Nomads, Past and Present

Nomads, Past and Present

episodes
Introduction to Digital Nomads

December 27, 2022

An Introduction to Digital Nomads

Maggie Freeman
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

Welcome to Digital Nomads! This episode introduces your host, Maggie, and gives a brief overview of the aims, future of, and inspiration behind this p…

The Far Edges of the Known World: Life Beyond the Borders of Ancient Civilization

February 17, 2026

The Far Edges of the Known World

An Interview with Owen Rees
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

When Ovid was exiled from Rome to a border town on the Black Sea, he despaired at his new bleak and barbarous surroundings. Like many Greeks and Roman…

Eric Halsey, "State Builders from the Steppe: A History of The First Bulgarian Empire" (This is RETHINK, 2025)

November 13, 2025

State Builders from the Steppe

Eric Halsey
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

State Builders from the Steppe: A History of the First Bulgarian Empire (This is RETHINK, 2025) explores how the Proto-Bulgarians were able to build b…

A Song for the Horses: Musical Heritage for More-than-Human Futures in Mongolia

October 27, 2025

A Song for the Horses: Musical Heritage for More-than-Human Futures in Mongolia

K. G. Hutchins
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

As permafrost in Siberia continues to melt and the steppe in the Gobi turns to desert, people in Mongolia are faced with overlapping climate crises. S…

Tiffany Earley-Spadoni, "Landscapes of Warfare: Urartu and Assyria in the Ancient Middle East" (UP of Colorado, 2025)

September 28, 2025

Landscapes of Warfare

Tiffany Earley-Spadoni
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

Landscapes of Warfare: Urartu and Assyria in the Ancient Middle East (University Press of Colorado, 2025) offers an in-depth exploration of the Urarti…

The Nomadic Origin of the State

August 1, 2025

The Nomadic Origin of the State

Lhamsuren Munkh-Erdene
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

Contemporary, commonly-accepted understandings of the history of Chinese state formation see the nomadic pastoralists of the Eurasian steppe as periph…

The Roma: A Travelling History

July 8, 2025

The Roma: A Travelling History

Madeline Potter
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

The word Roma conjures images of free-spirited nomads, creative and easy-going people who choose to eschew social conformity for personal independence…

The Political Ecology of Violence: Peasants and Pastoralists in the Last Ottoman Century

January 15, 2025

The Political Ecology of Violence

Zozan Pehlivan
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

From the nineteenth to the early twentieth centuries, recurrent and extreme climate disruptions became an underlying yet unacknowledged component of e…

Persistent Pastoralism: Monuments and Settlements in the Archaeology of Dhofar

December 7, 2024

Persistent Pastoralism: Monuments and Settlements in the Archaeology of Dhofar

Joy McCorriston
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

Today I talked to Joy McCorriston about Persistent Pastoralism: Monuments and Settlements in the Archaeology of Dhofar (Archaeopress Publishing, 2023)…

Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: : The Horse and the Rise of Empires

August 30, 2024

Raiders, Rulers, and Traders: The Horse and the Rise of Empires

David Chaffetz
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

No animal is so entangled in human history as the horse. The thread starts in prehistory, with a slight, shy animal, hunted for food. Domesticating th…

Fantastic Fauna from China to Crimea: Image-Making in Eurasian Nomadic Societies, 700 BCE-500 CE

July 14, 2024

Fantastic Fauna from China to Crimea: Image-Making in Eurasian Nomadic Societies, 700 BCE-500 CE

Petya Andreeva
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

Numerous Iron-Age nomadic alliances flourished along the 5000-mile Eurasian steppe route. From Crimea to the Mongolian grassland, nomadic image-making…

Locusts of Power: Borders, Empire, and Environment in the Modern Middle East (Cambridge UP, 2023)

July 12, 2024

Locusts of Power: Borders, Empire, and Environment in the Modern Middle East

Sam Dolbee
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

Locusts of Power: Borders, Empire, and Environment in the Modern Middle East (Cambridge UP, 2023) focuses on the intersections of three entities other…

"Akmaral" (Regal House, 2024): A Discussion with Judith Lindbergh

April 24, 2024

"Akmaral" (Regal House, 2024)

Judith Lindbergh
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

Inspired by the legends of Amazon women warriors told by ancient Greek historian Herodotus and evidenced by recent archaeological discoveries in Centr…

Photography and Making Bedouin Histories in the Naqab, 1906-2013:: An Anthropological Approach

March 12, 2024

Photography and Making Bedouin Histories in the Naqab, 1906-2013

Emilie Le Febvre
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

In Photography and Making Bedouin Histories in the Naqab, 1906-2013:: An Anthropological Approach (Routledge, 2023), Emilie Le Febvre takes us to the …

Dune, Part Two: An Interview with Dr. Kara Kennedy

March 8, 2024

Dune, Part Two

Kara Kennedy
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

Part Two of director Denis Villeneuve’s Dune films embeds viewers among the Fremen, the Indigenous inhabitants of the planet Arrakis. The sole source …

Nicholas Morton, "The Crusader States and their Neighbours: A Military History, 1099-1187" (Oxford UP, 2020)

January 22, 2024

The Crusader States and their Neighbours

Nicholas Morton
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

Nicholas Morton’s The Crusader States and their Neighbours: A Military History, 1099-1187 (Oxford UP, 2020) explores the military history of the medie…

Adriana Helbig, "ReSounding Poverty: Romani Music and Development Aid" (Oxford UP, 2023)

January 19, 2024

ReSounding Poverty

Adriana Helbig
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

Adriana Helbig's book ReSounding Poverty: Romani Music and Development Aid (Oxford University Press, 2023) offers a micro ethnography of economic netw…

Empires of the Steppes: A History of the Nomadic Tribes Who Shaped Civilisation

December 2, 2023

Empires of the Steppes

Kenneth W. Harl
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

The “barbarian” nomads of the Eurasian steppes have played a decisive role in world history, but their achievements have gone largely unnoticed. These…

The Secret History of the Mongols: An Interview with Chris Atwood

September 24, 2023

The Secret History of the Mongols

Chris Atwood
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

The Secret History of the Mongols is one of the literary wonders of the world. Writing in the thirteenth century, the Secret Historian - whose identit…

Archaeology and Nomadism in the Russian Empire: An interview with Ismael Biyashev

July 29, 2023

Archaeology and Nomadism in the Russian Empire

Ismael Biyashev
Hosted by Maggie Freeman

In the second half of the 19th century, both professional and amateur archaeologists, surveyors, and explorers of the “periphery” of the Russian Empi…