If you love history, this is the podcast for you! Stories of forgotten history, presented by Josh Geiger with Lance Geiger, The History Guy, from the hit YouTube channel The History Guy: History Deserves to be Remembered. Visit the channel here: www.youtube.com/TheHistoryGuyChannel We believe that history does not have to be boring. At its heart, history is storytelling, and we believe that it should be told with passion and genuine love for the material. History might be tragic, it might be comic, but it is the story of who we are, and we should not be afraid to enjoy that story and be moved by it.
Counterfactuals: A World Without Potatoes
Feb 25, 2025
Show notes
On today’s episode of the History Guy Podcast, we talk about one of the most important parts of the Columbian exchange, and possibly the reason that Europe was able to colonize and dominate much of the world in the early modern period: The Potato.
Counterfactuals: Viking North America
Feb 11, 2025
Show notes
On today’s episode we tackle the counterfactuals of some of the most popular peoples in history: The Vikings. In the tenth century norse colonists began settling in Greenland, where they found surprising success in some far-northern reaches, before making landfall in North America. The settlements had all faded away by the 1400s, but what might have happened if it had all gone differently?
Counterfactuals: Westward Expansion and Ashley's 100
Jan 28, 2025
Show notes
On this special, 100th episode of The History Guy Podcast, we head back to the 1800s and the beginning of America’s expansion into the Rocky Mountains by taking a look at Ashley’s 100, a group of trappers, mountain men, and explorers who ventured into the West, helping to define an era and open up the land for settlement. How might things be different if they didn’t?
Counterfactuals: What if there were no Transistors?
Jan 14, 2025
Show notes
On today’s episode, we talk about the development of one of some of teh most important communication technologies in history, from the telegraph to the transistor, and what the world might be like if we went without them.
Counterfactuals: The Dmitriads
Dec 31, 2024
Show notes
Ivan the Terrible transformed Russia during his rule, but in a fit of insanity, he seems to have killed his eldest son and heir, leaving the future of the realm uncertain. His youngest, Dmitry, died years later under suspicious circumstances. When Ivan's second son, the Tsar Feodor, died without heir, the tsardom faced catstrophe. And into the choas came not one, not two, but at least three people claiming to be Dmitry, who had miraculousy escaped death. The Time of Troubles, as the Russians called it, was defined in part by a series of wars called the "Dmitriads". But what might have happened if it had gone differently?
Counterfactuals: 732 - The End of Christian Europe?
Dec 17, 2024
Show notes
On today’s episode, we talk about one of the most talked about battles in European History: The 732 battle of Tours. Variously called one of the most important battles in European history or a minor skirmish, the battle had a large impact on the minds of Medieval Europeans. But what might have happened if it had gone different?
Counterfactuals: A World Without Cats
Dec 03, 2024
Show notes
On today’s episode, we talk about cats. While today they are usually just pets, they played a vital role in the history of civilization. So what might have happened if cats were never domesticated?
Counterfactuals: The Inca
Nov 19, 2024
Show notes
On today’s episode, we travel to the lofty heights of the Andes, where in the early 1500s Spanish under Francisco Pizarro came across the Inca Empire. The Spanish found the Inca at an opportune time, immediately following the end of a civil war, while wounds were still fresh and tensions ran high, soon culminating in the destruction of the empire. But it was a near thing: and the world could have turned out a lot different if events had gone differently.
Counterfactuals: Alexandrian India
Nov 05, 2024
Show notes
On today’s episode, we journey back to the fourth century BC on the shores of an Indian river, where an army that had set out from Macedon, more than 3000 miles away had a choice: cross and battle a new Empire and a new army, or turn back home. The ramifications of that decision would be massive. It is history that deserves to be remembered.
Counterfactuals: 1815 Tambora Eruption
Oct 22, 2024
Show notes
On today’s episode, we discuss the impacts of the largest volcanic eruption in human history - the 1815 eruption of Mount Tambora, which would impact the entire world and bring on a volcanic winter: the so called “year without a summer”.
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