This is a second plug for Dan Carlin's
Hardcore History series. Each episode is several hours long and is chock full of gripping anecdotes and narratives. He's probably one of the most gifted storytellers I've ever encountered in this podcast format, and really pulls you into the minds of the historians and their reconstruction of the actions and lives of those living in the past.
Some of may favorite series with him are:
-the 5-part piece on the death throes of the Roman Republic,
-the 5-part on the devastation of Europe and Asia by Gengis Khan,
-
the 6-part series on the first World War (God I wish
-
the 3-part series on the Persion Empire (my personal favorite; a great tour-de-force of the geopolitics of Asia in the bronze and iron age)
-
Prophets of Doom (about Central Europe during the Reformation and the Anabaptist heresy),
-Suffer the Children (about child-rearing practices in ancient and medieval and early modern times.... a real shocker about how most methods of treating children common in the past are unconscionable in western society now...)
-
Supernova in the East (which is about Japanese history from the opening up of the country to the end of WW2).
The
full episode list is available on his website. Basically I'm hard-pressed to discount anything I've heard of his from this list. They're incrediblu engaging listens if you're busy driving or doing office work or even just doing chores at home. A lot of his older stuff is behind a paywall (I got a 404 error from wodasi's link), but his newer stuff is available on most podcast libraries and apps. The history told is pretty mainstream and not "Secret History" by any means (his take on Caesar's Gaelic Wars in
The Celtic Holocaust reflects the mainstream historical narrative), but in spite of this the podcast of of
exceptionally high quality.
