Genghis Khan and the Warriors of the Mongol Empire | Dan Carlin and Lex Fridman

Dan Carlin: everyone’s favorite historian. Also Dan Carlin, every 22 minutes: “I’m not a historian.”

Dude when he said the mongols were so good on horseback that they were compared to centaurs blew my mind.

"They create a wasteland and call it peace" that line send shivers down my spine.

It’s Chingis Khaan. Source: I’m Mongolian. Their religion was shamanism. Some Mongolians still practice this today. Also fun fact, Mongols believed that they were descendent of wolves. Great podcast!

Mongol culture and war had become almost one and the same thing back then. When settled people, like Europeans, went to war, they had to go out of their life style, set up camps, be partially reliant on central supplies etc. Or it was a specialised group of people dedicated to military. On the other hand, all Mongols were literally full-time war campers. Mongols could always live off the land using the hunting skills from childhood (and of course raiding). There was no one place where you could invade the Mongols. Mongols were far more efficient logistically etc.

Dan Carlin is a national treasure.

"Genghis Khan’s Greatest General: Subotai the Valiant" is my favorite book on this topic. Its a fairly short read and I recommend it to anyone who likes to think about what made the Mongols so successful as a military power.

An important factor not mentioned was their ability to digest lactose due to a genetic mutation. Which allowed them to consume a lot of horse milk and cheese as part of their diet. This greatly decreased their reliance on baggage trains that armies would typically need. As a result, and in combination with each rider having several horses, they could move much faster than their adversaries.

Mongolian Judo is by far my favorite style of Judo to watch. It’s brutally beautiful.

That analogy with shooting the arrow and then draw a bull's-eye I felt that. That might just be the best description of human history ever

Conn Iggulden's "The Conqueror" book series is a really fun read for anyone who loves the Mongols.

I’m learning about this in high school rn and it’s actually so interesting how he elaborating on and explaining what I was just learning about yesterday.

I love Dan Carlin . I listen to HH episodes over and over driving to and from work . Here are my favorites 1. Blueprint for Armageddon 2. Wrath of the Kahn’s 3. Destroyer of worlds 4. Ghosts of the ostfront 5. Human Resources 6. Supernova in the east

Lex, you have quickly become one of my favorite content creators. Such amazing questions. You're a great man. Keep it up

One thing that you have to know about that era is: Every Mongolian (both men and women) had the ideology of “One sky, one khan, one land” down to their last cell.

Dan and Lex, I am not a historian but a Mongolian. I agree with everything you said. Your point is right Mongol people tame animals exceptionally well as livestock are only source to survive in Mongolian steppe where temperatures vary from -50c to 40c through a year. It is true that People practiced war skills from being toddler. Even now you can see these lifestyle in Mongolia. Only the war business turned out to wrestling and sport archery. Basically Chinggis Khan was a royal family member, a genius commander and an incredibly talented manager all together. Imagine, if he wasn’t a grandson of Khabul Khan, the first ruler of Mongol tribes, people wouldn’t have follwed him. His success derived from his ideas to value people based on their talent and loyalty. For example, his prime minister, Mukhulai, was a slave of his enemy. Chinggis Khan saw Mukhulai’s talents and asked Mukhulai to be his adviser.

Genghis Khan - The Making of the Modern World Great book that talks about the huge impact that the Mongols had on the world.

Civilization 5 taught me a lot about how the Mongols had such a vast contiguous empire. Their unique units the Keshik archer horses could easily sack cities without taking damage, and their additional movement buff on the plains just offered too many benefits to their playstyle.

This is the most I've seen lex show emotion. He even smiled

Dan Carlin is endlessly interesting to listen to!