#470 – James Holland: World War II, Hitler, Churchill, Stalin & Biggest Battles
Lex Fridman Podcast
Lex Fridman
4.7 • 13K Ratings
🗓️ 24 May 2025
⏱️ 211 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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Transcript:
https://lexfridman.com/james-holland-transcript
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EPISODE LINKS:
James's Books: https://amzn.to/4caapmt
James's X: https://x.com/James1940
James's Instagram: https://instagram.com/jamesholland1940
James's Substack: https://james1940.substack.com
WW2 Pod (Podcast - Apple): https://apple.co/4l93Dl3
WW2 Pod (Podcast - YouTube): https://www.youtube.com/@wehaveways
WW2 Pod (Podcast - Spotify): https://open.spotify.com/show/34VlAepHmeloDD76RX4jtc
WW2 Pod (Podcast - X): https://x.com/WeHaveWaysPod
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OUTLINE:
(00:00) - Introduction
(00:34) - Sponsors, Comments, and Reflections
(07:25) - World War II
(17:23) - Lebensraum and Hitler ideology
(24:36) - Operation Barbarossa
(40:49) - Hitler vs Europe
(1:02:35) - Joseph Goebbels
(1:12:29) - Hitler before WW2
(1:17:25) - Hitler vs Chamberlain
(1:39:31) - Invasion of Poland
(1:44:07) - Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
(1:52:09) - Winston Churchill
(2:16:09) - Most powerful military in WW2
(2:38:31) - Tanks
(2:48:30) - Battle of Stalingrad
(3:01:21) - Concentration camps
(3:10:53) - Battle of Normandy
(3:24:45) - Lessons from WW2
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | The following is a conversation with James Holland, a historian specializing in World War II, |
| 0:06.4 | who has written a lot of amazing books on the subject, especially covering the Western Front, |
| 0:11.6 | often providing fascinating details at multiple levels of analysis, including strategic, |
| 0:17.8 | operational, tactical, technological, and of course the human side, the personal accounts |
| 0:23.1 | from the war. He also co-hosts a great podcast on World War II called We Have Ways of Making You Talk. |
| 0:33.8 | And now a quick few second mention of your sponsor. Check them out in the description or at lexfrivenor.com |
| 0:39.6 | slash sponsors is the best way to support this podcast. We got Shopify for selling stuff, |
| 0:45.4 | element for electrolytes, AG1 for multivitamins, and Notion for team collaboration. She was wising, |
| 0:51.7 | my friends. And now on to the full ad reads. I do them differently |
| 0:55.3 | than most podcasts do. Usually I barely talk about the sponsors. Instead, just take this moment to |
| 1:01.2 | talk about the things I'm reading or thinking about. A little Bob Ross, like heart to heart, |
| 1:06.5 | between you and me. Also, unlike most podcasts, I don't do ads in the middle. So they all are bunched up here |
| 1:13.2 | in one place. You can skip them if you like. But if you do, please still check out the sponsors. |
| 1:18.0 | I enjoy their stuff. Maybe you will too. If you want to get in touch with me for whatever reason, |
| 1:22.5 | go tolexfremant.com slash contact. All right, let's go. This episode is brought to you by Shopify, a platform designed for |
| 1:31.4 | anyone to sell anywhere with a great looking online store. Did you know that the legendary Silk |
| 1:38.4 | Road was not actually a single road, but an extensive network of trade routes, connecting east and west, |
| 1:46.0 | spanning over 7,000 miles. In the upcoming episode on Jenghis Khan and the Mongol Empire, |
| 1:52.4 | we touch on this, but of course Silk Road spans much wider in time than the rise and the fall |
| 1:58.9 | of the Mongol Empire. |
| 2:05.9 | It facilitated trade and cultural exchange for over 1,500 years, |
| 2:08.7 | roughly from 130 BC. |
... |
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