This is a podcast response to a clique of substack "historians" who have publicly slandered me.
Disclaimers: 1- Links below are for your educational purposes. Please do not give any hate comments or harass these people at all. In fact, if you'd like to “get revenge” on them, the best way is to comment on and share this video (free) and to become a paid supporter of my work, if you have the generosity and resources.
2- The video is, of course, my opinions only. I would like to remain open to speaking with all kinds of historians and enthusiasts of every political stripe. We all have differing opinions but I'd like to imagine that doesn't mean we cannot continue to drive interest and education in medieval history together. But my views do not represent the views of anyone I speak with or who is associated with me.
3- I go out of my way to not attack academia here. I think there are many academics and scholars who do great work. And in the real episode 18 (forthcoming), you can hear my discussion with a couple great historians about how we can all work together. Ultimately, these sorts of "criticisms" (to which I am responding here) are very devious. They're attempting to freeze me out of academic spaces, and to harm my public reputation by baselessly slandering me.
4- I welcome critique of anything I post. I am happy to engage with anyone who cares to add context or even to correct something I post. Mistakes happen. I am not perfect, nor do I know everything. However, the “criticisms” I am addressing here were not written publicly to come to a better understanding, or to generate knowledge or enthusiasm for history, but as a way to slander me and to gatekeep what they think should be “their arena”. History is a collective social project and they do not get to have a monopoly on it.
It's crazy that John participated in this after I invited him on the podcast! I have never had any negative interactions with any of these people before they decided to baselessly insult me, I have even liked and commented on some of Holly's posts in the past. I'd much rather speak about history, which is a big reason I sat on this for so long but I felt like I could not let this ridiculous slander go unanswered.
You can follow along at the home for my project, big things coming by years end: https://substack.com/@memorymedieval
Link to the hit piece written about me by Madeleine, who is pictured in the thumbnail. It's her own picture (this is proper photo attribution), 2025. https://empressofbyzantium.substack.com/p/the-people-who-built-this-were-motivated
I hope you find her method of muddying the waters, poisoning the well, and saying things without saying them much more engaging than I did.
Link to Holly A Brown's accusation about my "misinformation" https://substack.com/@hollyabrown/note/c-135157049
Link to Ben Loomis' longwinded comment where he agrees with me and then randomly insults me https://substack.com/@benloomis/note/c-141811683
Link to John Dell Isola's remark https://substack.com/@jondellisola/note/c-126738078
You are welcome to let me know in the comments why you think a single-sentence post got all these people so upset.
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