Welcome to the Pop Quiz! During the summer break, the team still wanted to bring you, our awesome audience, some new content.

Every Thursday, one of the hosts will ask the other a question about history they must answer.

Have an idea for a topic? Send it to us at 15minutehistory@gmail.com or submit it to our website at https://www.15minutehistorypodcast.org.

During the summer break, the 15-Minute History podcast team are republishing some of their favorite episodes. This episode and discussion on Alexander the Great originally aired on January 31, 2022.

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He looked out across the field and then back at his formations. The wind was coming in from the west, throwing dust clouds up into the air on his left side. The brown of the dust blended with the armor of the enemy for a moment, blurring them into a single mass that blanketed the horizon.

Alexander turned to confirm the calvary on his left were holding their position and was satisfied to see that they were. The other army advanced on the flank. He looked at his enemies’ centerline, made some mental calculations, and steadied himself.

The moment brought a memory of watching the molding of armor when he was a boy. During his education, he was made to watch the metal mold under the pressure of the maker’s will. Violence would bend the metal and countless strikes, one after the other, would force the metal to give way.

He looked at his phalanxes. They had met the enemy on his right and left. The left was reeling back and he ordered a small formation to reinforce them. He raised his sword to signal his cavalry and charged straight into the center of the opposing line.

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Join us as we teach you about Alexander the Great and how he became the ruler of the known world.

Welcome to the Pop Quiz! During the summer break, the team still wanted to bring you, our awesome audience, some new content.

Every Thursday, one of the hosts will ask the other a question about history they must answer.

Have an idea for a topic? Send it to us at 15minutehistory@gmail.com or submit it to our website at https://www.15minutehistorypodcast.org.

During the summer break, the 15-Minute History podcast team are republishing some of their favorite episodes and discussions. This episode and discussion about Joseph Stalin, originally aired on February 14, 2022.

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The great revolutionary's body lay in a red coffin as it wound its way through the streets of Moscow toward the House of Trade Unions. Six men carried it, surrounded by a phalanx of guards, through the gathered throng of mourners—some genuine, others paid. Each hoped to succeed Vladimir Lenin as leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, but only one could, and did. The mustachioed man known to his friends as "Koba" who had spent decades fighting to bring communism to his homeland was now General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and he held in his hands the keys to ultimate power in the world's largest state. His rivals, especially Lenin's closest ally Leon Trotsky, were already plotting against him, but the general secretary controlled the Party's political apparatus and had the support of leaders across the country. When Lenin was laid to rest, three men formed an uneasy alliance, a troika, to rule collectively, but Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was determined to rule alone.

Join us as we teach you about Joseph Stalin, his life, rise to power, and his lasting effect on our world today.

Welcome to the Pop Quiz! During the summer break, the team still wanted to bring you, our awesome audience, some new content.

Every Thursday, one of the hosts will ask the other a question about history they must answer.

Have an idea for a topic? Send it to us at 15minutehistory@gmail.com or submit it to our website at https://www.15minutehistorypodcast.org.

During the summer break, the 15-Minute History podcast team is republishing some of their favorite episodes. This episode, Horatio Nelson, originally aired on February 20, 2023.

He was on the quarterdeck when he realized it. The smoke was thick between the two ships and it was hard to make any sense of the melee. His men pushed forward against the other crew as grenades and musket fire came from the masts. The sun was low on the horizon and the impending dark blended into a sea of undefined movement. The world was noise. One of the enemy sailors slashed at him. He parried the blow and drove the man’s sword into the deck of the ship. Turning the blade upward, he cut across the man’s gut and kicked him aside as he focused on the fight in front of him. The chaos slowed and his senses focused, giving him almost perfect clarity.

He immediately turned to his second in command and ordered them to keep engaging. He jumped onto the railing of his ship to bypass the hordes of men and ran across it before jumping back to his deck and going into his quarters. He burst into the main room and peered out the window to the other ship, gauged the distance, and then broke the windows of the cabin until all the shards were gone.

He backed up, took a deep breath, and ran to the window. Jumping through it, he crashed through the glass of the enemy’s captain’s quarters. Immediately after hitting the carpet, he did a forward roll, sprang to his feet, and surveyed the room. After a moment, he saw the other man standing in the corner, his eyes wide, his sword drawn.

He drew his own sword and pointed the tip at the man in the corner.

“You sir, are a coward.”

Not another word was spoken. And when he left the cabin and entered into the wider battle, he left nothing behind.

Join us as we teach you about Horatio Nelson, his life, achievements, and why he is considered one of the greatest heroes in British (and world) history.

Welcome to the Pop Quiz! During the summer break, the team still wanted to bring you, our awesome audience, some new content.

Every Thursday, one of the hosts will ask the other a question about history they must answer.

Have an idea for a topic? Send it to us at 15minutehistory@gmail.com or submit it to our website at https://www.15minutehistorypodcast.org.

During the summer break, the 15-Minute History podcast team is republishing some of their favorite episodes. This episode, Joan of Arc, originally aired on October 18, 2021.

Arrows filled the sky above the battlefield and rained down on the French knights as they slogged through the mud in heavy armor. Their effect was devastating, and hundreds of France’s noblest men fell screaming as the English longbowmen poured fire into their ranks. The French commander urged his men forward, while at the other end of the field the King of England, Henry V, watched the battle with a smile on his scarred face. Soon, the English celebrated their great triumph at Agincourt on St. Crispin’s Day. It was perhaps the high-point in the long war between the two countries that had begun nearly a hundred years earlier over who would sit on the throne of France. England stood on the threshold of victory, and as its soldiers tended the wounded and drank to their fallen, no one in Henry’s army could know that a three-year-old girl living far to the southeast would one day turn the tide of war against them.

Join us as we teach you about Joan of Arc and how she changed the course of history forever. Be sure to send us your questions for our discussion segment next week and if you feel so inclined, support the show by going to https://anchor.fm/15minutehistory/support.