Lars Mehrling Brownworth is an American author and U.S. history, political science and humanities teacher at The Stony Brook School in Stony Brook on Long Island, New York, who created the top 50 podcast, 12 Byzantine Rulers: The History of the Byzantine Empire. The podcast was created on a whim by Lars and his brother, Anders Brownworth. He received his undergraduate degree from Houghton University and a MA in Humanities from the University of Dallas.