00:00 The hosts discuss their personal lives and the host's failed attempt to get the other host to sing.

01:54 The hosts discuss their summer plans and the host's reluctance to read books, but the other host tries to convince her to give it a try.

03:56 The hosts recommend Mike Duncan's book "The Storm Before the Storm" as a fun and informative read about the beginning of the end of the Roman Republic and the context leading up to the more famous civil wars.

05:51 The hosts recommend Dan Jones's book on the Wars of the Roses as a deeper and more involved read, with a breathtakingly fun narrative and fully developed characters, and also suggest watching the series "The Hollow Crown" as a companion to get in the mood.

07:46 The hosts recommend watching "Outlaw King" on Netflix and reading Philip Gregory's books on the Wars of the Roses for a more fictional take, as well as Hillary Mantell's "Wolf Hall" and "Bring Up the Bodies" for historical fiction, and suggest trying one of the Oxford histories of the United States for a deeper dive into American history.

09:38 The hosts recommend the Oxford histories of the United States as the best one-volume introductions to any period of American history, with each book written by master scholars and highly polished, representing a marriage between scholarly consensus and excellent style.

11:29 The host concludes the episode by thanking the listeners and offering to provide book recommendations, as well as providing his contact information, and then an ad for another podcast begins.