Yet another low-effort post today, since the end of the year at work is turning out to be extremely hectic, and I don’t expect that to change until after the new year comes. At least it’s some distraction from the rest of the world, but it also takes away from the things I actually like doing that don’t make me feel like I’m in a half-alive limbo shadow state of existence or something. You know the feeling if you’re also a corporate drone. Maybe one day I won’t just be one tiny cog in this evil parasitic system we’ve built here?

Until I break free, which will be never, I’ll keep writing here, so here’s another post with the most straightforward title possible. This was motivated partly by the hybrid arrangement at work a lot of us have now, with a return to the old commute. Another downside of living and working in a large American city is that traffic is hell and public transport is absolute shit unless you’re in New York, DC, or maybe a couple of other old (for the US) cities where the train actually goes places on time that people want to go to. I don’t live in one of those cities, so I have to spend two to three hours a day on the highway on my in-office days.

Thankfully, despite all the horrors of the 21st century world that make King Crimson’s “21st Century Schizoid Man” feel like a good theme song for this period so far, we have a few positive developments like the podcast. The following podcasts are totally free to listen to aside from the usual Patreon setup where patrons can get episodes early and/or some bonus supplemental episodes and material, but even if you’re not paying a cent, there are hundreds of hours of no-cost entertainment and information out there to find. And I hope you like history, because that’s the only kind of podcast I listen to.

Revolutions

Starting with an obvious one. Creator Mike Duncan is one of the few history podcasting originals alongside Dan Carlin and his Hardcore History podcast, which I’m not even giving an entry because Carlin puts out maybe two podcast episodes a year now if we’re lucky (still great work, but man come on.) Duncan got his start with The History of Rome, a podcast that completed a run of several years back in 2012 or 13 — ancient history now, but that one is also well worth checking out if you’re interested in Rome at all.

The reason I’m highlighting his later podcast Revolutions instead is both its broad scope and depth. Duncan completed his podcast early this year, and over its nearly ten-year run he’s covered the English, American, French, and Haitian revolutions, the Spanish American wars of independence, the French July revolution of 1830, the revolutions of 1848, the Paris Commune of 1871, and the Mexican and Russian revolutions. Not being a historian, I can’t vouch for his sources (and that’s going to be true of every other podcast I list here) but it seems like he’s done a great job telling these stories without getting bogged down in too much detail where it’s not necessary. At the same time, there’s plenty of depth as well starting with the French Revolution series, where I’d recommend you start — not that the first two aren’t also well-done, but they’re a little thin compared to the rest.

Behind the Bastards

Here’s a podcast that’s been running for years but that I only recently found thanks to a few recommendations I received. Hosted by internet comedy writer/war correspondent Robert Evans with a rotating set of guests, Behind the Bastards is a history podcast that focuses on the worst people in history, their lives, crimes, and downfalls (or sadly, more often, their fading into obscurity or into comfortable retirement without consequences for their actions.)

If you want to be pissed off about absolutely everything, and who can avoid that these days, this is a good podcast to check out, especially for those who are all right with morbid humor. Some might not appreciate that when the subjects are so heavy, naturally all the way up to genocide considering the subject of the podcast. However, Evans and his co-hosts treat such heavy subjects with due respect when they come up, and the show generally shines a light on past injustices many of which are barely in the public consciousness at all. Get entertained and pissed off at the same time and listen to this podcast. Here’s a fun one to start with, though it’s all good stuff. Or for an extremely relevant pair of episodes as of this writing, start here.

The British History Podcast

Speaking of a bastard — if you’ve wondered about exactly why I occasionally shit on William the Bastard (aka King William I of England, a true bastard in both the older biological sense and the modern moral one) go listen to The British History Podcast. This guy goes into astounding depth, diving into aspects of life on the British isles that I had no idea about. Being an American, really all the education I got about this land was that there was a big battle in 1066, then we beat King George in 1781 at Yorktown, and then the British Empire and World War II.

Of course, there’s a lot more to the story, so much that this podcast is just now in about the middle of King Bastard’s reign in the 1070s after several years. I like the host Jamie’s focus on the Celtic Britons and the Anglo-Saxon and Danish periods of rule in England, periods that barely even get glossed over in most popular history, but I expect at the pace it’s going that he’ll be continuing to make this podcast in another decade, assuming the total societal collapse hasn’t started by then. I any case, this guy has my dream job: a lawyer who escaped from the practice of law to do what he loves, and I envy the hell out of that.

The History of English Podcast

As a kind of pair to the above podcast, check out Kevin Stroud’s History of English, a podcast about the history of the English language. That might sound too dry for your taste — it did for me at first — but Mr. Stroud does a great job of documenting the evolution of English and tying it into the history of England and of Europe in general, detailing how other languages have affected that evolution. If you’ve ever wondered why some seemingly unrelated words sound similar, or why English grammar and spelling are so utterly, absolutely fucked, this is the podcast for you.

The Pirate History Podcast

Pirates are certainly one of the most popular types of historical person, up with ninjas, knights, and samurai among boys (at least I’m assuming drawing from my own childhood experience playing with my old Lego pirate sets.) But there’s a hell of a lot of history associated with sea piracy, from the ancient world all the way up to today. The Pirate History Podcast covers the stories of many of these pirates in great detail, with descriptions of sea battles and biographies of famous pirates, but also with some focus on lesser-known but still interesting figures and on how these figures sometimes dramatically affected world politics. It’s interesting to hear those deep historical cuts especially, but I’m also looking forward to how he handles Blackbeard’s bumbling friend Stede Bonnet.

Chinese Lore Podcast

There’s a lot of old Chinese literature that’s at least partially inaccessible to someone like me, lacking both the cultural and linguistic knowledge to really get a lot of that work as fully as I might. Thankfully, here’s one John Zhu, who has run a series of podcasts detailing the events of Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Water Margin, and is currently digging through Investiture of the Gods.

Zhu provides some good insight into some of the less understandable aspects of these stories for someone like me, whose only exposure to this stuff for a long time was Dynasty Warriors. Learn about just how overrated Liu Bei is (carried by Guan Yu and especially Zhuge Liang; also a reminder that I have to finish Ya Boy Kongming!) and how conniving and fun Cao Cao was (if you count getting people’s heads cut off for Machiavellian reasons fun, but at least the guy was a good poet.) Water Margin is also very fun and not nearly as well-known over here probably, so be sure to check that out if you like epic tales about outlaws fighting authority.

There are more great podcasts I’m probably missing here, but the above should provide you with plenty of listening material if you’re also damned to 10-15 hours on the highway per week like I am and as long as you like history. It might even distract from the fact that our roads and transport infrastructure in general are such absolute shit in America that I’m reminded of my days in Beirut, which thinking back might have actually had better roads than the city I live in now in this supposedly first-world country.

But hey, we’re all going down the tubes anyway. And next post, I’ll probably be covering a post-apocalyptic anime, because it seems like I’m just in that mood right now. Sorry, but I’ll hopefully see you next time.