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The Sword Guy Podcast

Listen in as Guy interviews a wide variety of interesting swordspeople and historians from around the world. Learn more about the practical, the tactical, the theoretical and the just plain awesome from a diverse group of voices.

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Podcast Tag: fencing

Episode 80

Strategy and War with Lynette Nusbacher

Dr. Lynette Nusbacher is a Strategist and Devil’s Advocate. Her work has included being a logistics officer in the Canadian Armed Forces, a writer of books such as Bannockburn 1314, a lecturer at Reading University, the senior intelligence advisor to the UK Government Cabinet Office, as well as a TV presenter of various military history shows, and she now runs a management consulting company, Nusbacher and Associates. Of course, most importantly from my perspective, […]

Episode 69

Swashbuckling with Sebastien de Castell

Sebastien de Castell lives a life of music, adventure and swordplay. He is the author of the Greatcoats series, which is full of sword action, and the Spellslinger series, which features magic finger guns! For all Sebastien’s books, see here: https://decastell.com/all-books/ In this episode we talk about how to write a great sword fight for stage, screen and literature, including these two classic scenes: Inigo and Westley in The Princess Bride The first duel […]

Episode 67

Tales from the National Fencing Museum with Malcolm Fare

My interview today is with Malcolm Fare, who is a collector of historical fencing books, a fencer himself and proprietor of the National Fencing Museum in the UK. The museum houses a library of over 300 books, 250 paintings and prints, 200 weapons, numerous masks, kit, trophies, posters, programmes, medals, stamps, postcards and other ephemera. You can click through on the museum’s website to see photos of the items. In 2017 I spent three […]

Episode 51

Revolution, Cooking and Knitting with Monica Gaudio

It’s the 50th episode! This week I’m in conversation with Monica Gaudio, known in the SCA as Illadore de Bedegrayne, and she is a cook, fencer, Marshal, Seneschal, knitter, Laurel and Master of Defence. We get into what all those titles mean in the episode. Monica has been studying medieval cookery for 30 years, with a mostly hands-on approach, i.e. trying to feed anywhere from 40 to 150 people at feast or dinner in […]

Episode 34

Battle of Nations with Beth Hammer

Photo by Olivia Blake In this episode I talk to Beth Hammer. One of Beth’s favourite pastimes is “This is Sparta” kicking people through fences as part of Battle of Nations competitions. Based in Seattle, USA, Beth practises HEMA and Escrima, and is now enjoying the freedom of Battle of Nations fighting. In this episode we explore what this fun activity involves, and also talk about Beth’s other hobby of fireman’s lifting men much […]

Episode 32

Pole Dancing with Swords, with Kelley Costigan

In this week’s episode I interview Kelley Costigan. Kelley is an actor, director, pole dancer, fencer, performance combatant, adventurer and pirate, currently living in Stratford-upon-Avon, UK, home of William Shakespeare. Listen to our conversation to discover the Shakespeare connection that inspired me to ask Kelley to narrate my audiobook, The Theory and Practice of Historical Martial Arts. (It’s out now: you can probably find it in your audiobook app of choice, or get it […]

Episode 31

Why Swords are Cool, with Damon Young

Damon Young is an Australian martial artist and philosopher, author of books like Philosophy in the Garden and the soon to be published in Europe, already out in Australia, On Getting Off: Sex and Philosophy. He has also edited a couple of books on philosophy and martial arts: Engagement, Philosophy and the Martial Arts, and Martial Arts and Philosophy: Beating and Nothingness. In this fascinating conversation we discuss the importance of the study of […]

Episode 30

Fencing in Russia, with Elena Muzurina

Elena Muzurina is a military sabre instructor, longsword tournament fencer, and owner of a HEMA equipment company. Elena is a champion – one of her proudest moments was winning at Swordfish – but HEMA is relatively new to Russia. In this episode we talk about what it is like learning Italian rapier and longsword in a country where there are very few sources translated into the language. We talk about the problems with fencing […]

Episode 28

Art and Fencing, with Nora Cannaday

Nora Cannaday is an artist and a fencer from sunny Southern California. She works primarily in watercolours and in illumination, though we cover a lot more in this episode, including calligraphy, translations, making a living from your art and whether simply putting in the hours of practice is enough to get good. You can see an example of her work here with the logo she produced for the Spada Press: In this episode we […]

Episode 25

Fire Eating and Fencing, with David Ito

David Ito is a sport épée fencer, Kendoka, longsword practitioner, and a fire eater. He also does 100 burpees first thing every morning. In this episode David tells us how he got into both fencing and fire eating, takes us through his somewhat intensive training regime, and shares good advice for anyone looking to get into teaching fencing as a career. In the podcast you will hear David talk about a footwork training machine, […]

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