Tales of History and Imagination

This week, on Tales we’re in England, the date November 26th 1703 - as a giant storm settles over the country that would haunt the nation for many years - and give birth to at least one new profession.  Content Warnings: Descriptions of animal cruelty, traumatic deaths, and period-appropriate superstitions which may now seem utterly ridiculous.    Sources Include:Daniel Defoe’s The Storm.  Support Tales on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial.    Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays. Tales of History and Imagination can be found on…   | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |  

This week, on Tales we return to Thebes one last time to discuss what happens when others even the field, the life and death or our two heroes, a young man named Philip - and a giant lion..   This is part three of a three parter.  Content Warnings: Battlefield injury and death, some depictions towards the end are quite graphic. Political violence, slavery and hostage taking. Assassination. Suicide-adjacent fatalism. Mass burial. Discussion of LGBTQI+ history not that THAT one should ever need to be a trigger warning - but there you go…Yes I got hate mail a few weeks back, so let’s throw it in there…  and back to the actual nasty stuff, discussion of Authoritarianism, tyranny and mass killing.    Sources Include:James Romm’s ‘The Sacred Band’Plutarch’s ‘Lives…’     Support Tales on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial.    Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.   Tales of History and Imagination can be found on… | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |      

This week, on Tales we return to Thebes, to see how their Sacred Band is working out for them. We learn a little bit about Spartan King Agesilaus’ lost love, and we meet a warlord named Jason.   This is part two of a three parter. Content warnings: historical ableism, homophobic attitudes, warfare, assassination, battlefield death, executions and forced displacement.      Sources Include: James Romm’s ‘The Sacred Band’Plutarch’s ‘Lives…’     Support Tales on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial.  Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly.   Tales of History and Imagination can be found on… | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |  

This week, on Tales we journey to ancient Thebes, a Greek City state suddenly - unexpectedly - under the control of their foes, Sparta. When you have lost your freedom to a despot, and are fighting for your very survival, what can you turn to? First you have your foundational myths, and second - if you are Thebes - you have some of the toughest gay men ever to exist.  This week, in part one of a three parter, we discuss the formation of The Sacred Band of Thebes.  Content warnings: brief discussion of sexual violence, incest, anti-LGBTQI+ attitudes, political violence, assassinations and executions.      Sources Include:James Romm’s ‘The Sacred Band’Plutarch’s ‘Lives…’   Support Tales on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial.    Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.   Tales of History and Imagination can be found on…   | Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |  

This week, on a much waylaid episode of Tales we return to the Tichbornes,’ as Tom Castro makes his play for the land, money and titles. Does it turn out he was, in fact Roger Charles Tichborne - long thought lost at sea - or was he some larrikin on the lookout for an easy life?  This is part two of a two parter. Apologies all, I lost a good month and a half to a bout of pneumonia just after Christmas.   Content warnings: I said nothing on the tape: but on reflection: childhood bullying, and more talk of a character’s weight than I am comfortable with.      Sources Include:Robyn Annear’s The Man Who Lost HimselfRohan McWilliam’s The Tichborne Claimant Support Tales on Patreon for $2 US a month and get access to exclusive content, or Try our 7 Day Free Trial.      Please leave Tales a like and a review wherever you listen. The best way you can support us is to share an episode with a friend - Creative works grow best by word of mouth. I post episodes fortnightly, Wednesdays.   Tales of History and Imagination can be found on…| Facebook |TikTok | Threads | YouTube | Bluesky |