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.”

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

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

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.

"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.

Dan Carlin is a national treasure.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Loving these podcasts!

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

Dan Carlins "Wrath of Khans" is excellent - one of his top podcast episodes

I hope everyone has download that series he did. Utterly phenomenal.

Dan Carlin is endlessly interesting to listen to!

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

As a Mongolian data scientist I love your work, keep it up man.

I've listened to ever single HardCore history podcast. I could listen to them all over again and still get blown away

It’s always a joy to listen to Dan when I’m driving

King of Kings Dan Carlin episodes are hands down the best.

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.

This Hardcore History series got me hooked on podcasts and audio entertainment. I've listened to 3+ hours a day for over five years now.

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.

“The Romans said the Huns were bow-legged” This is what we tune into Dan Carlin for Yessss!

I hope this clip turns out to be as interesting as I am expecting it today. Ghengis was one impressive dude and I think discussions on “what would we think of him if he existed today?” “Was he a good guy?” “How much do we need to consider the times when discussing what kind of guy ppl think he if??” Basically he’s a facinatjng guy with a fascinating story and I very much enjoy him being discussed

I’ve listened to hours and hours of Dan Carlins podcasts and his voice has become almost nostalgic

So good. Thank you Lex and Dan

All the conquerors in history, there's an Asian guy who did it better.

So rare to have a podcast with such consistently valuable intellectual discussion. Love it Lex!!!

Hardcore history doesn't deserve to be called a podcast. The are tremendous audiobooks!!

Such a fascinating full interview stem to stern. This was a nice brief refresher.

I read somewhere that there was a letter or a page of writing from one of Genghis khans grandsons explaining why they are religiously tolerant, basically it says something like: we simply approach the gods in different ways, so they think that everyone is worshippinh the same god only in different ways and philosophies. But it's from his grandson though

I love how Dan Carlin adds the "golly gee" touch to his descriptions of history.

Thankyou so much for sharing!

Fascinating convo 👍🏽

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

These two together 🔥🔥

agreed, dan's podcast on Genghis was one of the best

Dan Carlin has one of the coolest history channels. The sincerity of the facts via PoVs, makes history more attainable

He must have meant Timur since a Tumen is a military unit. It wasn’t just horsemanship either their military tactics were levels above all others at the time. The false retreat, the flanking, use of elephants, etc...

They can still come in to town with their representatives and recognize that your daughter is pretty and take her to be part of khans concubine”…they still do that in N.Korea 🇰🇵

This is great!

I've only just discovered Hardcore History and its incredible. I'm almost done with Supernova in the East and I don't even want to imaging having to wait for those episodes to air.

God damn i love listening to Dan

I once heard a Mongolian say that the K in Khan is silent

Good interview

Thiiiis is a dope vid, always loved hardcore history

Clarification for people confused about hun vs mongol: huns were Xiongnu, the word hun comes from hunnu, which in turn comes from Xiongnu. Part of Xiongnu after conflicts with the Chinese moved westward, incorporated other people and became hun. Xiongnu who remained were the forefathers of the Mongols.

When he talked about keeping the tribes separated because they would become too powerful .It reminded me a lot of what the government does to us today

very insightful great episode

This was so darn interesting.

I'm re-reading Wolf of the Plains for the third tmie.. Timujin's early years before he became Khan. Recomend Conn Iggulden's books

“Shooting an arrow and painting a bullseye around it afterwards”

that was very informative

love Dan Carlins podcast I’ve learned alot

Chingis Khaan is how you're supposed to pronounce it

I remember I've read about the mongolians being notoriously great at incorporating their wrestling into their h2h conbat that it was super scary when they're fighting in close quarter combat, even the Georgian and Hungarian knights prefer fighting the mongols on horseback rather than h2h.

great stuff

His podcast on the khans was absolutely amazing. Highly recommend.

Mongols diet consisted of primarily meat and fat, its been said a mongol warrior could go days between meals wereas the settled peoples needed rice daily. The Mongolia culture was literally perfect for their time and place, sheer historical luck.

Dan Carlin is an amazing historian & story teller. I’m surprised he isn’t more popular

Punic Nightmares parts 1-3 are probably my favorite hardcore history episodes.

Dan carlins podcasts are the best in the world. Nothing comes close

The real name is Temuujin which was given by his father on the same day he defeated Tatar warlord named Temuujin Uge. His title name given by Tev Tenger shaman. The title name combined of 2 words which are CHIN and GIS. Chin means loyal, faithful or trustworthy. GIS is a short version of GISGEEH (verb) which means punish, discipline, or penalize.

So Genghis was basically Thanos.

Very interesting

This is life changing knowledge.

That’s a strange place for a table.

From Temugin to Tenzin, the only true battles are within

My sub conscious self thanks Dan Carlin for being the best history teacher.

Incredible perspectives. Thank you.

I learned everything I know from conn iggledon books about Genghis and Julius. I know it’s not truly accurate but they were good reads. I think Dan is great but I just have nostalgia of reading the books from when I was a kid.

The Mongol miltary was the first modern organization, minus the technology. This explains how a people numbering one million could conquer and rule an empire stretching from Korea to Russia. It boggles the mind.

Yeahhh... The Mongols series by Dan Carlin is epic!

Insightful

crazy to think that Lex continues to interview from a hotel room, right in front of the door that always stays locked.

Lex: I feel like the Mongols rose up due to a warrior culture. Dan: Addresses the baseless and ignorant point as gently as possible

Superb explanation.

Conn Iggulden's book series on Ghengis is awesome

They were amazingly adaptive as well, anything they came across that was superior to their own equipment or tactics was assimilated and used going ahead.

So basically the Mongols were the Dothraki

One of my favourite podcasts wrath of the khans.

My favorite quote about Mongol religious tolerance ... "They cared no more about the beliefs of their subjects than a farmer cares what his dairy cattle think about reincarnation"

7:46 wow lololol got Dan Carlin'd

Love the movie mongol, highly recommend if you don’t mind subtitles

History is so fascinating❤️❤️❤️

Very interesting 👍

I find myself amazed with how Mongol men could spend so much time on horseback with, I assume, minimal to no saddle support and still remain fruitful enough to spread the Mongol DNA as far and wide as they did! 😂

My man said “I’ve read that he was loved in Mongolia” 😑😑😑

These clips are amazing lex love this channel! Also holy crap i always picture Carlin so different because of his voice on the podcast

I've been writing about some wrestling stories lately. Back in 82 or 83 when I first started watching wrestling my parents began buying me figures, ring & wrestling merch. Writing this this wrestling stuff in last couple days reminded me of about 3years ago. Danny Coker from Counts Kustoms & his crew talked to me thru the frequency on the tablet on RU-vid. I remember he said something like I wasn't a real wrestling fan for saying what I was saying about what Rowdy Roddy Piper told me. At that time I figured out other people I thought hacked my tablet, me Gmail, my identity was stolen. Those guys knew stuff that was being sent to me on my tablet about this stuff, stuff I hadn't said yet & I think they said they knew stuff about it that I don't know.

To say it was just skill on horseback that made them so different isn’t doing them justice. Their advanced logistical structure and ability to travel deep into enemy territory without long supply lines was massive. They were elite in more than just combat.

Gengis Khan was what he needed to be at the moment of making a decision.

Fascinating

Whoa. I read some of his books. This dude is the real deal.

Actually his real name is Temujin, when you call him gangis khan your referring to the king of kings.