“Most people go through life thinking they’re totally safe. People like us, we know the truth. Life is hard and dangerous, and sometimes you just got to chop off somebody’s head to survive.” — Ash vs. Evil Dead

“No friend ever served me, and no enemy ever wronged me, whom I have not repaid in full.” — Lucius Cornelius Sulla 

“Around four o’clock on that Monday afternoon of the thirteenth, with a light rain falling, the bandits attacked. To the sound of a trumpet—for Lampiao did things in style—and the rumble of thunder in the cloudy sky, the outlaws entered the city, on foot and divided into groups.” — Billy Jaynes Chandler 

“The first step toward becoming a true outlaw is the refusal to be victimized.” — Tom Robbins 

This is the tale of the most famous outlaw operating in Brazil in the early 1900s. Much like the Old West in the 1800s in U.S., the backcountry of North-Eastern Brazil was a rough place where disputes were often settled with guns. Extreme wealth inequality, and a lack of opportunities to climb out of poverty, pushed many people toward criminality. Lampiao was the most legendary of them all. After turning to banditry in 1916, Lampiao led a gang that battled with rivals and with the police all the way until 1938. News of his feats reached around the globe, even making the pages of the NY Times. Some people considered him a popular hero. Others believed he was a blood-thirsty criminal. In this episode, we’ll explore his story. 

If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/historyonfire to access plenty of bonus content. 

Bison is some of the healthiest meat you could possibly eat. Get yours at https://dakotapurebison.com/ History on Fire listeners get a discount by using the code HOF10 at checkout. 

This episode is sponsored by https://tawkify.com/, the country’s #1 modern matchmaking service that is designed to help you achieve relationship success. History on Fire listeners get a 20% discount by going Tawkify.com/HISTORYONFIRE 

Big thank you to the podcast "Echoes of History: Assassins vs. Templars” for sponsoring this episode. Please listen to "Echoes of History” wherever you get your podcasts. 

Also, big thank you to Babbel for sponsoring this episode. Right now, get up to 55% off your subscription when you go to https://babbel.com/HOF 

“There a papoose cries by its mother’s breast which, cold and insensible, can nourish it no more; there lies a young girl with her long hair sticky of blood, hiding her mutilated face… And here—here rests the beautiful young squaw whom yesterday I offered a cigarette—dying, with both her legs shot off. She lies there without wailing and greets me with a faint smile on her pale lips.” — First Sergeant Ragnar Ling-Vannerus

“The Pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends upon the total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries, we had better, in order to protect our civilization, follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the earth.” — Frank Baum, author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz 

 “Who would have thought that dancing could make such trouble? We had no thought of fighting.” — Short Bull 

“When he went to the bottom of the ravine, he saw many little children lying dead… He was now pretty weak from his wounds. Now when he saw all those little infants lying there dead in their blood, his feeling was that even if he ate one of the soldiers, it would not appease his anger… The Indians all knew that Dewey was wounded, but those in the ravine wanted him to help them. So, he fought with his life to defend his own people.” — From The Dull Knifes of Pine Ridge 

“What we saw was terrible. Dead and wounded women and children and little babies were scattered all along there where they had been trying to run away. The soldiers had followed along the gulch, as they ran, and murdered them in there. Sometimes they were in heaps because they had huddled together, and some were scattered all along. Sometimes bunches of them had been killed and torn to pieces where the wagon guns hit them. I saw a little baby trying to suck its mother, but she was bloody and dead. There were two little boys at one place in this gulch. They had guns and they had been killing soldiers all by themselves. We could see the soldiers they had killed. The boys were all alone there, and they were not hurt. These were very brave little boys.” From Black Elk Speaks 

By 1890, the Ghost Dance religion was spreading like wildfire in many reservations across United States. At a time when most Natives were facing utter hopelessness, it gave them something to hope in. But the murder of Sitting Bull orchestrated by a reservation agent, and the political machinations of the Harrison administration initiated a military crackdown against an otherwise peaceful movement. The sequence of events thus started would end in bloodshed at Wounded Knee on December 29, 1890, as the 7th Cavalry massacred nearly 300 Lakota—mostly women and kids. In this final episode of the Sitting Bull series, we explore the dynamics that led to Wounded Knee, the insane story of Iron Hail (aka Dewey Beard), how the Yanktons dealt with a traitor, the genocidal fantasies of the author of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, and how Lakota culture endured—in spite of it all. 

If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/historyonfire to access plenty of bonus content.

For the rest of the year, History on Fire will be sponsored by BlueChew. BlueChew is a unique online service that delivers the same active ingredients as Viagra, Cialis,and Levitra -- but in CHEWABLE tablets and at a fraction of the cost!

Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code HISTORY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. Go to https://bluechew.com

Bison is some of the healthiest meat you could possibly eat. Get yours at https://dakotapurebison.com/ History on Fire listeners get a discount by using the code HOF10 at checkout.

This episode is also sponsored by https://tawkify.com/, the country’s #1 modern matchmaking service that is designed to help you achieve relationship success. History on Fire listeners get a 20% discount by going Tawkify.com/HISTORYONFIRE

“Sent to report on a story that wasn’t there, reporters invented one.” — Heather Cox Richardson  

“Lakota will kill you.” — A meadowlark speaking to Sitting Bull in a vision 

“If the white men want me to die, they ought not to put up the Indians to kill me… Let the soldiers come and take me away and kill me, wherever they like. I am not afraid. I was born a warrior.” — Sitting Bull 

In historical terms, it was just a blink of an eye ago. In the mid-1800s, the Great Plains in the United States were still firmly in the hands of nomadic, buffalo hunting tribes. The looming threat of American expansion was still barely noticeable. But things changed quickly, and soon the tribes were locked in an existential struggle with the U.S. for control of the heartland of North America. One man rose among these tribes to lead his people to resisting the inevitable for over two decades. By the time he was 10 years old, the boy who would become the Lakota leader Sitting Bull, had killed his first bison by running him down and putting an arrow through its heart. In the opinion of his fellow tribesmen, his ability as a hunter and as a warrior was only second to his generosity in taking care of widows and orphans. 

In this fourth episode of this series, we’ll see how incompetent government agents, unscrupulous journalists, corrupt politicians, and army officers blinded by their egos manufactured a crisis where there wasn’t one. We’ll also discuss Sitting Bull’s take on the Ghost Dance, Agent McLaughlin’s murderous plans, Buffalo Bill trying to save Sitting Bull, and a murder that sets in motion a much bigger tragedy. 

If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/historyonfire to access plenty of bonus content. 

For the rest of the year, History on Fire will be sponsored by BlueChew.  BlueChew is a unique online service that delivers the same active ingredients as Viagra, Cialis,and Levitra -- but in CHEWABLE tablets and at a fraction of the cost!

Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code HISTORY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. Go to https://bluechew.com 

Bison is some of the healthiest meat you could possibly eat. Get yours at https://dakotapurebison.com/ History on Fire listeners get a discount by using the code HOF10 at checkout. 

Big thank you to Wondery for sponsoring this episode. Follow their American History Tellers podcast wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen ad-free on the Amazon Music or Wondery app.  Their most recent season focuses on The Insurrection of Aaron Burr - a Founding Father who fought valiantly for the Revolution – and would later become the highest ranking American official ever charged with treason.

“Kill the Indian and save the man.” — Richard Pratt 

“The life my people want is a life of freedom. I have seen nothing that a white man has, houses or railways or clothing or food, that is good as the right to move in the open country, and live in our own fashion.” — Sitting Bull 

“The white man knows how to make everything, but he does not know how to distribute it.” — Sitting Bull 

“Possession—a war that doesn’t end.” — John Trudell 

“We were faint with hunger and maddened by despair. We held our dying children and felt their little bodies tremble as their souls went out and left only a dead weight in our hands. They were not very heavy, but we ourselves were very faint, and the dead weighed us down. There was no hope on earth, and God seemed to have forgotten us.” — Red Cloud

“Don’t talk to me about Indians; there are no Indians left except those in my band.” — Sitting Bull 

“We shall live again.” — Comanche Ghost Dance song

In historical terms, it was just a blink of an eye ago. In the mid-1800s, the Great Plains in the United States were still firmly in the hands of nomadic, buffalo hunting tribes. The looming threat of American expansion was still barely noticeable. But things changed quickly, and soon the tribes were locked in an existential struggle with the U.S. for control of the heartland of North America. One man rose among these tribes to lead his people to resisting the inevitable for over two decades. By the time he was 10 years old, the boy who would become the Lakota leader Sitting Bull, had killed his first bison by running him down and putting an arrow through its heart. In the opinion of his fellow tribesmen, his ability as a hunter and as a warrior was only second to his generosity in taking care of widows and orphans. 

In this third episode of this series, we’ll see how the U.S. government forcibly tried to change Lakota culture by outlawing their religion, removing kids from parents, and taking their land through laws such as the Dawes Ac. We’ll also discuss the corruption of the agents in charge of reservations, Sitting Bull joining the Wild West Show, adopting Annie Oakley, befriending William Cody, giving away all he earned, Senator Henry Dawes wanting to ‘teach Indians to be selfish’, President’s Harrison terrible policies, the birth of the Ghost Dance movement, and much, much more. 

If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/historyonfire to access plenty of bonus content. 

For the rest of the year, History on Fire will be sponsored by BlueChew.  BlueChew is a unique online service that delivers the same active ingredients as Viagra, Cialis,and Levitra -- but in CHEWABLE tablets and at a fraction of the cost!

Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code HISTORY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. Go to https://bluechew.com 

Bison is some of the healthiest meat you could possibly eat. Get yours at https://dakotapurebison.com/ History on Fire listeners get a discount by using the code HOF10 at checkout. 

This episode is also sponsored by https://tawkify.com/, the country’s #1 modern matchmaking service that is designed to help you achieve relationship success. History on Fire listeners get a 20% discount by going Tawkify.com/HISTORYONFIRE 

“I don’t want to have anything to do with people who make one carry water on the shoulders and haul manure. You are fools to make yourselves slaves to a piece of fat bacon, some hardtack, and a little sugar and coffee. The whites may get me at last, but I will have good times till then.” — Sitting Bull 

“Let me live deep while I live.” — Robert E. Howard

“Were I to run away from the enemy, no one will consider me a man.” — Kit Fox warrior society song 

“A warrior I have been. Now it is all over. A hard time I have.” — Sitting Bull song 

In historical terms, it was just a blink of an eye ago. In the mid-1800s, the Great Plains in the United States were still firmly in the hands of nomadic, buffalo hunting tribes. The looming threat of American expansion was still barely noticeable. But things changed quickly, and soon the tribes were locked in an existential struggle with the U.S. for control of the heartland of North America. One man rose among these tribes to lead his people to resisting the inevitable for over two decades. By the time he was 10 years old, the boy who would become the Lakota leader Sitting Bull, had killed his first bison by running him down and putting an arrow through its heart. In the opinion of his fellow tribesmen, his ability as a hunter and as a warrior was only second to his generosity in taking care of widows and orphans. In this second episode of this series, we’ll see Sitting Bull emerging as the main leader for the free Lakota, fighting in a brutal intertribal battle, challenging the expansion of the Northern Pacific Railroad, saving the Cheyenne from starvation, Sun Dancing and having premonitory visions of the Little Big Horn battle, leading his people to Canada, befriending a major for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, helping Nez Perce’ refugees across the border, fighting in a duel at 49 years of age, returning to the U.S. as a POW, and much, much more.

If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/historyonfire to access plenty of bonus content. 

For the rest of the year, History on Fire will be sponsored by BlueChew.  BlueChew is a unique online service that delivers the same active ingredients as Viagra, Cialis,and Levitra -- but in CHEWABLE tablets and at a fraction of the cost!

Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code HISTORY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. Go to https://bluechew.com 

“Sitting Bull, leader of the largest Indian nation on the continent, the strongest, boldest, most stubborn opponent of European influence, was the very heart and soul of the Frontier. When the true history of the New World is written, he will receive his chapter. For Sitting Bull was one of the Makers of America.” — Stanley Vestal 

“If you intend to do this for my sake, take good care of them and let them live. My father is a man and death is his.” — Sitting Bull addressing his fellow tribesmen who wanted to kill some captives

“I told them I did not want their annuities, nor could I sell my country. My father lived and died here; so would I. And if our white brothers would do right, we would never have had war.” —Sitting Bull 

“At no other time or place in the history of the Indian Wars, before or after, would the U.S. Army voluntarily destroy a major defensive line in order to appease an enemy.” — Bill Yenne 

In historical terms, it was just a blink of an eye ago. In the mid-1800s, the Great Plains in the United States were still firmly in the hands of nomadic, buffalo hunting tribes. The looming threat of American expansion was still barely noticeable. But things changed quickly, and soon the tribes were locked in an existential struggle with the U.S. for control of the heartland of North America. One man rose among these tribes to lead his people to resisting the inevitable for over two decades. By the time he was 10 years old, the boy who would become the Lakota leader Sitting Bull, had killed his first bison by running him down and putting an arrow through its heart. In the opinion of his fellow tribesmen, his ability as a hunter and as a warrior was only second to his generosity in taking care of widows and orphans. In this first episode of this series, we’ll see Sitting Bull dueling man-to-man against a Crow chief, adopting a boy from an enemy tribe, avenging his father (Conan The Barbarian-style), having visions, acquiring shamanic powers, dealing with marriages and grief, leading the first round of warfare against the U.S., and much, much more. 

If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/historyonfire to access plenty of bonus content. 

For the rest of the year, History on Fire will be sponsored by BlueChew.  BlueChew is a unique online service that delivers the same active ingredients as Viagra, Cialis,and Levitra -- but in CHEWABLE tablets and at a fraction of the cost!

Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code HISTORY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. Go to https://bluechew.com 

This episode is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at  https://www.BetterHelp.com/HOF to get 10% off your first month and get on your way to being your best self. 

“…we venerate the crooks, rapists, and pillagers credulous historians have repackaged as ‘founders,’ ‘conquerors,’ and ‘civilize.’ We erect statues and consecrate tombs to commemorate their difference-making. But in fact, most of these monuments memorialize the dark deeds of unhinged lunatics driven by rampant ego and raving greed… most of the supposed ‘great men of history’ were criminals on a rampage. We celebrate them because they ‘changed the world.’ But where’s the evidence that they changed it for the better?” — Chris Ryan

“He who dies with the most toys wins.” — Malcolm Forbes 

“If we don’t put aside our enmities and band together, we will die. And then it doesn’t matter whose skeleton sits on the Iron Throne.”  — Davos Seaworth, Game of Thrones Season 7 Episode 3

In most episodes I tell a story about a specific event with a clear beginning and end. Occasionally, I tackle a theme and look at how it plays out throughout history. This is one of those times. Simple stories are great, but sometimes looking at the big picture is even more interesting. 

I am joined by Aziz Al-Doory from the History of Westeros podcast to chat about a central theme in history and, of course, in JRR Martin’s work: the drive that makes individuals struggle for power throughout history. In particular, we look at the more extreme (but by no means rare) examples: what makes someone risk his position and wealth in an effort to plunge a country into civil war for the sake of power? What goes through someone’s head who is willing to murder his siblings to get to the throne? Can uber-powerful people who executed their children and spouses ever have been happy? Why so many people have become addicted to a struggle that seems to be antithetical to having a good life? 

As we ponder the answer to these questions, we tackle multiple case studies: from the Japanese warring states period to Shaka Zulu’s career, from the power struggle after the death of Alexander the Great to the conflict between Kublai Khan and his brother, and many more. 

If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/historyonfire to access plenty of bonus content. 

If you’d like to go to Japan for a historical tour with yours truly as a guide, please check out https://geeknationtours.com/tours/signature-battlefield-series-classic-samurai-from-the-gempei-war-to-the-mongol-invasions-2023/

For the rest of the year, History on Fire will be sponsored by BlueChew.  BlueChew is a unique online service that delivers the same active ingredients as Viagra, Cialis,and Levitra -- but in CHEWABLE tablets and at a fraction of the cost!

Try BlueChew FREE when you use our promo code HISTORY at checkout--just pay $5 shipping. Go to https://bluechew.com 

A big thank you to Trade Coffee. Right now, Trade is offering our listeners a free bag of coffee with any subscription at https://www.drinktrade.com/historyonfire 

Big thank you to Athletic Greens for sponsoring this episode. Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit https://athleticgreens.com/HOF 

“Until the philosophy Which hold one race superior and anotherInferiorIs finallyAnd permanentlyDiscreditedAnd abandonedEverywhere is war” — Bob Marley, War, inspired by a speech by Haile Selassie 

“Emmett Till is dead and gone… Why can’t people leave the dead alone and quit trying to stir things up?” — Roy Bryant 

“I think black peoples' reaction was so visceral. Everybody knew we were under attack and that attack was symbolized by the attack on a 14-year-old boy.” — Rose Jourdain 

“The audience fell silent, wondering if Wright would risk his life to accuse a white man in open court. For a moment no one moved. Excruciating tension filled the room while people waited for Wright’s reply. Then, in one of the most dramatic moments in Mississippi trial history, Mose Wright, a poor Black sharecropper, stood up, raised his arm, pointed at Milam, a white man, and said, ‘There he is.’” — Chris Crowe 

By 1955, in United States, people liked to say that the worst racial abuses belonged to the past—that the culture that had led to nearly 5,000 people getting lynched between the end of Reconstruction and the mid-1940s no longer existed. But then a 14-year old boy from Chicago jokingly whistled at a white lady in Mississippi, and what followed was a familiar script: the flashing of guns in the middle of the night, kidnapping, torture, African Americans looking for their relatives where bodies were normally dumped, and a justice system that was anything but just. What was not part of the familiar script was Mamie Till’s choice that led to a public funeral attended by tens of thousands, and—many people argued—that lit the spark for the birth of the Civil Rights Movement. 

Among other things, in this episode:

• The culture of lynching and the gutsy Southern ladies standing up against it 

• How ‘Brown vs. Board of Education’ set the South on fire 

• Paranoia over integration and Communist plots 

• William Faulkner and the fear at the roots of white supremacy 

• Getting away with murder and boasting about it 

• How white supremacists won a battle and lost the war

But the craziest thing in this whole story is realising this happened not so long ago… 

If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/historyonfire to access plenty of bonus content. 

If you’d like to go to Japan for a historical tour with yours truly as a guide, please check out https://geeknationtours.com/tours/signature-battlefield-series-classic-samurai-from-the-gempei-war-to-the-mongol-invasions-2023/

Big thank you to True Classic for sponsoring this episode. For incredibly soft, great-fitting t-shirts, please enjoy a 25% discount at @trueclassic with promo code HISTORYONFIRE at trueclassictees.com/HISTORYONFIRE 

Big thank you to BetterHelp for sponsoring this episode. Visit https://www.BetterHelp.com/HOF to get 10% off your first month. 

Big thank you to Athletic Greens for sponsoring this episode. Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit https://athleticgreens.com/HOF 

“The Puritans feared that which was undomesticated.” — Jeff Hendricks

“Our earliest American heroes were Morton’s oppressors, Endicott, Bradford, Miles Standish. Merry Mount’s been expunged from the official version because it’s the story not of a virtuous utopia but of a utopia of candor. Yet it’s Morton whose face should be carved in Mount Rushmore.” — Philip Roth 

“He held out the promise of America as an earthly paradise, a pagan, not a protestant prospect, a zone of pleasure, not salvation through suffering.” — John Seelye 

“Drink and be merry, merry, merry boys;Let all your delight be in the Hymens joys…Or make green garlands, bring bottles outAnd fill sweet nectar freely about.Uncover thy head and fear no harm;For here’s good liquor to keep it warm.Then drink and be merry, Or yet, lasses in beaver coats come away, Yee hall be welcome to us night and day.To drink and be merry.” — Thomas Morton 

Today we are going to play with one of the greatest stories you probably have never heard of. Even in U.S. very little known about this story and it’s a crime. If you have even a superficial knowledge of American history, you have almost certainly heard about the settlers who came to Plymouth in 1620. What you may not have heard about is that shortly thereafter a gentleman named Thomas Morton set up a different colony just down the road from Plymouth. At a time when most people arrived to Plymouth in chains, as indentured servants, Morton abolished servitude in his settlement he called Merrymount. At a time when his neighbors in Plymouth were brutally squashing religious dissent, Morton encouraged religious freedom. And on top of it all, he and his friends entertained extremely friendly relations with Native tribes even openly intermarrying. What makes the story even crazier is that Merrymount was well on its way to be more successful than Plymouth. When new settlers arrived on American shores, many took one look at ultra-strict Plymouth, another look at the freedom to be enjoyed at Merrymount and didn’t need to be told twice which way to go. The only reason why Merrymount didn’t make it in the history books you may have read is because the pilgrims turned to violence to destroy a community whose existence was a challenge to all of their beliefs. 

From that day forward, the name of Thomas Morton has largely been erased from history. Some people could refer to Morton as a victim of the Puritan brand of cancel culture. The Puritan story became mainstream, and Morton’s name disappeared. This episode fixes this mistake. 

If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/historyonfire to access plenty of bonus content. 

If you’d like to go to Japan for a historical tour with yours truly as a guide, please check out https://geeknationtours.com/tours/signature-battlefield-series-classic-samurai-from-the-gempei-war-to-the-mongol-invasions-2023/

Big thank you to Wondery’s ‘This Job Is History’ for supporting the show. You can listen to ‘This Job Is History” on Amazon Music, Apple Podcasts or by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. 

Also a big thank you to Trade Coffee. Trade is offering our listeners a total of $30 off your subscription plus free shipping at https://www.drinktrade.com/historyonfire 

“I teach Kodokan judo as a way of life.” — Jigoro Kano 

“Even though he was drunker than usual, Saigo came to the driver’s aid. The burly sailors laughed out loud: “Scram, midget!” Much to their great surprise and considerable pain, in a flash, the pocket Hercules subsequently hurled each of them into the river.” — John Stevens 

“I have not been able to transmit my ideals to many students, and there are unfortunately few instructors who can impart proper Kodokan values.” — Jigoro Kano 

“The teaching of one virtuous person can influence many.” — Jigoro Kano 

In the second half of the 1800s, after the United States made Japan an offer it couldn’t refuse, Japan experienced a period of crisis and extremely fast modernization. Swept by efforts to copy everything that made the West powerful, Japan turned its back on much of its traditional culture. Martial arts were considered anachronistic and irrelevant, and looked well on their way to disappear into the dustbin of history—much in the same way as they had done in other parts of the world. In 1882, a small, nerdy man named Jigoro Kano made his stand to reverse this process. Kano was only 22 years old, and had only little over 5 years of martial arts practice. But what 22-year old Kano started in some spare rooms in a Buddhist temple was going to affect the lives of millions of people.

This story is about martial arts, but is also about much more. This story is about the dramatic transformations in Japanese history in the 1800s (and without understanding them, it’s pretty much impossible to understand the role played by Japan in WWII.) It is a story about how one individual can radically impact millions. It’s about how cultural traditions that are seemingly anachronistic can be reinvented to provide value in a modern context. It’s a story about Taoist philosophy, Olympic Games and U.S. presidents, pro-wrestling and helping society, the tension between globalization and nationalism, the role that physical education can play in shaping a person’s character, and a bunch of other things that have only marginally to do with martial arts per se. Among other things, in this episode: 

• Shiro Saigo, Kano’s pocket-sized enforcer

• Blood oaths

• History’s first black belts

• The four ‘heavenly lords’ of the Kodokan 

• Judo gaining a reputation through challenge fights

• Leglocks

• Shiro Saigo and his NWA attitude

• Akira Kurosawa movies

• Kano clashing with nationalism and militarism

• Theodore Roosevelt

• Mitsuyo Maeda

• The origins of pro-wrestling 

• The Olympic Games

So, with this in mind, let’s get rolling. 

If you feel generous and enjoy History on Fire, please consider joining my Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/historyonfire to access plenty of bonus content. 

If you’d like to go to Japan for a historical tour with yours truly as a guide, please check out https://geeknationtours.com/tours/signature-battlefield-series-classic-samurai-from-the-gempei-war-to-the-mongol-invasions-2023/

Big thank you to Athletic Greens for sponsoring this episode. Athletic Greens is going to give you a FREE 1 year supply of immune-supporting Vitamin D AND 5 FREE travel packs with your first purchase. All you have to do is visit https://athleticgreens.com/HOF 

Also a big thank you to Trade Coffee. Trade is offering our listeners a total of $30 off your subscription plus free shipping at https://www.drinktrade.com/historyonfire 

History on Fire is sponsored by BetterHelp. Visit https://www.BetterHelp.com/HOF to get 10% off your first month.