Political/History podcasts - Recommendations

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.

hey, beats actually reading history books

i like reading history books. if he weren't so good at keeping himself out of it, i would have bailed on the history of rome almost immediately, but he's really good at that. no filler, no fluff, minimal editorializing. i guess as far as summarizers go, he's at the top of the heap!

otm

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.

Just finished the 12 part series on the Charles Manson murders on "You Must Remember This". Very highly recommended. The late 60s in L.A. seems like such a crazy time and place.

Otm. Her "voice work" is super facepalm but I really enjoyed it overall, she researched the hell out of it.

Moshe Kasher's "Hound Tall" is fun, with an expert on a topic paired with some stand-ups

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

completely OTM, Dan Carlin is unlistenable.

so much shouting

Some of it is amusing, like his jubilation over the first dot.com bubble bursting and prediction of shopping bags and ppl ordering goods with a quill pen looking solid!

xp

I've got it shared on Soulseek if you are online rn - folder is titled "letter from america".

Am getting no results! That's ok, maybe tomorrow!

apart from that Scottish duo beloved of N Sturgeon obv! It will be on most days after GMT noon if you can be arsed trying again.

LBI you can subscribe to the shipping forecast in BBC Sounds app

podcast ad rates are measured in “CPM” which is dollars per 1000 listeners. $25 is considered a pretty good CPM. so if an episode of hollywood handbook gets 100K unique listeners, a $25 CPM will get them $2500.

I use PocketCasts which is great at remembering where I left off. It has taken a turn for the worse in the last six months, but I've tried a bunch of other apps too and nothing comes close to it in terms of functionality.

I like This Podcast Will Kill You on various diseases. Comes with a relevant cocktail each week and it's
Non alcoholic equivalent.
2 women giving the history of human contact with the disease.

Your Queen History where 2 guys snark at each other in various subjects relevant to queer history.

Irish History Podcast where somebody I used to know has spent the last 9 years outlining the history of Ireland. He's spent a lot of time on the famine.

Stuff You Missed In History Class.
2 women explore various subjects of somewhat esoteric history.

Dressed
2 women explore fashion history.

And a few others which will come to me later.

Stuff You Missed In History Class is good for the range of stuff it covers, and the presenters are pretty good, but the episodes are something like 40% ads and 10% listener mail.

Thank you Tracer, that's it!

awesome!

once subscribed new eps will appear in ‘My Sounds’

My man! "Fair, good."

speaking of Sounds, there’s a history podcast from Horrible Histories fella now called “You’re Dead To Me” which people seem to like

Hadn't realised that was who that was. Listened to a few of them a couple of weeks back.
Nerdy chatty stuff about aspects of history.
I then wound up with several episodes of Horrible Histories on during the week

Just listened to the Battle of Jutland segment of Hardcore History and I swear he said "HMS Indiefaggotable" at least three times -- first time I though it was just a slip, but he really can't pronounce that word.

Amazingly I'm up to Blueprint for Armageddon VI now (final part). Still enjoying overall -- he's bad on some points (his take on Marx was painfully simplistic) but he's great at conveying what war is like from the ground and at covering a lot of different ground and making the whole war seem like a moving worldwide puzzle, also at conveying a sense of the horrors of battle, and the changes in technology and military organization and strategy.

I would def do another Carlin series when finished, which one should I pick next?

his best imo is the series about the Mongols

i wish people would start recommending some good Political/History podcasts on this thread ! (jokes obv!)

I've really taken to the revolutions podcast, the episode about Bakunin is excellent.

yeah same, I'm totally addicted.

I need to exercise more listening discipline, because I've been quite random in the order of listening to the eps.

I'm gonna second Wrath of the Khans for Hardcore History. It's definitely the best series he's done, though part of that might be me just not knowing a whole lot about that history beforehand.

just started "Know Your Enemy" -- two chill very smart lefties (one a former conservative intellectual-in-training) discuss the history and provide a sort of field guide to movement conservatism. digging it so far.

Listened to the first few Revolutions eps on the Russian Revolution. Good counterpart to the WWI series in a way, and nice to listen to something a little headier than Hardcore History. I didn't find any of it hard to understand except for the fact that he covers so much ground so quickly that I frequently had to hit the 15 secs back button. He'd make a good intro course lecturer but it can be hard to follow while doing something else like driving, which is when I'm usually listening.

Carlin also has a real talent for imagery and story that I don't think Duncan quite has to the same extent. But Duncan's style is much better for something like trying to explain the foundations of Marxist thought, which I don't think Carlin could even do, let alone succinctly.

And I bet you've never had a closer shave since you started using Harry's razors, eh man alive?

Carlin also has a real talent for imagery and story that I don't think Duncan quite has to the same extent. But Duncan's style is much better for something like trying to explain the foundations of Marxist thought, which I don't think Carlin could even do, let alone succinctly.

― longtime caller, first time listener (man alive), Thursday, December 19, 2019 12:19 PM (thirty-five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i listened to a few episodes of hardcore history before calling it a day but in one of them he touches upon the frankfurt school and it was like the scene in the 40 year old virgin with steve carrell talking about boobs

lool, didn't catch that one but sounds very otm of his style!

I've really taken to the revolutions podcast, the episode about Bakunin is excellent.

Started this last week and just got to the Bakunin one

just started "Know Your Enemy" -- two chill very smart lefties (one a former conservative intellectual-in-training) discuss the history and provide a sort of field guide to movement conservatism. digging it so far.

I'm a little wary of this type of material as its rarely done well but I may give this one a shot too

That one started out well but has gotten a bit scattered now that they mostly focus on whatever guest they have on—Ross Douthat for instance.

^agreed. but I still really enjoy it.

it’s the only ep i’ve listened to but Marshall Steinbaum ep of know yr enemy goes extremely deep into intellectual history of chicago econ

ketchup re-posting from the brainworms thread:

i'm up to the massacre of champ de mars in the mike duncan revolutions pod (since it's mentioned just upthread for some reason)

i think it's p good but i have to make some kind of comment and/or protest re duncan's french pronunciation, which is in my opinion PECULIAR lol

― mark s, Monday, 27 September 2021 19:08 (seventeen minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

the radical parisian district of cor-dell-YEE!

― mark s, Monday, 27 September 2021 19:15 (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

in parallel i'm reading a place of greater safety: a book which loves robespierre much more than duncan seems to

he's best when he just sticks to a detailed narrative history which is what he's good at and doesn't bring in any "as an American" type content, he did that in one of English revolution eps + it was cringe.

actually it was an American Revolution ep he did that in

do people like Blowback? The Iraq material was a little too familiar for me but I'm really enjoying the 2nd season about the Cuban revolution

I thought Blowback was great. The episodes on the missile crisis were riveting.

Looking for politics more than history (although I welcome recommendations for both). I love Know Your Enemy and am almost all caught up on it, what else should I listen to for thoughtful/well-read lefty political takes? Can be historical, for that matter, but especially interested in people doing good things in talking about contemporary Western politics. Not opposed to current events type shows, but something more substantive than drive-by punditry.

“Will Be Wild” about the Jan 6th insurrection was really good?

OK! My first reaction is "do I need to hear more about Jan. 6," but then I just finished listening to two hours on Whittaker Chambers so I shouldn't rule anything out.

i had zero interest going in before it was recommended to me & was impressed by how engaging it was