logo
episode-header-image
Apr 2023
52m 11s

The Wild West

NOISER
About this episode

Think of the Wild West, and you’ll imagine cowboys, shootouts, bank robberies and saloons. But it was also a time of massive resettlement, new technology and communications. But what the white settlers’ westward migration mean for the native people who had lived on the land for centuries? What inspired so many to move west in the first place? And if the era only lasted a few decades, what makes it so iconic to Americans and the rest of the world? 

This is a Short History of…The Wild West

Written by Emma Christie. With thanks to Chris Wimmer, host and creator of the Legends of the Old West podcast.

For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for Apple and Android users. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions to get started with a 7-day free trial.

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Up next
Oct 2
Introducing: Jane Austen Stories
This is a preview of a brand-new audiobook from the Noiser Podcast Network. Join Dame Julie Andrews as she reads Jane Austen’s most famous novel, Pride and Prejudice. Step into a world of humour, heartbreak, scandal and romance - all set in the rural landscapes of 19th-century En ... Show More
42m 30s
Sep 28
The Victorians, Part 2 of 2
The Victorian era transformed Britain into the world’s foremost industrial and imperial power. The rise of factories saw the expansion of sprawling cities, inhabited by a working class trapped in grinding poverty. But while the ever-growing ranks of impoverished residents were do ... Show More
55m 45s
Sep 21
The Victorians, Part 1 of 2
Over the course of Queen Victoria’s reign, Britain transformed into the world's foremost industrial and imperial power. The Victorians built railways that spanned continents, invented life-changing technologies, and expanded a vast realm that stretched from the Caribbean to India ... Show More
55m 35s
Recommended Episodes
Oct 2023
The Real Wild West
Clint Eastwood, Robert Redford, John Wayne. We've seen them roping and wrangling and defeating their enemies, all by the time the credits role. But what was the role of cowboys in the real wild west? What was the role of black men in this industry? And how have they been erased i ... Show More
38m 55s
Apr 2021
42. The Wild West
Podcasting’s answer to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid - that’s Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook of course - explore the Wild West in both fact and fiction. Does the romantic representation in both fiction and film bear any resemblance to the historical truth? And why are we ... Show More
52m 50s
Aug 2022
The Krays Part 1: The East End
It’s the swinging sixties and London is home of fashion, pop music, and celebrity scandal. But beneath the glitz and glamour is a dark underbelly of gangland crime. Emerging from the ashes of a war-torn city; two brothers would forge a criminal empire from the snooker halls and p ... Show More
44m 9s
Jul 2024
164. How the West was Won: The Truth Behind the Westerns
A whole genre of movies is based on a relatively short period of nineteenth-century American history. But what is the real story behind battles between Native Americans and white settlers during westward expansion? In the aftermath of the Mexican-American War, settlers flooded to ... Show More
49m 56s
Apr 2024
The Fridge
In Ancient Persia, ingenious ice houses refrigerate food in one of the hottest deserts on earth. Bronze Age sites on Orkney reveal the secrets of early cold storage systems. A well-known sea captain becomes the face of a global frozen food brand, with a little help from the Inuit ... Show More
41m 35s
May 2024
The Man Who Invented The Wild West
Rerun: Gun totin’, horse ridin’ spectacular ‘Buffalo Bill’s Wild West’ opened in Omaha, Nebraska on 17th May, 1883 - the start of a multi-decade run.With a cast of hundreds, including Calamity Jane, Sitting Bull, and Annie ‘Get Your Gun’ Oakley, it toured the world - and forever ... Show More
11m 17s
Jan 2021
The Americas from Foraging to Agriculture, 10,000 BC-4000 BC
The initial migrations to the Americas get most of the attention, but people didn't stop living there in the aftermath of those first movements of peoples; they spread out over the Great Plains and the forests of the eastern United States, south into the deserts and jungles of Me ... Show More
47m 18s
Aug 2022
Part 3: The Egyptian Adventure
Napoleon sails for the Middle East. After the Battle of the Pyramids, a scientific mission makes remarkable findings, introducing the Western world to the mysteries of Ancient Egypt. But after a drubbing from Britain’s naval supremo, Horatio Nelson, Napoleon does a runner. His re ... Show More
53m 12s