I prefer YouTube as the platform but I’m also open to suggestions elsewhere.
Basically I’m looking for long-ish format episodes I can listen to while doing something else. Ideally the host isn’t just a voice reading a text, but someone relatable or that shows enthusiasm and/or has a personal take/ humor about the topic they’re talking about.
I sometimes listen to Simon Whistler’s videos on a variety of topics, in case you know him, I find he’s entertaining enough and his writers are usually good but I’m looking for some more variety.
I’ve tried Stuff You Should Know and the Oologies series and while the content seems well researched, I found them a bit boring for me.
Got any recommendations?
Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History.
He tries to look at history through the eyes of people at that time and not from a distance. E.g. instead of talking about great strategies etc he focuses on what it meant to be raided by Ghengis Khan.
- Fall of Civilizations
- Dan Carlin
- The Rest is History
- Cautionary Tales
- The Delicious Legacy
Others have mentioned Hardcore History – probably the pinnacle of history podcasting, but the episodes are VERY long (a lot are upwards of 4 hours) and you’re lucky if he puts out more than 2 per year. He does other shorter Addenda episodes that come out more frequently, but they’re not the same format, usually interviews.
History of Rome – it’s older, but it basically started the “History of [nation/civilization]” podcast format. Does an excellent job tracing Roman history from the founding of the city up to the fall of the Western empire in the 5th century.
Revolutions – same host as History of Rome. After he finished HoR he started this one. Each ‘season’ tracks a different historical world revolution (English, American, French, Mexican, Haitian, Russian, and more). Overall, the entire series tracks large-scale western political history from the 17th century up to the early 20th. He ended the podcast after he finished the Russian Revolution. But then he restarted it a couple of years later, running a season on the fictional Martian Revolution of the 24th century. This is on going now, with 6 episodes left. He’s said he’s going back to pick up on historical revolutions after the Russian when he finishes with Mars, teasing Ireland and Iran as future seasons.
Behind the Bastards – Dives into various horrible people from history with a special focus on world dictators/authoritarians, cult leaders, grifters, and quack doctors. He tends to focus on more recent history (past 50-100 years) but sometimes goes into older history.
Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff – An inversion of Behind the Bastards from the same podcast network. Tends to focus on radical political history with a special focus on anarchists, women, and lgbtq people.
Came here to recommend Behind the Bastards and Cool People Who Did Cool Stuff!
At the risk of being super obvious… Give Hardcore History a try. It’s long, highly subjective, and the subject matter tends toward intense subjects.
Blueprint for Armageddon, King of Kings, and Destroyer of Worlds are absolutely fantastic episodes.
The only reason I’d say they aren’t is because Dan Carlin doesn’t use a fully written script. A lot of history podcasters write out a full script and read it out, basically the same thing as an audiobook. Dan Carlin just has an outline with a bunch of notes and quotes he wants to use. When he records he does it off the top of his head.
I noticed a big difference a few years ago when he released an actual book, The End is Always Near. He recorded an official audiobook of it. You can really tell the difference in his style between the podcast and the audiobook.
This is my pick too.
Also, if you’re into the history of Rome, give “The History of Rome” by Mike Duncan a listen. It’s old, so the first few episodes are of a questionable audio quality. But he gets a new microphone pretty early on, and it gets easier to listen to. He talks about the entire history of Rome, starting with Romulus and Remus and going pasthrough the republic, then the empire and up to the 5th century. The episodes are nice and short, and mistakes are always rectified if need be one or two episodes later.
And once you’ve finished History of Rome, move right on to Mike Duncan’s next podcast, Revolutions.
It’s a similar format as HoR, except each ‘season’ follows a different historical revolution with the overall series roughly tracking large-scale wester political history from the 18th century to the early 20th century. He’s covered the English Civil War, American Revolution, French Revolution, Haitian Revolution, Spanish-American Independence, July Revolution, 1848 Revolutions, Mexican Revolution, and Russian Revolution.
He then officially ended the podcast, but a couple of years later he restarted it with a fictional Martian Revolution set in the 24th century. Again, same format as above, but entirely fictional and heavily informed by his study of various world revolution. This is currently ongoing with 6ish episodes left.
He’s also said that once the Martian Revolution is done he plans on starting back up with the historical revolutions, picking right back up after the Russian Revolution.
Three Arrows on Youtube for history for the first half of the last century. Has strong emphasis of the comparison of pre- and interwar politics and contemporary events.
If you go this Youtube channel, you’ll first be greeted by videos about Jordan Peterson and the likes (and how they misrepresent historical events), but the guy behind the channel also has a podcast that is purely about history without analysis of current reception of historical events.
