Lars Brownworth

Brownworth grew up on the campus of The Stony Brook School on Long Island, New York, where his father became the senior master. After earning a BA in history from Houghton College he began teaching at the school in 1999, and later earned an MA in Humanities from the University of Dallas.⁠[1]

He recalled that his brother suggested he record a Byzantine history course modeled on Bob Brier’s lectures on Egypt; he recorded the first episode in 2004, and a year later, when Apple began accepting podcast submissions to iTunes, his brother posted it.⁠[2]

The show tells the history of the Byzantine Empire through twelve of its rulers in 19 episodes running about 6 hours 47 minutes; its website calls it the first popular history podcast, running since 2005.⁠[3]

The show’s years of activity were 2005 to 2009.⁠[4]

From December 2006 Wired, The New York Times and NPR featured or interviewed him, and downloads surged to 735,000 in 2007 alone.⁠[5]

In June 2007 podcast reviewer Ian Brill wrote that Brownworth lectures for 15 to 30 minutes at a time, chronologically detailing each ruler’s life, and that his delivery is clear and patient if a bit dry.⁠[6]

iTunes named 12 Byzantine Rulers one of the “podcasts that define the genre.”⁠[7]

In September 2007 he signed with Crown for a book on Byzantine history, then left teaching and moved to North Carolina to podcast and write full time.⁠[5]

From 2009 to 2014 he produced the 20-episode podcast Norman Centuries, which begins with Rollo and the Viking settlement of Normandy and follows Norman expansion into England, Sicily and southern Italy.⁠[8]

He also wrote The Normans: From Raiders to Kings, published by Crux Publishing, which follows the Normans from a Viking raid on an Irish monastery to the exile of the last Norman Prince of Antioch.⁠[9]

On September 15, 2009, Crown published the 352-page Lost to the West: The Forgotten Byzantine Empire That Rescued Western Civilization.⁠[7]

In an interview that December he said he likes to tell history as individual lives, which suits Byzantium because of the emperor’s centrality.⁠[2]

In October 2012 TED-Ed released The city of walls: Constantinople, an animated lesson narrated by Brownworth and directed by Henrik Axlund and Petri Ruikka, on the city’s system of moats, outer walls and inner walls; by October 2026 it had about 1.44 million plays on the TED website.⁠[10]

In 2014 Crux Publishing released his The Sea Wolves: A History of the Vikings, which runs from the raid on Lindisfarne in 793 to the Vikings’ exploration of North America; his website labels it a New York Times bestseller.⁠[11]

On April 16, 2017, Crux Publishing released In Distant Lands: A Short History of the Crusades, which runs from the first clash of Christendom and Islam at Yarmouk to the fall of the last crusader state.⁠[12]

On June 22, 2017, a Jeopardy! clue about history podcasting had “Lars Brownworth” as its answer.⁠[13]

In 2019, after intermediate positions elsewhere, he returned to The Stony Brook School, where he teaches history in the Upper School.⁠[1]

In 2020 he served as historical consultant and on-screen expert for the six-episode Netflix documentary series Rise of Empires: Ottoman, about Mehmed II’s 1453 siege and conquest of Constantinople.⁠[14]

In 2021 Crux Publishing released The Caesars Volume 1: Julius Caesar – Roman Colossus, the first volume of his series on the Roman emperors, tracing Caesar’s life from his early political maneuvering and conquest of Gaul to the Rubicon and his assassination.⁠[15]

He appeared on episode 495 of the Lex FridmanLex FridmanLex Fridman is a Soviet-born, US-raised computer scientist and podcast host who works as an MIT research scientist on human-AI interaction and autonomous driving. His Lex Fridman Podcast is known for hours-long conversations with guests including heads of state and technology leaders.Open the full entry Podcast, whose description calls him a historian, teacher, podcaster and author specializing in Viking history, medieval Europe and the Byzantine Empire; topics included Viking military strategy, Ragnar Lothbrok, Rollo and Normandy, Viking religion, Vikings in North America and the East, and the Byzantine Empire.⁠[16]

As of October 2026 his website also lists an on-camera appearance in the documentary series Besieged Fortresses: Battles of Legend, in the episode Constantinople: The Emperor’s Last Stand, analyzing the 1453 siege of Constantinople.⁠[17]

Personal website: Public link: https://larsbrownworth.com/ (opens in a new window)⁠[16]