Historian & Podcaster

Patrick Wyman

Host of Tides of History and The Fall of Rome. PhD in history from USC, specializing in the transition from the Roman world to the medieval period. Combines academic rigor with accessible storytelling about deep structural changes in history.

Known For

Tides of HistoryThe Fall of Rome podcastLate antiquity research

Canon

Biographies as Substitute Mentors

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Courage Is a Learnable Skill

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Environment Shapes Behavior More Than Willpower

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False Information Spreads Faster and Further Than Truth

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The Hedonic Treadmill — Happiness Returns to Baseline

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Meaning Comes from Responsibility, Not Happiness

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Close Relationships Are the Strongest Predictor of Life Satisfaction

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Focus Only on What You Can Control

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The True Self vs. False Self — Childhood Adaptations That Persist Into Adulthood

Canon

Episodes

#The EndApr 30, 2026 #How Byzantium Survived: A Thousand Years After RomeJul 8, 2025 #Roman Citizenship: The Most Radical Idea in the Ancient WorldMay 6, 2025 #The Reconquista: Eight Centuries of Iberian ConflictMar 11, 2025 #The Birth of the UniversityJan 14, 2025 #A History of Pandemics: What the Past Teaches UsNov 5, 2024 #The Mongol System: How Genghis Khan Built an EmpireSep 10, 2024 #The Economics of Ancient SlaveryJun 18, 2024 #The Franks: From Barbarian Kingdom to Carolingian EmpireApr 9, 2024 #Cracking the Maya Code: How We Learned to Read the PastJan 23, 2024 #The Roman Army: The Machine That Built an EmpireNov 14, 2023 #The Crusader States: Colonial Experiments in the LevantAug 22, 2023 #From Bronze to Iron: A Technological RevolutionMay 16, 2023 #After the Plague: How the Black Death Created Modern LaborFeb 7, 2023 #Why Didn't China Colonize the World?Nov 8, 2022 #The Death of Latin: When Did People Stop Speaking It?Sep 20, 2022 #How Empires Fall: A Comparative AnalysisJun 14, 2022 #The Black Death Returns: 1347 and the End of Medieval EuropeApr 12, 2022 #The Great Wall of China: Myth vs. RealityMar 1, 2022 #Carthage and the Punic WarsJan 18, 2022 #The Medieval Climate Anomaly and Its ConsequencesNov 16, 2021 #The Economics of the Silk RoadSep 14, 2021 #The Islamic Golden Age: Baghdad and the House of WisdomAug 10, 2021 #The Verge: Forty Years That Shook the WorldJul 13, 2021 #The Origins of the Viking AgeJun 8, 2021 #Polynesian Navigation and the Settlement of the PacificApr 6, 2021 #The Indo-European MigrationsFeb 23, 2021 #Why Egypt? The Nile and the Rise of CivilizationJan 12, 2021 #The Agricultural Revolution Was a TrapNov 10, 2020 #The Scale of the Roman EconomySep 15, 2020 #Roman Roads: The Infrastructure That Built an EmpireAug 11, 2020 #The Vandals and the Sack of RomeJul 21, 2020 #The Bronze Age CollapseJun 9, 2020 #The Great Cities of MesoamericaMay 19, 2020 #The Plague of AthensApr 7, 2020 #The First Civilizations of PeruMar 17, 2020 #Justinian's Reconquest of the Western MediterraneanJan 14, 2020 #The Gunpowder EmpiresDec 10, 2019 #The Scientific RevolutionNov 5, 2019 #The Ancient DNA RevolutionOct 15, 2019 #The Atlantic Slave TradeSep 10, 2019 #The Spanish Empire: Gold, God, and ConquestAug 20, 2019 #The Medieval Economy: Trade, Towns, and TransformationJul 9, 2019 #The Mongol Empire and Global ExchangeJun 11, 2019 #The Protestant ReformationMay 7, 2019 #The Rise of the Ottoman EmpireApr 16, 2019 #Columbus and the Age of ExplorationMar 12, 2019 #The Hundred Years WarFeb 5, 2019 #The Printing RevolutionJan 22, 2019 #The Black Death and the End of the Medieval WorldNov 13, 2018 #Charlemagne and the Carolingian RenaissanceSep 4, 2018 #The Fate of Rome: Climate, Disease, and EmpireJul 17, 2018 #The Rise of Islam and the Arab ConquestsJun 19, 2018 #When the Cities DisappearedMay 15, 2018 #Justinian and the PlagueApr 10, 2018 #How Latin Became the Romance LanguagesMar 6, 2018 #How the Eastern Roman Empire SurvivedFeb 6, 2018 #The Fall of the Western Roman EmpireJan 16, 2018