Podcasts about global histories?
June 12, 2020 8:58 AM Subscribe
I love podcasts and I love learning about history. I'm sick of only hearing about Western/European history. My sweet spot is 45 mins + per episode, anything pre-1900. Hope me.
- Both standalone episodes or long-running series are fine.
- Ideally 45 mins + per episode - but a Dan Carlin style massive audiobook per episode is NOT what I'm looking for.
- I typically prefer stuff that's pre-1800 or so, but if it's serving excellent non-Western/European history goodness, I could make an exception. Another exception: history of entertainment, film and celebrity gets a pass on the date limitations, so e.g. anything up to 1980 could work there.
- I'm into feminist, queer, trans, crip histories. Emotional dramas from years gone by. Coverage of marginalized populations, people typically written out of history. The ways people lived and interacted. The way politics affected, affects everything.
- Not into: violence for the sake of violence, dry military campaigns, crusades. Totally OK if these topics come up and are explored, because they're massively important in shaping historical trajectories, but I am not looking for what amounts to warfare porn. A considered, contextualized study of e.g. Colonialism's horrors would be excellent.
- I'm not a fan of podcasts structured as interviews with experts, but will check one out if it's particularly recommended.
- An engaging style, wit, etc is appreciated. But also a basic grasp of the material at hand, so you feel that the podcasters are not just reading Wikipedia.
I already subscribe to the following, with my favourites *'d:
- Ancient History Fangirl *
- Behind the Bastards *
- Criminal Broads
- HERStory: Southeast Asia
- Hysterical History
- Noble Blood
- Queens Podcast *
- Sawbones *
- The Dollop *
- The History of Egypt Podcast
- The Other Half: The History of Women Through the Ages *
- The Tenth Muse
- This Podcast Will Kill You *
- Tides of History
- What's Her Name
- You Must Remember This *
- Stuff You Missed in History Class *
- The History Chicks *
Most of these, I've already ransacked the archive. But if you have any recommendations for specific episodes, bring it on.
- Both standalone episodes or long-running series are fine.
- Ideally 45 mins + per episode - but a Dan Carlin style massive audiobook per episode is NOT what I'm looking for.
- I typically prefer stuff that's pre-1800 or so, but if it's serving excellent non-Western/European history goodness, I could make an exception. Another exception: history of entertainment, film and celebrity gets a pass on the date limitations, so e.g. anything up to 1980 could work there.
- I'm into feminist, queer, trans, crip histories. Emotional dramas from years gone by. Coverage of marginalized populations, people typically written out of history. The ways people lived and interacted. The way politics affected, affects everything.
- Not into: violence for the sake of violence, dry military campaigns, crusades. Totally OK if these topics come up and are explored, because they're massively important in shaping historical trajectories, but I am not looking for what amounts to warfare porn. A considered, contextualized study of e.g. Colonialism's horrors would be excellent.
- I'm not a fan of podcasts structured as interviews with experts, but will check one out if it's particularly recommended.
- An engaging style, wit, etc is appreciated. But also a basic grasp of the material at hand, so you feel that the podcasters are not just reading Wikipedia.
I already subscribe to the following, with my favourites *'d:
- Ancient History Fangirl *
- Behind the Bastards *
- Criminal Broads
- HERStory: Southeast Asia
- Hysterical History
- Noble Blood
- Queens Podcast *
- Sawbones *
- The Dollop *
- The History of Egypt Podcast
- The Other Half: The History of Women Through the Ages *
- The Tenth Muse
- This Podcast Will Kill You *
- Tides of History
- What's Her Name
- You Must Remember This *
- Stuff You Missed in History Class *
- The History Chicks *
Most of these, I've already ransacked the archive. But if you have any recommendations for specific episodes, bring it on.
Best answer: I'm a huge fan of Fall of Civilizations. Meticulously researched to give both an overview of a society's collapse and also a sense of the people and populations. Episodes so far include the Aztecs, Roman Britain, the Han dynasty in China, and Sumeria. Fascinating stuff, at least to me.
posted by underthehat at 9:29 AM on June 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by underthehat at 9:29 AM on June 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
Best answer: Same guy who did History of Rome also does the Revolutions Podcast
posted by Captain_Science at 9:30 AM on June 12, 2020
posted by Captain_Science at 9:30 AM on June 12, 2020
Best answer: Cocaine and Rhinestones. I feel like even if you don't care for country music, this is compelling stuff.
posted by mareliz at 10:15 AM on June 12, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by mareliz at 10:15 AM on June 12, 2020 [2 favorites]
While I love the Revolutions Podcast, it's largely focused on European events post-1800, so it might not be your cup of tea. However, give your interests I think you would particularly enjoy the series on the Haitian Revolution (Series 4), and you might like the series on the South American revolutions (Series 5) as well.
posted by Johnny Assay at 10:43 AM on June 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by Johnny Assay at 10:43 AM on June 12, 2020 [1 favorite]
I think you might like Throughline, for example the Hong Kong episode. Possibly In Our Time, depends how you feel about the host.
posted by catquas at 1:35 PM on June 12, 2020
posted by catquas at 1:35 PM on June 12, 2020
Best answer: The Ancient World podcast is very good, and the first series the host did had a lot of non-Western content (though somewhat limited by a lack of written sources) that tried to go right around the world and talk about which civilisations were contemperaneous with each other. He has since done a tonne of short series focusing on lesser known ancient empires and civilisations. He has a very particular delivery style and voice that is an acquired taste, but the narrative is great.
posted by Happy Dave at 4:44 AM on June 13, 2020
posted by Happy Dave at 4:44 AM on June 13, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by John Borrowman at 9:21 AM on June 12, 2020 [2 favorites]