaton, whose new album “The Great War” is a concept record focused on World War 1. The album features songs about the...

Has The Lost Colony of Roanoke Been Found?

In 1587, 115 men, women, and children arrived at Roanoke Island on the coast ofNorth Carolina. Chartered by Queen Elizabeth I, their colony was to establish England’s first foothold in the New World. But when the colony’s leader, John White, returned to...

Einstein’s War: How Relativity Triumphed Amid the Vicious Nationalism of World War I

Albert Einstein’s rise to fame was not instantaneous and easy. Rather, Einstein’s celebrity was, in large part, not his own doing. His grand ideas (ideas that would change physics forever) were formulated during a time of worldwide crises. The Great War quickly...