About Historium: Civilisation
Exploring how we got here, one story at a time.
Welcome to Historium: Civilisation, an exploration of how humans have built, shaped and understood their worlds.
What This Is
Every eight weeks, I publish a long-form essay diving deep into a moment, person, or idea that shaped civilisation. These aren’t quick summaries or surface-level takes. They’re 6,000 to 7,000 word explorations that take the time to really understand how we got here.
Each essay becomes a podcast episode, so you can read or listen, whatever suits you.
We start at the beginning. The first city. The first writing. The first empires. Then we move through 6,000 years of human history: bronze age collapse, classical philosophy, medieval synthesis, Renaissance innovation, industrial transformation, and modern upheaval.
This isn’t chronology for its own sake. It’s about patterns. Connections. The long arc of how humans have built, shaped, and understood their worlds.
Why Every Eight Weeks?
Because real understanding takes time.
Shallow takes are everywhere. The internet churns them out daily. But depth is rare. Depth requires research, reflection, and the patience to let ideas develop properly.
Eight weeks gives me time to read deeply, think carefully, and write thoroughly. It gives you time to read, reflect, and absorb before the next piece arrives.
This isn’t a content treadmill. It’s a sustained intellectual project.
The Long-Term Vision
This is a long-term commitment.
The plan is to create 300 episodes covering the sweep of human civilisation, from the first cities to the modern world. This is a comprehensive exploration that will take years to complete.
This isn’t a side project or a content experiment. It’s a serious undertaking to create something substantial and enduring.
You’re not just subscribing to a newsletter. You’re joining a sustained exploration of human history.
What Makes This Different?
Depth over breadth. 6,000-7,000 words allows real exploration. I can follow complexity, trace connections, and ask difficult questions. This is history that respects your intelligence.
Patient pacing. Eight weeks between episodes isn’t just a publishing schedule, it’s a commitment to quality over quantity.
Scholarly but accessible. I do the academic work, primary sources, historiographical debates, careful analysis, but write for general readers. You don’t need a history degree, just curiosity.
The long view. This project spans 6,000 years of history explored through sustained, patient writing. It’s comprehensive, integrated, and building toward something complete.
Written-first. These are essays that become podcasts, not scripts. The writing matters. The ideas matter. Form follows substance.
Who This Is For
If you’re curious about how we got here, not just what happened, but why it matters, this is for you.
If you appreciate depth, real research, careful thinking, long-form exploration, this is for you.
If you have patience, for complexity, for nuance, for ideas that develop over time, this is for you.
If you want more than clickbait history, more than listicles and hot takes, this is for you.
This is for readers and listeners who want to understand the long arc of human civilisation, one story at a time.
What You Get
Free Subscription
Main episodes every 8 weeks (6,000-7,000 words + podcast)
December mini-series every year - shorter pieces on timely historical themes
Partial access to the archive
Paid Subscription (£6/month or £55/year)
Everything above, plus:
Bonus content every 8 weeks - deep dives into topics that complement the main episodes
Community Chat
Supporting serious, independent historical writing
Paid subscribers get twice as much content, a main episode and a bonus piece every month, alternating every four weeks.
About Me
I’m Stephen Finnegan, writer and host of Historium: Civilisation.
I’m interested in the big questions: How did we get here? Why did civilisations rise and fall? How did ideas spread across continents? What patterns emerge when you take the long view of 6,000 years?
This project combines everything I love: historical research, philosophical inquiry, narrative writing, and the challenge of making complex ideas accessible without dumbing them down.
I’m in this for the long haul, a comprehensive exploration of human civilisation.
The First Episode
“Uruk: The First City”
February 3, 2026
We begin at the beginning - the first true city in human history. Around 3500 BCE, on the banks of the Euphrates, something unprecedented happened. Thousands of people came together to create something new: urban life.
Why did cities emerge? What made them possible? What changed when humans started living in permanent, complex communities?
The story of Uruk is the story of civilisation itself, the first steps on a journey that led to everything that came after.
Subscribe
Free or paid, you’re welcome here.
Free gets you the main journey, exploring how humans built, shaped, and understood their worlds through deep dives into civilisation’s key moments.
Paid supports the work and gets you twice as much, bonus content diving deeper into complementary topics.
Either way, you’re joining a sustained exploration of history that respects both the subject and your intelligence.
Welcome to Historium: Civilisation.
Exploring how we got here, one story at a time.
Connect
📧 Questions? Write me: stephenfinnegan@tutamail.com
🌐 Website: stephenfinnegan.com
🐦 Twitter/X: @sfinneganx
First episode launches February 3, 2026
