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Friday Fun Thread for December 29, 2023

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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What’s your favorite history podcast/YouTube channel? I’ve tried Dan Carlin but honestly just don’t like him for some reason.

Obviously looking for well sourced high quality content, as well as someone who isn’t super left biased.

What's your take on Sam O'Nella or Max Miller?

Never heard of em.

The Rest Is History podcast is really excellent, wide-ranging and not super ideological

I've enjoyed Extra History. They're mostly good, though to be taken with a grain of salt on anything too close to the culture way.

Kings and generals is amazing: https://youtube.com/@KingsandGenerals

Has very long and in depth videos about a lot of the major battles in history. No political bias, just a retelling of what happened, when, told in such a way to be entertaining and fun. You can put on a video, watch it for 2 hours and come out more knowledgeable on the other end.

Lately, I've been listening to the "Unauthorized History of the Pacific War" podcast, which is about the Pacific Theater of World War 2. I especially like the episodes that have Jon Parshall on as a guest (he's the author of "Shattered Sword", about the Battle of Midway)

I really like Robin Pierson's The History of Byzantium podcast. It's very well researched and he interviews academics who study Byzantium and even has a few episodes where he goes through a recent academic paper to cover current developments in the field. It's not dry at all though, Robin is a good story teller. Like many podcasts I think he's gotten stronger as he's gone a long, so if you want a taste of it to decide if it's for you I recommend starting with the episodes on the Fourth Crusade (numbers 259 & 260). If you enjoy those then you can go back and start from the beginning.

The Age of Napoleon is another good one. It covers the French Revolution at a high level but the focus is on what Napoleon personally saw and did so it would be helpful (but not necessary) to read a few wiki articles if you aren't already familiar with the time period. If you want a preview his episode on the life of Admiral Nelson is self contained and very good. When talking about the different factions he usually just describes their views without endorsing or condemning them, on either the left or the right.

Martyrmade, for sure. Listen to his Israel-Palestine series or "God's Socialist" about Jim Jones.

I like Fall of Civilizations. It's really well produced, but fairly slow to update.

I found this recently and quite like it. I didn't previously know that the medieval warm period enabled some societies to exist, and the end of the medieval warm period ended them.

When Diplomacy Fails: episodes, website (which has kind of suffered during Zach's Ph.D. quest).

Jeffrey the Librarian does a lot of interesting stuff on the early United States/Thirteen Colonies.

I also really liked Epic History TV’s hour long episodes on Napoleon’s campaigns.