On Top of the World
Channel Details
On Top of the World
A podcast about how we teach World History and why we teach what we do.
Recent Episodes
54 episodes
Ep 48: Buy My Book
Your hosts discuss Dave's new book: World History Through Case Studies: Historical Skills in Practice. Dave tells us about how studying things like th...
Ep 47: The New AP World History CED with Eric Beckman
The new AP World History Course and Exam Description (CED) is out and we have to figure out the best and most responsible way to teach it.
In...
Ep 46: How to Hide an Empire
Are mountains of bird sh*t, a doctor giving his patients cancer, and the width of screw threads central to the rise of American imperialism? Yes! Matt...
Ep 45: Against the Grain
Dave and Matt return from a winter break to discuss the future of AP World and review James C. Scott's book Against the Grain.
Recommendations:...
Ep 44: Texting in Class - Panorama
Texting in Class makes a triumphal return! Matt and Dave review Panorama: A World History by Laura J. Mitchell and Ross E. Dunn.
Recomme...
Ep 43: Playing with Paradox Games
Matt and Dave are joined by special guests Henrik Lohmander and Peter Nicholson, computer game designers and historians with Paradox Interactive. We d...
BONUS: Document Analysis Practice
New episodes are on the way! In the meantime, you can listen to Matt and Dave talking through some primary source analysis best practices, document an...
BONUS: The Traitor Baru Cormorant
Put on your masks and get out your account books! Matt and Dave are joined by a very special guest, Dungeon Master Rob! They discuss Seth Dickinson's...
Ep 42: The Great Hanoi Rat Hunt
Dave and Matt sit down with Michael Vann to talk about his new graphic history, The Great Hanoi Rat Hunt: Empire, Disease, and Modernity in French Col...
Episode 41 - The Cold World War
Reminder: Free registration for the 2018 Great Lakes History Conference!
What is the Cold War to a World Historian? Dave and Matt use Odd Arne W...
Ep 40 - It's Just Me Against the World
Matt and Dave discuss the story of the worst (best?) dinner party in World History! Starting in 1780 in colonial Peru, the rebellion that followed sai...
Ep 39 - AP WH Revision: College Board Makes It Worse
Lord help us, but College Board is back on its bullshit. All our writing, discussing, and protesting got us a whole 250 years! The new start date is 1...
Ep 38 - Live from Milwaukee!
Listen in on Dave and Matt's panel and Q&A at the World History Association in Milwaukee, WI!
Your hosts talk history podcasting and th...
Ep 37b – A Solomonic Halving: Rick talks AP Exam Changes, Pt. 2
Matt and Dave continue their interview with Rick Warner! We discuss the announced halving of the AP World History course and the College Board’s conde...
Ep 37a – The Helicopter and the Truffle Hunter: An Interview with Rick Warner, Pt. 1
Matt and Dave sit down with World History veteran Rick Warner to discuss the long arc of the field and the AP exam. The AP exam revision will be disc...
Ep 35 – The History Manifesto
The original “Bro-dels” Matt and Dave tackle Jo Guldi and David Armitage’s The History Manifesto. How should historians respond to the “crisis of the...
Ep 36 - AP WH Revision Bullsh*t
In a surprise announcement last week, the College Board declared they are cutting out the whole first half of the AP World History curriculum (a.k.a....
Ep 34 – Black Earth
We’re heading back to the “Blood Lands” of Eastern Europe for a sobering discussion of the uses and abuses of the history of the holocaust from an eco...
Ep 33 - The Dawn Watchers
Dave and Matt have read Maya Jasanoff’s new book on the life and times of Joseph Conrad, The Dawn Watch. We discuss Conrad’s life, and the limits of...
Ep 32 – We, Too, Are History
On today’s episode, Matt interviews one of his former students, Valeria Alvarado, an immigrant rights activist and an undergraduate History major. Va...
Ep 31 – Scientific Racism
How do you teach the evolution of race and racism in world history? From the post-classical era to the Enlightenment and industrial era, Matt and Dav...
Ep 30 – Conference Hype!
In today’s episode, I talk Great Lakes History Conference as we reach the one-week-to-go mark! With me is Andrew Peterson, a visiting assistant profes...
Ep 29 – Herero Heroes
Today, Matt and I talk about the ongoing controversy over the removal of Confederate monuments in the United States and the importance of public histo...
Ep 28 - Remembering Virginia Boyd
Today, Matt and I talk about the ongoing controversy over the removal of Confederate monuments in the United States and the importance of public histo...
Ep 27 - Absolute 90s
In this episode, Matt and I sit down over some fine 90s music (and a PC Pils from Founders for the Big Pitcher!) to discuss an important article publi...
Ep 26 - Germ Warfare
Matt and I have been together in Utah for the AP World History reading, and today we managed to find some time in the evening to talk about environmen...
Special Mini Ep - Great Lakes History Conference
For the first time ever, this podcast is part of a conference! And in this special mini episode, my conference co-coordinator (Mike Huner) and I discu...
Ep 25b – Global Goulash
In our second interview with a professor teaching food history, Matt and Andrew discuss how to teach a World History course through food. Come for th...
Ep 25a – Food and World History with Lauren Janes
In this episode, Dave sits down with Lauren Janes, an assistant professor at Hope College in Holland, MI. We discuss her recently published book, her...
Ep 24 - Just Tacos
In today’s episode, Matt and I discuss two books that connect food and world history – Planet Taco by Jeffrey Pilcher and Just Food by James McWilliam...
Ep 23 - Introducing Food and World History
In this episode, Matt and I start a three-part arc on food and world history. We discuss how to teach sugar (using Sidney Mintz and Eric Williams) and...
Ep 22 - The Politics of World History
This mini-episode was originally recorded in May 2016 with Tammy Shreiner and was intended to be part of a series of “short cuts” discussing world his...
Ep 21 - Comfy Genes
In this episode, Dave and his favorite certified genetic counselor, Katey Mayberry, take a look at the genetic evidence for the settlement of the Amer...
Ep 20 - #FreeBillStrickland
For our 20th episode we bring in Bill Strickland from East Grand Rapids High School to discuss the upcoming changes to the AP world history exam. The...
Ep 19 - Bloodlands: Beyond Thunderdome
In Episode 4, I mentioned I used the book Bloodlands by Timothy (not Zack) Snyder when teaching WWII in my world history survey. Our guest Andrew Behr...
Ep 18 - The WHAppening
No, it’s not an M. Night Shyamalan film, it’s our recap of the World History Association Annual Meeting in Gent, Belgium. We talk Bancroft Prizes (the...
Ep 17 - The New DB-Cool
After a week in Salt Lake City grading the AP World History exams, Matt and I take a quick look at the changes coming to the document-based question (...
Ep 16 - An Interview with Niklas Frykman
In this episode, Matt and I chat with Niklas Frykman about the Age of Revolutions! We start by discussing life on an 18th century ship (including a me...
Ep 15 - The Vikings
In this episode Matt and I discuss the Vikings with Jack Bouchard, a returning guest and graduate student at the University of Pittsburgh. As we drink...
Ep 14 - An Interview with Molly Warsh
In this episode, Matt and I talk to Molly Warsh, an assistant professor in the history department at Pitt and associate director at the World History...