Wesley Livesay
@historyofthesecondworldwar.com
Creator of History of the Great War and History of the Second World War weekly history podcasts. Always ready and willing to discuss video games, Tolkien, and the Detroit Red Wings
Pinned
At some point in time, I did something to make every dynamic podcast ad server think I speak Spanish.
I'm not sure what I did, but I am generally okay with a bunch of marketing money being wasted on me hearing ads I cannot understand.
I'm not sure what I did, but I am generally okay with a bunch of marketing money being wasted on me hearing ads I cannot understand.
November 13, 2025 at 3:58 PM
At some point in time, I did something to make every dynamic podcast ad server think I speak Spanish.
I'm not sure what I did, but I am generally okay with a bunch of marketing money being wasted on me hearing ads I cannot understand.
I'm not sure what I did, but I am generally okay with a bunch of marketing money being wasted on me hearing ads I cannot understand.
I thought this was a good bit of investigation into how well LLMs do on a few common use cases. LLMs can be useful tools in some scenarios, but only when their limitations and challenges are well understood. And those limitations change every few months when a new one is released, in weird ways.
Happy to share a recent publication in the @jdighist.bsky.social exploring how historians are applying generative AI. I argue that LLMs can be considered a new form of historical source, and source criticism can inform our critiques of these techs.
journalofdigitalhistory.org/en/article/J...
1/8
journalofdigitalhistory.org/en/article/J...
1/8
Mapping the Latent Past: Assessing Large Language Models as Digital Tools through Source Criticism
This article examines how digital historians can use large language models (LLMs) as research tools while critically assessing their limitations through source criticism of their underlying training d...
journalofdigitalhistory.org
November 11, 2025 at 3:33 PM
I thought this was a good bit of investigation into how well LLMs do on a few common use cases. LLMs can be useful tools in some scenarios, but only when their limitations and challenges are well understood. And those limitations change every few months when a new one is released, in weird ways.
Reposted by Wesley Livesay
I'm cited in this piece in the Toronto Star today about the spread of generative AI, the challenges it poses for historians & history education, and the need for digital literacy.
www.thestar.com/news/how-fak...
www.thestar.com/news/how-fak...
How fake AI history is threatening Remembrance Day — with endless YouTube videos glamorizing Nazis
A search for any historical topic is sure to be met with a torrent of fake AI-generated garbage — at real cost to our history.
www.thestar.com
November 11, 2025 at 2:15 PM
I'm cited in this piece in the Toronto Star today about the spread of generative AI, the challenges it poses for historians & history education, and the need for digital literacy.
www.thestar.com/news/how-fak...
www.thestar.com/news/how-fak...
I wish that I have updated the code for the somafm-cli package years ago to track listening statistics across sessions. For a very long time almost every moment of podcast work has been powered by deepspaceone.
November 11, 2025 at 2:05 AM
I wish that I have updated the code for the somafm-cli package years ago to track listening statistics across sessions. For a very long time almost every moment of podcast work has been powered by deepspaceone.
K-Pop Demon Hunters still going strong in our household. Every time I hear "fit check for my napalm era" this is all I think about:
November 11, 2025 at 1:04 AM
K-Pop Demon Hunters still going strong in our household. Every time I hear "fit check for my napalm era" this is all I think about:
Reposted by Wesley Livesay
Bracketing that they absolutely failed here. And bracketing that such a failure reflects a dearth of discipline, understanding, and acumen...
They just don't got the juice, man. Absolutely sauceless leadership.
They just don't got the juice, man. Absolutely sauceless leadership.
CNN: Was the shutdown worth it?
HAKEEM JEFFRIES: We have waged a battle on behalf of the American people.
CNN: But you didn't get what you want.
JEFFRIES: At the end of the day, the fight lives on.
HAKEEM JEFFRIES: We have waged a battle on behalf of the American people.
CNN: But you didn't get what you want.
JEFFRIES: At the end of the day, the fight lives on.
November 11, 2025 at 12:28 AM
Bracketing that they absolutely failed here. And bracketing that such a failure reflects a dearth of discipline, understanding, and acumen...
They just don't got the juice, man. Absolutely sauceless leadership.
They just don't got the juice, man. Absolutely sauceless leadership.
Reposted by Wesley Livesay
Excerpt from #AdvanceBritannia which is now available in the UK! North American release January 6. uk.bookshop.org/p/books/brit...
November 10, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Excerpt from #AdvanceBritannia which is now available in the UK! North American release January 6. uk.bookshop.org/p/books/brit...
I read a lot for the podcast and not for the podcast. Hundreds and thousands of pages every month. Been doing it for years.
I think I have encountered the word "insouciant" for the first time.
I think I have encountered the word "insouciant" for the first time.
November 9, 2025 at 9:10 PM
I read a lot for the podcast and not for the podcast. Hundreds and thousands of pages every month. Been doing it for years.
I think I have encountered the word "insouciant" for the first time.
I think I have encountered the word "insouciant" for the first time.
Do I have any graphic designers following me that are open for a bit of freelance work for an upcoming project? My artistic abilities are less than zero. General scope would be an icon, header image, and maybe 1-2 utility images all on the same theme/idea.
Timeframe: by end of year
Timeframe: by end of year
November 7, 2025 at 7:09 PM
Do I have any graphic designers following me that are open for a bit of freelance work for an upcoming project? My artistic abilities are less than zero. General scope would be an icon, header image, and maybe 1-2 utility images all on the same theme/idea.
Timeframe: by end of year
Timeframe: by end of year
Reposted by Wesley Livesay
Publication day in 🇬🇧 #AdvanceBritannia
November 6, 2025 at 12:35 PM
Publication day in 🇬🇧 #AdvanceBritannia
Many people are saying this.
Congratulations! Your interview with @historyofthesecondworldwar.com was fantastic!
November 6, 2025 at 8:05 PM
Many people are saying this.
I don't necessarily understand the science, but that seems like a better way to power cargo ships (as long as it is safe).
Incredible!
China unveils power of thorium reactor for world’s largest cargo ship
www.scmp.com/news/china/s...
China unveils power of thorium reactor for world’s largest cargo ship
www.scmp.com/news/china/s...
China unveils power of thorium reactor for world’s largest cargo ship
Technological breakthrough could revolutionise commercial shipping, naval engineering and deep sea operations if rolled out at scale.
www.scmp.com
November 6, 2025 at 5:50 PM
I don't necessarily understand the science, but that seems like a better way to power cargo ships (as long as it is safe).
Great point about the problems with LLM generated text. Even when a smart, capable, knowledgeable human reviews the text they have to be looking for different problems compared to human written text. The fact that LLMs have (by and large) immaculate grammar, punctuation, and structure doesn't help.
I think sometimes they are reviewing it, but they’re reviewing it the way they’d review a human’s work. AI-generated errors are very different than human mistakes, and you can’t at ALL rely on the same assumptions that you can with a human being’s work.
November 6, 2025 at 3:09 PM
Great point about the problems with LLM generated text. Even when a smart, capable, knowledgeable human reviews the text they have to be looking for different problems compared to human written text. The fact that LLMs have (by and large) immaculate grammar, punctuation, and structure doesn't help.
This might be a front runner for: Explain why so many people are miserable in a single article not answering the question of why so many people are miserable.
It encapsulates and explains the grindset mindset of misery that is almost an expectation these days.
lifehacker.com/how-to-incre...
It encapsulates and explains the grindset mindset of misery that is almost an expectation these days.
lifehacker.com/how-to-incre...
Level Up Your Productivity With 'Time Pockets'
Every moment has value and can contribute to your productivity, even the ones where you're seemingly doing nothing.
lifehacker.com
November 4, 2025 at 7:16 PM
This might be a front runner for: Explain why so many people are miserable in a single article not answering the question of why so many people are miserable.
It encapsulates and explains the grindset mindset of misery that is almost an expectation these days.
lifehacker.com/how-to-incre...
It encapsulates and explains the grindset mindset of misery that is almost an expectation these days.
lifehacker.com/how-to-incre...
Just got a YT ad that started with "Want to be a successful screenwriter? Here is an AI product that will write screenplays for you!" which gave me a good chuckle. Want to be awesome at something? What if you just did not have to do that thing?
November 4, 2025 at 4:03 PM
Just got a YT ad that started with "Want to be a successful screenwriter? Here is an AI product that will write screenplays for you!" which gave me a good chuckle. Want to be awesome at something? What if you just did not have to do that thing?
There is a lot of discussion about AI, global warming, and societal collapse. But before all that happens can we at least fix these stupid timezone/daylight savings time shenanigans.
Swatch Internet Time is the future, humanity just needs to stop living in the past: gwil.garden/internet-time/
Swatch Internet Time is the future, humanity just needs to stop living in the past: gwil.garden/internet-time/
internet time!!!
gwil.garden
November 4, 2025 at 1:38 AM
There is a lot of discussion about AI, global warming, and societal collapse. But before all that happens can we at least fix these stupid timezone/daylight savings time shenanigans.
Swatch Internet Time is the future, humanity just needs to stop living in the past: gwil.garden/internet-time/
Swatch Internet Time is the future, humanity just needs to stop living in the past: gwil.garden/internet-time/
I have not checked the analytics on the podcast website in literal years. But recently 90% of the traffic is from China and Singapore. I am guessing those are just LLM bots hovering up my words so that they can be assimilated into the machine.
So that is fun.
So that is fun.
November 3, 2025 at 9:27 PM
I have not checked the analytics on the podcast website in literal years. But recently 90% of the traffic is from China and Singapore. I am guessing those are just LLM bots hovering up my words so that they can be assimilated into the machine.
So that is fun.
So that is fun.
Reposted by Wesley Livesay
Excerpt from #AdvanceBritannia which is released in the UK on 6 November (Thursday!), preorders appreciated! uk.bookshop.org/p/books/brit...
November 3, 2025 at 11:20 AM
Excerpt from #AdvanceBritannia which is released in the UK on 6 November (Thursday!), preorders appreciated! uk.bookshop.org/p/books/brit...
Weekly interviews on the podcast continue today with my conversation with Hans Smith. We discussed his book on his family member's experiences in the 384th Bomb Group and the journey of researching the experiences of a family member in the war.
historyofthesecondworldwar.com/interviews/s...
historyofthesecondworldwar.com/interviews/s...
Interview 48: Flying with the 384th Bomb Group with Hans Smith
historyofthesecondworldwar.com
November 2, 2025 at 2:06 PM
Weekly interviews on the podcast continue today with my conversation with Hans Smith. We discussed his book on his family member's experiences in the 384th Bomb Group and the journey of researching the experiences of a family member in the war.
historyofthesecondworldwar.com/interviews/s...
historyofthesecondworldwar.com/interviews/s...
Meteor, save us from ourselves. Only through the cleansing fire of damnation can we be purified.
Yeah, no. This is great. I’m sure it won’t backfire at all. Who needs real historians anyway? Let’s go off a database of crowdsourced and un-curated information and push it to the masses.
October 31, 2025 at 4:27 PM
Meteor, save us from ourselves. Only through the cleansing fire of damnation can we be purified.
The reason given for any military coup is that "civic collapse is deep enough", they just vary on how they define "civic collapse".
October 30, 2025 at 8:21 PM
The reason given for any military coup is that "civic collapse is deep enough", they just vary on how they define "civic collapse".
French #WW2 history question. I think this comes down to simply my lack of experience. Does anyone know if there are any easily accessible French cabinet minutes or meeting records? I don't need tons of detail, but would need to know the basic topics of cabinet periods during the Phoney War period.
October 30, 2025 at 8:17 PM
French #WW2 history question. I think this comes down to simply my lack of experience. Does anyone know if there are any easily accessible French cabinet minutes or meeting records? I don't need tons of detail, but would need to know the basic topics of cabinet periods during the Phoney War period.
Reposted by Wesley Livesay
Every European armor encounter from late 1944 onward is like the 1st SS Totenkopf Ubermenschen Panzergrenadiers hiding from two dozen Iowa farmboys with bazookas who want to brag they actually killed the only functional Tiger tank in the sector
October 30, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Every European armor encounter from late 1944 onward is like the 1st SS Totenkopf Ubermenschen Panzergrenadiers hiding from two dozen Iowa farmboys with bazookas who want to brag they actually killed the only functional Tiger tank in the sector
You know, it would be much easier to make a podcast about the #SWW if it all wasn't so bloody connected. Want to talk about North Africa 1940? Where/how much do you talk about Greece? What about Taranto, do you do that whole story? Malta? East Africa? Calabria?
October 30, 2025 at 12:53 AM
You know, it would be much easier to make a podcast about the #SWW if it all wasn't so bloody connected. Want to talk about North Africa 1940? Where/how much do you talk about Greece? What about Taranto, do you do that whole story? Malta? East Africa? Calabria?
Reposted by Wesley Livesay
Submission no. 500 at the Journal of Scandinavian Military Studies (SJMS) landed this morning!
We publish in the field of military studies: multidisciplinary, practice‑relevant, with Scandinavian roots and a global scope
All open access
Learn more about @sjms.bsky.social: sjms.nu/articles/10....
We publish in the field of military studies: multidisciplinary, practice‑relevant, with Scandinavian roots and a global scope
All open access
Learn more about @sjms.bsky.social: sjms.nu/articles/10....
October 29, 2025 at 2:15 PM
Submission no. 500 at the Journal of Scandinavian Military Studies (SJMS) landed this morning!
We publish in the field of military studies: multidisciplinary, practice‑relevant, with Scandinavian roots and a global scope
All open access
Learn more about @sjms.bsky.social: sjms.nu/articles/10....
We publish in the field of military studies: multidisciplinary, practice‑relevant, with Scandinavian roots and a global scope
All open access
Learn more about @sjms.bsky.social: sjms.nu/articles/10....