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?
I prefer YouTube as the platform but I’m also open to suggestions elsewhere.
Honestly, I think that most video on YouTube isn’t really designed for background use. Not a technical limitation of the platform, just that most users are going to be sitting and staring at the material, and so that’s what they target.
Podcasts, on the other hand, tend to be aimed at exactly that “background user” — they make a lot of design decisions, like not moving super-quickly through content, repeating themselves, stuff like that. It makes listening to a podcast really irritatingly slow if you’re doing nothing but that, but if you’re driving somewhere or whatever, it works well, I think.
You mention history — if you’re willing to spend money on commercial content, The Great Courses series has audio lecture series from professional lecturers; I think that the format works well for history, and they have variety of history lectures that I think are pretty solid. You won’t have to deal with ads. That’s probably more intensive than the typical podcast; I like them when doing long drives, but occasionally need to skip back a bit if I get distracted by something else in the actual drive.
I can list some non-commercial podcasts that I enjoy, but I think that that’s very much dependent on where your interests lie. Like, I tend to focus on military history and maybe some light law and economics stuff, and I don’t know if that’s really up your alley. Maybe NPR Planet Money. Basic introduction to lots of economic topics, keeping things pretty connected to the real world. Fits your “upbeat” ask, but each episode isn’t all that long. There are a lot of them, though…
History of Everything is pretty good.
AltHistoryHub, while the main focus isn’t actual history obviously, but he gives a lot of context from the real history.
Tasting History is food focused but also gives you the historical context around the dishes he makes 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.
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.
Came here to say revolutions! It’s real good.
Well There’s Your Problem has a lot of personality while discussing historic disasters.
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
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.
A real classic: BBC Radio 4’s History of the world in 100 objects
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.
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.
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.
The Dollop comes to mind.
The dollop is fantastic.
Milo Rossi, aka Miniminuteman, if you’re looking for personality and enthusiasm.
https://www.learnoutloud.com/Results/Author/Barbara-W.-Tuchman/14182
Listen to these books on audio.
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!
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.
