In this episode of History Through Fiction: The Podcast, Colin Mustful speaks with economist and author Saifedean Ammous about The Gold Standard, a book that blends history, alternate history, and economics into one provocative thought experiment. Together, they explore what might have changed if the world had stayed on the gold standard—and why that question still matters for anyone trying to understand war, inflation, freedom, and modern money.

Their conversation moves from the real monetary world of the late nineteenth century into Ammous's imagined turning point of 1914, where faster aviation and entrepreneurial ingenuity create a radically different financial future. Along the way, they discuss World War I, central banking, the Wright brothers, Louis Blériot, the logic behind alternate history, and the connection Ammo ...