HeyJaredTurning Modern
From the year 1500 to the fall of Napoleon, each episode of "Turning Modern" highlights a different event, person, or creative work in the early modern West. Join me as I look at the people, forces, and art that helped shape the world we live in, for better and for worse.
- Indexed episodes, last 90 days
- 5
- Latest publication
- Sep 18, 2026
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- Earliest in this view
- Jul 13, 2026
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The Abducted Children Sent To An Island (opens the original)
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Hundreds of children were taken from their families and sent to a distant, previously uninhabited island. The reasons why this happened are a toxic mixture of deeply rooted intolerance and simple greed. Sources ha-Cohen, Joseph. The Vale of Tears (Emek Habacha) , trans. Harry S. May (Martinus Nihoff, 1971). Soyer, François. “King João II of Portugal ‘O Príncipe Perfeito’ and the Jews (1481-1495) Sefarad 69.1 (2009): 75-99. _________. The Persecution of the Jews and Muslims of Portugal : King Man
How an Independence War Inspired a Ski Competition (opens the original)
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A rebel leader and future king makes a dramatic escape across the Swedish countryside in the dead of December. This is the story of how this adventure inspired a famous competition centuries later. Sources Cited Gustafsson, Harald. “A State That Failed?: On the Union of Kalmar, Especially Its Dissolution.” Scandinavian Journal of History 31:3-4 (2006): 205-220. “Gustav Vasa Couldn’t Ski?” Nordstjernan . nordstjernan.com/news/traditions/2861 Last accessed: 8/22/2026. Kent, Neil. A Concise History
The Forgotten Woman Who Helped Shape The Protestant Reformation (opens the original)
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Someone sticks up for a university student accused of heresy. This starts the public career of one of the most assertive, formidable voices of the early Protestant Reformation, a voice that would probably be better remembered if not for the fact that they were a woman. Sources MacCulloch, Diarmaid. The Reformation: A History (Viking, 2003). Mark, Joshua J. "Argula von Grumbach's To the University of Ingolstadt." World History Encyclopedia. 23 March 2022. https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1971
The Peasant Revolt That Helped Change Eastern Europe (opens the original)
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A soldier named György Dózsa helps turn an army of peasant crusaders into a full-on revolution. His war on the nobles who ruined his country's recent reforms is destined to have an impact, just not the one he wanted... Sources Albert-László. Barabási. Bursts: The Hidden Patters Behind Everything We Do From Your E-Mail to Bloody Crusades (Plume, 2011). Makkai, Laszlo. "Neo-serfdom: Its Origin and Nature in East Central Europe." Slavic Review 34.2 (1975): 225-238. Molnár, Miklós. A Concise Hi
The Queen Who Became a Professional Writer (opens the original)
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Marguerite de Navarre is the sister and wife of kings. While coping with being an agent of her brother and navigating the religious turmoil , she still found the time to become a bestselling author and perhaps the "first modern woman." Sources: Cholakian, Patricia F. and Rouben C. Marguerite de Navarre: Mother of the Renaissance (Columbia University Press, 2006). Gristwood, Sarah. “I Wrote a Book About Renaissance Queens. Today’s Stories of Sex Assault Sound Like Something Out of the 16th Centur
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