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Bret Devereaux, a Roman military and economic historian, uses pop culture as the way in — the 'Fremen Mirage' of the hardy desert warrior, Tolkien's sieges, what Paradox strategy games get wrong about states — and then explains how premodern farming, armies and taxation actually worked. Weekly essays of 7,000-plus words; the archive amounts to a free seminar on everyday life before industry.
July 13, 2026
Scott Alexander's team publishes its plan for AI going well, Joel Mokyr defends his Nobel thesis, and Ted Gioia argues the Odyssey belongs in the music department.
April 13, 2026
Experimental History on overlooked paths to impact, Dario Amodei's five-hour conversation with Lex Fridman, and Ethan Mollick on what just happened in AI.
March 30, 2026
Veritasium tells the story of antimatter's discovery, PBS Space Time asks if we can test quantum gravity, and Experimental History on why being serious matters.
