I’ve been down a strange rabbit hole lately — not battles or treaties, but the songs that came out of them. Because long before newsreels or TV cameras, music was doing the emotional heavy lifting of war. It rallied troops, comforted people back home, mourned the dead, and eventually, started asking uncomfortable questions about why … Read more
The ancient world was home to some of the most brutal tyrants, sadists, and murderers, despite the fact that we frequently romanticise it through imposing monuments and fabled conflicts. Unchecked cruelty plagued the ancient past, from insane tyrants who created horrifying execution devices to bloodthirsty Roman emperors who set fire to their own cities. In … Read more
In the wake of the recent US-Iran conflict, most people know the two nations as bitter adversaries. But what if I tell you that they used to be great friends? What started with cooperation and hope slowly fell apart into mistrust, coups, revolutions and hostage crises. Then, how the US and Iran relations soured? how … Read more