Past Lives
History is built by people like you, and Past Lives is here to bring their stories to life. Every week, we’ll focus on the lived experiences of real people in the past, from the Stone Age to the near-present.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 10
- Latest publication
- Sep 9, 2026
- Audience
- Checking…
- Earliest in this view
- Jul 8, 2026
Latest episodes
The Siberian Ice Maiden and the Scythian World (opens the original)
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Around 270 BC, a woman died of breast cancer in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia. Her tomb, cut into the permafrost, is one of the best-preserved archaeological sites on the planet. Thanks to the ice, everything from her extraordinary tattoos to the silk garments she wore has survived, providing a direct window onto the forgotten world of the Iron Age steppe and the Scythians who dominated it. Go see Patrick, Dr. Claire Aubin, and Manny Fidel draft teams of the greatest assholes in Americ
Weapons Sacrifices and the Long Road to the Viking Age (opens the original)
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When we think of Scandinavia, it seems to be a long way from the Roman Empire, with hundreds of miles separating the Rhine and Danube frontiers from the bogs of Jutland and Sweden. Why, then, were hundreds upon hundreds of Roman-made weapons intentionally thrown into these bogs in the third and fourth centuries AD? The answer opens the gate that will eventually lead, many centuries down the road, to the warrior-kings of the Viking Age. Go see Patrick, Dr. Claire Aubin, and Manny Fidel draft team
Professor Peter Mancall on Understanding Colonial America (opens the original)
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Professor Peter Mancall is one of the finest historians of colonial America working today, and he's written a banger of a book, the newest entry in the wonderful Oxford History of the United States series. It's entitled Contested Continent , and it's a book everyone who enjoys American history should read. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book c
Tollund Man (opens the original)
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More than 2,400 years ago, a man living in southern Denmark was hung from a plaited leather cord, then buried in a bog. There he stayed until 1950, when his perfectly preserved face emerged from the peat. We know him as Tollund Man, but who was he in life, and what can we know about the world he inhabited? Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book c
Bog Bodies (opens the original)
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Bog bodies - the age-old remains of people who were submerged in bogs - are an eerie sight. Soft tissue remains, often to an even greater extent than mummies, bringing us face to face with people who died thousands of years ago. Become a member now at www.patreon.com/cw/PastLivesMedia. You'll get access to the Past Lives Discord server and four pieces of bonus content per month (including a historian interview, book club, Q and A, and a sources and evidence discussion). Past Lives is a 100-perce
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