My final blog post for this semester is going to pretty much
be blatant promotion of a podcast that I think is excellent, and believe is a
great example of well done lay-public history. Dan Carlin is a long time journalist who went digital with
his own political podcast called Common Sense. Dan also has a history
degree and is an avid consumer of history and parlayed those factors into a
second podcast that covers historical topics called Hardcore History. Dan
has a history degree so he is well versed in good historical analysis and he
puts it to good use to tell some great historical stories. One of my favorite parts of the podcast
is when Dan discusses the counter-factual of famous historical events. What ifs of history, like the
possibility that Harold was not killed at the Battle of Hastings, or what if
Russian and European nobles took seriously the incursion of Subutai into Kievan
territory and prepared for the oncoming armies of Ghengis Khan.
Dan truly does the job of the public historian, telling
stories from the past in ways that are truly approachable by most listeners,
and provide thoughtful analysis of the topics. Some of my favorite episodes, just to get you in the mood,
are a trilogy of episodes on the Punic Wars, The Macedonia Soap Opera, on the
aftermath of Alexander’s death, Suffer the Children, on the treatment of
children through history and Logical Insanity, a discussion of the factors that
led up to the use of nuclear weapons to end WWII. Some of these are older and not available for free download, but they are well worth the $.99 Dan charges for them. The most recent have been a five part series on the Mongols called Wrath of the Khans, it's a great listen.
Anyway, Dan is an independent podcaster, receiving none of
the traditional sources of public history funding, putting almost his entire
revenue stream at the hands of his users. Give him a listen, toss him a buck or two for each show you love, and
you are almost guaranteed to love at least one of them.
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