Top 16 History-Adjacent Podcasts of 2023
Are list-based articles even allowed anymore or did Buzzfeed already beat that horse to death?
I have decided to write an article in list format about my favorite history podcasts! Since Buzzfeed news has gone bankrupt, I have decided to fill that niche. I am become Buzzfeed, the destroyer of content.
I have a twofold purpose for writing such an article.
I want recommendations! Got any great history podcasts I haven’t tried? Send them my way! Post them in the comments! Whatever!
I want to do a little bit of advertising for smaller podcasts that I think are really good. I think they deserve recognition for excellent work.
This is not an exhaustive list, by the way. I am only going to put podcasts on this list that I have personally listened to many episodes, and really, really love. Further, I’m not going to categorize these podcasts, because that’s hard!
Click the title of each podcast to go to its website, or whatever is the closest I could find to their website. I apologize in advance for my lack of talent writing reviews, they’re all really good, go listen to them.
Less Popular Podcasts I Particularly Want to Highlight
I’m putting these up first because I want them to be more noticed than the really popular ones which I’ll put a bit lower.
In the Shadows of Utopia
A deep exploration of Cambodian history, a subject about which I was entirely ignorant, against the backdrop of the rise of the Khmer Rouge, one of the most (if not the most) murderous regimes to have ever existed. Come for the morbid fascination with Pol Pot and the Killing Fields, but stay for the deeply empathetic retelling of Cambodian history as worthy of study in its own right. The Khmer Empire and the colonization of Indochina by the French are key to comprehending the Khmer Rouge, but I found them fascinating entirely independent of twentieth century events, particularly the ancient Khmer empire.
What is Politics?
More anthropology than history, this podcast explores the origins of social structures, with applications to modern society, and makes a strong case for human anthropology being required study for any politicians. Perhaps “applied anthropology” is a good term for this podcast.
A couple highlights:
It provides a coherent, consistent definition of political right and left (a travesty that this isn’t a standard definition taught in school),
It did a hilarious and scathing book review of David Graeber and David Wengrow’s new book The Dawn of Everything,
It threw a bunch of shade at postmodern academic culture, which I enjoyed with all the bitterness of a physicist forced to teach electromagnetism to humanities majors.
Love this podcast.
The Oldest Stories
Okay, full disclosure, I have not really listened to many episodes from this podcast. However, I have listened to his most recent series on Biblical and Historical Israel, and it catapulted this podcast into favorite territory immediately. His (and others’) theories on the origin of the ethnonym Hebrew as the Akkadian Habiru, meaning bandit or outlaw wanderer drew me in immediately, and the careful exploration of the historicity of the Old Testament cemented this series as an all-time favorite. A must-listen for anyone interested in the Ancient Near East.
History of Persia
This podcast really belongs in the “Single Topic Deep Dives” section, but it’s so good I wanted to advertise? I love the history of the ancient world, and Trevor Culley does an awesome job of bringing to life the story of the Persian Empire from the Persian perspective, a refreshing change from the Greco-Roman lens through which ancient history is often viewed. A couple of random interesting things I learned from the podcast:
At some point, there was some sort of split split in the ancestor religious traditions of Hinduism/Zoroastrianism, and one side chose the Daevas and one side the Asuras.
Themistocles, who defeated the Persians at Salamis, was probably playing both sides, and ended up as a governor subordinate to the Persian King.
There was a community of Jews on the Elephantine, an island in the Nile, who got into a bunch of religious spats with the local Egyptians.
Spec Media
This one is a Hardcore History parody, and brilliant at it. The episodes on the Battle of Endor (Star Wars) in the style of Dan Carlin are hilarious. The narrator absolutely nails Dan Carlin’s verbal quirks, and the description of the horror that the stormtroopers must have felt being swarmed by Ewoks made me crack up.
The Timur Podcast
A podcast detailing the life of Tamerlane, Timur the Lame, or simply Timur, a conqueror in the mold of Genghis Khan, only Muslim and arguably more brutal. His life is incredible, and so is this podcast.
Hardcore History and Friends
Dramatic, multi-episode long-form podcasts diving deeply, but not too deeply, into a variety of historical topics.
Hardcore History
This podcast is the best history podcast out there, hands-down. No other podcast has the combination of narrative and voice-acting that Dan Carlin brings. As he himself points out in every episode, he is not a historian, but he does do his research, and if he sometimes simplifies for narrative effect, or speculates a little further than the evidence will take him, well, so did Herodotus.
My two favorite episodes/series: his series on the Mongol conquests and the Celtic Holocaust.
Martyrmade
Darryl Cooper is a podcaster in the vein of Dan Carlin, that is, a talented non-historian with a gift for compelling storytelling. He has made by far the best podcast I have listened to on the Israel-Palestine conflict, Fear and Loathing in the New Jerusalem. His more recent podcasts, particularly on the American Labor Wars (entitled Whose America?) are also phenomenal. And if he sometimes goes a bit off the deep end (see his podcast about egregores, which are basically thought-demons), it’s always worth listening to for the deep and thorough analysis of the thought-provoking questions that Darryl raises.
History on Fire
Daniele Bolelli’s podcast is the closest podcast in style to Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History. His episodes on American Indian history (his specialty) are particularly good (anything about Sitting Bull, Joe Medicine Crow, the Lakota Sioux, etc.). He’s recently come back from a stint behind a paywall, and I’m having fun listening to his “rerun” content.
Conflicted: A History Podcast
A relatively new (?) podcast with a fantastically interesting selection of topics — the series on the Partition of India became an instant all-time favorite series, and the two-episode look into the Praetorian Guard of the Roman Empire and their predilection for murdering emperors and auctioning off the throne was great. I say new (?), because I pretty regularly trawl for new history podcasts, and this came out of nowhere for me last year and slapped me with about thirty hours of really high quality content. I was very pleasantly surprised.
Conversational History (and Comedy)
Two or more people discuss history in a conversational fashion, with back-and-forth between hosts. Funny and lighthearted, even when the topic is serious. Apparently most historians double as amateur comedy duos.
The Rest is History
Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, the historians and amateur comedy duo behind The Rest is History bring history to life in shorter, that is, hour-long podcasts on an incredible variety of subjects. I loved their recent series about the Hundred Years War, their Mystery of the Cathars, and their episode casting Love Island with historical characters.
Lions Led by Donkeys
I think if I had to choose one word to describe this podcast, it would be “sarcastic.” This hilarious podcast relentlessly mocks the failures of military command. In between excoriating basically everyone who has ever held a weapon, the hosts Joe and Liam manage to insert bits of fascinating military history.
Empire
Anita Anand and William Dalrymple are another example of the historian (and journalist) comedy duo that is a surprisingly common trope among history podcasts. Fortunately, they’re my favorite (second favorite? I can’t decide between this podcast and The Rest is History). Dalrymple’s specialty is 18th-19th century India, and it really shows in their episodes on the East India Company. I particularly loved the incredibly bloody story of the Koh-i-Noor diamond. Both hilarious and horrifying, those episodes made me believe that the curse of the Koh-i-Noor is real.
Single Topic Deep Dives
Hundreds of episodes on a single topic, in bite-sized pieces. Multi-year grand narratives of a civilization, usually.
History of Rome
Basically the gold-standard for history podcasting, along with Hardcore History, Mike Duncan takes you on an exhaustive journey through the entire history of Rome, (up to the Byzantines), in an entertaining and informative podcast. His humor is pretty dry, so you’ve got to look for it, but it’s there and really brightens it up. Nothing much to say really, if you’re interested in Rome, this is the podcast for you.
Revolutions
Mike Duncan’s second offering, going through most of the world’s major revolutions. One series per revolution, and my favorites were the French Revolution and the Russian Revolution. Each series is long enough to be its own podcast, and each is done with the attention to detail and dry humor that characterizes Mike Duncan. Seriously, go listen to the French Revolution series, it’s absolutely fantastic.
History of Japan
Last but not least, Isaac Meyer has been podcasting about Japanese history for like a decade now, and he’s really good at it. His podcast is not chronologically ordered, so search his back catalog for topics that stick out as interesting to you. I loved the series on the Birth of the Samurai, and its companion series the Fall of the Samurai.