Political/History podcasts - Recommendations

1. I'm a lefty
2. Accuracy is important
3. I don't want to be bored to death
4. I don't just want to hear the same thing that is said by every talking head - pref. some insight needed.

Anyone know of anything to listen to?

<3

I love the BBC's History of the World in 100 Objects series:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/ahistoryoftheworld/

Dan Carlin's "Hardcore History" podcasts are pretty awesome. His series on the Nazi/Soviet War and the Death of the Roman Republic are great.

tybgs

So...

Any other recommendations? Is there an Occupy podcast? Or just a lefty politics one that is sufferable?

I p much just listen to the guardian one, which every week is just 'emili isn't that bad, honest, srs not as bad as we all think he is' and need something better.

http://thehistoryofrome.typepad.com/

love that guy! it's so nice to hear a voice talking about ancient history that is not an old person voice. he's all action and no fat too. no cutesy editing, very little editorializing. i like it. i'm only like 12 episodes in though. did it just end?

Dan Carlin's "Hardcore History" podcasts are pretty awesome. His series on the Nazi/Soviet War and the Death of the Roman Republic are great.
― President Keyes, Friday, July 8, 2011 9:48 PM (10 months ago)

^thiiiiis. loved the fall of Rome series and also "Thor's Angels"

whoa, thehistoryofrome looks awesome! about how long are the episodes?

12-15 min? They're super dense though imo. He does a little wrapup at the end but I can only digest about that amt of information anyway.

In Our Time with Melvyn Bragg podcast from the BBC is pretty great.

hardcore history is basically the only thing I listen to these days. Death Throes of the Republic was amazing, totally worth the 15 hours or so it takes to listen to.

history of rome is good too, though it doesn't grab me the way hardcore history does, I have to force myself to keep paying attention sometimes.

what's great about history of rome though is the way it's broken down into short 15-20 minute episodes, compared to hardcore history's 1-5 hour episodes.

i like forcing myself to pay attention. it's good for the brain!

oh definitely

History of Rome just ended this week, after 5 years or so.

Some other good stuff:

Ancient Rome ReFocused
Twilight History

Also: My History Can Beat Up Your Politics

I started History of Rome again thanks to this thread. It was getting a little heavy for a while there, but I have the energy for it again.

I like Hardcore History, too, tho some of Dan's Common Sense shows tend to be a little more off

hardcore history is great but fucking looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong

Yeah, but you wait so long for a new episode that it's dope to get a 5 hour long one.

I just started Hardcore History and I love it

thanks ilx!

Just finished "Thor's Angels" episode of Hardcore History. Great great great!

Made it all the way through The History of Rome. Am now listening to 12 Byzantine Rulers, which sort of works as a sequel to the History of Rome (along with the Thor's Angels episode of Hardcore History, I guess). This is good but a little bit too fast paced at times. I wish it would go into the details a bit more.

Also the Wrath of the Kahns Hardcore History series is really good

for people who are into NYC history the Bowery Boys podcast is pretty good

There is a History of Byzantium podcast that bills itself as a continuation of the History of Rome (different dude, though.)

http://thehistoryofbyzantium.wordpress.com/

Thanks, I'll definitely check that out.

Was tipped off to The History Of Oil podcast by the current AV Club Podmass. I'm a couple episodes in (they're short - about 20min each) and it's worth a listen. He's pretty much going through Yergin's The Prize in sequence, but with a more macro-political eye. Only complaint is that I wish the guy would be mindful that he's speaking to a listener, rather than 100% focus on reading from the text but I'm being picky. Anyway, I maintain that knowing about oil is as important as knowing about the Cold War. Check it out...

Also the Wrath of the Kahns Hardcore History series is really good

^^^^^^^^ on this. Don't miss it.

JB Shreve Presents the End of History is a pretty interesting podcast-- the guy picks a topic of contemporary interest--the Middle East crisis, Economic inequality--and goes in depth into the history of it over the course of 20 episodes or so.

That sounds good-- how's the person talking? (I strongly prefer super dry humorless commentary if it matters)

He's closer to a Dan Carlin style, though more subdued.

history of Rome guy is starting a new podcast in September:

Yes the next show is called Revolutions. I'm going to take 8-12 revolutions and cover them in 12-15 episode chunks. So if the History of Rome was a novel, this will be more like a collection of stories.

I'm still working on the final list, but I'm sure to cover: English, American, French, Haitian, 1848, Mexican, Russian, Chinese, Cuban.

http://www.reddit.com/r/history/comments/1fff0g/hello_i_am_mike_duncan_creator_of_the_history_of/

should be interesting

what's his story -- how does he have time to school podcast listeners about the history of rome and 8-12 revolutions in his downtime?

(i like him btw -- just wondering whether he is a professional historian/teacher/if he works at the apple store/what his deal is)

Def. an amateur historian

from what I read in that ask me anything, he is an amateur historian and stay at home dad

He is a really good lecture organizer, always repeating key takeaway points and breaking major events down into operations, followed by the significance of the operations/events.

He should be making some $$ for helping to make ancient history comprehensible and enjoyable without resorting to LCD tactics like splashy blood/boobz.

Yeah, after finishing History of Rome and trying out a bunch of other history podcasts, I've really come to appreciate how good he is.

yeah I just started digging into History of Rome finally, and am really impressed by the way he organizes his episodes and always does a very nice encapsulation of what's been covered

AND so genius to have them in short 10-15 minute chunks. Much less daunting, and he's not drowning you in how smart he is.

also he doesn't randomly SHOUT AT ME like Rush Limbaugh I mean Dan Carlin

the quiet/loud thing Dan Carlin does is actually really good at holding my attention. With something like the History of Rome I occasionally zone out and then have to rewind.

i love carlin - he reminds me a lot of our own michaelangelo matos - but he does this thing i CAN'T STAND --> 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

that would drive me BANANAS
i like history of rome guy because he talks like a person under 50, naturally, slowly, and without editorializing. i have an idea that he's proooobably pretty good looking and i'd like to keep it that way.

yeah LL you would not like Carlin

and Tracer OTM, I even played a clip of him for Mr Veg because it was cracking me op the way he would 'perform' the quotes, it is so hilarious and distracting and weird.

I was actually listening to an early Hardcore History podcast a couple of weeks ago (I think it was the bubonic nukes episode) and they did this ridiculous voice of doom vocal effect whenever Dan Carlin quoted anything, which made his quoting 100x worse than usual.

Scare quotes

Mike Duncan of The History Of Rome podcast fame has a new one: Revolutions

Finally! Although I'm starting to feel dubious of the "guy effortlessly summarizes history books he has read" format. He's really good at it, so I'll give it a chance.

too many notes though

I guess you could listen without paying attention to the history podcasts I favor in the same way one might in a college history class. Meaning that you're not likely to learn much but, hey man, that lecture hall sure is a great place for a leisurely snooze.

It feels weird to listen to music before lunch. When I was driving a lot before podcasts I had to listen to Diane Rehm and sports talk radio in the morning.

I sleep better to talking than I do to music. Don't know why. And then I have a half-heard podcast in my library, and I'll relisten to it again while I'm out walking/biking/whatever.

Also, I'll listen to a half hour podcast in bits and pieces, and I'll relisten to it if I feel like I'm missing something. It's malleable, not like a book, where I really feel like I have to get into it.

Dan Carlin interrupted by underwear ads would be something

"Those who have not experienced it can hardly fathom the STENCH alone that emitted from these trenches -- rivers of human waste and filth, piles of rotting corpses. Too bad those troops didn't have Mack Weldon underwear -- it's protected by a silver-infused antimicrobial lining that prevents odor."

I have two listening modes for podcasts, stuff to listen to and stuff to sleep to. one show is both, when a new episode comes out I'll give the previous one a proper re-listen then go to sleep to the new episode.

massive wowwwww @ putting on podcasts and not listening to them

idk how do you stop your internal monologue from overwhelming you dude

There’s nothing quite like podcasts for that

where can you torrent audiobooks

all I find there is links to Amazon/audible - not torrents.

The self is lava; podcasts are the rocks we leap on to avoid contact. Actually listening to them is a bonus.

silby otm, i have podcasts about rugby that are for sleeptime, its great

when you get past the iffy product placement that Revolutions podcast is very good.

idk how do you stop your internal monologue from overwhelming you dude

― Swilling Ambergris, Esq. (silby), Wednesday, December 4, 2019 7:18 PM (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Effing unconsciousness isn't even enough to quiet my brain.

when you get past the iffy product placement that Revolutions podcast is very good.

after like three eps you master the art of skipping to the strings

It's not 'product placement' it's just ads, lol.

'Lenin spent three years in a prison in Siberia, where his only comfort was a Casper mattress, which comes in three models...'

I started listening to a new podcast about Medieval history, but the episodes are all 7 to 11 minutes long, much of them taken up by ads and patreon requests. Like how do you have patrons when you haven’t even established your podcast yet? And why 4 different hosts in ten episodes?

xps

when someone starts a history podcast talking about how good a particular brand of suitcase is - that is product placement to me, pal.

that's an ad reading

the only thing close to product placement these podcasts do is when they cite a text and then say it's available on Audible

maybe right and wrong, but to me an ad is not made by the content provider.

Isn't that just old school radio?

Yeah if the podcaster more or less reads a script that the advertiser provided, it's called an ad reading. If the podcaster just sneaks in a reference in the middle of the story, without breaking the story, that would be product placement.

I must listen to too much bbc or something (where only CCHQ gets free advertising), but when I click on a History Podcast - as far as I'm concerned anything that isn't part of the podcast whether at the start, middle or end is intrusive product placement - so there!

ok dude but product placement is a term with a meaning

I was really just trying to make a joke because I found the idea of product placement in a podcast about Revolutions hilarious. I honestly want it to happen. 'How to explain the Marxist notion of surplus value? Well, when Harrys make their patented five blade razor...'

I know I'm repeating myself, but come on! It's funny!

"Lenin certainly had a knack for political planning. You might even say he was a Policy Genius..."

I know it is easy to click past them, but these "ad-readings" at the start wouldn't be so jarring if it was followed by some sub-History Channel shite - but it is very high quality material and somehow it bothers me even more because of that! Any fogeeraboutit. I've jumped in on ep 21 or something and missed all sorts of stuff on the SR's and Nicky's dad getting whacked.

I think Mike Duncan was the one who started saying "As you know.." at the beginning of ad readings. Everyone else uses it now.

calzino fave Armando iannucci had a funny bit in an interview where he was talking about the surreal experience of listening to the 538 podcast & them trying to incorporate the ads into the “natural” flow of conversation, so you’d get all this wonkish political analysis and then without breaking stride someone will go “we’ll come back to that point in a moment , but I just want to talk about underpants for a bit”

Duncan's method definitely the best. I hate the way pods like Behind the Bastards try to fold in their ads in a "witty" way mid-conversation

Slipping the ads in to the ordinary flow of events is a venerable tradition from old time radio sitcom days, it’s funniest in like Fibber McGee and Molly when the pitchman comes in and finds an excuse to start talking about Johnson’s Wax and everyone else gets mad at him.

The ad-readings on the Slow Burn podcast are pretty funny as well. Especially the underpants he keeps talking about.

xpost It's also pretty common on AM radio, where you will have a local station commercial and then Rush will come back on and talk about Snapple or QuickBooks.

the thing is that if one accepts ads as a necessary evil, in the sense of, "well, my favorite podcasters gotta eat, and this is how they can make some money," then you also have to accept that the advertisers can tell if you skip the ad and they don't get the money. so folding the ads into wacky skits and in-jokes (Blank Check does a ton of this) is clearly a way to keep their diehard fans from skipping ahead, since the ad itself becomes a thing to joke about on Reddit and Twitter, etc. every so often something goes so spectacularly wrong with one of their funny voice characters that i do actually get a chuckle out of them, somewhat ashamedly.

Dana Gould basically turns his Audible ads into 20 minute monster movie history segments

I can't imagine why anyone wouldn't skip through the 7 minutes of ads at the beginnings History on Fire episodes. Maybe now that it's behind a paywall that doesn't happen.

Not a history podcaster obviously but Greg Proops used to do sarcastic readings of his ads, criticise the prose, read out the instructions, make his own jingles "audible... for when you don't feel like reading!" etc. but at some point they stopped him doing that and I stopped listening to the ads. Adam Buxton does a good job of making them into entertaining jingles/sketches.

I know it's toxic to most, but the Cumtown ad reads are one of the best parts of the show - they basically do everything they can possibly do to get fired by the sponsor.

Hollywood Handbook is the ad read GOAT

Adam Buxton does a pretty good job with ads but ymmv (perhaps that should read your ability to deal with shit whimsy may vary, or yatdwsw).

Anyone know how much a podcaster would get for an ad?

I think some only get paid if people sign up for a service using their code

I know that Itunes U's heyday (if it ever had one) is like a decade past, but I find listening to decent undergrad lecture courses about a million times more informative and entertaining than any of the history podcasts I've tried. I found that colleges were only really putting their "tried and true" lecturers online, and a formally trained historian speaking to a present audience was usually more engaging than a hobbyist talking into a microphone in his study. And the professors carry a little more credible for me, tbh.

I really liked Stanford's "History of the International System," and Yale had a French history from 1871-present that was pretty good. There were probably good ones from less fancy institutions too, those are just a couple of the ones I found.

Lectures are good, but History podcasts are for EXHAUSTIVE detail.

like sure, you could listen to 7 hours of lectures about the Crusades, or you could listen to 318 episodes of the History of the Crusades podcast

Lol that’s definitely true. I guess I just prefer audiobooks for that.