How did a Muslim diplomat from Fez end up a prisoner in the Vatican, the namesake of a Medici pope, and the author of the book that defined Africa for Europeans for three centuries?
New episode of By Their Own Compass is out.
open.substack.com/pub/bytheiro...
Hemingway's characters are drinking in the lobby of the Hôtel de Crillon. Orwell is in the basement washing their dishes. Jean Rhys is outside trying to figure out who will let her in.
Same Paris. Same era. Three completely different cities.
New episode of By Their Own Compass.
Link below.
Chinese Propaganda Posters/Chineseposters.net, curated by the late Stefan Landsberger, is an amazing resource.
chineseposters.net/themes/sino-...
And once the kids are grown, free to book that ocean cruise they've been saving up for.
Link to the Full Episode:
bytheirowncompass.substack.com/p/historian-...
The Mongols Discovered Europe. Marco Polo Got the Book Deal.
Historian Nicola Di Cosmo on Mongol diplomacy, Venice versus Genoa, and all of the things "The Travels of Marco Polo" failed to mention.
Was Marco Polo a sexpat?! We address this and everything else you always wanted to know about the famous medieval traveler but were too afraid to ask...all in the latest episode of By Their Own Compass.
Listen on Spotify, Apple, or wherever you get your podcasts! 🗺️ 🎧
"I can't be perfect and funny at the same time."
Da Shan spent decades as China's most famous foreigner, but when every skit ends with "Your Chinese is so good," it's hard to find the funny...or the inspiration.
New episode from Barbarians at the Gate 🎙️
Link to the full episode on Substack:
bytheirowncompass.substack.com/p/marco-polo...
New episode of By Their Own Compass: Marco Polo spent 17 years in China and never mentioned tea, the Great Wall, or chopsticks.
Did he really go? Did he make it all up?
Pioneering Sinologist or Prototype Sex Pat?
Sarah and I dig into the evidence and tell the story of Marco and the Khan.
“Lord Mengde, my analysis is that Red Cliffs could easily be forded if Sun Quan & Liu Bei would but allow your crossing.”
- Imperial Minister of Cao Wei, Lord 小马口
New episode: David Moser talks with Mark Rowswell (大山) in Beijing about 38 years of re-invention from xiangsheng to viral poetry videos to performing with the Toronto Symphony to playing Red in a Mandarin Shawshank Redemption with an all-foreign cast.
open.substack.com/pub/jeremiah...
Great insights into AI + China from Yajun Zhang. Sometimes the most important exports are the hardest to track.
yajunzhang.substack.com/p/china-is-e...
Fanny Trollope's war on American manners. Alice Roosevelt's pet snake. Empress Dowager Cixi's private theme park.
We debate whether the term “diva” means difficult, or if it is just what lazy people call a woman who refuses to travel on someone else’s terms.
open.substack.com/pub/bytheiro...
Pete has definitely made this exact argument about coming into the as-yet-unlocked door of an Applebees at 11:03pm on a Monday with a group of 23 & demanding to be served because they’re already here in the building now.
Check out our full conversation with Dr. Lee Moore, author of China’s Backstory: China’s Backstory: The History Beijing Doesn’t Want You to Read.
Search Barbarians at the Gate on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever fine podcasts are given away for free.
jeremiahjenne.substack.com/p/lee-moores...
The Song Emperor asked Sima Guang to create a special office to cut government spending.
Sima Guang suggested that creating a government bureau to cut government spending was dumb.
Sound familiar?
Link to the full post on Substack:
substack.com/home/post/p-...
Divided hosts.
I argue that everything Annie told the press about herself was fiction, and she never actually cycled around the world.
Sarah steps up for Annie.
Fantabulist or fabulous? Listen and decide.
Search for By Their Own Compass on Apple Podcasts and Spotify or follow the link below.
Follow us on Substack or listen to Barbarians at the Gate on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.
jeremiahjenne.substack.com/p/lee-moores...
Lee Moore did the crazy historian thing and went back and actually read the primary sources on Taiwan that everyone cites, but nobody checks.
Turns out a lot of the "history proves Taiwan is or is not" arguments are based on texts that might not even be about Taiwan.
Link to full episode below.
When a reporter accused Annie Londonderry of lying about her around-the-world bicycle trip, she basically said, "You print fiction every day. I'm just better at it than you are." A 23-year-old Jewish immigrant in 1894. Almost nothing she told the press was true. The trip was real.
New episode ↓
Nepotism has made Iran weak.
by Jared Kushner and RFK Jr.
In this episode of By Their Own Compass, we follow Annie Cohen Kopchovsky, advertising saleswoman, Latvian immigrant, mother, and one of history’s most audacious self-promoters as she talks, pedals, and occasionally steamships her way around the world.
I like it!
