History on Fire

“Nation… a term inherently so vague and so contradictory that it must always be taken in a mystic sense, as meaning whatever the ruling classes hold it convenient to mean at the moment.” Lewis Mumford This is a story about politics, faith, paranoia, betrayal and conspiracy theories. More specifically, this is about the origin of the French wars of religion. In this episode, we play with Martin Luther, the printing press, Caterina de Medici, the Merindol massacre, human Christmas decoration, and the Guise brothers. We’ll run into the king of France demanding to be a spectator to his teenage son and his bride having sex for the first time. We’ll see a queen drinking copious amounts of a mule’s urine to supposedly facilitate pregnancy. We’ll consider the fate of Count Sebastiano de Montecuccoli, who was accused of poisoning the heir to the throne so he was tied to four horses sent running in opposite directions. We’ll chat about Henry II who sent his 13-year-old to marry an enemy of the country, and then managed to die at a joust during her wedding celebrations. And of course, much, much more. If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Patreon⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to access plenty of bonus content. All the links to History on Fire social media can be found at our ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠LinkTree⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, including: ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠HOF YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Substack Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ TikTok JAPAN TOUR! Let’s head out to Japan in Oct 2026. All the details at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Geek Nation Tours⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. My daughter’s links: ⁠⁠https://linktr.ee/isabellahanbolelli⁠⁠ Throughout history, people have used mushrooms (such as Lion’s Mane, Turkey Tail, Cordyceps, Reishi and Chaga) for their medicinal properties. My friends started ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Purest Mushrooms⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ where they offer some of the best quality mushrooms you can find on the market at affordable prices. Use code historyonfire at checkout for a discount. Bison is some of the healthiest meat you could possibly eat. Get yours at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Dakota Pure Bison⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. History on Fire listeners get a discount by using the code HOF10 at checkout. This episode is supported by ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Arizona State University⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about how ASU supports all learners through all stages of life. My friend James Pieratt is one of the world’s top functional training experts, and a record-breaking hybrid athlete. Use the code WH25 for a 25% discount on all of his training programs at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Wild Hunt Conditioning⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Lucky will not be pleased to hear that you have not been helpful.” - Joe Adonis “The outcome of the war appeared extremely grave. In addition, there was the most serious concern over possible sabotage in the ports. It was necessary to use every possible means to prevent and forestall sabotage and to prevent the possible supplying of and contact with enemy submarines.” - Captain Roscoe C. MacFall “There was peace on the waterfront. It was kept with rough methods. But that's what the Navy asked us to do and that's what the Navy go.” - Meyer Lansky Just because Lucky Luciano was one of the most famous mobsters of the 20th century doesn’t mean he was not a patriot ready to help the Allies win the war. Well… that’s one way to look at it. Otherwise, we’d have to conclude that during WWII, the government made a deal with the biggest Mafia boss of the times, releasing him from prison in exchange for his cooperation. Back then the government was in a bind—it wanted to protect American shores from sabotage at the hands of Nazi sympathizers, but it had only limited control on the docks. American ports belonged to the Mafia. And so the logical conclusion was that, for the sake of the war effort, the government jumped in bed with organized crime. This is the tale of the marriage of convenience between the American Navy and Lucky Luciano. Thank you to Alexander Von Sternberg from History Impossible for his help in crafting this episode. If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my ⁠Patreon⁠ at to access plenty of bonus content. All the links to History on Fire social media can be found at our ⁠⁠LinkTree⁠⁠, including: ⁠⁠HOF YouTube Channel⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Substack⁠⁠, ⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠. Throughout history, people have used mushrooms (such as Lion’s Mane, Turkey Tail, Cordyceps, Reishi and Chaga) for their medicinal properties. My friends started ⁠⁠Purest Mushrooms⁠⁠ where they offer some of the best quality mushrooms you can find on the market at affordable prices. Use code historyonfire at checkout for a discount. Bison is some of the healthiest meat you could possibly eat. Get yours at ⁠⁠Dakota Pure Bison⁠⁠. History on Fire listeners get a discount by using the code HOF10 at checkout. This episode is supported by Arizona State University. Learn more about how ⁠⁠ASU⁠⁠ supports all learners through all stages of life. My friend James Pieratt is one of the world’s top functional training experts, and a record-breaking hybrid athlete. Use the code WH25 for a 25% discount on all of his training programs at ⁠⁠Wild Hunt Conditioning⁠⁠. This episode is sponsored by Mint Mobile. Get your 3-month Unlimited wireless plan for just 15 bucks a month. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It was only a few generations ago when large numbers of people in United States saw nothing wrong with the notion of buying, selling and owning human beings. Weirder yet, some slave owners were masters in the mental gymnastics required to feel morally justified in enslaving members of their own families, including their own children. In this episode, I am joined by Darryl Cooper from The Martyrmade Podcast for a conversation about the institution of slavery. If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon at to access plenty of bonus content. All the links to History on Fire social media can be found at our ⁠LinkTree⁠, including: ⁠HOF YouTube Channel⁠, ⁠Substack⁠, ⁠Instagram⁠ and ⁠TikTok⁠. Throughout history, people have used mushrooms (such as Lion’s Mane, Turkey Tail, Cordyceps, Reishi and Chaga) for their medicinal properties. My friends started ⁠Purest Mushrooms⁠ where they offer some of the best quality mushrooms you can find on the market at affordable prices. Use code historyonfire at checkout for a discount. Bison is some of the healthiest meat you could possibly eat. Get yours at ⁠Dakota Pure Bison⁠. History on Fire listeners get a discount by using the code HOF10 at checkout. This episode is supported by Arizona State University. Learn more about how ⁠ASU⁠ supports all learners through all stages of life. My friend James Pieratt is one of the world’s top functional training experts, and a record-breaking hybrid athlete. Use the code WH25 for a 25% discount on all of his training programs at ⁠Wild Hunt Conditioning⁠. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I am beyond Right and Left, just as I am beyond good and evil… I am a man devoted to life, not to formulas.” - Gabriele D’Annunzio “We are the only Italians worthy of being called Italians.” - Gabriele D’Annunzio This is the tale of one of the cultural-political experiments in modern history. The brutal end of WWI left many Italian soldiers dissatisfied, since the Allies refuse to grant them lands they had conquered at the price of rivers of blood. Feeling cheated by their own government and the Allies, some of these soldiers turned to the most popular man in the entire country: Gabriele D’Annunzio. Saying that he was a famous writer and a veteran of WWI doesn’t capture the magnetic power the man possessed. He was a true rock star before rock stars were a thing. He stopped traffic wherever he went. He made army units desert without using any weapon but his voice. Countless women risked their marriages, families and careers for a chance to have a fling with him. Casanova was an amateur compared to D’Annunzio. In 1919, D’Annunzio agreed to lead renegade units of the Italian Army to taking over the border city of Fiume. Despite the fact that this infuriated the Italian, French, British and American governments, D’Annunzio would go on to rule for fifteen months over an outlaw state where things that were not looked kindly upon in the world of 1919 (from drug use to free love, from the right to vote for women to nudism, from homosexuality to piracy) were widely practiced. Part Two of this two-part series focuses on the contentious relationship between D’Annunzio and Mussolini, the kidnapping of an Italian general, D’Annunzio as the head of a pirate state, bubonic plague, Guglielmo Marconi, Arturo Toscanini, D’Annunzio getting thrown out of a window, and much more. This series is dedicated to Franco Bolelli. If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon to access plenty of bonus content. All the links to History on Fire social media can be found at our LinkTree, including: HOF YouTube Channel, Substack, Instagram and TikTok. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try. Throughout history, people have used mushrooms (such as Lion’s Mane, Turkey Tail, Cordyceps, Reishi and Chaga) for their medicinal properties. My friends started Purest Mushrooms where they offer some of the best quality mushrooms you can find on the market at affordable prices. Use code historyonfire at checkout for a discount. Bison is some of the healthiest meat you could possibly eat. Get yours at Dakota Pure Bison. History on Fire listeners get a discount by using the code HOF10 at checkout. This episode is supported by Arizona State University. Learn more about how ASU supports all learners through all stages of life. My friend James Pieratt is one of the world’s top functional training experts, and a record-breaking hybrid athlete. Use the code WH25 for a 25% discount on all of his training programs at Wild Hunt Conditioning. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“What are servants of God good for, if not for moving the hearts of men and elevating them to spiritual joy?” - St. Francis “I’ve come to help you all. Where can I find the best beer and the most beautiful women?” - Drukpa Kunley “I tried going to hell, but the path there was so packed with hypocritical priests that I had to turn back.” - Drukpa Kunley For once, here’s an episode about individuals who didn’t build their reputation by killing. Considering much of recorded history is the history of warfare and politics, of glorified violent gangsters hiding behind lofty titles of nobility, this doesn’t happen too often, so I hope you enjoy the change. Today, I’ll tell you the tales of two men, St. Francis of Assisi and the ‘divine madman’ Drukpa Kunley: one lived in the 1200s in Italy, and the other in the 1400s in the area between modern-day Tibet and Bhutan. Even though they were very different from one another, both had an uneasy relationship with the established religious authorities of the day. Both ended up being considered saints in their respective traditions (respectively, Christian and Buddhist). Both were regarded as highly eccentric. St. Francis was the son of a wealthy merchant, but he turned his back on his birth family, gave away all earthly possessions and embraced a life of voluntary poverty serving lepers and the rejects of society (something for which he would later be heavily criticized by Martin Luther). Besides starting a new religious order, being named patron saint of ecology and becoming the author of the first piece of literature written in modern Italian, St. Francis had the guts to go preach among Muslims smack in the middle of the Crusades. Drukpa Kunley was a wild, wild man. It’s more or less impossible to separate history and folklore when it comes to his life. What emerges from the sources is a sort of trickster whose brand of enlightenment came with a heavy dose of laughter, strong sex positivity, and a general hostility to the religious establishment. A master of freestyle battle rap before rap even existed, Kunley was a wandering teacher known for his escapades with the ladies and for defeating demons by swinging his ‘flaming thunderbolt of wisdom’. As different as these two men were, both remind me of the heyokas of Lakota tradition, heroes of a kind of crazy wisdom at war with dogmatic thinking. If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon to access plenty of bonus content. All the links to History on Fire social media can be found at our LinkTree, including the HOF YouTube Channel, Substack, Instagram, and TikTok. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/hof Throughout history, people have used mushrooms (such as Lion’s Mane, Turkey Tail, Cordyceps, Reishi and Chaga) for their medicinal properties. My friends started Purest Mushrooms where they offer some of the best quality mushrooms you can find on the market at affordable prices. Use code historyonfire at checkout for a discount. Bison is some of the healthiest meat you could possibly eat. Get yours at Dakota Pure Bison. History on Fire listeners get a discount by using the code HOF10 at checkout. This episode is supported by Arizona State University. Learn more about how ASU supports all learners through all stages of life at https://www.asu.edu/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“Rise up and do battle.” - Homer “Discipline is freedom, and the companion to imagination. Discipline makes it possible for you to become whatever you want to be.” - Deng Ming Dao Marcus Aurelius would have loved nothing better than studying philosophy for the rest of his days. Instead, destiny chose him to be the head of the Roman Empire. As a philosopher-emperor, Marcus turned to Stoicism to help him deal with more drama than any human being should have to deal with. Most of his children died before reaching adult age. Rome’s old rival, Parthia, engaged the empire in a brutal war for supremacy. Germanic tribes raided the frontier and invaded Italy. Marcus’ adoptive brother and co-emperor died early, leaving to Marcus the burden to lead the empire under dreadful circumstances. And then there was the pandemic… a terrifying plague that would kill large chunks of the population, cripple the economy, disrupt travel, and create a very well justified climate of fear. Marcus’ ability to navigate all this and more thanks to his philosophical practices enshrined his name among those of the best emperors Rome ever had. In this first episode, we cover: Lost, Marcus’ pep-talks, the power of rituals, the genesis of the empire, Marcus Aurelius’ early life, the impact of Greek culture in Rome, Emperor Hadrian’s murderous ways, Stoicism, Antoninus’ reign, and much more. If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon to access plenty of bonus content. All the links to History on Fire social media can be found at our LinkTree, including the HOF YouTube Channel, Substack, Instagram, and TikTok. This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/hof Throughout history, people have used mushrooms (such as Lion’s Mane, Turkey Tail, Cordyceps, Reishi and Chaga) for their medicinal properties. My friends started Purest Mushrooms where they offer some of the best quality mushrooms you can find on the market at affordable prices. Use code historyonfire at checkout for a discount. Bison is some of the healthiest meat you could possibly eat. Get yours at Dakota Pure Bison. History on Fire listeners get a discount by using the code HOF10 at checkout. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

"Barbarism is the natural state of mankind… Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph." - Robert E Howard “Becoming a barbarian was often a bid to improve one’s lot.” - James C. Scott “We are riders; our business is with the bow and the spear, and we know nothing of women’s work. But in your country no woman has anything to do with such things—your women stay at home in their wagons occupied with feminine tasks, and never go out to hunt or for any other purpose” A speech by an Amazon quoted by Herodotus “Persian, such is my nature: I have never run away for fear of any man, nor am I fleeing now from you. I am wandering, as I always wander in time of peace. You ask why I did not fight you at once. May I remind you that we have neither cities nor cultivated land of our own; since we are not afraid of our territory being ruined and plundered, we had no reason to fight you outright… Not will we, until we see fit. Instead of earth and water, I will send you other gifts, of the kind you deserve; and you will weep bitter tears for having claimed to be my ruler.” - Idanthyrsus Typically, I prefer when the episodes I create have a clearly identifiable main character. This particular one doesn’t have a lead character. But what it does have instead is people drinking from the skulls of their enemies, and tattoos, and sweat lodges, and cannabis consumption, and blood brotherhood rituals, and getting drunk on fermented mare milk. In case, that’s not enough, it also has Amazons and Wonder Woman’s golden lasso, centaurs and King Arthur, and a whole lot more. So, I hope you shall forgive the lack of a lead character. Today, we won’t focus on a particular individual but on a culture, specifically some of the steppe nomadic cultures from roughly about 2,500 years ago among people like the Scythians and the Sarmatians. If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon to access plenty of bonus content. All the links to History on Fire social media can be found at https://linktr.ee/danielebolelli Including the HOF YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFCiqHbWJO26nFzUP-Eu55Q Substack: https://substack.com/@danielebolelli Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/historyonfire/ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@historyonfirepodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

“I think he [God] has used me as an instrument to kill men; and if I live, I think he will use me as an instrument to kill a good many more.” — John Brown “I had reached the point at which I was not afraid to die. This spirit made me a freeman in fact, while I remained a slave in form.” — Frederick Douglass “I have only a short time to live, only death to die and I will die fighting for this cause. There will be no peace in this land until slavery is done for.” — John Brown “We will continue to tar and feather, drown, lynch, and hang every white-livered abolitionist who dares to pollute our soil.” — Dr. John H Stringfellow “Caution!? Caution!?—he exploded—I am eternally tired of hearing that word Caution! It is nothing but the word of cowardice!” — John Brown “To know and not to act is not to know.” — Wang Yangming “Behind them lay five twisted, red and mangled corpses. Behind them rose the stifled wailing of widows and little children… but before them rode a man, tall, dark, grim-faced and awful. His hands were red and his name was John Brown. Such was the cost of freedom.” — DuBois The subject of this series is easily one of the most divisive individuals in U.S. history. The man we are talking about is Mr. John Brown. Many, in fact, see Brown’s actions as the spark that ignited the Civil War. He has been described as a civil rights hero, a terrorist, and everything in between. Some have argued he was clinically insane. Others believe he was the most principled man of his age. Regardless of how we interpret his story, certain facts are beyond dispute. Throughout his life, slavery was the law of the land in much of the United States. With hardly any abolitionist willing to do more than use words against slavery, while pro-slavery forces demonstrated they were quite skilled at using violence to further their worldview, it seemed inevitable that slavery would last for the foreseeable future. To John Brown, that was an unacceptable option. Allowing it to continue for one more second was cowardly and evil. If pacifist means weren’t enough to bring about the end of slavery, then John Brown was more than ready to speak the language of violence. For the sake of destroying slavery, he would shed the blood of his enemies, the blood of his family, and his own blood. In this second episode of a three-part series, we see John Brown meeting Frederick Douglass & visiting Europe, the passing of the Fugitive Slave Law, the experiment at North Elba, Bleeding Kansas, the pathetic story of the Border Ruffians, revising the notion of abolitionist pacifism, blood on the floor of the Senate, the Pottawatomie massacre, guerrilla in Kansas, and much more. If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon to access plenty of bonus content. All the links to History on Fire social media can be found at our LinkTree, including the HOF YouTube Channel, Substack, Instagram, and TikTok. Thank you to today’s sponsor, Fabric by Gerber Life, a term life insurance. If you are interested in life insurance, please check them out at https://meetfabric.com/HISTORYONFIRE Throughout history, people have used mushrooms (such as Lion's Mane, Turkey Tail, Cordyceps, Reishi and Chaga) for their medicinal properties. My friends started Purest Mushrooms where they offer some of the best quality mushrooms you can find on the market at affordable prices. Use code historyonfire at checkout for a discount Bison is some of the healthiest meat you could possibly eat. Get yours at Dakota Pure Bison. History on Fire listeners get a discount by using the code HOF10 at checkout. If you are interested in the fantastic art of Frank Frazetta, check out the offerings at https://www.frazettagirls.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices