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Historical Friction

Historical Friction

Alice Procter

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it. Also sometimes bad wigs. Created by Alice Procter with Abigail Fine, Helen Victoria Murray and Sara Oberg Stradal
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Top 10 Historical Friction Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Historical Friction episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Historical Friction for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Historical Friction episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

Historical Friction - Muppet Treasure Island (1996)
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08/10/22 • 65 min

We're still in Pirate Season here, and this week Alice, Helen, Sara, and Abigail discuss Muppet Treasure Island (1996). Technically it's based on the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, but with some significant deviations (including a weirdly racist pig tribe, and musical interludes of varying quality). Join us as we try to convince Sara that the Muppets are good, actually, even if this film is not.

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it.

Find the podcast on Twitter at @HistoryFriction

Find Alice at @aaprocter, Abigail at @onceuponafine, Helen at @HelenVMurray and Sara at @tinyredbook

Support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/historicalfriction

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Historical Friction - The 13th Warrior (1999)

The 13th Warrior (1999)

Historical Friction

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06/30/22 • 60 min

This week, Abigail, Helen and Sara are your favourite exposition crones, as we take a wild ride through The 13th Warrior (1999) - a film that probably would have made a better amusement park ride. Based on Michael Crichton's 1976 novel, The Eaters of the Dead, 13th Warrior tells the story of Arab ambassador, Ahmad Ibn Fadlan (Antonio Banderas) who joins forces with a band of Viking warriors to defeat an ancient, mysterious evil. As part of our ongoing series on Viking adaptations, we talk about Beowulf and its legacy, 90s 'post-racial' weirdness, cultural appropriation, and how exactly the Venus of Willendorf fits into all this.
Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it.
Follow the podcast on Twitter, at @HistoryFriction.
Abigail is on Twitter at @onceuponafine, Helen is at @HelenVMurray and Sara is at @tinyredbook
Support the podcast on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/historicalfriction
Email us at [email protected]

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Historical Friction - The Vikings (1958)

The Vikings (1958)

Historical Friction

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07/14/22 • 60 min

This week, we've got anachronistic leather daddies, siege-based penetration imagery, big old snake holes, and Tony Curtis in tiny hotpants - it's got to be a Viking episode!
Sara sat down with Dr Roderick Dale to discuss The Vikings (1958), a film with some loud feelings about the Middle Ages. The film loosely adapts the sagas of King Ragnar Lodbrok (Ernest Borgnine) and his rivalrous sons Einar (Kirk Douglas) and Eric (Tony Curtis), as they invade the Kingdom of Northumbria and battle for creepy masculine ownership of the Welsh Princess Morgana (Janet Leigh). Sara and Roderick talk about how the film glamourizes the Sagas - what is surprisingly accurate to the archaeology, and what is way off base? They also discuss the film's trivialisation of sexual assault, cinema's weirdly colourless, beige vision of the medieval period, and throw in a good amount of 1950s Hollywood gossip.

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it.Find Sara on Twitter at @tinyredbook, and Roderick at @Berserkjablogg. Follow the show on Twitter @historyfrictionSupport the show on Patreon at patreon.com/historicalfriction

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Historical Friction - The Knight Before Christmas (2019)
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12/09/21 • 60 min

It's December, which means we are once again subjecting you to a time travel Christmas romance. It's a tradition now! Sara was joined by Dr Eleanor Janega to watch The Knight Before Christmas. What is hawking? What is mead? Can knights drive? What is Ohio?

This is our last episode of 2021! Thanks for listening, we'll see you in a few weeks.

Follow Eleanor on Twitter @GoingMedieval, and listen to her podcast We're Not So Different

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it.

Support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/historicalfriction

Follow the show on Twitter @historyfriction

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Historical Friction - The Favourite (2018)

The Favourite (2018)

Historical Friction

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05/05/22 • 63 min

This week, Abigail, Alice, and Helen watched Yorgos Lanthimos' The Favourite (2018), a gorgeous period piece set circa 1711 that explores the relationship between Queen Anne, Sarah Churchill, and Abigail Masham. We talk about adaptation, visual coherence, and the way that playing with anachronism while having a strong sense of tone is maybe the best way to make a movie set in the past.

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it.

Support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/historicalfriction

Follow the show on Twitter at @historyfriction

Follow Alice on Twitter at @aaprocter

Follow Abigail on Twitter @onceuponafine

Follow Helen on Twitter @HelenVMurray

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Historical Friction - History Emergency: The Met Gala 2022
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05/11/22 • 64 min

After watching coverage from the Met Gala last week, Alice, Abigail, Sara, and Helen convened an emergency podcast session to discuss the three-alarm historical fashion fire on display on the Met Gala red carpet. They discuss their personal favourite and least favourite looks and, of course, weigh in on the Kim Kardashian/Marilyn Monroe dress controversy. This year's Met Gala was held on May 2, 2022, and had the theme 'Gilded Glamour.'

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it.

Support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/historicalfriction

Follow the show on Twitter at @historyfriction

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Historical Friction - Ripper Watch: A Study In Terror (1965)
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05/19/22 • 56 min

This week Alice, Helen, Sara and Abigail all got together for our third Ripper Watch episode, a recurring feature discussing the representation of the Whitechapel Murders and "Jack the Ripper" in pop culture. We watched A Study In Terror, a truly unhinged Sherlock Holmes x Jack the Ripper mishmash, featuring baby Judi Dench's beehive and Barbara Windsor. If nothing else you should listen to this episode for Abigail's cockney voice.

This episode discusses murder, assault, and violence against women.

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it.

Support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/historicalfriction

Follow the show on Twitter @historyfriction

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Historical Friction - Enola Holmes (2020)

Enola Holmes (2020)

Historical Friction

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05/25/22 • 59 min

In today's episode Alice, Abigail, Helen, and Sara discuss the 2020 Netflix film 'Enola Holmes,' starring Millie Bobby Brown and Henry Cavill. The film follows the adventures of Sherlock Holmes' younger sister, Enola, as she traipses through London looking for her missing mother and attempting to save the life of a naïve marquis. We examine how the film reflects our contemporary ideas of Victorian culture -- for better or for worse -- and we have an especial focus on fashion, traditional gender roles, and the ways this film questions and plays with gender. This episode is a loose companion piece to last week's episode on 'A Study in Terror,' but the two episodes are standalone and can be listened to in any order.

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it.

Follow the podcast on Twitter at @HistoryFriction

Support the podcast on Patreon at patreon.com/historicalfriction

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Historical Friction - Affinity (2008)

Affinity (2008)

Historical Friction

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06/22/22 • 67 min

In this week's episode, Alice and Helen discuss 2008 film Affinity, an adaptation of the Sarah Waters novel of the same name from 1999. Affinity is an atmospheric tale of Victorian crime and spiritualism, in which Margaret Prior (Anna Madeley), a wealthy 'lady visitor' to Millbank Prison becomes fascinated by inmate Selina Dawes (Zoe Tapper), a disgraced spiritual medium. In this installment of our Murder Girls series, we talk about historical fiction's fascination with queer women criminals, modern depictions of unjust historical prison systems, the problems of adapting huge Neo-Victorian novels, the material underpinnings of the spiritualist movement - and whether the metaphysical realm belongs to the girls and the gays.
Mentioned in this episode:
Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon
Millbank Prison
Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it.
Follow the podcast on Twitter at @HistoryFriction. Alice is on Twitter at @aaprocter and Helen at @HelenVMurray.
Support the podcast on Patreon at https://www.patreon.com/historicalfriction
Email us at [email protected]

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Historical Friction - Captain Moxley and the Embers of the Empire (2020)
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12/01/21 • 42 min

This week Alice was joined by Dan Hanks, author of Captain Moxley and the Embers of the Empire, a historical fantasy about a very tired woman getting forced to do archaeology. We talked about Egypt, treasure hunting, pulp, repatriation, punching nazis, and why it's more fun to be creatively anachronistic.

Dan's latest book, Swashbucklers, is out now via Angry Robot. You can find him on twitter @dan_hanks or on his website.

Historical Friction is a podcast about storytelling, pop culture, the past, and why we reenact it.

Support the show on Patreon at patreon.com/historicalfriction

Follow the show on Twitter @historyfriction

Follow Alice on Twitter @aaprocter

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FAQ

How many episodes does Historical Friction have?

Historical Friction currently has 39 episodes available.

What topics does Historical Friction cover?

The podcast is about History and Podcasts.

What is the most popular episode on Historical Friction?

The episode title 'Marie Antoinette (2006)' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Historical Friction?

The average episode length on Historical Friction is 63 minutes.

How often are episodes of Historical Friction released?

Episodes of Historical Friction are typically released every 7 days, 3 hours.

When was the first episode of Historical Friction?

The first episode of Historical Friction was released on Oct 27, 2020.

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