15-Minute History

In the summer of 1184, Emperor Frederick Barbarossa sent his eighteen-year-old son, King Henry VI, to Erfurt to settle a land dispute between Archbishop Conrad of Mainz and Landgrave Ludwig III of Thuringia. The two had been in open conflict since Conrad returned to Mainz the year before, and Henry called a royal assembly in the cathedral provost’s residence to hear them out. Everyone gathered on the upper floor. Nobody seemed too concerned about the open cesspit under the building until the beams gave out.
This is the first episode of Weird History, a new monthly segment from 15-Minute History hosted by Dan Lindsay. Each month he’ll bring a story from the stranger side of the past, as long as it actually happened.
Join us as we go through what the medieval chroniclers wrote about the collapse, including who died in the pit and how the king and the archbishop got out. We’ll also find out what came of the feud. A room full of the empire’s most powerful men fighting over land on top of a pit of human waste. If that isn’t a metaphor for medieval Europe, we don’t know what is.

Our first episode of "Weird History" will be delayed with our apologies!

Last episode was about imperialism, creating multi-ethnic empires that spanned the globe. This is about nationalism, concentrating state power on building and maintaining an ethnic or civic identity. It can lead to greater unity among peoples, but it can also cause world-shattering upheaval!
If you want to learn more about Germany's nationalist unification, check out this episode from Season 8--it's a good one!

In September 2026, an AI researcher quit Anthropic and posted a warning that the industry was gambling with our lives. Within days, insiders agreed, and a CEO called for slowing down as a senator pushed a bill to pause advanced AI. Then a second story took off: the whole thing is a psyop, cooked up by AI companies that are losing money and politicians who need an issue to run on.

Welcome to the first episode of Conspiracy, a new monthly segment where we lay out the five parts most false conspiracies share: a real hook, a leap, a core that can’t be disproven, a motive with no explanation of how it works, and a messenger people already trust. Then we run the conspiracy through those five parts to determine the probability of the conspiracy. In the end, the goal is freedom in understanding what is real and what is not.

Last week, we covered imperialism through two examples, King Leopold's Congo and India under the British Empire. This week, we discuss the hard questions about imperialism, starting in Berlin, where fourteen powers divided Africa without inviting anyone from the countries being redefined.
What do you think? Let us know in your comments.