Hello, Agora podcast family. This is Dr. Gary Schecho. You might know me as the host of the French history

podcast, the show that tells the history of France from three million years ago to present. What you might not know is that I am also a fiction author.

Two years ago, my debut novel, The Maiden Voyage of New York York City was published, telling the story of a future

post-flood NYC floating on the waves and the conspiracy to bring it down.

Last month, my second novel, The Afghan Wedding, came out and tells the bizarre, darkly comedic

story of Aviza Fatah, a young woman from the Desert of Death in Western Afghanistan,

whose wedding night is interrupted by a sudden firefight that ends with her disappearing and reappearing at a secretive U.S. military base at the South Pole.

If you want to support indie fiction and my bizarre stories

sound appealing to you, please check them out. Now, enjoy the show. Thanks for your support on

Patreon, Lawrence Wearing. Lawrence was an officer and a drinking companion of Johann Banner,

and he provided him with a fine vintage

which that sweet enjoyed during his rare times of leisure.

Axeluxenshtierna thanks you for your service, Lawrence Wearing.

This of course is a whole lie, but if you would like me to lie about you,

you know where to go. Patreon.com forward slash when diplomacy fails

or the link in the description below.

Hello and welcome history friends patrons all to episode 65 of the 30 Years' War.

So in the last episode, we watched several pieces of the puzzle fall into place and not very gracefully. The war was unquestionably starting to widen, and as it did so,

Emperor Ferdinand II, a stalwart part of the conflict since its beginning, died at the age of 59.

His son, Ferdinand III, was prepared to pick up the baton, but he was not

prepared, as we learned, to listen to the same council, and he surely imagined he would avoid

making the same mistakes as his father, and Ferdinand II had made many mistakes, the consequences

...