Lore is a public history podcast hosted by Aaron Mahnke and produced through the company Grim & Mild. The first episode was released in March 2015 and as of January 31, 2022, there are 191 unique episodes* released bi-weekly. The podcast is described as being “about dark historical tales.” It is available on multiple platforms, including Apple Music and Spotify. Each episode contains multiple historical events under a similar theme and is typically 20 to 35 minutes long. 

Lore has been the recipient of multiple awards. iTunes “Best of 2015” and “Best of 2016,” as well as, “Best History Podcast of 2016” by Academy of Podcasters. And claiming 350 million listens. Lore has been included in Edison Research’s Top 50 Podcasts of 2020, Mental Floss’ 11 Best Podcasts of the Decade, and ScreenRant’s The 10 Best History Podcasts. Further references and interviews regarding Lore can be found here.

The most recent unique episode, “Throwing Voices” covers demons, exorcisms, and possession. Starts with brief coverage of the John Frum religious movement in Tanna, Vanuatu Islands and how it originated. Ancient Sumerian, Egyptian, Hebrew, and West African exorcisms are briefly discussed before moving on to the episode’s main story. British Puritan exorcist, John Darrell.

Since its inception, Lore has inspired a book series and an Amazon Prime TV show. Grim & Mild has expanded its history podcast collection to include Cabinet of Curiosities, which features episodes on a single topic averaging about 10 minutes, Noble Blood, explores the life of historical members of royalty, and many other podcasts. 

Sources are available for each episode in a master list on the Grim & Mild and Lore Podcast site and are organized alphabetically by author; however, transcripts of the podcast are unavailable and there is no information on which source pertains to which part of the episode.

Early episodes are credited with Aaron Mehnke as the writer, producer, and researcher with Chad Lawson responsible for music. In recent podcasts, there have been many people credited as responsible for the research that is done for this podcast, most with degrees or background in history or research. Researchers include, Robin Miniter, Allie Steed, Meaghan des Roches, Carl Nellis, Michelle Muto, Sam Alberty, and Taylor Hagerdorn.

Where Lore falls short is that topics are eurocentric, particularly focused just on America and Britain. Other areas may be spoken of briefly; however, the story that gets the most time (the main story) is typically eurocentric. 

You can also connect to lore via Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.

* I refer to “unique episodes” because they have recently started remastering old episodes and re-releasing them between new episodes.

NOTE: Some photos in this post contain links

Histography allows users to view a timeline starting with the Big Bang up to C.E. 2015. Created as a final project by Matan Stauber and guided by Ronel Mor at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design.Histography utilizes Wikipedia articles to create a 14 billion year timeline. Users can focus down to one year all the way out to the full 14 billion years. 

The sidebar on the left displays the span of time being focused on, as well as, focusing on or comparing different categories of events. The image below demonstrates the comparison of riots (black dots) and politics (white dots) in the 75 year period between 1940 and 2015. Below each category the number displayed is the total events related to that category pertaining to that period.

When a dot (event) on the timeline is chosen, it expands and displays a menu. The menu changes based on available information on the given event. Every event I tried, at the very least, had the menu option to display related events within the span of time selected (demonstrated below). Events with more information had menus with options for a Wikipedia page and occasionally a Youtube video. Some of the links for Wikipedia articles only display the title of the event, whereas others give a formatted version of the Wikipedia article. Some of the Youtube videos provided are unfortunately no longer available. 

Along the bottom of the page is a scroll bar that allows the user to broaden the time frame or reduce it. It also brings up another menu from which a period of time can be selected and the timeline will set itself to that time period. 

The little square in the corner changes the view of the timeline. The green square in the upper left takes the user to “Editorial Stories” which features major events. The sidebar for “Editorial Stories” is the timeline and the main page just displays the event information and graphics. Included in this menu is a “FEELING LUCKY” button which randomly picks an event from the timeline. From this page, to get back to the general timeline there is a pink square in the upper right corner. 

This project is a great resource for creating one’s own timeline, getting an overview of a period of time, or as a starting point for a research project. I found it particularly useful establishing a broad understanding of world events in a particular year or time frame. The site is very easy to use, the primary issue is that the site is no longer being maintained and as a result some of the links are no longer useful. It also no longer goes past 2015, so it is not helpful for recent history.