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Small-Scale Question Sunday for December 3, 2023

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

This is your opportunity to ask questions. No question too simple or too silly.

Culture war topics are accepted, and proposals for a better intro post are appreciated.

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Anyone got got recommendations for podcasts/Youtube channels focused on history or philosophy? I listen at work where my hands are kept busy so anything longform or a good playlist of shorter stuff would be good to minimise having to pull my phone out.

MartyrMade. The Israel/Palestine series is particularly topically relevant presently, but I think the Jim Jones series is his best work. Darryl Cooper comes off as a very different guy on his podcast than the bombastic Twitter personality, so if you're put off by having encountered him in social media format, don't be - he's even-handed and tries to treat everyone in each conflict as agentic human beings worth your empathy.

Age of Napoleon is a favorite of mine that hasn't been mentioned yet. He's a little over 100 episodes in and has just gotten to the height of the Empire.

Podcasts I've enjoyed in rough order of when I remember listening to them:

  • History of Rome
  • Revolutions
  • History of Byzantium
  • When Diplomacy Fails (shout out to their Thirty Years War megaseries)
  • A Japanese history podcast I can't remember/find, but it seems like other good podcasts about the Sengoku Jidai have come out since then
  • The Hellenistic Age
  • The History of Egypt Podcast
  • The Timur Podcast
  • Reconquista (have not tried the main History of the Crusades podcast, but Reconquista is good)
  • The Cost of Glory (newish, but imo the best current history podcast)
  • Russians With Attitude's history podcasts
  • The Bailey

Kings and Generals and Historia Civilis are good for youtube channels. Johannes Niederhauser is pretty active on YouTube iirc, but I don't know how much guys like him, Michael Millerman, etc. do real stuff rather than teasers for their courses.

Hardcore History is very entertaining but isn't the most accurate podcast out there. I still enjoy it but would consider it a more intro to history stuff.

Revolutions by Mike Duncan is probably my favourite overall history podcast, very polished, has different seasons of content covering different revolutions, accurate and not particularly biased delivery.

The History of Rome, also by Mike Duncan, is also quite good but was his first podcast and not as polished. But if you love Rome, it's a good one.

The History of the Byzantine Empire is a solid spiritual successor to the History of Rome.

End of Civilizations posts infrequently but they're often quite interesting and very well produced.

History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps is probably the best podcast about philosophy. Episodes are twenty minutes long, but with a little effort you should be able to create a playlist.