ABOUT SURVIVE THE JIVE

My name is Tom Rowsell, I'm an historian, writer and film maker from England. In my professional career I have worked as a journalist and an international Science Communications specialist.

 

Survive the Jive is a YouTube channel with historical films about ancient pagan religions. I'm a qualified historian and documentary film maker. I focus mainly on Indo-European cultures and most specifically on Germanic/Norse paganism, because I am a pagan, but I also make videos on other subjects too. 

 

THE ORIGIN OF SURVIVE THE JIVE 

I started Survive the Jive™ blog in 2007 after I graduated with a BA in Media and Communications. The blog initially focused on anti-surveillance and anti-consumerism. The first tag-line was "A guide to surviving the surveillance state for the i-Phoney generation". The name referred to all the technophilic fads and misinformation in the media at the time, which I termed "jive." I was working as a journalist in London from 2008, mainly writing about art and music for several magazines while I used this blog and the associated Survive the Jive™ YouTube channel to address more political matters such as the Bolivarian revolution of Venezuela. 

Since 2009, the blog posts and videos of Survive the Jive™ changed focus instead to look more at mythology, spirituality and folklore but I still espouse the same anti-consumerist ideals that I set out with. I got a Master’s degree in Medieval History at UCL in 2012, which greatly expanded my ideas on such subjects, particularly in regards to the values and religions of my Anglo-Saxon and Norse ancestors.

I continue to take an interest in polytheistic religions. The most recent direction of the StJ project since 2016 has been population genetics, with focus on the culture, identity and religion of the Indo-Europeans. My videos are based on thorough interdisciplinary research, drawing from archaeology, linguistics, historical sources, comparative mythology and population genetics - particularly archaeogenetics.

Most of my films are still about history; whether Anglo-Saxons, Neolithic bell-beaker folk, Yamnaya people or Indo-European invaders of India. I will endeavour to improve and expand the StJ project in the future with livestreams, public events and speaking tours.

The best way to learn about who I am and what I stand for is by watching my videos.

CONTACT SURVIVE THE JIVE

Contact Tom Rowsell for bookings, interviews and collaborations.