Oh it's one of those brisk 6 hour long episodes
― duped and used by my worst Miss U (President Keyes), Friday, 27 January 2017 15:56 (seven years ago) link
Yeah, the length of these podcasts is a bit ridiculous, but whatever, I'm never bored when listening to them.
― silverfish, Friday, 27 January 2017 16:00 (seven years ago) link
i just listened to my first of his podcasts - the american peril - which was a scant 4 hours long. it was p enjoyable but this is so otm:
whenever he quotes someone (which is lot; it's a history podcast) he suddenly adopts this weird stentorian loudspeaker voice, like he's announcing the starting lineup for the new york yankees ABSOLUTELY REGARDLESS of whatever the quoted material is, or what tone it has, or what it's about, or when it was written. it is TERRIBLE. you already are a stickler for saying "quote" and "endquote", dan, so the tone of voice change is TOTALLY UNNECESSARY. GAH
― Islamic State of Mind (jim in vancouver), Friday, 27 January 2017 17:25 (seven years ago) link
I learned about Revolutions about a week ago, and jumped in with the French Revolution, since I knew nothing about it and it seemed appropriate for the times. He's fun to listen to! I think I'm learning something.
― slathered in cream and covered with stickers (silby), Friday, 27 January 2017 17:29 (seven years ago) link
I had a hard time with the French revolution podcast. Such a complicated story with so many characters that it was hard to keep track of everything. If I had this in book form, it would be the kind of book where I constantly would be flipping back towards previous sections just to remember who this person was or what exactly happened then or whatever, but you can't really do that with audio. Then the next series is about the Haitian revolution which happens concurrently with the French one and what happened in France affects events in Haiti which means I have to go mentally keep track at what point things are in France as things are happening in Haiti (except that there is always a several week lag, since it takes a while for messages/people to travel between France to Haiti). Anyway about 6 or 7 episodes into the Haitian revolution I gave up. I would love to read a good book about this period though.
― silverfish, Friday, 27 January 2017 17:38 (seven years ago) link
Killer Mike is going to do a podcast on Reconstruction.
I've tried Dan Carlin so many times and I just can't do it. The bombast and the voice thing is such a turn off compared to History of Rome/Revolutions
― Kiarostami bag (milo z), Friday, 27 January 2017 18:36 (seven years ago) link
xp. the black jacobins is a very good read on the haitian revolution
― Islamic State of Mind (jim in vancouver), Friday, 27 January 2017 19:09 (seven years ago) link
The History Matters show from the guy who did the Fall of Rome podcast is pretty good so far. It's done by two academic historians who'd normally be talking about this stuff over beers anyway, so they decided to record it.
― THE SKURJ OF FAKE NEWS. (kingfish), Friday, 27 January 2017 20:52 (seven years ago) link
If you can't use bbc radio iplayer there are lots of Melvyn Bragg's In Our Time episodes on youtube. It varies from pretty good to absolutely essential, depending on the quality of guest contributors, which are often very good tbh. JFC would rather drink the lager than listen to Dan Carlin though, he sounds Trump reading history from a junior school book.
"The French Revolution... was yknow.. when warfare got..at least in the minds of Europeans in this era.. y'know ..really serious"
― calzino, Friday, 27 January 2017 22:53 (seven years ago) link
yes, it is rather lunkheaded in many ways. in the american peril episode he posits this duality of the american psyche in which they are on the one hand "almost unrealistically good" - by this he means that the US has an idealized democratic republican self-image - and that this butts heads with their desire to be a great power and engage in imperialistic colonialization. he repeats the words "almost unrealistically good" many times. he also goes for some fairly radical and obtuse historical relativism when he points out that the slaughter of the moros in the philippines and the joy that the american soldiers take in it is more understandable when you remember that the US has just finished slaughtering the indigenous population of america like a decade before and nobody gave a fuck about that either
― Islamic State of Mind (jim in vancouver), Friday, 27 January 2017 23:42 (seven years ago) link
i should add - despite the fact that many people in america were disgusted by the accounts they heard of the slaughtering of the Moros and thus the fact that it was possible for turn of the 20th century americans not to be total white supremacist maniacs
― Islamic State of Mind (jim in vancouver), Friday, 27 January 2017 23:44 (seven years ago) link
sidebar - highly recommend Presidents are People Too by former daily show writer/Flophouse co-host Eliot Kalan
serious & delving but short and light in tonei like it a lot.
new Abe Lincoln ep features Kalan's 2 1/2 yo son reciting (via Dad) the Gettysburg Addresscutest damn thing you'll ever hear
― Flamenco Drop (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 28 January 2017 01:04 (seven years ago) link
I just stumbled across a Dan Warren apocalyptic cutup of Dan Carlin. Hardcore Prophecy: The Trump of Doom.
Not as good as his Obama cutup for obvious reasons, but perhaps of interest to Hardcore History fans.
― #DeleteFacebook (Sanpaku), Tuesday, 20 March 2018 18:07 (six years ago) link
Citations Needed is a great show. This ep gets into local TV/news reporting, how that often revolves into police stenography, and how gentrification brings about more cops:
http://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/episode-54-local-crime-reporting-as-police-stenography
― Glower, Disruption & Pies (kingfish), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 18:15 (five years ago) link
Revolutions is rocking my world. Dude is so good at streamlining a huge amount of complicated information and communicating it both clearly and with an overarching clarity of intent. Very rare and underrated skill ime.
― Extra Shprankles (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 18:37 (five years ago) link
yeah, there are quite a very very good history podcasts these days, but they almost all follow the model Mike Duncan set down
― President Keyes, Wednesday, 17 October 2018 18:48 (five years ago) link
quite a few
oh i love Revolutionswhen I needed to nerd out on the French Rev it was a godsend
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 19:03 (five years ago) link
Only the dude from History of Rome does it better imo. But coming close is an achievement!!
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 19:04 (five years ago) link
same dude, right?
― President Keyes, Wednesday, 17 October 2018 19:10 (five years ago) link
Eastern Border is a good show about Soviet History from the perspective of the common folk, if you can get over the host's Latvian accent and occasional bizarro opinions about US politics.
― President Keyes, Wednesday, 17 October 2018 19:16 (five years ago) link
Yeah, I'm neck-deep in three different books about the French Revolution rn, and Duncan has pretty effortlessly cleared up basically any confusion or lingering questions that my reading material had failed to resolve. All while I'm working and only half paying attention.
― Extra Shprankles (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 19:17 (five years ago) link
My only complaint as I head into the homestretch is that he seems (understandably, as his wife was about to have a baby) to be rushing through a lot in order to wrap things up.
― Extra Shprankles (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 19:21 (five years ago) link
omg lol i didnt know it was the same guywell that explains EVERYTHING
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 19:40 (five years ago) link
seconding kingfish re: citations needed, it’s fkn great
― himalayan mountain hole (bizarro gazzara), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 20:03 (five years ago) link
I've been liking "The British History Podcast." It's crazy detailed though. He's been going for 4 years, 174 episodes so far, and hasn't even reached 1066 yet. It's very much in the Mike Duncan style.― Why because she True and Interesting (President Keyes), Wednesday, September 2, 2015 9:35 PM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
― Why because she True and Interesting (President Keyes), Wednesday, September 2, 2015 9:35 PM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
He's got to episode 295 now, and the year 945, so still over a hundred years away from 1066, it really is a life's work. I came on board about five years back, blitzed the first hundred or so episodes while stuck in a hotel in Guangzhou, and have been listening since. His presenting style is really not to my taste, this almost put me off at times, but luckily I was too far invested by that point to quit. It's odd as I do still find so many of his quirks vaguely annoying, but it's like listening to a friend, I've just got used to them. And have to respect the ridiculous amount of work he puts into the show, little things like pronouncing obscure place names and words like 'borough' in the "correct" way, can't help but respect this.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 20:05 (five years ago) link
Cold War Conversations - Cold War history, but on the street level. Fave episodes include a great interview with someone who put on underground punk gigs in East Germany, another who was a teenager during the Prague Spring, the son of famed U-2 pilot Francis Gary Powers, and even a member of the Trabant Owners Clubhttps://coldwarconversations.wordpress.com
― Elvis Telecom, Wednesday, 17 October 2018 20:26 (five years ago) link
wow that sounds dope
― Squeaky Fromage (VegemiteGrrl), Wednesday, 17 October 2018 20:28 (five years ago) link
just listening to The Korean War in Britain, it's good stuff.
― calzino, Wednesday, 17 October 2018 20:42 (five years ago) link
I skipped that one + went to the SR71 ep, better!
― calzino, Wednesday, 17 October 2018 21:03 (five years ago) link
The History of the World podcast is about as unpretentious as its stated aim is grandiose. I know next-to-nothing about the creator but he's very good at synthesizing a lot of information and making it both palatable and conversational. And he really is trying to tackle all of human history and pre-history (it takes him two dozen episodes to start making his way out of the Neolithic).
― Come and Rock Me, Hot Potatoes (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 13 August 2019 13:04 (four years ago) link
(I'm sampling other ancient history podcasts atm and haven't been bowled over otherwise. The History of Ancient Greece seems all right but the dude's voice/accent/inflection/whatever is a seeeeeeeerious hurdle and I don't know how much longer I can keep jumping.)
― Come and Rock Me, Hot Potatoes (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 13 August 2019 13:07 (four years ago) link
sounds great tbh, thks
― phil neville jacket (darraghmac), Tuesday, 13 August 2019 13:55 (four years ago) link
Yeah, I've subscribed as well.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 13 August 2019 13:59 (four years ago) link
sounds cool. I've checked some shows with a similar idea but they usually start with Sumeria
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Tuesday, 13 August 2019 14:08 (four years ago) link
So what’s the hivemind take in Dan Carlin? I started his WWI series today and I really enjoyed it and found several points illuminating, but I’ve also always been a terrible student of history who finds even a lot of layperson works too dry, so maybe I’m just falling for the wow effects of appealing narratives that aren’t totally accurate.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, 26 November 2019 14:17 (four years ago) link
I've never read anyone take him down as bad history but I hate his performance style so much I've never made it through an episode myself.
― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Tuesday, 26 November 2019 14:21 (four years ago) link
The criticism I've heard of Dan Carlin is that he represents old-school great man theory history, not sure how fair this is, but he's certainly a big fan of Churchill.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 26 November 2019 14:24 (four years ago) link
it is like listening to a dumb as fuck WWF commentator was my impression. Although since then a friend of mine from a public school background and much better educated than me said it is good stuff! I'm not convinced tbh.
― calzino, Tuesday, 26 November 2019 14:24 (four years ago) link
i actually like the bombast, the "NPR" podcast style just drives me up a wall
haven't heard one of his podcasts in ages, but the stuff i was listening to was pretty decent history-wise. i don't entirely trust him politically, but for "history as disaster porn" (which tends to be the approach he takes) it's good!
― Agnes Motörhead (rushomancy), Tuesday, 26 November 2019 14:29 (four years ago) link
There are four basic male voices I hear on US podcasts
* Old-timey transatlantic accent radio host voice* Bombastic hype man voice* Stand up comic chillin' with his bros voice* An imitation of Ira Glass
TBH I find all of these weird and grating to different degrees, only the third one seems at all natural, but it has a very high correlation with pricks with nothing interesting to say. Ultimately the last one is the mark of a decent-ish show.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 26 November 2019 14:32 (four years ago) link
Yeah I was into the style even though I guffawed at a couple of the most OTT moments. I basically need someone shouting in my face like a carnival barker to not drift off while learning history, it's a sad truth about myself I've come to accept.
I've been trying to do the History of Rome podcast too -- the content is digestible enough but the sound quality and vocals on the early eps are just painfully bad and it makes it especially hard to listen in the car, where I do most of my podcast listening.
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, 26 November 2019 14:33 (four years ago) link
It can be a gateway. I got interested in Roman history after his Death of the Republic series. He’s pretty aware that his mode of history is out of style academically.
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Tuesday, 26 November 2019 14:33 (four years ago) link
The guy who does the Martyrmade podcast seems like a right wing creep on Twitter, but his series of the founding of Israel and Jonestown are pretty great
― Muswell Hillbilly Elegy (President Keyes), Tuesday, 26 November 2019 14:35 (four years ago) link
Haven't gotten around to History of Rome yet but his later Revolutions podcast is great and suggests he's since ironed out whatever earlier kinks he'd experienced.
― War Crimes Tribunal of the Network Stars (Old Lunch), Tuesday, 26 November 2019 14:38 (four years ago) link
The first 50 episodes of HoR are kinda rough
― Its big ball chunky time (Jimmy The Mod Awaits The Return Of His Beloved), Tuesday, 26 November 2019 14:47 (four years ago) link
It sounds like a guy muttering voice memos into his iPhone in a bathroom
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, 26 November 2019 14:59 (four years ago) link
British History Podcast guy went back and re-recorded his first 50 or so out of sheer embarrassment. I re-did my first one because I found some new recordings, not doing any others barring some amazing discoveries, not sure what I make is even a podcast as most people understand it anyway.
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, 26 November 2019 15:12 (four years ago) link
Revolutions is finally at the Russian Revolution. They are at episode 23, and introduced Lenin last episode. It's kinda hilarious.
― Frederik B, Tuesday, 26 November 2019 15:14 (four years ago) link
― mfktz (Camaraderie at Arms Length), Tuesday, November 26, 2019 9:24 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink
First 1/3 of the first part of the WWI ep was certainly not very materialist in its analysis, although I wouldn't exactly say it was "great man theory" either -- if anything he seems enamored with the idea of random chance setting massive forces in motion (which, tbf, is kind of a standard way to read the start of WWI).
― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Tuesday, 26 November 2019 15:48 (four years ago) link