Turning Modern

From the year 1500 to the fall of Napoleon, each episode of "Turning Modern" highlights a different event, person, or creative work in the early modern West. Join me as I look at the people, forces, and art that helped shape the world we live in, for better and for worse.

Turning Modern is a history podcast hosted by Chad D., with 16 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80.

Chad D. hosts Turning Modern, a history show with 16 episodes published.

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  Episode #12

  The Abducted Children Sent To An Island

  Sep 18, 202616 minS1

  Hundreds of children were taken from their families and sent to a distant, previously uninhabited island. The reasons why this happened are a toxic mixture of deeply rooted intolerance and simple greed. Sources ha-Cohen, Joseph. The Vale of Tears (Emek Habacha) , trans. Harry S. May (Martinus Nihoff, 1971). Soyer, François. “King João II of Portugal ‘O Príncipe Perfeito’ and the Jews (1481-1495) Sefarad 69.1 (2009): 75-99. _________. The Persecution of the Jews and Muslims of Portugal : King Manuel I and the End of Religious Tolerance (1496-7) (Brill, 2007). Usque, Samuel. Samuel Usque’s Consolation for the Tribes of Israel , ed. andtrans. Martin Cohen (Varda Books, 2002). For transcripts and ways to support the show, check out turningmodern.com.

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  Episode #11

  The Forgotten Woman Who Helped Shape The Protestant Reformation

  Aug 11, 202614 minS1

  Someone sticks up for a university student accused of heresy. This starts the public career of one of the most assertive, formidable voices of the early Protestant Reformation, a voice that would probably be better remembered if not for the fact that they were a woman. Sources MacCulloch, Diarmaid. The Reformation: A History (Viking, 2003). Mark, Joshua J. "Argula von Grumbach's To the University of Ingolstadt." World History Encyclopedia. 23 March 2022. https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1971/argula-von-grumbachs-to-the-university-of-ingolsta/ Stjerna, Kirsi. Women and the Reformation (John Wiley & Sons, 2008). For transcripts and ways to support the show, go to turningmodern.com.

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  Episode #10

  The Queen Who Became a Professional Writer

  Jul 13, 202627 minS1

  Marguerite de Navarre is the sister and wife of kings. While coping with being an agent of her brother and navigating the religious turmoil , she still found the time to become a bestselling author and perhaps the "first modern woman." Sources: Cholakian, Patricia F. and Rouben C. Marguerite de Navarre: Mother of the Renaissance (Columbia University Press, 2006). Gristwood, Sarah. “I Wrote a Book About Renaissance Queens. Today’s Stories of Sex Assault Sound Like Something Out of the 16th Century.” History News Network. 3 December 2017. ⁠https://www.historynewsnetwork.org/article/i-wrote-a-book-about-renaissance-queens-todays-sto⁠ .Last Accessed: 7/9/2026. Knecht, Robert J. Renaissance Warrior and Patron: The Reign of Francis I (Cambridge University Press, 1994). For more information, transcripts, and ways to support the show, go to ⁠ turningmodern.com.

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  Episode #8

  The Actual First Bible Translated Into English (And The Man Who Died For It)

  Jun 20, 202627 minS1

  An Oxford grad and private tutor has a dream of making the first English Bible translated directly from Hebrew and Greek. Unfortunately, his ambition becomes a matter of life and death once his scholarly endeavors become just another front in the war to decide Europe's religious future. Sources Daniell, David. The Bible in English: Its History and Influence (Yale University Press, 2003). Foxe, John. Foxe’s Book of Martyrs: Selected Narratives , ed. John N. King (Oxford University Press, 2009). ___________. William Tyndale: A Biography (Yale University Press, 1994). Moynahan, Brian. William Tyndale: If God Spare My Life (Abacus, 2002).For more information, transcripts, and ways to support the show, go to turningmodern.com.

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  Episode #7

  The Drop-Out Who Destroyed a Society

  Jun 6, 202621 minS1

  In 1519, Europeans made their first diplomatic contact with an urbanized empire in the Americas—and, within a few years, that empire will no longer exist, in no small part because of a failed law student from Spain. Sources: Cortés, Hernán. Letters from Mexico , trans. A.R. Pagden (Orion Books, 1971). Florentine Codex, vol. 9, trans. Arthur J.O. Anderson and Charles E. Dibble, rev. ed. (Santa Fe: School of American Research, 1973). Gómara, Francisco López de. Cortés: The Life of theConqueror by His Secretary, trans. Lesley Byrd Simpson (University of California Press, 1964), Restall, Matthew. Seven Myths of the Spanish Conquest (Oxford University Press, 2003). Townsend, Richard F. The Aztecs, rev. ed. (Thames & Hudson, 2000).For more information, transcripts, and ways to support the show, go to turningmodern.com.

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