Good Podcasts *Mostly Off Topic* (Off-Topic)

by Funkmon , Sunday, September 06, 2015, 04:11 (3181 days ago) @ bluerunner
edited by Funkmon, Sunday, September 06, 2015, 04:30

Hardcore History is awesome. Each episode is usually several hours, but interesting all the way through. His latest series are free, and you can purchase the older ones for pretty cheap.
My recommended series to start with:
Wrath of the Khans
Death Throes of the Rebublic
Ghosts of the Ostfront
Blueprint for Armageddon
And my favorite for being the most bizarre: Prophets of Doom

http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-series/

He also does a good political show if you're into that. He's pretty libertarian.
http://www.dancarlin.com/common-sense-home-landing-page/

Hardcore History is great. It's the most engaging history podcast I know of, and I always get excited when a new episode is out. Then, if I am not familiar with the subject, I go and get the best book I can find on it and find out what actually happened.

I see a lot of people bring up his opinions on Reddit as if they're, like, actual accepted ideas, and people often regurgitate things he says without second thought. Hardcore History should be treated like a History Channel show, where they have a limited time and they have to make something engaging and hook in the audience. But, due to the seriousness of the podcast and its subject matter, it can be tempting to think it's presenting a full, scholarly picture, just in an engaging way.

For example, in the Ghosts of the Ostfront series, which was my first real exposure to him, he omitted huge portions of the eastern front history, and said some really dumb stuff, like the Germans should have quit after Operation Barbarossa failed. He does that kind of stuff a lot. He always says "I'm a fan of history," but it seems to me like that's the history crackpot version of the 9/11 truther "I'm just asking questions," and excuse to not be particularly rigorous. I think he would agree with that, too.

However, unless you're really, really boring and enjoy listening to historical books on tape at 2x speed during your 90 minute commute, Hardcore History is fantastic. Just be aware it's entertainment, not education.

EDIT: Actually, I just remembered something. A girl who was living with me was having some insomnia problems and turning to getting drunk every night before bed to try to sleep because she couldn't shut her mind off. She also didn't respond well to sleeping pills. I gave her Hardcore History (once it was going paid, I made sure to keep all the old episodes, so I have a full archive), and she would listen to it for 45 minutes every night and eventually fall asleep, no alcohol. I've also given it to others as an introduction too. I really do like it. End edit.

The best history podcasts that, as far as I can tell from my own knowledge and research, I would consider both education AND entertainment are

The History of English Podcast - If you liked my post on how to pronounce Gjallarhorn, you'll like this podcast.

The History of Rome - Now finished, this thing does an entire history of Rome from the mythical origins to the end of the western empire. It's humorous and very well researched. If you want to finish until the end of the Roman Empire, try the History of Byzantium as well. Though I'm not well versed enough to say if it's accurate, it does seem boring enough to be.

Some other entertaining history podcasts I like the most include The Born Yesterday podcast which appears to have podfaded, but I describe it as Dan Carlin in 30 minutes or less, and the Podcast History of Our World, which is a funny, joking review of world history. If you had a 2 credit hour world history survey course, it would be about equivalent to that. There's also a panel game based on history called Actually Happening that's pretty funny, but the hosts are flamboyantly liberal, and do just go off half cocked a lot. Backstory with The American History Guys is a show that has segments that tackle subjects in American History in easy ways, and is put on by 3 professors as a radio show they let us download for free. Everything I've fact checked from them has checked out, but due to the limits of their show format, I don't consider it an educational show, per se, since you get no context. Good for parties and trivia.