The Old World with Will Tanner

This is the tale of how debt, speculation, and imprudence turned Light Horse Harry Lee from a celebrated Revolutionary War hero praised for his cavalry raids, his tactical brilliance, and his closeness to George...

This is the story of Light Horse Harry Lee, the dashing Cavalier of the American Revolution, and how he helped win the War for American Independence through his talented command of Lee's Legion. It is the tale of how he...

This is the story of the family that produced Light Horse Harry and Robert E Lee: the Lees of Leesylvania, the Virginia branch of the Lee family that produced a long line of planters, soldiers, politicians, and lawyers...

Why were the Founders so excellent and our modern leaders so awful? Because they cultivated and developed themselves into great men rather than relying on credentialism and technocracy. This episode discusses the...

For centuries, the Virginia gentry has been drenched in myth, romance, and Cavalier legend. Here, we cut through the romanticism of Old Virginia to discuss the reality of America's only real landed aristocracy. We...

Signer of the Declaration of Independence. Savior of the Continental Army at Valley Forge. Drafter of the Articles of Confederation. Respected by Northerner and Southerner alike. Known as the "sweetest" of the Lee...

A younger son of Thomas Lee, William Lee was the best businessman in the Lee Family of Virginia and used his skills as a merchant, trader, and radical London politician to help win the American Revolution through a...

Without Arthur Lee, America would not have won the revolution: one of the earliest revolutionaries and most important pamphleteers, he became a spy and diplomat whose efforts secured the arms that won the battle of...

In this episode, Will discusses the history, formation, and immense accomplishments of the Virginia Gentry with J Burden. The two cover why the Virginian planter class was different from the planters of the Deep South...

This episode investigates the vital, lifelong partnership between George Washington and Richard Henry Lee, examining the persistent historical rumors that Lee sought to undermine the Commander in Chief in favor of...

First of the Founding Fathers to openly call for independence, the first to call for union of the states, and the first to call for a bill of rights, Richard Henry Lee was one of the greatest Founding Fathers and is the...

In the winter of 1750, the death of Thomas Lee left his six sons to inherit a massive empire of Tidewater land and transatlantic commerce—an inheritance that would ultimately forge them into the most formidable family...

How does a younger son, marginalized by primogeniture, forge America's most formidable revolutionary dynasty, siring four of the greatest Founding Fathers and two signers of the Declaration of Independence? This is the...

This is the tale of how the Lee Family of Virginia became a fledgling American aristocracy after Richard Lee I died in 1664, leaving behind the foundations of a great family fortune: a large commercial and landholding...

This episode examines the Lee family of Virginia and their claim to descend from a Norman named Reynard de Lega through the landed gentry of Shropshire, namely the Lees of Coton Hall and Nordley Regis, the arms of whom...

This is the story of the dynast who founded the Lee Family of Virginia: Richard Lee I, also known as Richard Lee the Emigrant. In it we tell the story of his rise in Virginia, from his start as a Clerk of the Quarter...

This episode introduces the First Families of Virginia, explaining how a small group of younger sons of the gentry and merchant families became a class of elite colonial families came to dominate first the Tidewater...

Listen ad-free here: If you are interested in what life was like in Rhodesia in the 1970s, during the height of the Bush War, from the perspective of a woman who grew up on a frontline farm often attacked, this is the...

These are the works I read to study and learn about the history of Virginia, from the earliest days of colonization into the modern, postbellum era. Collectively, these are a good way of learning about practically every...

This is the tale of the Knights of the Golden Circle, a pro-slavery, semi-secret, and paramilitary society in the 1850s and early 1860s that aimed to conquer a vast territorial sphere comprising much of the Caribbean...

In this episode, Will and J. Chase Davis discuss his new book, Offensive Christianity, through the lens of where the modern church went wrong, and how to reclaim the Christian spirit of days past. They discuss the...

This is the true story of Pocahontas, not the Disney one. This is the tale of a beloved little princess in the Powhatan Confederacy named Matoaka known for her curiosity, hence the nickname "Pocahontas" that became...

Listen ad-free here: In this show, Will argues that Virginia, rather than Massachusetts, was the cradle of the American Revolution. To do so, he begins with the French and Indian War, describing the cost of it to both...

In this episode, Will tells the tale of the life of John Smith, the mercenary-turned-explorer who was the first great Virginia hero. This is the tale of how Smith won his knighthood by defeating three Ottoman Turks in...

Listen ad-free and access the transcript here: ⁠ This is the tale of the heroic John Rolfe, the English farmer and gentleman who saved the fledgling colony of Virginia not once, but twice. In this episode, we describe...