Watson-Howland | Episode 81: The ancient Greeks invented democracy. Oxford classics lecturer Steve Kershaw says they'd look at your government and call it an oligarchy. An outsider looked at Rome and said "that city is for sale, and if it finds a buyer, it's doomed." 2,000 years later, the same corruption is everywhere.

Jacob Watson-Howland (award-winning BBC-featured photographer) is joined by Steve Kershaw: Oxford lecturer, author of Mythologica and A Brief History of the Roman Empire, and BBC history expert (Barbarians Rising, You're Dead to Me, Dan Snow's History Hit).

From the "barbarian" as a Greek linguistic joke to Rome's invisible collapse, Kershaw reveals how ancient political corruption and cultural arrogance mirror modern civilisation with uncomfortable precision.

You'll learn: -Why the Greeks would classify every modern Western government as an oligarchy -How Roman historians used "noble barbarians" to criticise their own corrupt governments -Why a scholar found 210 different reasons for Rome's fall -What Achilles, Odysseus, and Medea reveal about the human cost of getting what you want

Subscribe: https://www.youtube.com/@watsonhowland?sub_confirmation=1

00:00 Intro

02:04 Inventing The Barbarian

06:57 Barbarian As Mirror

11:13 Assimilation Not Erasure

15:29 Polytheism And Tolerance

17:31 Christianity Takes Over

23:32 Pagan Gods And Boundaries

28:53 Healing Sanctuaries Holism

32:51 Greek Heroes Not Saints

40:17 Myths Teach Nuance

42:19 Fate Power And Limits

47:22 Migration Then And Now

53:35 Why Rome Is So Cool

57:22 Roman Fantasy Reality

59:13 Odysseus Cautionary Hero

01:02:42 Medea Revenge Logic

01:05:47 Achilles Revenge Price

01:08:19 What Democracy Saved

01:12:34 Coins as Propaganda

01:14:09 Barbarians Worthy Foes

01:17:10 Ancient Globalization

01:20:36 Fall of Rome Debates

01:26:25 Teaching Classics Today

01:28:34 Why Classics Matter

01:32:29 Rapid Fire Farewell

01:36:30 Super Important Message

Three pillars of the show:

• FRONTIER: Space, AI, science, and the builders of the next century.
• CIVILISATIONS: History, economics, geopolitics and the ideas that run everything.
• AGENCY: Purpose, performance, and genuine character.

Steve: stevekershaw.com | Books: stevekershaw.com/16.html Jacob: jacobwatsonhowland.com Coaching: skool.com/remote-pro-podcast-blueprint-8385 YouTube: youtube.com/@jacobjwatsonhowland Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/0r4v5xgyYz0rTFSLklk0Em Apple: podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/watson-howland/id1813625992

A world-leading pastor and mens mental health expert surveyed 5,000 men & found the one lie destroying them from the inside. This is what he discovered.

Bill Perkins is the bestselling Author of "When Good Men Get Angry”, former Senior Pastor of 24 Years and founder of Million Mighty Men.

00:00 Intro

01:18 Finding Faith at Nineteen

06:56 Family Wounds and Words

11:32 Marriage Lessons and Maturity

17:36 Forgiveness and Boundaries

20:26 Setting Hard Boundaries

25:05 Jesus and Healthy Anger

30:12 Respect Bank Explained

34:02 Hearing God and Healing Lisa

42:39 From Skeptic to Supernatural

45:20 Freedom Ministry and Strongholds

47:00 Why Self Forgiveness Is Hard

50:26 Deliverance and Dramatic Healings

50:57 Dramatic Healing Story

52:09 Freedom Is Not Fixing Life

52:40 Where Demons Come From

55:40 Hold Interpretations Loosely

01:00:01 Sin Evil And Suicide Lies

01:05:56 Satan Judas And Temptation

01:09:49 Strongholds And Core Lies

01:13:45 Confession Brings Freedom

01:18:09 Trauma Patterns In Adults

01:22:03 Blended Gospels Project

01:29:15 Christmas Star Reframed

01:32:49 What People Miss About Jesus

01:39:02 Advice Consistency And Wrap

Bills Work

Main site: https://billperkins.com

Jacob’s Work

1-1 Coaching + Podcast Blueprint: ⁠https://www.skool.com/remote-pro-podcast-blueprint-8385⁠

FREE Podcast Tips: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUp5S7ZIZtjA8PMgXJMwppA⁠YouTube: ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@jacobjwatsonhowland⁠

Spotify: ⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/0r4v5xgyYz0rTFSLklk0Em⁠

Apple Podcasts: ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/watson-howland/id1813625992⁠

Follow Jacob: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/jacobwatsonhowland⁠

Jacob’s Website: ⁠https://www.jacobjwatsonhowland.com⁠

Music created using Eleven Music by ElevenLabs

If you or someone you know is struggling, contact Samaritans on 116 123

AI is already training on your work, without asking, without paying, and without waiting for you to catch up. Former Disney and National Geographic executive Adam Leipzig had his own book scraped into an AI model, and he's here to tell you exactly what creatives must do before it's too late.

Adam Leipzig has helped produce over 35 films, including Dead Poets Society and March of the Penguins, generating over $2 billion at the box office and earning 10 Oscars and 11 BAFTA win/nominations. He now teaches at UC Berkeley and is the author of Fearless Persistence.

📘 Fearless Persistence by Adam Leipzig (April 2026): Purchase/pre-order through his official site:

adamleipzig.com

🌐 Adam Leipzig's Official Website:

adamleipzig.com

🎓 Adam at UC Berkeley (Haas School of Business):

haas.berkeley.edu/faculty/leipzig-adam

🎓 Adam at UC Berkeley Executive Education:

executive.berkeley.edu/faculty-directory/adam-leipzig

🎬 MediaU — Adam's Online Film School:

mediau.com

00:00 WATCH THIS BEFORE AI REPLACES YOU

00:27 Meet Adam Leipzig

01:38 AI Is Retrospective

03:22 Jobs Disrupted and Created

04:58 AI as Film Tool

07:50 Formula vs Breakthrough Art

09:36 Spotting AI Outputs

12:29 Copyright Lawsuits and Piracy

14:29 New Book Fearless Persistence

16:53 10 Laws of Omics

20:45 Context and Communication

25:26 Creative Career Curiosity

27:25 Black and White Western Dream

31:42 Choosing Projects and People

34:29 Red Flags and Truth

37:35 Authenticity and Vulnerability

40:52 Deadlines Beat Perfectionism

43:14 Emotional Resilience for Creators

47:53 Meditation and the Power of Next

51:33 Learning From Wins Losses

52:07 Mission And Purpose

52:56 Disney Lessons Katzenberg

55:04 Why Leave Disney

57:47 What Producers Really Do

01:02:53 Workflows That Scale

01:04:49 Joyful Work And Risk

01:09:07 Creative Community Matters

01:13:39 Why Art Shapes Us

01:17:15 Parenting And Boundaries

01:20:47 Love Later In Life

01:23:46 Grief Mortality Presence

01:26:41 Photography And Stillness

01:30:24 Pie Crust Vodka Hack

01:34:49 Communication And Mantras

01:37:03 Final Thanks And Plug

01:38:04 Podcast Blueprint Pitch

01:40:14 Closing Goodbye

Jacob’s Work

1-1 Coaching + Podcast Blueprint: ⁠https://www.skool.com/remote-pro-podcast-blueprint-8385⁠

All images, film artwork, and photos of Adam Leipzig used with permission, courtesy of Adam Leipzig and adamleipzig.com

Music created using Eleven Music by ElevenLabs

Ancient myths aren't superstition, they're survival manuals. Geo-mythologist Timothy Burbery has spent his career proving that the stories your civilization dismissed as legend are actually encoded records of real catastrophes, real people, and real miracles.

Timothy Burbery is a Marshall University professor, published author, and the mind behind TED-Ed videos on dragons and mythology with over 2 million views. He’s the man building the bridge between science and the ancient world.

Subscribe to understand yourself and the world better.

You’ll learn:

–Why finding the bones of Christ would actually undermine the entire faith, and what that reveals about the power of myth

–How geo-mythology decodes ancient stories as real historical and geological records

–The tribe that survived a disaster that killed 200,000 people — because they had the right story

–Why the same myths your culture calls superstition have saved entire civilisations from destruction

–What it means to be a scientist who believes in the miraculous, and whether faith and scholarship can coexist

–How dragon myths and ancient legends map onto real-world events

–The one question every Christian must answer: can you believe in Jesus without believing in the Resurrection?

Timothy’s Work

📺 TED-Ed Video (2M+ views):

Why do so many cultures have dragon legends?

📘 Book — Geomythology: How Common Stories Reflect Earth Events (Routledge, 2021):

Routledge listing

🌐 Marshall University Profile:

marshall.edu/english/profile/timothy-burbery

📄 Academia.edu (Research Papers):

marshall.academia.edu/TimothyBurbery

Jacob’s Work Website: https://www.jacobjwatsonhowland.com

Music created using Eleven Music by ElevenLabs

Why does real connection feel so rare, and what does hiding from yourself actually cost you? Ashlee Raymond is a writer, PA student, and published poet at 25 who's amassed thousands of Substack readers in just six months by saying what nobody else will.

She's lived through elite-level figure skating, her dad's brain cancer diagnosis, heartbreak, and a quarter-life crisis, and turned every bit of it into writing that makes strangers message her in paragraphs.

Subscribe for weekly conversations on love, identity, and learning to live without a mask.

You’ll learn:

VALUE BULLETS

–Why curiosity is a lost art, and how dating apps have completely destroyed the ability to truly know someone

–The one shift that changes every relationship: "It is more intriguing to be interested in somebody than to be interesting"

–How Ashlee grew thousands of Substack readers in 6 months by writing journal entries she was terrified to post

–The hidden cost of hiding yourself just to be liked, and why it quite honestly makes you feel like sh*t

–What 11 years of elite figure skating taught her about identity, obsession, and losing yourself in one thing

–How her dad's brain cancer diagnosis changed her life's direction, and why it led her to medicine

–The real reason we stay in relationships we know aren't right (it's not stupidity, it's neurochemistry)

Ashlee’s Work:

Substack: ⁠https://substack.com/@ashleewrites⁠

Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/ashrayray/⁠

Book - Deep Dive: ⁠https://www.amazon.com/deep-dive-Ashlee-Raymond/dp/B0DDGY36CM/ref=sr_1_1?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.RKaSvNBj6dBRYTEzi6OUA5S0mbYYBtG4He1wwuDt55U.AhBhjaH6ivHHCDO7NRPNhw1ULUWNv0rjIW5Z3O-GjeA&dib_tag=se&keywords=deep+dive+ashlee+raymond&qid=1772535379&sr=8-1⁠

Jacob’s Work Website: ⁠https://www.jacobjwatsonhowland.com⁠

How do you find your true self in your twenties when school, social media, and everyone else's timeline are pulling you in every direction? Sydney Rheeder, South African writer, designer, and creator of for the record®, one of Substack's fastest-growing personal essays newsletters, gets brutally honest about shame, perfectionism, vulnerability, and building a creative life from scratch.

Subscribe for weekly conversations on self-discovery, creativity, and living deliberately in your twenties.

VALUE BULLETS

–Why the most vulnerable, "cringey" thing you post will almost always perform the best

–How Sydney went from 0 to 9,000 Substack subscribers in under two months, and the YouTube strategy behind it

–The real reason we feel so lost in our twenties, and why school is largely to blame

–Why shame is the most dangerous emotion you can carry, and how therapy helped Sydney face her childhood self

–The difference between intrinsic and extrinsic motivation, and why chasing external validation will make you quit

–How to balance ambition with presence: Sydney's personal mantra, persevere with patience

–Why your creative niche doesn't need to be chosen, it finds you when you start

–The Alan Watts "life as a dance" philosophy that completely reframed how Sydney thinks about success

00:00 Substack Growth Surprise

00:38 Repurposing YouTube Stories

01:34 Why Vulnerability Resonates

03:27 Emma Watson Storytelling Lesson

07:13 Fear of Being Seen Online

10:31 Suppressing Your True Self

16:34 Finding Your Inner Voice

19:31 Experience Over Self Help

21:01 Exposure Therapy and Toastmasters

26:14 Bravery Through Coralline

29:23 Journaling Patterns and Perfectionism

31:47 Therapy as Unbiased Witness

34:41 Shame and Childhood Healing

39:54 Beyond Achievement and Finish Lines

41:37 Chasing the Finish Line

42:44 Dance With the Moment

44:28 Persevere With Patience

46:21 Rituals Over Social Media

47:53 All Or Nothing Cycles

48:59 Alignment And Seasons

50:48 Daily Pauses And Boredom

53:43 Letting Ideas Find You

55:48 Intrinsic Vs Extrinsic Values

01:00:21 Using Negative Fuel Wisely

01:03:03 Creative Dreams And Career Doubts

01:05:37 Why Twenties Feel Lost

01:08:41 What School Never Taught

01:10:21 Industrial Age Education

01:12:24 Side Hustles For Freedom

01:15:19 Sunday Scaries And Taking Risks

01:17:24 Start Before Youre Ready

01:18:25 Keep Going While Young

RESOURCES / LINKS

📝 Sydney's Substack — for the record®:

https://fortherecordink.substack.com

📺 Sydney's YouTube Channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCALqf9ZBI2zOZU7HdOMcmkA

📸 Sydney's Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sydneyrheeder/

🎵 Sydney's TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@sydney_rheeder

Jacob’s Work

Website: https://www.jacobjwatsonhowland.com

During the 900-day Siege of Leningrad, scientists guarded a collection of 250,000 seeds as their city starved, and some chose to die rather than eat them. Award-winning journalist and author Simon Parkin reveals the full untold story.

Simon Parkin is a contributing writer for The New Yorker and The Observer, and author of The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad, named a Best Book of the Year by Scientific American and The Economist, and an NYT Editors' Choice.

Subscribe for weekly conversations on history, science, and the stories you were never taught.

00:00 The Extraordinary Story of the Seed Bank

04:36 The Siege of Leningrad: A Historical Overview

08:50 Nikolai Vavilov: The Visionary Behind the Seed Bank

13:45 The Moral Dilemma: Seeds vs. Survival

18:20 The Botanists' Struggle: Protecting the Collection

22:37 Legacy of the Seed Bank: A Testament to Sacrifice

27:49 Survivor Accounts and Historical Challenges

29:04 The Seed Bank's Role During the Siege

30:41 The Importance of Preserving Seeds

31:29 Finding Obscure Stories in History

34:13 Internment of Enemy Aliens in Britain

35:59 Conditions in Internment Camps

39:53 Nuances of British History During WWII

41:39 Famous Figures in Internment Camps

42:32 Upcoming Projects and Future Stories

44:24 Philosophical Reflections on Life and Death

VALUE BULLETS

–The Siege of Leningrad lasted 900 days, why more people died there than in Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined

–How ordinary people survived starvation: swapping pianos for bread, burning furniture for warmth, and worse

–The impossible moral dilemma: should the scientists feed the seeds to the starving, or protect them for future generations?

–The man who built the world's first seed bank, and was arrested by Stalin and ironically died of starvation in the Gulag

–Why a scientist died at his desk with a packet of almonds in his hands that he refused to eat

–How 90% of the seeds preserved in the siege exist nowhere else on Earth. and why that still matters today

–Britain's shameful secret: how Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany were interned in British camps in 1940

–Simon's next book: Trial of the Space Invaders, the true story of the court case that tried to determine who invented video games

Simons Work:

📖 The Forbidden Garden of Leningrad (Simon & Schuster):

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Forbidden-Garden/Simon-Parkin/9781668007662

📖 The Island of Extraordinary Captives (Simon & Schuster):

https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Island-of-Extraordinary-Captives/Simon-Parkin/9781982178529

🌐 Simon Parkin's website: https://www.simonparkin.com

🎙️ My Perfect Console Podcast (Spotify):

https://open.spotify.com/show/6PzHHkwpOs8YFgzqoKRXAi

Islam says Jesus didn't die. Christianity says he did. TED educator John Bellaimey reveals what the scriptures actually say — and it's not what you'd expect.

The biggest question dividing Islam and Christianity: did Jesus actually die on the cross? John Bellaimey, author, former academic, and creator of one of TED's most-watched talks on world religions, breaks it all down.

A rare educator who explains Islam, Christianity, and Judaism without an agenda, just scholarship, curiosity, and a lifetime of study.

Subscribe for weekly conversations on understanding the world and yourself.

VALUE BULLETS

–Why Islam and Christianity agree on far more about Jesus than most people realise

–The Islamic teaching that Jesus didn't die on the cross, and what really happened instead

–How Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all grew from the exact same tree

–Why most people confuse religion with God, and why that matters

–The yin and yang of religious balance and how to apply it to your daily life

–What "Tikkun Olam" actually means, and why it redefines what Judaism is really about

–How to understand sin across all major religions: it's not about evil, it's about missing the mark

–The hidden reason Islam, Christianity, and Judaism keep conflicting despite sharing the same roots

00:00 Why You Can't Understand the World Without Religion

03:49 God vs. Organised Religion: Don't Confuse the Two

10:54 How Religion Evolved From Hunter-Gatherers to Monotheism

21:57 Yin & Yang: The Hidden Balance in All Major Religions

26:56 Compassion: The Core Principle of Every True Religion

44:34 The Four Life Stages and Finding Spiritual Balance

48:30 How and When Did Judaism Actually Begin?

51:04 The Rise of Monotheism and Why It Dominates the World

53:21 What Everyone Gets Wrong About Judaism

59:04 Christianity's True Relationship With Judaism

01:05:42 Islam's Surprising Connection to Jesus, Mary & the Bible

01:10:50 Why Do Religions Conflict If They Share the Same Roots?

John's TED-Ed Talk: The Five Major World Religions

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m6dCxo7t_aE

John's TED-Ed Talk: The Hidden Meanings of Yin and Yang

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezmR9Attpyc

Book: The Tree of World Religions (2nd Edition)

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-tree-of-world-religions-second-edition-john-bellaimey/1128421858

Jacob’s Work

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@jacobjwatsonhowland

#IslamVsChristianity #WorldReligions #religion