Exercising the Mind with History Podcasts

Oddly, I’ve become better at using the exercise bike recently. Partly this is due to the weirdly helpful practice of listening to Ian Richardson’s narration of The Prince. However, that is only three hours long so to avoid repetition I thought I’d try and find some history podcasts.

One that I knew I wanted was Flash Point History, whose YouTube channel I found a little while ago. Another was one whose name I could not recall (turned out to be The Rest Is History) which I’d heard of on my Twitter History list.

In fumbling about trying to find those I also stumbled across a couple of others, and thought it might be interesting to ramble about them a little for anyone after something similar.

It’ll take me a while to get through the ‘test’ of each of these (probably aiming for two half-hour biking sessions for each), so here are the ones I’m trying out, with links.

The History of Byzantium

https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/dr8qc-2f281/The-History-of-Byzantium-Podcast

Shorter episodes, around 20-25 minutes early on, with adverts to start with, which isn’t ideal (although I appreciate a man needs bread). Rather obviously, the Eastern Roman Empire is the order of the day.

Flash Point History

https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/jmncw-53e5d/Flash-Point-History-Podcast

Only downloaded one episode as the first was over an hour long. Being familiar with this channel via YouTube (the Justinian videos are my current lunchtime viewing) I’m confident I’ll like this, if nothing else in this blog. Lots of stuff on Eastern Rome, also the Punic Wars, the Reconquista, and the first episode is on Attila.

Age of Conquest: A Kings and Generals Podcast

https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/jqunq-7e15e/Age-of-Conquest-A-Kings-and-Generals-Podcast

The first episode is almost exactly 30 minutes, and the topic range is looking pretty hefty (starts off with the Russo-Japanese War, and the Diadochi are also on the first page of episodes).

The Rest is History

https://www.podbean.com/podcast-detail/c5ptp-16c70b/The-Rest-Is-History-Podcast

Episodes 1 and 2 are between 30 and 40 minutes long, which is handy for me. Seems to be a very eclectic mix of topics both in terms of period/place and also from topics more specific and general (first episode is on Greatness).

That’s a ton of listening (I think every one has hundreds of episodes in total), but if anyone has recommendations, do feel free to share them.

Thaddeus