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?
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.
I know you said no voice-reading-text and wanted personality, but for my money nothing is better background listening than History of English. You can listen to the whole narrative of an episode or just pick up some cool etymology here and there.
- Fall of Civilizations
- Dan Carlin
- The Rest is History
- Cautionary Tales
- The Delicious Legacy
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
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.
Fall of Civilizations podcast has a YT channel. It’s excellent.
Hardcore history is one of my favorites.
The Block 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
Oldest Stories Podcast
History with Cy
Both doing Mesopotamian antiquity, and Egypt as well for Cy. Both on Youtube.
The fall of civilization is really cool
By far my favorite, though I suppose OP may not like it, as it is just the (monotonous, but nice sounding) voice of the narrator, without enthusiasm, jokes or personal takes
I’m also not sure if it’s what OP is looking for, but I also think Fall of Civilisations is not quite as dry as other history podcasts.
He does a great job of painting a picture through the narration, making you imagine what it would be like to have lived in those times. And he sometimes does add his personal takes (always clearly pointed out as personal takes).
It might still be too narrative for OP, but it might also be colourful enough.
Well I’m not going to discard it outright, maybe if it’s really well written in a way I like, it’s still engaging enough. I’d rather err on the side of too many options than too few. Thanks for the suggestions
A real classic: BBC Radio 4’s History of the world in 100 objects
I am personally a big fan of Voices of the Past and Fall of Civilisations.
Voices is very specific in what it does. It doesn’t actually give you a historian’s perspective, it’s strictly primary sources translated into English and then read out as-is. Since it makes absolutely no attempt to account for material evidence or the biases of the authors it is much more about the perspective of individuals from the time than recounting accurate history, but I think that’s very interesting
As its name suggests, Fall focusses on the end of civilisations, ranging from the Greenland Norse and Rapa Nui to Han China and Byzantium.
It doesn’t hurt that the speakers in both have very pleasant voices
Michael Troy has the uncreatively name American Revolution Podcast which is basically a full episode per event/battle between the French Indian War beyond the signing of the Constitution. Leans more history than entertainment but there’s some deadpan humor in there.
I absolutely love Throughline. They have some very interesting content and I like how they fuse it together with with a good soundstage, it can be quite cinematic. The only two downsides: You kind of have to pay attention Some episodes can be a bit depressing, so I’ve heard from people I’ve recommended the show to in the past.
https://www.npr.org/podcasts/510333/throughline
Edit:
The Rest is History. Good banter between the hosts. Huge backlog on a variety of topics.
Origin Story. This one might be a little outside your wheelhouse, or might not, depending on what you’re after. Specifically, it talks about the origins (and thus the history) mostly of political ideologies like neoliberalism and zionism, political figures like Thatcher, Churchill, and Jordan Peterson, and movements or terms like the Suffragettes and the term “woke”.
BtB is my favorite, but that’s already been mentioned. Our Fake History is my second favorite and also very worth a listen!
Their angle on things is addressing points in history that, for one reason or another, have been misrepresented or misremembered, but they get into all sorts of topics, so that’s not always their explicit goal.
There is also This Podcast Will Kill You, which is more a science show than history, but they always have a history segment on whatever their subject is (mostly viruses, infections, diseases, and occasionally poisons and disorders). The hosts are both named Erin. That’s not relevant to the thread. I just think it’s funny.
BBC’s You’re Dead To Me is good if you want something a bit light. There’s a regular host who’s joined by a comedian and a historian. Covers a different topic each time.
