Attention Citizens!
Not much new to report this month, with Christmas and whatnot. So I thought we’d do a January Q&A to keep the hungry masses fed.
Here we go!
[Note: I always attach a .pdf to these posts, which should make things a lot easier to read. I only say that because the formatting on Patreon can be pretty ugly.]
Benjamin Prewitt asks… “What inspired you to jump from the Hellenic/Classical period to the Napoleonic era in terms of your videos focus? Were there any specific themes you saw that really made you want to dive into the era following Napoleon’s collapse?”
Erik Hare asks… “I am really wondering where you think the 19th century goes ultimately. Are you just going to deal with the reforms? Are you going to take this right up to World War I? I'm sure you've thought about where it must go. Is there a climax?”
I specifically wanted to cover the 19th century because I wanted to talk about peace and diplomacy. Or, specifically, how to avoid “Great Power Conflicts.” You might notice that I bring up the phrase Great Power Conflict in every single video. I even talk about World War in the Reform or Revolution? video. I’m looking at the whole series through that lens, arguing that a political breakdown in the 1830s could have led to a World War.
Why specifically did I begin in 1815? The story of the 19th century obviously could have begun in 1789, but that would have led to me being bogged down in the French Revolution and Napoleon for like 5 years, and I didn’t want to do that. I love the French Revolution and Napoleon, but I specifically wanted to talk about The Long Peace that came after.
There was also a question about a climax to the series. Oh, there’s definitely a climax. The outbreak of World War 1, baby. A failure so catastrophic that it completely destroyed the old international system. If I remember correctly, I think there were some clues all the way back in the Peace…? video. But yes, I’m talking about Great Power Conflict in every single video because I’m planting the seeds to World War 1.
crogameri asks… “Feel free to not answer this one, but do you consider yourself to have a left leaning bias in your videos? To be clear, I think bias is natural and it doesn't make the videos any less worth watching, but I've always been curious about your perspective of the politics of the Author relating to their work. It doesn't come up too much in the ancient series', but 'Work' feels like it has an (albeit deserved) bias”
Listen, bias is just another word for “I believe that my opinions are correct.” Everybody believes that. If they didn’t, then they wouldn’t be their opinions anymore.
The “Work” video came from an angry place, which I think makes my opinions much more apparent. But I’m pretty opinionated in all of my videos, I remember being pretty harsh towards Charles X and his authoritarian crackdown in the video on The July Revolution. That’s not “straight down the middle” by any means, that’s me putting my finger on the scale and letting you know what I think.
By the way, the video I’m working on right now ALSO came from an angry place, so if you hated the “Work” video you’ll hate this one too, lol.
Paulo S asks… “Have you thought about doing some battle videos like back in the day but for the napoleonic years? A Waterloo video might be fun but if I’m being entirely honest I’ve always enjoyed the political ones more.”
I’ve thought about it, and decided that I didn’t want to get pulled into the Napoleonic Wars, so for now I’ve decided to just avoid that whole area. But I love that stuff, and it’s well-suited to the kinds of videos I make, so to answer your question yes I have thought about it.
William Dunbar asks… “Why do you insist on calling him George Canning-rhymes-with-raining, rather than George Canning-rhymes-with-tanning?”
Hahaha, okay…
I have ALWAYS, for as long as I can remember, mispronounced Canning. I don’t know why. I know intellectually the right way to say it, but I have always instinctively defaulted to the wrong way. It might have something to do with my accent.
In that first video I mention Canning, I realized literally 1 day before I released the video that I mispronounced his name every single time I say it. I considered delaying the release and going back and re-recording a bunch of audio, but I kinda thought “ahhhh, screw it, nobody will even notice.”
But people did notice! Whoops! I was very amused by this.
The funny thing is that when Canning’s name came up in later videos, I had a decision to make. Do I correct my mistake, or do I keep the videos internally consistent with themselves? For my own amusement, I decided to deliberately mispronounce his name in order to keep the videos internally consistent, lol.
Is that ethical? Probably not. I’ve probably made it a lot more likely that people will mispronounce his name for years and years to come.
But on the other hand… British people love mispronouncing names, it’s their favourite pastime. Who cares. It’s not my fault, my mouth just wants to say his name that way.
Maxwell Elkiss asks… “Is there a video from your earlier years that you would ever want to go back and ‘redo’/‘remaster’?”
No! Forward! Always Forward!
Gina Service asks… “If you ever go back to Rome, would you consider doing a series on Sulla? It seems like Sulla's civil war and proscription are always kind of the backdrop to the Caesars's story, but don't seem to get anything like the same amount of attention on their own merits.”
I agree that the Sulla-Marius stuff is really important and kinda under-covered, but I don’t feel a fire in the belly to cover it right now. Whenever I eventually return to ancient Rome, the first video back will definitely be about Augustus. I do feel that fire in the belly when it comes to Roman Emperors, so that’s where I want to go eventually.
Elliot asks… “If you were a square, what colour would you be?”
Red, of course.
Codisius asks… “If you could live out the reign of any Roman emperor (eastern or western, not holy Roman) which would it be and why? Favorite "underrated" emperor?”
This might be a pretty hot take, but Caligula might be the most underrated Emperor. Underrated in the sense that most people consider his reign a disaster, but in fact it was mostly fine. My argument would be that he was trying to reform Imperial Rome away from Augustus’s model and more towards a traditional monarchy. Things just became more and more chaotic over time and then ended in a violent coup. I think that most people would put Caligula and Nero on the same level, but I don’t agree. I would say that Caligula’s reign was mostly fine, and Nero’s was a complete disaster.
Annabelle! asks… “love the new videos in the modern era. How recent is too recent when it comes to time periods for videos?”
Goodnightzzz asks… “What's your thoughts on covering 20th century/contemporary topics?”
Nothing is too recent, I’m totally open to covering 20th century topics. You’ll notice from how I make my videos that I’m really interested in POWER. So in the early 19th century there’s a lot of talk about Britain and France. In the later 19th century, there will be more talk about Germany. The videos about ancient Rome are from when Rome was a hegemon. Etc. The problem is that as a Canadian, I’m not that interested in American history. But if I’m interested in POWER, anything from 1945-1991 would probably have be about the United States. And I just don’t wanna.
Unless I wanted to do a whole thing about the Soviet Union. I wouldn’t even know where to start with that, but it’s crossed my mind.
Aref El Kadi asks… “Will you ever continue your Alexander the Great series?”
Valantis Athanasiou asks… “When we will have new Alexander the Great episodes?”
I’ll be very transparent about this. When I started the Alexander the Great series, it was as an experiment. I wanted to see if I could crank out more videos if I outsourced the animation to other people. I didn’t want to “contaminate” the Rome videos with a new visual style, so I started this new series on Alexander the Great. The idea was that the Rome series would be 100% me, and the Alexander series would be a collaboration.
What I found is that despite my expectations, this didn’t really lead to the videos being produced any faster. Instead, I had to spend more and more of my time managing the work of other people. Instead of having more free time to work on the Rome stuff, I somehow had less free time. Kinda started to feel like a J-O-B. So I abandoned that experiment and went back to doing everything myself, which I enjoy a lot more.
The funny thing is… in my own brain, the Alexander the Great series isn’t dead. If I remember correctly, I think the script to the “next” video in that series is pretty much done. I reserve every right to pick up that script and jump back in whenever I feel the pull. I’m just busy doing other stuff right now.
squez asks… “Do you read fiction? If you do, what’s your favourite novel?”
Uzi Cohen asks… “whats your favorite book of all time?”
I’m a Dune-head, I’ve probably read the 6 Dune books more than any other series. Book 4 is obviously the best, and if you disagree, I will fight you.
Kim Stanley Robinson’s Mars Trilogy might be my favourite too, although I’ve read it less times than Dune. It’s about colonizing Mars and creating a new government and a new constitution, it’s exactly the kind of thing that I would make a video about if it were real, lol.
More recently, I would say Hilary Mantel’s trilogy about Thomas Cromwell is a contender. Wolf Hall, Bring Up the Bodies, and The Mirror & the Light. But I’ve only read the series once, so I don’t feel equipped to put it into the All-Time Favourite Pantheon yet.
Alex Jeffery asks… “What is a random historical fact you're desperate to share?”
People used to spend 50% of their income on food. You can’t fully comprehend the behaviour of people before the Industrial Revolution until you know this fact. If you say “there was a bad harvest,” people kinda shrug their shoulders. But if you say “people spent 50% of their income on food, and then the price of food doubled,” everything becomes crystal clear.
In fact, I’m so desperate to share this fact that I shoehorned it into the video I’m currently working on!
Matthew asks… “Besides suggestions, how do you choose which topic to work on next?” [...] Also, how do you stay motivated and draw out a compelling narrative from dense historical texts? I think it’s really cool what you do.”
I’ve never struggled to figure out what I’m doing next. The animation process is pretty time consuming, so there’s lots of time to think and daydream. By the time I’m animating, I’m always 100% sure what the next topic is going to be. And, I’m usually pretty fired up to be done with the thing I’m working on so that I can immediately jump into the next thing. I’m feeling that way right now, to be honest.
It isn’t too complicated, I’ve usually got like 3 ideas floating around in my head, and I always just pick whichever of those I’m the most excited about. It’s never a difficult decision.
BooBooBlueBerry asks… “Do you have any interest in making videos about early American history and/or American Indians pre/post Columbian Exchange? I really enjoyed the video about the Iroquois Confederacy.”
Not really, simply because I’m not too interested in exploring American history. Anything post-1607 in North America, there’s a gravitational pull to start talking about American history. No thanks.
That being said, I do have some books about the Incas sitting on my shelf right now. That’s an idea I have. But right now, I don’t know enough to know if there’s a video there.
Blitz asks… “Can you give us like a quote out of context from the upcoming video that you're working on.”
Yes! Here it is!
“Welcome to Shit City!”
Books I’ve Recently Enjoyed:
Kinda Nothing
Nothing to recommend! I read 3 books over the holiday break, and rated each of them 1 out of 5. Gotta switch things up!
Films I’ve Recently Enjoyed:
Train Dreams (2025)
This is EASILY the best movie from 2025 I saw this year, I think it’s out on Netflix everywhere. It’s just about the life of a guy who worked building the railroad, then worked as a logger, then kinda became a hermit, set between the years of 1886 to 1968. Clearly heavily inspired by Terance Malick. Sometimes “Malick-esque” films don’t quite get the mood right, they go for the Malick visuals, but they don’t have the courage to go for the Malick spirituality. This is the greatest Malick knock-off ever made, which is a compliment. It’s excellent, I cried.
Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)
Name another movie where Mother Earth decides that, in order to protect God’s creation, she must destroy capitalism. What a premise. This one was definitely the worst of the three, some of the plot points were rehashes of stuff done in earlier movies. But I don’t care. James Cameron has plans for 5, but if they kept on making these things for the rest of my life I would be happy. Apparently there’s a “big change” and a jump forward in time planned for Avatar 4, which I would love to see.
Music I’ve Recently Enjoyed:
Leonard Cohen
This month, I listened to every album by the patron saint of Canada, Leonard Cohen. The winners in my book are Various Positions (1984) and I’m Your Man (1988).
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