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.

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

even when he's not shouting, he seems to think everything he says is going to BLOW your GODDAMNED mind.

the explosion sound clip he plays at the end of the shows are funny as hell

some of his theatrics are ridic but I like the show overall..

I'm only about halfway done with it, but the latest hardcore history episode about nuclear war is pretty the scariest thing ever when you keep in mind that Donald Trump is currently the president of the United States.

Oh it's one of those brisk 6 hour long episodes

Yeah, the length of these podcasts is a bit ridiculous, but whatever, I'm never bored when listening to them.

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

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.

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.

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

xp. the black jacobins is a very good read on the haitian revolution

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.

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"

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

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

sidebar - highly recommend Presidents are People Too by former daily show writer/Flophouse co-host Eliot Kalan

serious & delving but short and light in tone
i like it a lot.

new Abe Lincoln ep features Kalan's 2 1/2 yo son reciting (via Dad) the Gettysburg Address
cutest damn thing you'll ever hear

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.

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

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.

yeah, there are quite a very very good history podcasts these days, but they almost all follow the model Mike Duncan set down

quite a few

oh i love Revolutions

when I needed to nerd out on the French Rev it was a godsend

Only the dude from History of Rome does it better imo. But coming close is an achievement!!

same dude, right?

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.

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.

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.

omg lol i didnt know it was the same guy

well that explains EVERYTHING

seconding kingfish re: citations needed, it’s fkn great

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

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.

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 Club
https://coldwarconversations.wordpress.com

wow that sounds dope

just listening to The Korean War in Britain, it's good stuff.

I skipped that one + went to the SR71 ep, better!

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).

(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.)

sounds great tbh, thks

Yeah, I've subscribed as well.

sounds cool. I've checked some shows with a similar idea but they usually start with Sumeria

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

The first 50 episodes of HoR are kinda rough

It sounds like a guy muttering voice memos into his iPhone in a bathroom

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.

Revolutions is finally at the Russian Revolution. They are at episode 23, and introduced Lenin last episode. It's kinda hilarious.

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, 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).

Yeah, I didn't find it to be true on the whole, that's the one I've listened to as well, but would like the judgement of an actual historian

im not a historian but my undergrad degree was in history and dan carlin isn't really intellectually rigorous enough for me

i also just don't like his voice

his padded out jibber jabbering is that lacking in content you could literally listen to half an hour without actually learning anything on a subject.

Mike Duncan hits the right middle ground of tone for me - conversational, direct but not boring.

I would bet those early eps were him just talking into whatever microphone was built into his laptop, though, it's true.

The Age of Napoleon guy is good too, and sticks to a similar length/pace

age of napoleon is very good

Wouldn't some of you lot get so much more from listening to classic audio books. Idk like C V Wedgwood.'s 30 years war. Barbara can't remember her surname' s magisterial Guns of August. I've tried to listen to him again earlier and he seems even more pointless than the first time I tried.

I'm against audiobooks for dumb reasons. i only listen to podcasts while cooking or walking alone

I like the 30-minute chunk format, I find it really digestible and I feel like I actually retain some of the info

(another reason I never got into Dan Carlin, aside from his obnoxious voice and aesthetic)

Audiobook history sounds good, but where to get these from? Audible is £8 per book, this is too much to justify when I will listen to it once only and the same book is usually just a couple of quid to actually buy.

Podcasts are written a very different way, I think. The conversational tone of the best podcasts is very appealing. Audiobooks take up all my concentration when I'm listening, I can't bike if I listen to an audiobook for instance. So I just read books instead. While I listen to music.

Yeah, podcasts and books are apples and oranges. The presentation of a podcast, if successful, is much more geared toward aural reception. I can't imagine trying to listen to someone narrate most of the history books I read.

I zone out on audiobooks and miss multiple 'pages,' for some reason that doesn't happen with podcasts.

Plus some of these things (Mike Duncan joints, History of England) are pulling from such a wide range of sources that they are, from a certain perspective, almost more useful than reading a single book. That said, my engagement with them is mostly as a supplement to stuff I'm actually reading.

Yeah. As someone who even sometimes finds myself missing key moments in podcasts, I would really struggle with an audiobook while driving.

Lol driving and audiobooking does sound quite hazardous tbf

I've enjoyed audiobooking stuff I've read before, Paradoxes of Power and Bloodlands are books that I felt I had enhanced experiences with taking them in both ways. Some audiobooks are worth paying £8 for if they have a decent reader, but others aren't worth shit. But I nab them from torrent sites so can't complain.

Just out of curiosity like... where can you torrent audiobooks? tpb has fuck all of any interest

all the formerly dependable stalwart torrent sites all seem to be dying in recent years I'm afraid. I used to use thegeeks.bz but lost my password and got locked out - i'll get back to you on that if I get back in and get an invite if you want. z00qle.com might be worth a try.

shit, managed to get back into thegeeks but have zero invites

lol, password was 1234abcd

dem0n01d.is

is still online, that used have some brilliant and rare audiobook torrents. But I haven't used it in ages and don't know if it has the same cache of torrents in it's current form. but deffo worth a try.

A LibGen for audiobooks would be amazing. Alas, I fear it's mostly newsgroups where it's at these days? I'm not on there. Slsk is a 50/50 success rate though.

his padded out jibber jabbering is that lacking in content you could literally listen to half an hour without actually learning anything on a subject.

― calzino

see this is kind of what i like about his podcasts - they're very long and you don't have to actually pay attention to anything he's saying. i like the sort of podcasts where i can just zone out for half an hour and not suddenly wake up and say "wait, what did i miss?". because if there's anything he's going to actually say he will SAY IT VERY LOUDLY and multiple times, i kind of need that with podcasts

the ira glass imitators may have good shows but that is a thing i just cannot do, i've tried, no. i'll do mid-atlantic accent guy or trailer voiceover guy, that's it.

I'm going to have another try at listening to him when I'm cooking or something!

I'm well into pt III of the Dan Carlin WWI series now and I love it. Even the basic, cliched sort of themes and concepts about WWI that I've received a dozen ways through school and popular culture are much more vivid for me now.

the last straw for me (and I'm never going to listen to this guy again!) was when he said something like " this Kaiser Wilhelm guy ..you know.. he didn't get the job on merit .. you know"

they're very long and you don't have to actually pay attention to anything he's saying

i hear this a lot re:podcasts, "i like it bc i dont have to pay attention to it", which i honestly can never understand. like if you're looking for soothing non-informational audio sounds that help time pass, why not try music? Fewer ads for mattresses and mail-order underpants.

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.

then you also have to accept that the advertisers can tell if you skip the ad and they don't get the money.

I don't they can with most pod delivery methods, though? That's why so many still rely on the custom URL method.

yeah, my podcasts are all just mp3s on my (android) phone. I seriously doubt that my podcast app is tracking where I skip forward and if I ever discovered that it did, I would just start using another app.

Same.

same

I use podcast addict, 99% sure it doesn't track this, though it does remember where I've got to and seems to scrobble though I wish it wouldn't. (ahem new episode of my thing which is almost like a history podcast is out today and obviously doesn't contain any fucking ads apart from the very brief patreon plug at the start ahem)

Same. It's amazing how smart some of these devices are that we let into our homes, but our podcast apps can't even remember where we left off.

My biggest frustration at the moment is not being able to subscribe to a podcast version of The Shipping Forecast. It's just not there, while it should be, and there is a TuneIn link to it, and I downloaded TuneIn specifically for it. And and and it still doesn't work. Southwesterly gale force 8 imminent, Clive, increasing severe gale force 9 soon.

(xp)

you like a bit of Doggering then?

You betch'er Calz! Susan Powell reading the Shipping Forecast has been on of my best weapons in combating insomnia...

This isSusan Powell isn't it? She's mostly just announced as 'Susan', I have no idea who she is, but at 0.48am she's been doing wonders.

Alistair Cooke's Letter From America used to have the similar effect on me. Even though his politics sucked absolute shit, his voice had an AMSR effect.

Yeah I suppose you could call it an ASMR effect, even though I refrained using that term. ASMR stuff seems to lull intentionally. Shipping Forecast (esp read by Susan, I do admit) just... is. It doesn't tickle my earbuds or gets me butterflies. It just carries me off into sleep. Which is all I ask for when insomniac.

Also: no product placement in the Shipping Forecast :)

Alistair Cooke's Letter From America used to have the similar effect on me.

Yeah I get that. His politics were rubbish but there was something undeniably soothing about his voice and just zoning out, listening to it.

I've got a 3gb folder of old Letter From America episodes divided into: Regan Years, Clinton Years, Bush Years. Obv not much of it ages well!

Dire, but I've had 3gb hogged up by even more questionable content :)

Would download a torrent of Cooke's 'Complete Works' actually.

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

looking for some history podcast recs. anyone listen to anything good recently?