Hot History - We hit 1 million downloads!

Episode Date: June 18, 2026

Hello you!This week is a little different because we've just hit ONE MILLION downloads since February (!!) and I wanted to take a moment to celebrate with you all.So, instead of Anne Boleyn (don't worry, she's coming next week), I thought we'd do a Q&A episode! I asked you to send through your questions so we could get to know each other a little better, and you absolutely delivered. We're chatting favourite historical figures, podcast recs, shopping and beauty favourites, TV shows, and Hot History behind-the-scenes.Thank you for listening, commenting, sharing episodes with your friends and helping build this community. One million downloads is completely surreal and I couldn't have done it without you. Here’s a list of the recs mentioned:Favourite shops: 1. Asos 2. Betts 3. Depop 4. Ebay 5. Vinted 6. Vestiaire Collective7. ZaraPodcast recommendations: 1. Shameless 2. Inherited 3. Style-ish 4. Just The Gist 5. Big Small Talk 6. The Rest is History 7. The New Yorker Radio HourTV Series recommendations: 1. House of the Dragon 2. The Other Bennet Sister Makeup Recommendations: 1. Charlotte Tilbury Lip Cheat (Supersize Me) 2. Charlotte Tilbury Lipstick (Wedding Belles) 3. Mecca Max Glaze Phase Lip Oil (Blackberry Glaze)If you also want more Hot History you can follow along on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠, ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠TikTok⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and of course, right here!Til next week (with Anne Boleyn!),
Ainslie x

Hi guys, welcome back to Hot History. From Disney and Pixar, Toy Story is back. Woody! I came here as fast as they could. It's been too long, cowboy. Featuring Taylor Swift's all-new-new-song, I knew it, I knew you. I remember I loved you. Came back when it mattered I saw you.

Our mission on this planet is to make a child happy. You make us proud to be toys. Disney and Pixar's Toy Story 5, now playing only in theaters. tickets available now. Your corner of the internet where we cover all the things in history that you probably should know, but don't. If you are watching on Spotify and YouTube, we have a new character entering the chat. This is Governor.

He is an almost two-year-old West Highland Terrier. He is the naughtiest, cutest, sweetest, craziest, craziest, coziest little guy who usually isn't present for my recordings, but today we're doing a bit of a different episode. You see, I told you last week that we would be talking about Anne Boleyn. And we're not doing that today. Okay? And that is for two reasons. One, I have been sick, guys, for maybe like three and a half weeks now. and I didn't want to deliver one of the biggest, baddest, bestest episodes that we have ever done about one of history's biggest baddies while being under the weather, okay? You guys deserve better and deserves better.

This pod deserves better. So we are coming back with that next week, and it is going to be literally the biggest, longest episode that we have ever done, and I'm so excited for it. The second reason why we pivoted is because hot history since February this year hit one million downloads. Guys, I cannot express to you how grateful I am. Each and every single one of you takes time out of your day and your week and your lives to listen or watch and spend time with me learning about history. It is genuinely such a pleasure and privilege to have you guys along for this ride.

And so because of that, I wanted to do a Q&A episode. Now, I am, I'm not secretive by any stretch, but I do think I am like a pretty private person. so I don't often, I like to stick to the history, you know, I don't often let people into, into me in my world, but I wanted to change that today. So, I asked you guys a bunch of questions. And I thought that we could do in celebration for this million downloads, a Q&A episode all about me answering all of the questions that you guys wanted to ask. So let's get into it.

All right. First off the rank, what made you for? first post your history videos. I don't actually know if I've spoken about it on here, but depression. Yeah. Guys, hot history literally started as an assignment from my therapist, okay? I started a new business just before COVID hit. I got an office, had staff, had, you know, signed on for these massive overheads, then lockdown. Also, I was like, 20 years old, right? So a lot to carry on these shoulders. Rallied, though, made it through COVID and out the other side was just so deeply and intensely burnt out. Like sick all of the time,

genuinely could not function every single second of my day was consumed by work. Barely slept. I mean, I'm like a terrible sleeper anyway, but it was really, really bad guys. And what happened is I became so, like, disenfranchised with what I was doing. I felt really like crushed under the weight of all of this responsibility. I really didn't like what I was doing anymore. I just, I felt like really broken. And started going to see a therapist was diagnosed with clinical depression and really struggled with that for probably around a year quite intensely. and one of the first things that this incredible therapist said to me was, what do you do for fun?

And I said, do even no such thing exists for me, you know? Like there is, I don't know what that is. And she said, well, like, what's the best part of your day? And the peak, the pinnacle of my day was coming home, putting my headphones on, chopping up my salad. and watching a history documentary. Okay?

I wanted, like, the inner workings of the Nazi high command. I wanted the formation of the Knights Templar or the death of Mary and Twinnett. Whatever it was, injected intravenously, okay? I needed it. And I said this to the therapist and she was like, so you like history. I said, oh, you know, I loved it ever since I was a kid. She said, well, we'll think on that, see if, you know, what you could kind of do. And I remember going home to my mom and saying, Kel, if I could just watch history documentaries

all day, I would be happy forever, you know, skin clear, world peace, right? Everything would be, just be better. And she said to me, well, then, like, why don't you make a history documentary? Come up. Come up, buddy. Governor is going to come in and out of this episode, guys, but just rest assured he's here and present throughout. He is also obsessed with wanting to bite the pink microphone. So we're just going to give him, give him space and grace, okay?

So my mom was like, why don't you just make a documentary? And I was like, yeah, you know, me and David Attenborough, like, I can't make a documentary, what do you mean? But TikTok felt like a good place to start. And this was definitely post-COVID. Like, there was no renegating happening from me. Like, this was after the big TikTok wave. And so I literally started it as an assignment and a project for my therapist to try and, you know, have strategies to increase my work-life balance and kind of be in a better place mentally. Within a week, I had, like, a million views.

And it's so funny. I remember me and my partner were at, like, this burger restaurant and we're like, like, refreshing as it's getting close to a million views and it hit a million views and I was like, oh my God, like, where's Oprah? Like Hollywood's calling. Like, I've made it. This is fame. Meanwhile, I think I had like 150 followers at that point in time. But it was, yeah, you know, really started because it was my one great passion. The thing that I felt was just so fun and exciting and like really this thing that was just for me. So that is why I started making my history videos. Okay next, what got you interested in history? Let me tell you, Devas. The thing

that got me hooked on history, I remember it literally like it was yesterday. I was in kindergarten. Okay. Now, when you're in kindergarten, everything obviously seems massive because like you're so tiny. But I distinctly remember being in the library of my public school, sitting on the floor and looking over to one of the shelves. And on the bottom shelf was this gold shining book with this big red gemstone on the front. Now, for my true deep cut hot historians here, you know exactly what I am talking about, okay? It was this. For those of you listening, it's that great big Egyptology book with all of the big popouts and the red gem on the front. Okay, I was in kindergarten, in the library, and I pulled this out like a holy sacred text and my life was changed.

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You should have ordered from Wayfair. With Wayfair, there's no what-efer. Just style you love and quality you can trust. Visit wayfair.ca. Wayfair, every style, every home. Forever. I had, from this, gone home and said to my parents, like, oh my God, I read this incredible story about these, like, this, you know, world.

And I remember them saying, no, no, like, that really happened. That was real. And I think that was my first understanding that, like, people and society. and civilizations and, like, worlds, if that makes sense, happened before us. I always understood that, you know, my grandparents were older and, like, they were kids many, many years before I was a kid. But ancient Egypt was really the first point where I, like, had a conceptualization and an understanding of the past.

And from that, I had this, like, hyperfixation on the sphinx. Okay? I am talking belieber level of obsession. And again, I think it's just this idea that so much of history is stranger than fiction, this idea of a half-lion, half-human thing. Like, that's so fucking cool, you know? So, yes, it was ancient Egypt, which really got me obsessed. But in particular, it was that Egyptology book.

And if you're a parent listening along, buy that book for your kids. Oh, my God. Next was period drama recommendations. Guys, I have got like the longest list on my socials and I can definitely re-share it again for you. But what can I give you that's new? I mean, I know it's not like actually historically accurate, but House of the Dragon is back, guys. I am so excited. I don't know if I can say this by the time this episode comes out, but I got to interview

Lord caller Steve Dussont, the sea steak. And I've seen a little bit of a preview of the season so far. And my God, guys, dragons, sexy people, war. Nuff said. The other one, oh my God, yes. Okay, guys, this is the big one. If you have not seen the other Bennett sister, you need to stop what you're doing, pause this podcast, and go and watch that show.

So, guys, the level of joy and, and like, I don't even know what the right word is, whatever is like ecstasy. Like, I was just enthralled watching this show, like kicking my feet together, the biggest smile on my face at when I am being like, oh my, like, yes. Guys, it is so, so good, so wholesome, so comforting. I've rewatched it three times. I've told all of my friends to rewatch it. My best friend watched it and called me and goes,

that's literally the best period drama I've ever seen in my life. And as a Downton Abbey Guilded Age, like, Stan? I do have to say, I think that is like, it's up there with season six of Downton Abbey, which I think is one of the best seasons of television ever produced. So the other men at sister guys, go and watch it now. Next, who is your favorite historical figure and what figure is the most fascinating? This is such a good question.

I do get it quite often. And I always struggle. I think loving history is very, very similar to being a fan girl. Right? Like, there are certain periods or certain people or certain groups that you just become obsessed with. Again, for me, I was really interested in history and first got into it by ancient Egypt. So someone like Cleopatra, Tutankhamen, Nefertidi, Akhenardin, all, you know, big hyperfixations for me. Same with, you know, the, the Tudor period. From Margaret Beaufort to Anne Berlin to Elizabeth

I, Mary, like, Mary Queen of Scots, these kind of periods and groups people really like get behind It's like being a fan girl, but the thing with history is that, like, there is this huge time barrier. Right? Like me? Huge Taylor Swift fan. Love her. Think she's the greatest songwriter of the 21st century. I will die on this hill.

I love her. I listen to her every day. There is a certainty, almost a certainty, that I will never meet Taylor Swift. Okay? But there's, like, a 1% chance because we are alive. on earth at the same time, right? I could be in New York and she could, her cat could run away and I could catch it and then be like, here's Olivia Benson, right? That could happen, very unlikely, but it could happen. It is a possibility. Me running into Cleopatra like in,

at my local price loan, never going to happen, ever, right? So I think it's hard when people say, like, who is your favorite? Who is like your number one? Like, that you just are so obsessed. with, I don't think there's really one for me because we are kind of separated by time. Like, it's a very different parisocial relationship. And I feel like whatever, whenever I get this kind of question, there's a lot of recency bias. It's like whatever I'm researching at the moment, you know? So in that case would be like an Anne Boleyn.

But to kind of answer that question, who's my favorite? I don't really have a favorite. I just kind of move through time. You know? And then the next part of that, what figure is the most fascinating? I kind of touched on this in the episode I did about why we're obsessed with the Nazis. I think a lot of the most fascinating people in history are the villains.

Just like plain and simple, you know, Hitler. Right? A failed art student turned like malignant evil spawn of Satan. How does that happen? Or, you know, Himla, a failed chicken farmer, become radicalized racist who believed in a holy book of German greater purpose. Like, what? That is insane.

So I often think it's like the people that are Vlad the Impala, right? People who do terrible, terrible things are often the most fascinating. It's why we as humans love serial killers and Netflix makes so many serial killer shows. And I think it's that kind of morbid curiosity that we find fascinating. So who do I think is the most fascinating? I'm just going to say like the whole Nazi high command as individuals and then their interaction as people. Like it's just the weirdest mismatch of freaks. Anyway, your favorite podcast episode you've ever done?

Guys, that is so hard. I, if I don't say so myself, I think we've done some pretty good ones. The one I enjoyed the most. I mean, I'm a big Romanov. I don't want to say fan. Okay, back to the episode about favorite historical figure and most fascinating and stuff like that. This is why it gets weird because I'm like, I don't want to say I'm a fan of Caesar because, like, that's a dictator, you know? But like, I kind of admire what he did, but I don't.

Just what does that say about me? Like, it's similar here. I don't want to be like, I'm a fan of the Romanovs and they killed all these people and were generally kind of terrible, right? but I am deeply fascinated by Russian imperial history. So that 1903 Romanov Ball episode was really fun, like getting to dig into like what they had for dinner and what songs played and what dances they did and like the little details.

I always think the episodes where it's like those small, minute details and it's really personal is kind of the most fascinating. Same with the Rasputin episode. He is just outrageous, although I did have to look at lots of pictures of his face, which is just like never a good time. You know, when you have to look at that man's face for like hours on end. So yeah, probably that 1903, Romanov Ball episode,

if you guys haven't listened. Shout out, you should. Okay, next one, podcast recommendations. I love anything shameless media do, particular, the shameless podcast. I quite like stylish. Inherited is really good. Yeah, I love, I love those gals. Other ones, Big Small Talk. Sarah Jen Adams and Hannah Ferguson love big small talk, you know, kind of getting you across the big elements of the news cycle and the small kind of celebrity pop culture bits.

What else do I love? Just the Gist with Rosie. I love Just the Gist. I forget the name of it. I'll put it up on the screen. I think it's the New York Minute or the New Yorker. It's like an episode every week about something super, super different. That's, that's relevant. There was an episode that they did maybe like a month and a bit ago now with Ronan Farrow, which was the investigation to Sam Meltman and Open AI. It was super, super fascinating. So, yeah, those guys, what else do I love? There's so many guys, obviously the rest of history, the goats, Dom and Tom and Tom, my Kings, love them. There's so many. I've done another episode a couple weeks ago about all of my recommendations, so I can definitely relink those, but those are probably my like highest rotations.

Next, I love your YouTube videos. Thank you. That's so kind. Will you do more? Yes, guys, I do want to do more YouTube and have a couple of ideas circulating around. I think the big thing for me, anything that I do with Hot History, I want it to be amazing. You know, I don't want to do anything half-assed. So it's just finding the time while the new format of the pod is still kind of finding its feet and really developing. But if you love craft and comfort and coziness, I have something coming up for you guys. I also do have at least like one big history trip at the back end of the year, which I am planning to, like, do a really big detailed vlog on and I'm super excited for that. So, yes, I do have more plans for YouTube. It's just,

you know, making it, making it perfect and making it right for you guys. But I love that you are enjoying the longer form video content. Next is are you on substack? Short answer, yes, I am. It is Out Hot History Club. Again, I'll link it in the kind of show notes for you guys, but I am planning a, or in the process of planning a relaunch slash proper launch onto substack and just figuring out what that format looks like. So if you guys have suggestions on what it is that you want to see, what it is that you want to read, what it is that you want to hear from me, please let me know. I think it will probably be sometime in like the next eight weeks. I've got some initial ideas, but again, I don't want to. I don't want to. I don't

want to do anything that doesn't feel really authentic and, like, really well thought out for you guys, because I don't want to waste your time or my time, but mainly your time. So short answer, yes I am. Long answer. Check back when I know, like, what the actual strategy is. But I love that you guys love Substack. Next, which female figure do you think is the most misunderstood and will it be corrected in the future? I mean, all of them? Like, I know I've said it before here and I literally wrote a book on it, but women occupy around 0.5% of the historical record. So in the last three and a half, 3,700 years estimate somewhere in there that we've properly

been recording history with science and method and process around 0.5% of that recorded history mentions women. And it's primarily written by men about men. four men, like with the male gaze and obviously then dripping with bias and prejudice. So I could literally say all of them. I think probably the biggest one and like my biggest get behind is Marie Antoinette, you know, a 14-year-old Austrian girl who's thrown in the deep end of the French court who are incredibly racist and prejudiced against her inheriting, you know,

over a hundred years of financial stress and debt on a nation. which her, you know, husband then decides, yeah, let's go and spend the little money that we do on the Americans because fuck the Brits, and yet she's blamed for it all. And yes, 100%, she is a flawed person who made many, many mistakes and did lots of stupid shit. But to place the blame squarely at the foot of Marie Antoinette for the French Revolution and make her the ultimate symbol of privilege and wealth and excess and ignorance is just fundamentally, like factually incorrect and fucked up. It is a byproduct of patriarchy. It is blatant misogyny. And I think she's so inaccurately represented. I mean, her whole life

is literally summed up by four words, let me take, which she never fucking said. Like imagine your whole life, everything you do, everything you are, everything you've said, everything think you mean to the people who are close to you is reduced down to four words which you never said. And that is how you were remembered for the rest of time. And you essentially become a cover girl for, you know, multiple movements. So she's probably like my biggest, I just, I just think it is so fundamentally untrue and unfair. So Marie Antoinette is my answer for this one. I got this so many times from you guys. Fuck marry, kill, historical figures.

Guys, I'm going to answer this as a straight woman. I'm not going to let myself include the gals as much as I would. I obviously don't want to kill any gals. But, you know, as much as I could have been like, I want to fuck Cleopatra. I'll see what all this Roman propaganda is about. But I'm going to keep it to the men. Okay.

Fuck Mary Keel historical figures. Who do I want to fuck? I'm going to say... Who am I going to say? Okay, I actually have a good one for this. Casanova. All right? History's most famous lover.

Show it to me then. What are you on about? Like, let's hear about this century-defining BDE. Like, let me see. what it's all about. I'll report back to the gals. Next, marry. Who do I want to marry? None of them. Okay, I'm going to go with a strategic marry and I'm going to take one for the team and I'm going to marry Charles, the king, like right now, not one or two, the current one, the third. Because I'm going to save Lady Die. Okay? I'm doing it for the gals. I'm doing it for the gals.

He can piss off with Camilla. I don't care. Whatever. I'll do anything to save Lady Di. I'll marry you, Charles. I like tiny sandwiches and people bringing me cups of tea. And you, you know, as long as you don't want to do it with me, you can go and do it with Camilla.

Fine with that. Lady Die lives on forever. And then who am I going to kill? All of them? No, I'm kidding. Um, I'm going to kill... I'm going to kill Henry VIII, I think. but I'm specifically going to kill him in 1535.

Right before he's accusing Anne Boleyn of all this shit, Elizabeth's born, Mary's still disinherited, and I think that Elizabeth would then be proclaimed heir and would rule as regent. She'd keep her head. The accusations of the Great Whore would be, or her reputation, as the Great Whore would be expounded. we'd still have Gwaryana.

The Tudor dynasty would still end with her, but Anne wouldn't lose her head and, you know, Anna Cleaves, and then the other two Catharines wouldn't have to deal with Henry. I love that for me. Actually, I'm locking in all three of those answers. Casanova, I'm fucking. Charles, I'm marrying.

Henry, I'm killing, but specifically, like I said, in 1535. All right. The next one. Again, I got lots of this. If you could go back in time, when would you go back to? But someone asked this, like, a better way, if you could go back in time and live a full life, when would you live? So if I'm going to assume, like, a modern full life is like 80 years, I think I'm going to go back to fall of the Roman Republic and formation of the Roman Empire. because I want to fit as much in to those 80 years as I can, all right?

So I think I would go back, I'd be born, like I'd start around 56 BC when Caesar first becomes consul. And then I would track his rise to power, first triumvirate. I would see him on the Gaelic campaigns. I'd see him go to Britain. I would see the Civil War with Pompey, the crossing of the Rubicon. that's literally my favorite moment, like, in history, which no one asked me that question. I'm just telling you free. The Crossing of the Rubicon, Civil War, I would meet Cleopatra.

Yeah? I would see Caesar and Cleopatra. I would see the burning of the Library of Alexandria. So I could read shit in the Library of Alexandria. I could visit. Get my membership card, which is thrilling for me. See Cleopatra. See, obviously, then Caesar become dictator for life.

see him be stabbed. This is really good, guys. I kind of wish I was there, although I wouldn't have lived 80 years, but like this is tea, right? Gone back, seen him be stabbed. I would then see the fallout, the second triumvirate,

Octavian coming to power, Mark Antony and Cleopatra and their affair. I would then see Battle of Actium and the fall of Cleopatra, and Mark Antony, I could get like a glimpse inside the tomb, right? Augustus started through the Roman Empire and like finish it off with maybe,

the birth of Jesus and be like, were there three wise men? Was the, I think it was Gabriel, the angel, was he there? Was there a donkey? Was he, was he in a manger? Or like, is that just, you know, for dramatic effect? Like he was maybe actually in a room. That's my full lifetime. Those are my 80 years.

I'm jam-packed. Guys, again, I'm kind of jealous. Okay, next one. What is your day job? Guys, you're my day job? No, not fully. You're probably like 80% of my day job. So I do have a digital marketing company and a couple of clients that I do consulting on, things like TikTok, things like ad strategy.

So do have a background in marketing. So that probably is like 30, 20 to 30% of my time. But the rest of it now, I'm very thankful and grateful and glad, is spent in Hot History, doing the pod, doing social stuff, strategy, you know, editing videos and things like that. So yeah, it's a nice little mix at the moment, which I'm very grateful for you guys for giving me this life and your time and this opportunity. So thank you. Next is how do you do your research?

It is so thorough. Thank you so much. That is honestly the nicest compliment. And I see you guys say it all the time. It's so encouraging to hear that because let me tell you. The amount of people who rip off my content and share it as their own, like whether it's like big carousels that like I've spent hours researching and putting together they just download and repost or videos that I have physically flown to France

and filmed in a chateau or like the Louvre or whatever and they just reshare. Like it is insane. So I really appreciate you guys, you know, saying that it is very thorough. is so nice to hear. In terms of the pod, I always start with Britannica. It is like my OG go-to. It's like my first checkbox because the biggest thing with podcasting is storytelling, right? That's why, that's what I am here to do. I am not just here to deliver you fact, okay? I used to think that that was my purpose with Hot History was just like give you the facts. I no longer think that, okay? Especially when it comes to women and our stories and our lives, so much of our

history is, like I said, dripping in bias and prejudice and comes from male sources. You have to read between the lines. Yeah? You have to apply the colour and you have to kind of guess. And so I always start with Britannica and kind of map out story. Okay, so like Anne Boleyn, for example, for next week, you know, estimated time of birth, family, childhood, education, travels, a kind of development of personality, development of taste, comes back to England,

a couple of different like affairs, will they, won't they? Relationship with Catherine of Aragon, like, I really go in and start broad and then break it down to kind of tell that story. I will also always watch at least one, but it's usually two documentaries about that particular personal subject, mainly, you know, to see what experts are doing, see if there's any kind of key quotes that, that, I can really pull out of like specific details that I'm missing, but also just to do a bit of a tone check. You know, what other, in outside of the facts, what other kind of contextual considerations do I need to apply?

It's also interesting majority of historians and men, like how are they approaching the subject and what color are they adding versus what like we as women would actually think. And then from there, I have an incredible research assistant. her name is Gracie, and she helps me kind of dig into the facts and do a lot of the pulling of quotes and the kind of scholarly stuff as well. So it is a very long process. Every single week, it is, I think it's around an average of 8 to 10,000 words that get written up for you guys. So it's like many hours, you know, I really wish I was like a news podcast and it's kind of like the headlines are there and you can, it's, it's, it's, it's, still obviously a lot of work, but it's a history podcast is basically just huge essays that you

write and then deliver every week. So it is very thorough. Next is, girl, I love your shoes. Where do you shop? Thank you so much. I mean, I can't have them up here because of Governor. But these are my favorite shoes in the whole world. They are Manolo Blonics, which I only bought because I got them on massive, massive discount at a sale in Harrods when I was in the UK. But I shop all over the place, guys. I find ASOS have really good shoes. Betts have done like a rebrand. If you're in Australia, bets have just done a rebrand. They have great stuff. Otherwise, it's lots of vintage shopping. Deepop. eBay, vinted, vestia collective.

I buy a lot of shoes when I travel. I have so many shoes, guys. It's like I'm unwell. And in terms of clothes, again, I do a lot of vintage stuff. Like, I might do two big shops at Zara a year, mainly only when I travel, because like the international Zaras are so much better. Where else? I love a lot of the Aussie labels and a lot of my like big dresses and like gowns and like events.

staff is all from Australia and New Zealand labels as well. But thank you guys. I love that you realize the shoes because I do go to an effort to like pair the outfit with the shoe and the vibe of the episode. So appreciate you. Okay guys. Next question. Dream podcast guest from history. Dream guest on my podcast. This is such a good question. I have not been asked this before. So love this. I mean, there's so many. Obviously I'm doing a woman. I don't want to hear from any more of the men. Like, no. So I was saying I'm doing a woman and I would want to do someone with like an outrageous life, like just tea after tea after tea. So I could do Enid Linderman who I covered in last week's episode, like she had lots of different lives. But I feel like I'd want to do someone

who's like really uncovered, like undercovered, sorry. So maybe like Eleanor of Aquitaine. French Duchess, heiress from a very young age, because like 15 or 12 maybe even. Then she becomes Queen of France and she's outrageous and is, you know, dancing all the time and the priests are like you, if you should put more effort into your godly duties, then you should, you know, into dancing and she's like, fuck you. And her mother-in-law tells her that she dresses like a slut

so she like sends her off to a retirement home. Then she goes on crusade with like an aqued Aquitanian force and like fights off, I think it was a Turkish, like, regiment while her husband's like, cowbering and she's like, let's go, like, fuck these bitches up. Then she like kind of maybe has an affair with her really hot uncle, which like, you know, I watch House of the Dragon. It's fine in the olden, the good olden days. Then she becomes, she divorces him, then she becomes queen of England, then her husband imprisons her. Then, you. She gets out and gives birth to two kings and then has to go and, like, pay a ransom because one of the kings gets kidnapped.

And she's just, like, always coming back and, like, saving everyone's arses and just, like, being outrageous. So probably Eleanor of Aquitaine. All right. Next one. Is there any event slash time your brain doesn't want to learn about? I used to have this. So, in school, a hated modern. history. I was like, yuck, it's just war and politics and men. Fuck that. I was very much for

the ancient world, foundations of civilisation, society, culture, art, like craftsmanship, all of these vibes. Um, so I think I was very resistant to, um, like really any modern history. Like, even like pre-Victorian. I was like, no. Boring. But now I love all. And, and, And I don't really think there's anything where I'm like, oh, no, I can't possibly, like, talk about that or comprehend that. For sure, there's things where I'm like, oh, that's not really that interesting. I don't, not that I don't care, but I'm, like, kind of bored. But, like, to answer the question, no, I don't think there's, like, anything. My brain doesn't want to learn.

But I do respect that, you know, and acknowledge I am a privileged, white, conventionally attractive, I suppose, woman who, you know, my land wasn't colonized. I am a colonizer. So I understand that there are certain periods of history that are incredibly difficult for people of color, marginalized communities, indigenous communities, et cetera. But from a historical point of view, there's not really anything where I'm like, no, I can't deal with that. Next is lip combo.

So, guys, the amount of questions I get from you every single week around my makeup, okay? Here it is. If there is something on my face, 90% of the time, it is Charlotte Tilbury. Okay? I've been wearing Charlotte Tilbury almost exclusively for, I reckon the last like six, seven years. It has never failed me. She is my queen. I will die on this hill.

I wore it for my wedding makeup, which was just like an elevated version. version of my regular makeup. And if I do say so myself, stunning. Okay? It is the perfect every day. It is the perfect event makeup. I am like, if Charlotte Tilbury has no fans, I'm dead. In particular, the lip combo, I brought it here for you guys, is this liner, hang on let me put these cards down, is this liner, which is the Charlotte Tilbury lip cheat in the shade super-size me, this. And I, if we want to get into like the actual specifics, I do the Mary Phillips method of lining. So you start at the bottom and you come up instead of starting at the top and coming down because it actually follows the natural curve of your

lip, which isn't straight. It is curved. Okay? That's the specific scientific T here. then I always overline the Cupid's bow and I don't line it in the V. I will often round it out. And yeah, it's kind of like a Nina Park, but the Nina Park is more like of the V. The Mary Phillips is more of the C-shaped and she is Kendall Gemma, Haley B-Bahar, like just incredible. Love her. And then the actual lipstick I use and I have used this for years. I've used different shades of the lip liner, but I've used this specific lipstick for years,

and I used to only be able to buy it in Paris, but they sell it in Australia now, is again, Charlotte Tilbury, and it is Wedding Bells, Bells, spelled B-E-L-L-E-S. It is gorgeous. I would go to Paris and buy like six of them at a time, but I'm obsessed with this. And then, usually if I'm just like out and about, I'll just do that and it's just Matt. and it's like it's beautiful. It's not super like matte and I don't like the chalky. No, that's not what I'm about.

But it's not like shiny or anything. But for the pod where I am talking heaps, I do like a gloss in particular. I actually don't have it on me. In particular is the Mecca Max lip oil in the shade. I think it's like blueberry or mulberry or something like that. I hate a lipstick. that is like you put your lips together and you get like the stringy shit. Like remember when you were a kid and you'd put on like some outrageous lipstick

that probably was full of like all sorts of microplastics. And you'd go like with your lips and there'd just be strings of like, it actually makes me feel sick. That's disgusting. I like something that doesn't feel too sticky. So I love that lip oil. But thanks so much for asking guys. Next, top three dinner party guests history.

edition. This is such a good question, and I have thought about this before, because I've been asked it, it depends what kind of dinner party you want to have. You know, if you want like a really uplifting, soul-nourishing, enriching, inspiring dinner party where you feel like you leave and you're like, I'm going to change the world. That's very different to like a rowdy girls night. Like if we're going 365 party girls, very different to who I'd have at my inspiration. evening. I think me personally, if I'm doing a dinner party, I want it to be like an episode of the Real Housewives on vacation. Okay. I want screaming across the dinner table. I want food being thrown. I want the most drama and tea-filled evening. So, I don't even eat. I just sit there

and drink and I'm like, what the fuck? Like taking all of these notes. Or, I would obviously just lie to straight away for you guys. And in that context, I think I'm going to go back to the era that I would have been alive in. And I would want Caesar, Cleopatra, and Anthony. Because I want to watch Anthony, one of Caesar's top generals, tell Caesar that he then fucked his girl after he died. And then I want to watch Cleopatra turn to Anthony and be like, I'm not your girl. What the fuck is he? you're talking about? I'm my own woman. Like, you don't

fucking own me. And then Caesar would be like, well, I kind of did own you. And then her turn around and be like, Caesar, shut the fuck up. If you had actually done your duty and made our son, our son, your heir, instead of your fucking great nephew, Octavian, we would have still been alive. Yeah, you killed us. Battle of Actium. Mm-hmm. I was there. Yeah. And then

guess what your little nephew wanted to do? He wanted to parade me through the streets. Did you know that? And guess what? He killed your son. Dead. So if you'd actually done what you were meant to do, then we wouldn't have been dead. To be honest, I actually wouldn't have needed Anthony. I only used him to like keep my foot in power in Rome because you wouldn't make ass on your air. F.Y. You were stabbed to death by all of your friends because they actually fucking hated you. That's so fucking embarrassing. And then he'd start yelling at her and then Anthony, be like, you can't talk to her that way, and then he'd start yelling at Anthony, and there'd be swords, there'd be food everywhere.

And it would just be, like, absolutely, like, double tea. So that would be my dinner party. I want to go, guys. Again, see, this is the thing with, like, being a history lover. That will never happen. And that's so sad. But I just have to, like, live off the vibes. Which parts of history do you think are romanticized and why?

Another very good question. Easily answered revolutions. Okay. I'm just strictly based off of the number of Broadway musicals made because of or about revolutions, it's revolutions. I think we have this very retrospective romanticized view of revolutions because they brought about change, right? And for us, we don't, I don't, not that we don't mind, we are more easily able to. able to reconcile bloodshed and violence and loss and horrific displays of inhumanity if something comes from it.

You know, like the way that the French Revolution, for example, the revolutionaries and the monarchists behaved is absolutely fucking abysmal. They're killing each other. They're killing people from the other side. They're killing people from their own side. They're decap-they're literally decap-dating people with guillotine's in public, and then all cheering and having fun celebrations about it. It is like the closest we get to like Roman gladiator-esque gore and violence. But we have this very romanticized view of it because like the oppressed went down and the oppressed became the oppressors, you know?

and we're able to reconcile it because change happened and, you know, we perceive that that change is correct. So I think whether it's a French revolution, whether it's the American Revolution, absolutely, you know, the Russian Revolution. I mean, I think probably the Romanovs are the single most romanticized family, you know, probably in human history. but I think that's kind of separate from my point. That's largely got to do with the kids and the fact that the kids were killed and the fact that four of them were pretty attractive young girls. I think that's kind of a separate issue. But yeah, I think it is revolutions because the level of inhumanity

and violence and death and struggle and like humanity as a race lost several hundred good brownie points, like, during those periods. But we're like, oh, they were great. It's because it's easier to reconcile because change happened. Next, my favorite wife of Henry the 8th. Guys, I'm literally doing, like, probably a two-hour episode about Ambulin. So again, it's recency bias. It's probably Ambelin.

But I do have mad respect for Anne of Cleves. Like, what a dodged bullet. And she managed to stay alive and keep all of her estates and, like, just, Yeah, Dodge History's biggest bullet. Next, my favourite history mystery. Okay, this one, to be honest, a lot of these are just conspiracy theories, but it's the Templar Treasure. I watched National Treasure at a time in my life where I was deeply impressionable. And I could recite the opening, like, flashback sequence of National Treasure One with, like, absolute

excellency. Each time the treasure move, changing hands, going larger and larger, like the idea of the Knights Templar, collecting this treasure over centuries, smuggling it out of Europe, and then, you know, somehow winding up in America, which as if it would have, like, I just, I find so fascinating. Again, it's, it is a movie, but that's probably my, like, oh, gee. Next, this was a really hard one. Caesar versus Napoleon. and who wins. Guys. I, this is so cruel, okay?

I think if they're all, they would all need to have like even weaponry. And like no bombs. No bombs. So like maybe just guns, like guns and bayonets maybe. And I think probably on military strategy and like acumen,

like IQ level. strategy. It's probably Napoleon. But Caesar, and Napoleon did also have a good, was good at this, but Caesar's troops were willing to fight and die for him at the drop of a hat without even being asked very similar to like the Felix legions in Gladiator with Maximus. The relationship he had with his army was insane. So I feel like as a force, probably then, and like as a force, probably then, and, like, as a politician, Caesar as well. So who wins? Me, getting to watch it.

Next, any upcoming projects? Yes, guys, but you know I can't talk about that, okay? A lot of them are secret. I've told you about the substack. What else can I tell you about? Okay, all of July across the podcast and socials will be prep for The Odyssey, but that's all I can say. I can't.

I'm not at liberty to discuss this any further. What else can I talk about? Fuck it. I'm working on a new book. It is smutty, filthy, sexy history set in the Gilded Age. That is all I will say. But, guys, I've been kicking. my feet riding it. I'm dying. I've said too much. No further projects. No further questions,

please. I plead the fifth. Next, what books do you read? I read a lot of smutty fiction. Okay? And here's the reason why. I spend majority of my day thinking about fascism, the Holocaust, death, violence, suffering, the oppression of women, the oppression of peoples of colors, colonization, and just like general terrible people and terrible things. So sue me if at the end of the day, I want to read about a small town, you know, and a family-run ranch where every single brother happens to perfectly fit into a single book trope and they are all unconscionably hot. Okay? And I have wild, like, wild crazy sex that I would never have in a million years in a barn. Sue me.

Okay? That's what I read. Next, and I think this is our last one. If you could go back for one day in time, where would you go? That is too hard. But I think, like, generally speaking, while I may find terrible people and terrible things fascinating, I don't want to go back to, like, D-Day or the, bombing of Hiroshima or like the crossing of the Rubicon or you know the crusades like I don't want to

see terrible sinking of the Titanic like I don't want to see that if I'm going to go back anywhere I'd either want to see something amazing like the signing the Declaration of Independence or something but I think just more than that like if I'm really going to be transported I just want to have a fucking good time so I'd probably go back to February 13th 1903 and go to that Romanov ball, which like, I know problematic, but like, I want to drink all of the vodka and I want to eat all of the caviar, and I want to do the dances, and I want to see the entire Russian court dressed up like it's the 16th century, and I want to wear the jewels and probably steal some in my back pocket, like the goonies with the little marble bag,

and come back and be rich. Like, oh, amazing. The other one I would probably say is Alva Vanderbilt's $6 million ball, which was like the inspiration for the finale of season one of the Gilded Age, which was March 26, 1883, just attending a $6 million ball? Like, what does that even look like? What does that involve? And also it really did change working dynamics of Gilded Age society for the next 20 to 30 years. Like that was like peak rise of the Vanderbilt's being accepted by Mrs. Astor. Like just to see all the characters.

It would be like a real version of the Gilded Age. So I think I'd want a party. You know, 365 party girl it up. Brat, St. Petersburg winter, you know, would be a vibe. And those are the questions, guys. Thank you so much for tuning in with me and Governor. For those of you listening, I will post pictures of Gov on the social so that you can see. but I have had the best time chatting with you all, answering some questions. Again, I am so grateful

to each and every single one of you for listening along. Every single episode that goes out, and like one person, I get like a first comment. I'm like, oh my God, someone's watching this. It's insane. I still can't believe it. I love when you guys tag me in your stories and show me how you're watching, sharing all of your thoughts and feedback. I truly am so grateful to each and every single one of you for spending the time, taking time out of your everyday lives, to listen to me or watch me? Like, are you joking? That is wild. I'm so grateful that, you know, we have this incredible community. It really is such an honor for me. It's such a privilege to have all of you guys listening along. So thank you so, so much. Make sure to tune in next week, like I said,

Anne Berlin. So far, I think the episode's probably at like two hours. So, that is going to be hectic. If you guys like this episode, feel free to share it. I will link everything that I've spoken about in the show notes so that you guys can find it there. And as always, if you guys are looking for some more Hot History in the meantime, then you can follow us on Instagram at HotHustry Club and on TikTok at hot.com. It has been a pleasure, as always, getting down and dirty in time with you. And I will speak to you all very, very shortly. Thank you so much, guys love you bye bye bye say bye gov