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?
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!
I’ll throw in The Dollop as well.
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.
Let’s be real, they’re audiobooks
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.
Yes, so much. I listened to that book and his writing voice is a lot less natural, almost stilted. I’m so used to his style of highly refined extemporising that hearing him read aloud weirds me out. Dan if you’re in danger blink twice! Help is on the way just do whatever they ask!
I’m also so accustomed to his normal podcasting voice that when he does interviews where he’s just having a conversation with someone else it really weirds me out. Like, dude, you’re not supposed to be talking like a normal person just having a conversation. You’re supposed to be describing the most extreme examples of the human condition in poetic terms.
It’s really jarring. Especially when someone makes him laugh? It’s like hearing Bob Ross shriek. You don’t do that.
Behind The Bastards isn’t a general history podcast, but what it covers is history.
- Fall of Civilizations
- Dan Carlin
- The Rest is History
- Cautionary Tales
- The Delicious Legacy
Hardcore history is one of my favorites.
The Blow back Podcast is a great one that goes into detail of the US doing fucked up evil shit around the world. Each season is a different country and they have Afghanistan, Cuba, North Korea, and Iraq.
https://blowback.show/ also provides all the sources used, can be found on any podcast service. It’s done by two great journalists and they also interview people who have direct experience with the conflict, such as independent journalists who were on-the-ground
The Dollop comes to mind.
The dollop is fantastic.
Milo Rossi, aka Miniminuteman, if you’re looking for personality and enthusiasm.
Well There’s Your Problem has a lot of personality while discussing historic disasters.
I think 99% Invisible might have some episodes up your alley.
Some of the episodes are about more modern-day topics, but a good majority of them involve historical events and figures.
English only? Asking because the Barbero podcast (in Italian) is great. As a person who hated studying history in school I can spend hours listening this.
English and Spanish, unfortunately I don’t speak Italian. I should learn to perhaps, I like the way it sounds.
While the podcast is great, maybe not great enough to learn a new language for it! Although Spanish is very close!
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.
https://www.learnoutloud.com/Results/Author/Barbara-W.-Tuchman/14182
Listen to these books on audio.
Reallifelore covers both historic and current events, usually around 1 hour per video.
I also found these lectures+interviews with Sarah Paine very compelling https://youtu.be/LbkO84MsmyM
Second for The Rest is History. Its on all major podcast platforms and on YouTube. It has two hosts who take it in turns to talk about a topic while the other asks questions. Its full of gentle banter, and light humour but deleves in depth into topics. Some topics are covered in a single episode, others in depth in multi part series.
Its got a huge backlog of episodes, clearly labeled by topic and covers the full breadth of history. The two hosts are British but it covers global history, and it doesnt have biases. It does a “warts and all” approach to any topic.
Strongly recommend it.
The fall of civilization is really cool
