Between 1884 and 1886, Thomas Stevens became the first person to circumnavigate the world by bicycle. Why did such an epic event make our holiday list of great travel fiascoes? Well, for starters...there was his curious choice of bicycle. Link to our Travel Fiascoes special episode below.

Sure, Cixi was Al Capone in a silk dress, but her "Dragon Lady" reputation is a mix of Chinese tropes and Western Orientalism. If she didn’t exist, 19th-century writers would have invented her. David Moser and I dig into her legacy on the latest Barbarians at the Gate. Link to the episode below:

Our holiday gift to you.. Travel plans gone to rubbish? Flight delayed again? Listen to our latest episode on travel plans gone horribly wrong. Your flight might not take off faster, but you'll feel better knowing you didn't bankrupt Scotland. Link below.

Evil dragon lady? Misunderstood proto-feminist reformer? Empress Dowager Cixi is one of the most famous and debated rulers in history. Jeremiah and @davidmoserbeijing.bsky.social recount the life, times, and legacy of this remarkable woman. Episode link below:

New bonus episode: Sarah Keenlyside talks with Tina Kanagaratnam from @historicshanghai.bsky.social about Emily Hahn's 1930s world and what remains today. What happened to Emily's Shanghai? Listen now. Link to the full episode in the replies.👇

Jazz, gibbons, and the ghost of the Cathay Hotel. In this special bonus episode, we sat down with Tina Kanagarathnam of @historicshanghai.bsky.social to map out Emily Hahn’s 1930s Shanghai. bytheirowncompass.substack.com/p/bonus-epis... #Shanghai #History #Travel

I went on a popular podcast to debunk Great Wall myths, and now people think I'm fun at parties. Had a blast talking walls, Mongols, and Assassin's Creed with @mattlewishistory.bsky.social on Echoes of History 👇 youtu.be/nvUPhTjO-V4?...

Our new podcast. History. Travel. Historical travel. Next episode: Emily Hahn in 1930s China

New Compass Dispatch featuring Kate Simon, born December 5, 1918, who spent decades telling tourists where to find a decent meal before finally publishing the stories she really wanted to write. open.substack.com/pub/bytheiro...

On this day in 1542, sixteen palace women tried to strangle the Jiajing Emperor with a hemp rope. They tied the knot wrong. He fainted from fright instead of dying. One conspirator panicked and told the Empress. All sixteen were executed by slow slicing. A bad night for all involved.

New Compass Dispatch: This week from Egypt. open.substack.com/pub/bytheiro...

On this date in 1922. It was the spark that lit global Egyptomania. Howard Carter peers through a small hole in a sealed doorway in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb of Tutankhamun. Lord Carnarvon: “Can you see anything?” Carter: “Yes. Wonderful things.” #ThisDayInHistory

Great to be working again with Dan Snow and the team from History Hit, talking all things Central Axis and Ming-Qing transition. (Not to mention very cool being back in Beijing, if only for a short visit.)

Alexander Boyd of @chinabooksreview.com joins me on a special crossover episode of Barbarians at the Gate to discuss Vikram Seth's 1983 travelogue, From Heaven Lake. open.substack.com/pub/jeremiah...

November 13, 1760: Birthday of The Jiaqing Emperor. Inherited bloated bureaucracy, several rebellions, rampant corruption, and his dad's "close friend" Heshen. Tried reform and got "the beginning of the end" label for his trouble. We historians can be picky bastards, can't we?

this entry in @jeremiahjenne.com’s Archive project is a gem.

Before he became an award-winning novelist, the Indian writer Vikram Seth was an exchange student in China. In the 1980s, he traveled overland from Beijing to Delhi. Read @jeremiahjenne.com latest Archive Pick: chinabooksreview.com/2025/11/06/h...

Read @jeremiahjenne.com latest Archive Pick, "From Heaven Lake," a travelogue by the acclaimed Indian novelist Vikram Seth's recounting his overland journey from Nanjing to New Delhi via Tibet in 1982: chinabooksreview.com/2025/11/11/h...

On this day in 1866, Sun Yat-sen was born in Guangdong. The PRC and Taiwan might tussle over his legacy, but he’s one of the few figures in Modern Chinese history routinely honored on both sides of the Strait.

My latest for the @chinabooksreview.com

In this week’s Compass Dispatch, your correspondent visits the Swiss Alps and ponders the relationship between mountains and the people who climb them. Also cocoa. Lots of cocoa. bytheirowncompass.substack.com/p/compass-di...

After one of my last walking tours in Geneva, a guest told me that she really enjoyed the walk because I “didn’t quiz the guests.” I know what she meant, and it’s a peeve of mine as well. Let me explain. jeremiahjenne.substack.com/p/stop-quizz...

In this archival edition of Barbarians at the Gate, we examine the 1860 destruction of the Old Summer Palace in Beijing and how history and narrative are used and misused today. jeremiahjenne.substack.com/p/the-destru...

On the latest episode of Barbarians at the Gate, we look at the 15th-century voyages of the Chinese admiral Zheng He. It’s giraffes, medieval globalization, and what might have been if Zheng He had decided Europe was worth the trip. jeremiahjenne.substack.com/p/barbarians...

Link to episode: bytheirowncompass.substack.com/p/ibn-battut...

Literary Chinese for bust-ass dynasties: 鋪眉苫眼早三公 Cozen. Flatter. Ingratiate -- The Three High Offices of state. (from 譏時 'The Times We Live In' by Zhang Mingshan 張鳴善, fl. 14th c.)

Talking about Sima Qian with Alexander Boyd leads to the uncomfortable realization that a belief in cosmic consequences for bad leadership feels like a quaint notion in 2025. Link to the full episode: jeremiahjenne.substack.com/p/barbarians...

In this special episode of Barbarians at the Gate, I’m joined by Alexander Boyd of China Books Review to discuss Sima Qian, The Records of the Grand Historian, and what it means to speak truth to power. open.substack.com/pub/jeremiah...

William Adams didn’t set out to become the first Englishman in Japan, a confidant of a warlord, or the inspiration for James Clavell’s Shōgun. It just all rather happened. Link to this week's Compass Dispatch Newsletter: bytheirowncompass.substack.com/p/compass-di...

After years teaching and leading educational travel in Asia, I moved to Geneva and had an existential crisis about medieval Swiss politics. What I learned about communication after 20+ years of making history interesting to strangers: open.substack.com/pub/jeremiah...

Antifa? You mean Wanyan *Aguda?* Founding emperor of the Jurchen Jin Dynasty, and ancestor of the Manchus??

Media outlets that fail to report on Jeffrey Epstein’s upstanding behavior and model lifestyle can expect swift prosecution. by Pam Bondi

This week's Compass Dispatch includes observations from Sicily on the intersection of film tourism and historical reality. The Godfather locations reveal how Hollywood mythology can overshadow complex local histories. Also mosquitoes. bytheirowncompass.substack.com/p/compass-di...

The sinologist David Moser talks about moving to China in 1989, his first appearance on the Spring Festival Gala in 1999, and learning xiangsheng from the masters. Listen to the episode of Peking Hotel: chinabooksreview.com/2025/09/16/p...

I will be moderating Yale's Prof. Valerie Hansen on "The Song Dynasty (960-1276): Was China Modern Before Europe?" Why did historians see Song China as early modern centuries before Europe hit that phase? Wed Sept 17, 8-9pm Beijing | 1-2pm UK | 8-9am EST.

Pest is your great-aunt who started vaping at age 68 and still outdrinks rugby players at her local. Buda is the great-aunt who summers in Margate with her cats and her collection of Royal Worcester. We picked a side. open.substack.com/pub/bytheiro...

The Shiji abounds with examples of corrupt, venal, or stupid rulers getting cosmic comeuppance. In today's timeline, it's almost quaint to believe in a universal order that punishes terrible leaders. Read more in my latest for @chinabooksreview.com chinabooksreview.com/2025/09/09/s...

History is supposedly written by the victors. Sima Qian, author of China's original historical classic, showed it could also be written by the condemned. Read Jeremiah Jenne's essay on the urtext for Chinese history, the Shiji or Records of the Grand Historian: chinabooksreview.com/2025/09/09/s...

Are the A's, Rockies, and White Sox enough of an argument that American sports leagues should adopt relegation? And not just in baseball. I'm all in on having the most recent edition of the New England Patriots justify their spot in the NFL by making them beat Ohio State twice in a season.

Every traveler shares one universal experience, regardless of era: digestive challenges far from home. Our latest newsletter dives into how archaeologists track ancient journeys through the "evidence" left behind. (1/2)

Ok its ‘feed it off an aux, speak, grunt no strength, the ladder start to clatter with fear fight down height, wire in a fire representing seven games, a government for hire and a combat site’.

Does technology enhance language learning or is it cheating? In this episode of Barbarians at the Gate, David and Jeremiah consider the evolution of digital aids to studying Chinese from looking up radicals in paper dictionaries to Pleco to AI. jeremiahjenne.substack.com/p/ai-laoshi-...

TV. Computers. Internet. AI. Teachers seem to always have a new technology to fret about. In this episode, we look at how AI is transforming language learning, and how educators can integrate these tools while maintaining focus on human connections. jeremiahjenne.substack.com/p/ai-laoshi-...

I see over the weekend, America unlocked the “leader hasn’t been seen for a few days, is he dead?” level of authoritarianism. As a historian of China, let me welcome you into our club, here's a T-Shirt and official tote bag. The open bar starts service in five minutes. 热烈欢迎!

Name this band.

David Moser is on holiday, so translator and longtime friend of the pod @bokane.org fills in. It takes us exactly 10 minutes to go full nerd and recreate the arguments that echoed through the courtyard of Amilal in Beijing, ca 2010. If you know, you know. open.substack.com/pub/jeremiah...

Co-host Jeremiah is on holiday in his homeland, and we offer some thoughts on that most American of travel institutions: The Interstate Highway System. Infrastructure designed for Cold War logistics, now fully weaponized for family vacations. open.substack.com/pub/bytheiro...

Many Westerners remember the Boxer Siege. Far fewer remember the occupation that followed. In this Barbarian Remixed episode from 2020, Historian Jeffrey Wasserstrom joins us to talk about memory, myth, and why “Boxer Rebellion” is a misnomer. blubrry.com/barbarians/1...

From horses to moon landings in 75 years. Meanwhile, it still takes 4 hours to get to Brighton via the M25 on a Friday afternoon. Progress is relative. 🚀 open.substack.com/pub/bytheiro...

Sad day. Remember the best way possible. Play music. Very loudly. Give zero fucks.