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This is an interview with  ⁨@HistoricalDetour⁩ on the value and role of public historian. What’s the difference between professional historians and public historians? Professional historians are typically academics in private organizations, paid to interpret and write history. Public historians may be academics or non-academics, who are paid or volunteer, to interpret and communicate history in …

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Jimmy Corsetti is a YouTuber and pseudo-archaeologist who promotes so-called alternative history narratives; see my previous video on his claims. This video shows how Jimmy falsely claimed that he was the first to raise the issue of potential damage by trees at the archaelogical site of Gobekli Tepe in Turkey, and that the trees were …

Read more “Fake archaeologist versus trees | Jimmy Corsetti’s mistakes about Gobekli Tepe”

Jimmy Corsetti is a YouTuber and pseudo-archaeologist who promotes so-called alternative history narratives, and argues against the conclusions of mainstream professional archaeologists. He believes Atlantis was a real historical site, which he locates in the Sahara Desert, and believes ancient civilizations had complex technology over 10,000 years ago. This video shows how Jimmy created a …

Read more “The Gobekli Tepe conspiracy theory”

Dan Richards runs the YouTube channel DeDunking. He’s a self-described alternative historian, meaning he disagrees with the mainstream scholarly historical consensus, and is prepared to credit fringe views of history and archaeology. Dan is far more skeptical than other pseudo-archaeologists, but he does have a tendency towards conspiratorial thinking, which is common in the alternative …

Read more “How DeDunking creates a conspiracy theory”

At the time of this video, the 2020 novel coronavirus global pandemic is in its fifth month. One byproduct of the pandemic has been a worldwide rise in acts of ethnic and racial prejudice. Mainstream Western media typically presents Chinese people, and people mistaken as Chinese, as the most affected. However, taking a broader view …

Read more “How the coronavirus encouraged racism”

The story of Archimedes Codex C (also known as the Archimedes Palimpsest), sounds too sensational to be true. It’s usually described something like “ancient wisdom eradicated by a moron who believed in fairy tales”, or “Archimedes came up with calculus but the Church destroyed the only manuscript”. These videos explain why a Christian erased this …

Read more “Why a Christian erased this mathematical text”

Over time the original history of Thanksgiving has become obscured and distorted by layers of mythology, largely aimed at upholding and justifying the settlement and colonization of indigenous land, and the dispossession of indigenous people. This video examines eight Thanksgiving myths which have become embedded in popular culture. Adare-Tasiwoopa ápi, Sierra, and Melissa Adams-Campbell. “Sanitizing …

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On 21 June 2023, a scholarly journal paper challenged the long-held view that nineteenth century British ironmaster Henry Cort had invented a method for recycling low quality scrap iron into more valuable wrought iron. Instead, the author asserted, Cort had stolen this idea from “Black metallurgists in Jamaica who developed it”, crediting them as the …

Read more “Black ingenuity in the Industrial Revolution”

Dan Richards of the YouTube channel DeDunking is a self-described alternate historian, and is particularly unhappy with the Society for American Archaeology. In an open letter to president-elect Donald Trump, Dan asked for the SAA’s federal funding to be removed. Unfortunately Dan’s error-filled letter is based on a complete misunderstanding of the SAA. This video …

Read more “DeDunking is wrong about archaeology funding”

Bulgarian art director Viktor Antonov is arguably one of the most well known designers in the modern video game industry. From Half-Life 2 to Dishonored 1, his distinctive and arresting style has left a unique mark on every game he has touched. This video describes Antonov’s secret inspiration, focusing in particular on the most influential …

Read more “Viktor Antonov’s secret inspiration”