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Historically High

A dive into historical topics from an elevated perspective. New episodes will be out every Wednesday. Find us on our socials:@Historicallyhi on Twitter @historicallyhighpod on Instagram. Don't forget to like, rate, subscribe, and let your friends know what they are missing.

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31 episodes
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Avg 2 hr 37 min
English

Episodes 31

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#253
Yesterday · 2 hr 15 min
The Marvel Cinematic Universe: The First Avenger to Dr. Doom
Class, here's the deal...we usually don't condone cheating or shortcuts here at HHU. But we also understand trying to catch up on what the MCU has been up to the last 7 years (Yeah it's been 7 years, feeling old anyone) since Avengers: Endgame. Iron-man is Dr. Doom now? Wait I thought Jim from The Office was Mr. Fantastic in the movie with Patrick Stewart's Professor X. Yeah that did happen and a bunch of other stuff, tv series occurred, we had three Spider-men in one movie. There's a lot to unp
#252
October 14 · 2 hr 57 min
The World History of Dragons
Why did ancient civilizations, on every inhabited continent at different points in history independently decide the world was run by a giant scaled lizard? This week we break down humanity’s ultimate shared mythological trip—from our primate brains mashing big cats, raptors, and venomous snakes into an evolutionary super-predator, to the massive cultural clash between European knights stabbing subterranean gold-hoarders and Chinese emperors deifying benevolent, rain-summoning weather lords. Alon
#251
October 7 · 2 hr 12 min
The Phoenicians
The Phoenicians conquered the ancient world, not with sword or spear, but with ink, rotting mollusks, and the finest of Lebanese Cedar. In this episode, we take a wild ride through history's ultimate glue guys, starting with a cluster of competitive city-states that never even called themselves Phoenicians. We break down the secrets behind their maritime supremacy, uncovering how their agriculturally inferior homeland led to unmatched shipwrighting and open-sea navigation. Skills allowing them
#250
September 30 · 2 hr 30 min
Three Mile Island Nuclear Accident
Strap in, because this week on Historically High, we’re heading back pre-Chernobyl, to 1979 to unpack the absolute disaster that was the Three Mile Island meltdown. When a routine cooling malfunction collided with a stuck valve, a blizzard of confusing control-room alarms, and operators making fatal guesswork, roughly half of Unit 2's uranium core melted down into radioactive sludge right in the middle of Pennsylvania. While the reactor was actively cooking itself from the inside out, Metropol
#249
September 23 · 2 hr 15 min
Woodstock
In August 1969, four twenty-somethings—two trust-fund heirs and two music hustlers—tried to fund a recording studio by throwing a music festival in Woodstock, only to trigger one of the most glorious logistical trainwrecks in American history. After getting evicted from two different towns, they convinced conservative dairy farmer Max Yasgur to lease his alfalfa pasture, but only had enough time to build the stage or the gates and fences. The Stage won. When 400K kids, instead of the estimated m
#248
September 16 · 2 hr 1 min
The Reagan Assassination and John Hinkley Jr.
This episode is a long strange trip into the mind of John Hinckley Jr. John attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan. Firing five shots, Hinckley would strike the President once. He was arrested immediately following the shooting. That's when the Hinckley case takes a turn. John Hinckley Jr had quite an obsession with Taxi Driver, and Jodie Foster. In John's mind, he was a Travis Bickle type character. In his mind, he needed to do something to make Jodie realize she loved him. That thing
#247
September 11 · 1 hr 52 min
9/11: Part 2
In the conclusion of our two-part September 11 deep dive, we step straight into the chaos of the morning itself—and the global fallout that followed. We walk through the timeline as it unfolded in real time: how the planes were taken, the shock of the strikes, the collapse of the towers, the hit on the Pentagon, and the fierce resistance aboard Flight 93, where ordinary passengers mounted a revolt in the skies over Shanksville. Alongside the devastation, we highlight the staggering, improbable
#246
September 9 · 2 hr 10 min
9/11: Part 1
This week on Historically High, we begin our two-part deep dive into September 11 by pulling back the curtain on everything that led to that fateful Tuesday morning. To understand how four commercial airliners were turned into guided missiles, you have to rewind decades. We start in the brutal, scorched valleys of the Soviet-Afghan War, tracking how the mujahideen resistance gave birth to both the Taliban and al-Qaeda. From there, we trace the rise of Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri, the
#245
September 2 · 2 hr
WW2: The USS Enterprise
The Japanese incorrectly thought they sink her three times earning her the moniker, The Grey Ghost. This week on Historically High, we chart the legendary run of the USS Enterprise (CV-6)—the carrier that carried the Pacific War on her back when it was literally Enterprise vs. Japan, and served as the godmother of modern naval aviation by pioneering 24-hour night combat and revolutionizing damage control. From her near miss at Pearl, to her critical role at Midway, to holding off suicide swarm
#244
August 26 · 3 hr 27 min
The Clinton-Lewinsky Scandal
This week, we’re diving into the absolute circus of the late '90s: the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal. We trace Bill’s slippery journey from slick Arkansas Governor dodging the Paula Jones lawsuit straight into the Oval Office, where a federal government shutdown, a strategic flash of a whaletail, and an unpaid intern collided to change American politics forever. Add in Linda Tripp armed with illegal cassette tapes, Kenneth Starr treating Whitewater like a personal soap opera, and the wildest semantic
#243
August 19 · 2 hr 31 min
The Khmer Empire
This week on Historically High, we journey into the heart of ancient—and present-day—Cambodia to chart the epic rise and fall of the Khmer Empire. While Europe was just beginning to stumble into the Renaissance, Angkor had already perfected the largest pre-industrial city on the planet. From the uncomfortably massive Tonlé Sap lake to the awe-inspiring stone skyline, wonder at the jaw-dropping architecture of complexes like Angkor Wat and the Bayon. Plus, we unravel the empire’s true engine of
#242
August 12 · 3 hr 23 min
Ted Kaczynski: The Unabomber
We are finally here. Ted Kaczynski. The Unabomber. Insane IQ. Graduated high school at 15. Had a run-in at Harvard with a professor who worked for the OSS. Youngest associate professor at Cal Berkeley. Left academia for a shack in the Montana woods. Ted Kaczynski had a strong belief that technology was ruining humanity. In 2026, I'm not so sure we disagree. What we do disagree with was sending bombs in the mail to get the attention of the masses. If you don't know, you're about to find out. Join
#241
August 5 · 3 hr 10 min
K2: The Savage Mountain
Welcome to the Savage Mountain—a 28,000-foot pyramid of vertical blue ice, 60-degree rock walls, and a building-sized ice block that hangs over your head like a loaded gun. This week, we climb through the brutal history of the world's second tallest peak. Now while Everest might be just a little taller, 780' to be precise, K2 much tougher to summit and far deadlier. K2's historical death rate is 1 dead for every 4-5 climber that summit while Everest sits somewhere around 1 out of 100 who summit.
#240
July 29 · 3 hr 41 min
The Red Scare: McCarthy V Communism
In the late 1940's and 50's America went through a type of mass hysteria fueled by both foreign governments and our own. The Cold War had just begun between the United States and the Soviet Union. The Russians soon built and tested an atomic bomb so Americans no longer felt untouchable in our own country. It was a time when accusations of being a communist or even attending a meeting unknowingly could land you in jail. It's during this Crimson Panic that Senator Joseph McCarthy began his one man
#239
July 22 · 2 hr 9 min
The History of Cheese
Here we are. The History of Cheese. My love letter to cheese. Cultures. Milk. Rennet. Salt. That's all you need to start making cheese. The history starts prior to written history. The cheesemaking process was carried across the world by war and exploration. That process mixed with the nature and animals of the regions, helped shape unique new kinds of cheese. We have a lot to cover from cheese crime to cheese types to cheese games to cheese getting you high? Join us as we get Historically High
#238
July 15 · 3 hr 19 min
Gears of War: A History
In this episode Prof. Chris emerges from his Nerdery to talk about the rise and catastrophic fall of Sera, the world where the Gears of War franchise takes place. Humanity on Sera repeatedly stood on the precipice of absolute peace, only to be dragged back into the crucible of total war by a nightmarish foe. We examine how human greed, ideological fanatacism, and a failure to look beneath the surface ultimately sealed the fate of Seran civilization. Plus there's chainsaws on machine guns, giant
#237
July 8 · 2 hr
The Great Depression: Global Edition
When the global economy flatlined, it didn't just cause a financial crisis—it opened the doors for radical extremism. The Great Depression broke Germany’s fragile democracy, fueling Adolf Hitler's rapid ascent to absolute power. As the rest of Europe retreated into a paralysis of economic self-preservation, the continent unknowingly cleared the runway for a second world war.
#236
July 1 · 2 hr 29 min
The Great Depression: USA Edition
While the 1920s are famous for jazz and flappers, the actual foundation of the decade was built on a massive, unsustainable wartime gamble. How the rush to feed a burning Europe turned American farmers into accidental engines of global ruin. We’ll see how Washington’s messy post-war IOUs turned international finance into a global game of hot potato between Britain, France, and a broken Germany. And how it ruined people who never touched a stock or saw a ticker in their lives. Welcome to the Grea
#235
June 24 · 2 hr 13 min
Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid
We're not talking about the 1969 classic motion picture starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford, we're discussing the real life Butch and Sundance. Bank robbing and train heist were kinda the M.O. for these honorable thieves at the tail end of the western outlaw era.
#234
June 17 · 2 hr 27 min
The Battle of Kursk
The Battle of Kursk was the largest land and armored battle in the history of warfare. With a total combined 2.8 million troops, 6000 Tanks or Armored Vehicles, and 4,000 airplanes between the Nazis and the Soviets. The operation was the last real attempt for Hitler to reverse Germany's position on the Eastern Front.

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