The Renaissance Times

Épisodes

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  Werewolves Lost Again – The Renaissance #246 18.09.2026 17min

  We’ve finally made it to witch trials…. sort of. First: an 80-year-old man in 1692 Livonia confessing to being a werewolf, werewolves who apparently lose battles against sorcerers armed with broomsticks, and a fertility cult called the Benandanti who leave their bodies in the shape of butterflies to fight for good crops using fennel stalks. Then the Waldensians, who just wanted to preach poverty and got 700 years of massacre for it. And then the witch trials of 1430s Switzerland, where the accused were confessing to flying on chair legs with the help of a hallucinogenic salve applied in a manner Cameron declines to leave ambiguous. The post Werewolves Lost Again – The Renaissance #246 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  Head on a Platter – The Renaissance #245 27.08.2026 16min

  We’ve been building up to witches for a while now, and this episode we take a detour back to the second century CE…. because of course we do. Before Christians started accusing Jews of ritual murder, cannibalism, and orgies, Romans were accusing Christians of exactly the same thing. The stories just get recycled. Then we get into women flying at night with the goddess Diana, Herodias engineering the head of John the Baptist on a platter, and how 1,500 years later she somehow ends up co-leading the witches. Next episode: werewolves. The post Head on a Platter – The Renaissance #245 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  The Devil’s Recipe Book – The Renaissance #244 07.08.2026 13min

  We finally get to the witches. Only took us a couple of hundred episodes. The trail leads through the Black Death, tortured confessions about poisoned powders and boiled infants, a German theologian named Nider who wrote the first book on witchcraft in 1435, and a judge who apparently knew an extraordinary amount of detail about secret devil-worshipping covens…. under torture, of course, which is famously reliable. By 1438 the template is basically set: broomsticks, covens, babies in pots, and 700 followers on the verge of becoming lords of the country. Between 1400 and 1775 roughly 100,000 people would be prosecuted. About 80% of them women. The post The Devil’s Recipe Book – The Renaissance #244 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  Blame the Jews (The Plague Made Them Do It) – The Renaissance #243 17.07.2026 13min

  Twelve Genoese galleys dock at Messina in 1347 carrying rats, fleas, and Yersinia pestis…. and within weeks Europe is looking for someone to blame. Spoiler: it’s the Jews. Also the beggars. Also, possibly, the planets. Pope Clement VI tries to point out that Jews are dying of the plague too, which you’d think would settle the matter. The post Blame the Jews (The Plague Made Them Do It) – The Renaissance #243 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  The Silence of Marguerite – The Renaissance #242 03.07.2026 18min

  The Beguines were a movement of independent women who lived like nuns, owned property, preached in the vernacular, and answered to no man or church…. which, predictably, the church absolutely could not stand. We work through three of the great Beguine mystics, including Marguerite Porete, who spent 18 months on trial giving the Inquisition the silent finger before being burned alive in Paris in 1310. Her book survived, was read seriously by theologians for centuries, and wasn’t definitively credited to her until 1946 because obviously a woman couldn’t have written anything that sophisticated. The post The Silence of Marguerite – The Renaissance #242 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  Rats, Jews, and the Man with the Flute – The Renaissance #241 26.06.2026 20min

  The Jews have been expelled, the lepers have been burned, and somebody clearly had a plan…. we just don’t know who. We dig into the mechanics of medieval conspiracy theories, how the same story spread across France at a speed that makes you go “hmm,” and why the whole thing is basically a template that’s still being photocopied 700 years later. Also: the Pied Piper of Hamelin was apparently a real event, and the rats didn’t show up until 275 years after the fact. The post Rats, Jews, and the Man with the Flute – The Renaissance #241 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  A Goodly Sum – The Renaissance #240 03.06.2026 18min

  The King of France issues a royal edict blaming the lepers for poisoning the wells…. conveniently leaving out the Jews, who had just paid him 150,000 livres – roughly a third of the entire royal annual revenue. Pure coincidence. We also get a forged letter from the future, a secret room full of incriminating ram-skin, and a dragon that God apparently sent to signal it was time to murder somebody. The post A Goodly Sum – The Renaissance #240 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  The Tall Dark Man with a Scimitar – The Renaissance #239 28.05.2026 26min

  We’re still talking about the Great Leper Scare of 1321 and now we’re deep into the trials. We’ve got lepers across France being rounded up, tortured into confessions, and burned at the stake, because Jesus loves nothing more than the smell of burning human flesh. Under torture, we’ve got Jews implicating the the Muslim King of Granada, the Sultan of Babylon, and a tall dark man with a scimitar who was apparently just standing around at the conspiracy meeting ready to cut heads off. We also drill down into immurement. That’s where you brick someone up inside a wall. Medieval Christian love and compassion at its best. The post The Tall Dark Man with a Scimitar – The Renaissance #239 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  POISON IN THE WELL – The Renaissance #238 (The Witches Part 2) 11.05.2026 25min

  We’re still talking about the Great Leper Scare of 1321 – where lepers, Jews, Muslims, and the devil himself are allegedly conspiring to poison the wells and topple Christendom. It’s the juicy tale of how a rumour spiralled into a pyramid scheme of scapegoating that ended with 160 Jews burned alive in a ditch. Today we talk about how it was connected to the Great Famine of the early 14th century and a bunch of Christian teen beggars who decided to force Jews to convert. There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. [button link="https://therenaissancetimes.com/category/podcast/free/" type="big"] FREE EPISODES[/button] The post POISON IN THE WELL – The Renaissance #238 (The Witches Part 2) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  Burn the Lepers – The Renaissance #237 30.04.2026 23min

  We are taking a break from Michelangelo to talk about lepers, Jews and… WITCHES!  Today we start with the 1321 leper panic in France, where thousands of people were burned alive or locked up for life based on tortured confessions of a supposed plot to poison the water supply and take over the world. Along the way we get hot and heavy with the French royal family — adultery, assassinations, a king who reigned for four days, and a woman who may have murdered her own infant nephew with a pin — before connecting it all to the origins of Europe’s first mass segregation program. It’s the archaeology of conspiracy theories.  There's something secret here that only members can see. Probably an audio player or something. If you want to listen to one of our many free episodes, go here. [button link="https://therenaissancetimes.com/category/podcast/free/" type="big"] FREE EPISODES[/button] The post Burn the Lepers – The Renaissance #237 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  Ghosting the Pope – The Renaissance #236 21.04.2026 23min

  On this episode, Michelangelo is done waiting around in Rome — he packs up and heads back to Florence, effectively ghosting the Pope before the Pope can ghost him any harder. Julius II is furious and tries every trick in the book to drag him back, including leaning on Florence's own leader Soderini, who knows you can't bully a prima donna and writes the most flattering letter of recommendation in Renaissance history. We end with Michelangelo finally heading to Bologna to face the music — or the Pope, which at this point might be worse. The post Ghosting the Pope – The Renaissance #236 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  The Warrior Pope and the Marble Dreamer – The Renaissance #235 06.04.2026 29min

  Michelangelo gets summoned to Rome by Pope Julius II — the baddest, most belligerent pope who ever lived — to build the greatest tomb the world has ever seen. Mickey heads to Carrara for six months to find the perfect marble, starts dreaming of flooding Rome with giant statues, and then one of the most famous sculptures from antiquity gets dug out of the ground right in front of him. We also get into why Julius II absolutely despised the Borgias, and Cameron rocks his new Michael Caine glasses throughout. The post The Warrior Pope and the Marble Dreamer – The Renaissance #235 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  The Price Just Doubled: Michelangelo, the Doni Tondo, and the Birth of the Artist as Rockstar – The Renaissance #234 21.03.2026 28min

  In this episode of The Renaissance Times, Cameron and Ray dive deep into Michelangelo's three extraordinary marble and painted roundels — the tondos — created during his Florence years between 1501 and 1506. Beginning with the origins of the tondo format itself (those circular domestic artworks that started life as elaborately painted birth trays brought to mothers who'd survived childbirth), the hosts examine what makes Michelangelo's approach so audaciously different from everyone else's. In the Taddei Tondo, now housed in the Royal Academy of Arts in London, his signature *non finito* technique — deliberately leaving sections rough and unpolished — makes Baby Jesus emerge luminously from raw marble while John the Baptist lurks in the background in a pose that raises some eyebrows and a great deal of laughter. The Pitti Tondo, now in the Bargello in Florence, features a proud, regal Virgin Mary whose head breaks the boundary of the circle itself — a deliberate choice, since both works were designed to be viewed from below, above a doorway. Then comes the main event: the Doni Tondo, the only surviving panel painting by Michelangelo, which Ray declares — with complete sincerity — his single favourite painting in the world after encountering it unexpectedly in the Uffizi. Cameron breaks down Michelangelo's use of *cangiante* colour technique — swapping to entirely different colours to create shading rather than using Da Vinci's smoky *sfumato* — producing something that looks, as Cameron puts it, like it was lit by a social media ring light compared to the gentle atmospheric glow of the Mona Lisa. The hosts also dig into the painting's contested symbolism: the pagan nudes lounging in the background, the possible Dominican theological argument about Mary's sanctification at the moment of conception, and the conspicuous placement of Christ's anatomy. Then there's the business drama — when patron Agnolo Doni tried to pay 40 ducats instead of the agreed 70, Michelangelo doubled the price to 140 and told him to pay up or hand back the painting. Doni paid. It's a pivotal moment: the artist as rockstar, commanding the room and rewriting the rules of patronage in Renaissance Florence. The post The Price Just Doubled: Michelangelo, the Doni Tondo, and the Birth of the Artist as Rockstar – The Renaissance #234 appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  Renaissance #225 – Teenage Michelangelo: The Buff Baby Jesus and the Marble Prodigy (Michelangelo, part 3) 15.10.2025 18min

  In this episode of The Renaissance Times (Episode 225), Cameron and Ray return to Florence to explore Michelangelo’s earliest surviving sculpture, Madonna of the Stairs (Madonna della Scala)—a marble relief carved when he was […] The post Renaissance #225 – Teenage Michelangelo: The Buff Baby Jesus and the Marble Prodigy (Michelangelo, part 3) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  Renaissance #224 – Privilege, Paint, and Patronage (Michelangelo, part 2) 16.09.2025 15min

  In this episode of Renaissance, Cameron and Ray continue their exploration of Michelangelo’s life and career, digging into the family connections, social structures, and cultural forces that shaped his rise. They trace Michelangelo’s privileged entry into the Medici circle, compare his fortunes to Leonardo da Vinci’s tougher climb, and dive into Florence’s vibrant humanist culture of the late 15th century. The conversation ranges from patronage networks and family loyalty, to the artistic apprenticeship system, to Michelangelo’s sexuality and celibacy, with plenty of irreverent humour along the way. From Giovanni Rucellai’s church facades to Medici palace gossip, this episode paints a vivid portrait of how power, privilege, and art collided in the making of one of history’s greatest geniuses . The post Renaissance #224 – Privilege, Paint, and Patronage (Michelangelo, part 2) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  Renaissance #223 – Mickey The Angel (Michelangelo part 1) 03.09.2025 18min

  Cameron and Ray dive into the life and legend of Michelangelo, kicking off what promises to be a long-running series on one of history’s most celebrated artists. Drawing on Vasari’s Lives of the Artists […] The post Renaissance #223 – Mickey The Angel (Michelangelo part 1) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  Renaissance #222 Thank Christ: The End of the First Crusade (The Crusades part 31) 15.08.2025 30min

  In this final instalment of the First Crusade series, Cameron and Ray bring the long march to its bloody climax with the siege and fall of Jerusalem in 1099. They blend dark humour with historical detail as they recount the Crusaders’ desperate conditions, the political and religious fervour driving them, and the brutal reality of the conquest. Along the way, they explore the parallels between medieval crusading zeal and modern Christian Zionism, the strategic blunders and visions that shaped the battle, and the horrifying aftermath as the victorious Crusaders massacred Muslim and Jewish inhabitants. The episode closes by reflecting on how this slaughter reshaped Christian-Muslim relations for centuries and teeing up a return to Renaissance art in future episodes. The post Renaissance #222 Thank Christ: The End of the First Crusade (The Crusades part 31) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  Renaissance #221 God Doesn’t Do Requests (The Crusades part 30) 01.08.2025 16min

  In this penultimate episode of _The Renaissance_’s epic First Crusade arc, Cameron and Ray finally march the crusaders to the gates of Jerusalem — nearly three years and 2,000 miles after they first set […] The post Renaissance #221 God Doesn’t Do Requests (The Crusades part 30) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  Renaissance #220 Valentine’s Day: Blood, Not Roses (The Crusades part 29) 17.07.2025 21min

  In this wild, irreverent, and historically sharp episode of _Renaissance_, Cam and Ray tear into the chaotic early months of 1099. As Raymond of Toulouse and the other Crusader leaders fumble their way down the Levantine coast, we get siege fails, castle bluffs, and political drama worthy of a reality TV series. Cam debuts his AI-generated theme song, shares the origin of Valentine’s Day (hint: it involves arrows — and not Cupid’s), and explains why Peter Bartholomew’s fiery trial didn’t end well for either his skin or Raymond’s reputation. Also: Trump analogies, cannibal jokes, Dexter cosplay, and a city that really doesn’t want you to finish first or last. Pure Renaissance chaos. The post Renaissance #220 Valentine’s Day: Blood, Not Roses (The Crusades part 29) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.
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  Renaissance #219 – Jerusalem or Bust (The Crusades part 28) 04.07.2025 18min

  In Episode 219 of The Renaissance Times, Cameron and Ray are diving deep into the next leg of the First Crusade. They follow Raymond of Toulouse as he reluctantly resumes the crusade […] The post Renaissance #219 – Jerusalem or Bust (The Crusades part 28) appeared first on The Renaissance Times.