The Old World with Will Tanner

his is the tale of how tobacco created the plantations in Virginia for which the Old Dominion is known, and how those plantations entrenched and solidified the power of the famous "Topping People" of Virginia, those First Families of Virginia and Virginia Gentry who ruled the state for decades. It is a tale of indentured servants in colonial Virginia and slave labor workforces on vast Virginia plantations. It is a tale of the Navigation Acts, of soil exhaustion, of Starving Times in Jamestown and dying gentlemen in their starched, ruffled shirts. This is the story of Virginia's shift, brought about thanks to John Rolfe of Pocahontas fame, from the blighted land Captain John Smith and Gov. George Percy knew, to that flourishing and flowering Old Virginia of Robert "King" Carter, Thomas Lee, and the others of Virginia's Golden Age. But most of all, this is the tale of tobacco and plantations in Virginia, and why they developed as they did.

In this episode, Will and Richard Easton, a historian of GPS and son of one of the inventors of GPS, discuss the history of the Space Race and Apollo missions. They go over the impetus for Eisenhower committing America to launching a satellite, the reasons for the Gemini and Mercury missions, why Kennedy settled on the moon mission, and how the Apollo program progressed. They discuss the technical advancements required to make Apollo happen, the characters and competence of the men involved, the scientific legacy of Apollo, and why the missions were ended. They discuss also why space exploration slowed to a crawl after Apollo 17, the challenges NASA faces, and the incredible technical competence shown by SpaceX, along with GPS and Richard's book about its history. Note: the Apollo 16 CapCom whose name Richard could not remember is Charlie Duke Get Richard's Book here: GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones Get Michael Collins's Book here: Carrying the Fire Get Charles Murray's book about Apollo here: Apollo: The Race to the Moon

In this concluding video on the Lewis and Clark Expedition, Will discusses what the legacy of these two great explorers is. He comments on their discovery that the Northwest Passage was a figment of the imagination, but how they nevertheless sparked a massive fur trade rush. He tells how Clark mapped the West with incredible accuracy and created a resource used for decades, how their careful cataloguing and preservation of natural specimens was an immense scientific accomplishment, and how they discovered and documented much of the West's incredible species and beauty. He also discusses the death of Meriwether Lewis, and how Lewis's incomprehensible failure to publish the Lewis and Clark Journals led to many of their greatest scientific accomplishments going unrecorded for almost a century.

In this episode, Will and Gregory Treat, an attorney who helps families plan for multiple generations into the future. They discuss Great Houses—families that build a multi-generational legacy and use it to influence and lead their polities—and how such a concept is relevant today. They discuss democratic vs. aristocratic technologies, the mindset behind Great Houses, whether the form of wealth matters, some examples of Great Houses acting for the best in American life, and how technological change could lead to a very different world…that will likely still rely on Great Houses. Find Gregory Treat on Substack here: ⁠Gregory Treat⁠ Listen to His Great Houses episodes here: ⁠https://greathouses.forum/⁠ Check out his consulting here: ⁠https://avaloncircle.com/⁠ Read Will's thoughts on this here: ⁠https://www.theamericantribune.news/p/all-elites-are-not-created-equal⁠

The Corps of Discovery's Permanent Party makes it back to St. Louis in this episode, finishing the grand march across a continent and back on which it set out two years prior. This is the tale of how the Lewis and Clark Expedition made it back from Fort Clatsop to St. Louis in one travel season. It's the story of fighting up rivers, marching through the Bitterroot Mountains in a heavy season of snow, splitting the party up despite the immense risks so that the Marias River and Yellowstone River Valley could be explored as the party filled in the map and looked for commercial opportunity, and how the party split with Sacagawea when they returned to the Mandans. This is also the story of Pompey's Tower, of a desperate fight with the Blackfeet Indians, of the discovery that the Northwest Passage was truly non-existent, of the wisdom of the Nez Perce Indians, of the first mountain man—a veteran of the Permanent Party, and of the tragic fate Lewis met with after an immensely successful journey

Emerging from the skeletal hunger and crushing snows of the Bitterroot Range and its Lolo Trail, the Lewis and Clark Expedition finally reaches the waters that will lead them to the Pacific. But the Permanent Party explorers in the Corps of Discovery quickly realize that their mountain ordeal was merely a prelude to further terrible ordeals to follow. This critical chapter captures the moment they commit themselves to the unyielding, ferocious whitewater of the great river descent, forced to navigate dangerous cascades in cumbersome, hand-carved dugout canoes. As the snow-dusted, jagged peaks from their past loom in the background, they are thrust into a relentless battle against a watery labyrinth that threatens to swallow the dreams of an "Empire of Liberty" whole. This is the tale of how the Lewis and Clark Expedition reached the Pacific. It is a tale of crushing snow and frigid temperatures in the Bitterroot Mountains, high-stakes negotiations with the Nez Perce, shooting the dangerous rapids after making dugout canoes, and a winter of misery spent at Fort Clatsop amongst the Clatsop Indians in steady rain. It is a tale of courage, of triumph over insurmountable odds, and of incredible leadership in the face of immense danger

In this episode, Will and Rowdy Yates discuss the two premier novels of American journalist and author Tom Wolfe—The Bonfire of the Vanities and A Man In Full. They discuss what Wolfe says about America and the men within it through the lens of the novels, from the decayed "moral tone," as Wolfe put it, of cosmopolitan cities in the New South like Atlanta to the nature of class and wealth in America. They discuss everything from the mess that is Atlanta to Wolfe's genius as an author, along with some of their favorite "laugh out loud funny" moments and characters in each novel. Further, they discuss how Wolfe portrays the Civil Rights grifters, new money, old money, and men who are out of place in a cosmopolitan world. Get A Man in Full here Get Bonfire of the Vanities here

What happens when the dream of an Empire meets the reality of a vertical wall of granite? In this episode, we follow the Corps of Discovery as they "step off the map" and enter the truly uncharted West. The journey becomes a high-stakes survival epic, beginning with the White Pirogue disaster, where Sacagawea's calm resolve saves the mission's intellectual legacy from the bottom of the Missouri. We witness the "rude awakening" of the American frontiersmen as they encounter the Beast of the Plains—the Grizzly Bear. From the near-fatal "Espontoon Incident" to the harrowing 18-mile portage around the Great Falls, this was the month that forged the "Permanent Party" into an ironclad force hardened by cactus-shredded feet and hailstorms the size of apples. The expedition reaches its breaking point at the Continental Divide, where Meriwether Lewis discovers that the "Northwest Passage" is a myth, leaving the expedition staring in the face of a labyrinth of snow-capped peaks. Just as starvation and defeat seem inevitable, the mission is saved by a miraculous reunion so improbable it would be dismissed as fiction. This is the moment Sacagawea recognizes the Shoshone Chief as her long-lost brother, Chief Cameahwait, turning a potential massacre into a diplomatic triumph. This is more than a trek; it is a masterclass in leadership at the edge of the world. Subscribe to The Old World as we detail the turning point of American history and the moment Jefferson's Empire of Liberty finally found its path across a continent and to the Pacific.

This is the tale of how Captains Meriwether Lewis and William Clark led the Corps of Discovery out of Camp Dubois and up the Missouri River, sailing, rowing and pushing a keelboat against the current and into history. It's the story of their standoff with the Teton Lakota, their need for nine pounds of meat per man per day to make up for the caloric expenditure of the expedition, and of their time with the incredible Mandan Indians. It is a romantic story of adventure, an excruciating story of hard work on a merciless frontier, and an exciting tale of perseverance in the face of immense danger and terrible odds. This is also the tale of how the Corps of Discovery was hammered into being an effective unit with the lash, the tragic death of Sgt. Charles Floyd, and how the ingenuity of one blacksmith kept the men alive through a freezing and starving winter. This is the tale of the Corps of Discovery as it began the march that constituted its American Epic.

In this episode, Will and Donald Maclean, whose family moved to South Africa and spent a good bit of time in Rhodesia before its fall to Mugabe, discuss what life was like in Rhodesia and South Africa before they fell to Mugabe and Mandela, respectively. They begin by describing the First World nature of South Africa in the 1970s. They then describe life in Rhodesia over the 1970s, with a focus on the unique Rhodesian spirit and culture, particularly the polished nature of Rhodesian society and how they defeated sanctions. They then discuss what life was like in South Africa for its waning days, with a focus on Donald's military service in the Angolan Border War in support of 32 Battalion, and the essentially evil nature of Nelson Mandela. They discuss the reality of apartheid, Mandela's many crimes, and the utter destruction of South Africa under his rule.

This is the tale of how Captain Meriwether Lewis forged the Corps of Discovery and prepared for the grand expedition he and William Clark led across the American West to explore the Louisiana Purchase. It is a tale of studying the natural world with President Thomas Jefferson in Monticello, studying everything from naturalism to medicine in the salons and parlors of Philadelphia, painstakingly selecting the perfect equipment—including his famous lead powder cannisters and variation of the Model 1792 Rifle—and then selecting William Clark as his co-captain. This is also the tale of whom Lewis and Clark selected for the Corps of Discovery, primarily in terms of what characteristics they selected for when choosing their companions. From the special talents of some of the bold adventurers to the general skills needed for exploring the frontier, this is the tale of how they were selected so that Jefferson's vision of exploring the route to the Pacific could be fullfilled

This is the story of the Corps of Discovery, the famous Meriwether Lewis and William Clark-led American Army expedition to explore and map a route across the American continent and to the Pacific Ocean. In this episode, Will tells the tale of why President Thomas Jefferson dreamed of exploring and settling the American West, who Lewis and Clark were, why Jefferson chose Lewis to lead the Corps of Discovery, and how the Virginia backgrounds of all three men shaped their outlook of the American West and the expedition itself. Will also describes how Jefferson managed to get the funding for the expedition through a skeptical Congress, how the Louisiana Purchase changed the expedition in a major way, and how the travels of Scottish-born British adventurer Alexander Mackenzie impelled Jefferson and Lewis, then an Army officer and fellow Virginia Piedmont tobacco planter serving as his secretary in the White House, to act quickly.