Note: This is a rotating list, which will be refreshed every few months with a slate of brand new history podcasts. Entries from previous lists are still kept down below–they’re still great listens for you to check out!

The best history podcasts

A History of the World in 100 objects

As historians continue to question what sources are best for understanding the past, A History of the World in 100 objects explores the potential that objects have in retracing these histories. Including a credit card, and a Russian Revolutionary Plate, host Neil MacGregor unpacks the endless possibilities of studying historical objects.

New Books in African American Studies 

Taking a highly academic approach, New Books in African American Studies is a finger on the pulse of Black academia, tracking changes and innovations in the field of African American studies. From Book reviews to interviews with respected academics, the podcast is a one-stop shop for the latest transformations in the field. 

Telling Our Twisted Histories

Exploring Native Canadian History through a new word each week, this 11-part series creates an empathetic, inclusive space for native Canadians to discuss and protect their histories. With collaboration from tribes throughout Canada, host Kaniehti:io Horn creates an important resource to decolonise our understandings of native histories. 

Our Fake History 

With so many books, articles, and history podcasts dedicated to debunking and reassessing specific histories, it has grown ever more difficult to understand what is truly real. Enter Our Fake History, a podcast that carefully and playfully tows this line between real and fake, asking important questions about truth, morality, and how we remember history today. 

School Colors

A documentary podcast based in Brooklyn, School Colors charts the discriminatory practices of America’s education system, and the continuing fight for students of colour to gain a good education against the odds. Investigating the tension between gentrification and the expansion of charter schools, School Colors focuses on the long history of education reform, and the burdens placed on Black communities historically.  

A History of Delusion 

Exploring a more niche type of history, host Daniel Freeman considers mental health through a historic lens, attempting to understand how mental illness has impacted our understanding of past figures. Similarly, Freeman also interacts with important questions around post-humous diagnosis, raising issues around the ethics of assigning mental illness to historic individuals. 

Black History for White People 

By using History as a tool to provoke and consider modern-day racial injustice, Black History for White People is a vital resource in challenging bias and encouraging compassionate conversation. The multi-ethnic collective promotes love for Black and Brown people, with these histories centring on Black joy and relishing in the exploration of Black culture. 

Gone Medieval 

While the Medieval era is constantly slandered as backward and oppressive, Gone Medieval attempts to set the record straight, diving into the nuanced and complex world of the Middle Ages. Discussing landmark events such as the Norman Conquest, as well as era-defining individuals such as Charlemagne, Dr Cat Jarman offers an important revision of our view of the Medieval World. 

Real Dictators

The role of a dictator is so often shrouded with interest and morbid curiosity. From Stalin to Mao Zedong, history buffs remain entranced and alluded by these figures. Considering this, host Paul McGann considers ideas of power and control, exploring the inner lives of some of the world’s most powerful individuals. 

Everyday Black History

So often, the histories of people of colour are defined by trauma, and struggle, with little time given to hope and the achievements of people of colour. Revising this historical attitude, Everyday Black History centres on the accomplishments of Black Americans, and the institutions fighting successfully for the advancement of people in the African Diaspora.

Most Notorious 

Featuring true-life tales of crime, criminals, tragedies and disasters, Most Notorious is dedicated to exploring the criminal underworld of time’s past. Interviewing researchers and academics dedicated to historic outlaws, the show spotlights new work from some of the most impressive scholars in the field. 

Unpacking Latin America 

Centring the research of Latin American scholars, Unpacking Latin America provides a detailed account of the nuances and discoveries of historians today. From revising ideas on Latin America’s colonial past, to discussing ideas of gender and feminism in Argentina, host Professor Vicky Murillo gives an all-encompassing view of Latin America History to date. 

You Must Remember This

A sultry, smoky look into Hollywood’s first century, You Must Remember This pushes the boundaries of podcast making, relying on a unique blend of highly researched creative non-fiction to tell tales of Hollywood’s past. Listeners should prepare for a listening experience like no other, and stay for a truly tantalizing look into the stars Hollywood forgot. 

Crossing Fences

In History today, many academics are beginning to explore new and innovative ways of understanding and interpreting historical events. A podcast that captures this best is Crossing Fences, an ambitious project collating oral histories of African-American men from across Pittsburgh. Ranging from middle-schoolers to men in their late-80s, Crossing Fences is sure to remain a key archive in understanding the Black experience, both in the present and the past. 

The Rest is History 

In attempts to debunk the Great Man of History theories, which cite men as the driving force of History, hosts Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook attempt to detangle mystified views of historic men such as Charles I and Genghis Khan. In a historical field still struggling to come to terms with these narratives, The Rest is History provides important discussions and critiques of set ideas in history today. 

The History of Gay Sex

With podcast episodes entitled ‘The Sambia: The Semen Ingesting Tribe of Papau New Guinea’, the History of Gay Sex is certainly not for the faint-hearted. Charting a diverse history of gender and sexuality, this podcast demonstrates the boundless ways in which different cultures and communities have explored sex desire. 

All My Relations

Exploring elements of Native American history and culture through the lens of relationships, hosts Matika Wilbur and Desi Small Rodriguez explore expansive indigenous narratives. From decolonising sex, to understanding the truth behind Thanksgiving, All My Relations takes a compelling look at past and present cultural practices. 

Ridiculous History

While this podcast delights in finding some of the craziest stories in history, it also raises important questions about how ridicule functions to undermine some of the cruellest characters of history. In this way, hosts Ben Bowlin and Noel Brown take care to balance humour with thoughtful consideration for the role of ridicule in History. 

The Pan-African Alliance Podcast

An all-Black organisation from across the African content and diaspora, the Pan-African Alliance Podcast focuses on education as a source of liberation. Focused on ideas of Black consciousness and reclaiming African histories, the podcast acts as a catalyst for Black empowerment, encouraging the creation of academic communities across the world. 

Radio Ambulante

Showcasing the diversity and complexity of Latin American life, Radio Ambulante is a triumph in documenting the vast cultures and communities present in Latin America, both historically and in the present. Spanning more than 20 countries, Radio Ambulante provides a unique cultural history bursting with humour and empathy, telling stories of love, migration, environment, and politics. 

As history, continues to expand out into new eras, debates and theories, history podcasts remain a vital resource to revise and reassess our history, indulging in the absurdist and extraordinary elements of an ever-expanding discipline.

1619 

A production of the New York Times’ 1619 Project, which marked 400 years since the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in America, 1619 is a meticulous dissection of the legacy of slavery in America. Host Nikole Hannah-Jones reframes America’s national narrative, placing slavery’s consequences, and the contributions of Black Americans at the center of this country’s development. Rather than placing emphasis on white settlers and colonialists, Hannah-Jones give autonomy to individual enslaved persons, and those actively fighting systems of racial oppression, addressing issues of perspective in traditional histories of slavery. 

Revolutions 

For all revolutionary History fans, there’s a special place in our hearts for host Mike Duncan, and the Revolutions podcast. Undertaking the mammoth task of covering every major revolution across each season, Duncan gives a no-holds bar account of any and all revolutionary events, unpicking the minuscule details even academics would struggle to seek out. Revolutions isn’t afraid to shy away from the difficult questions of History, either, with Duncan often debating ideas of inevitability and social progress, adding an important critical dimension to his episodes.

Telling Our Twisted Histories 

In a highly unique and meditative form, Telling our Twisted Histories reclaims Indigenous History by exploring 11 words which have been misconstrued and ‘twisted’ due to colonialization. Throughout each episode, Host Kaniehtiio Horn converses with over 70 Indigenous people from 11 Indigenous communities across Canada, sharing in both highly emotive and healing conversations.

Bad Gays 

Priding itself as being “a podcast about evil and complicated queers of History,” Bad Gays celebrates how sexuality and gender has influenced History’s most crucial characters across the moral spectrum. From problematic intellectuals, to self-proclaimed thugs and criminals, queerness can be found across all spheres of History, it’s just a matter of knowing where to look.

Read more: How Podcasts Fight Falsified History

Floodlines 

When focusing in on historic events, history podcasts often have the difficult task of presenting and dissecting events of the past, which still feel uniquely tied to the present. In Floodlines, a podcast investigating the events of Hurricane Katerina in 2005, this difficulty is demonstrated clearly, with much of the events of the past still fresh in the minds of many living in New Orleans today. With Vann R. Newkirk II hosting, Floodlines gives an unflinching account of events which uprooted the very foundations of American society, all in the course of one natural disaster. 

Not Just the Tudors

Often, the Early Modern period (referred to most often by historians as the period between 1400 – 1789) is full to bursting with Tudors. Whether its Henry VIII and his many wives, or the oft-cited tragic tale of Lady Jane Grey, Tudors have dominated the realm of popular history. Rather than straying into these typical tropes of the Early Modern World, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb provides so much needed nuance, along with an assortment of incredible academic guests.

This Land

Tracing the History of Cherokee Nation through two respective assassination attempts in 1839 and 1999, This Land documents a crucial tipping point in indigenous History to date. Hosted by Oklamhoma journalist and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Rebecca Nagle discusses the fate of indigenous ownership of ancestral lands against a vast historical context, providing a measured, highly empathetic understanding of this vital History. 

In Our Time 

A much beloved staple of BBC programming, and now available worldwide, In Our Time has hosted a multitude of academics across its 23 year span, covering narratives and historical phenomenon from across the world. National treasure, and host of In Our Time, Melvyn Bragg is a consistent tour-de-force of knowledge, actively keeping pace with experts in the field.

The Humanity Archive 

Brimming with passion and unflinching honesty, host Jermaine Fowler is uncompromising in his retelling of history, focusing in on the histories which often fall outside the usual curriculum. Focusing on subjects such as the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. and the Mali Empire, Fowler spans a wide range of historical subjects and individuals, making for an impressively diverse catalogue of episodes.

Tides of History 

In charting history’s vast and distinctive impact today, there are a myriad of questions still to be asked, and a multitude of threads tying us back to inventions and innovations of the past. In tides of History, host Patrick Wyman follows these instances of invention and innovation in an attempt to understand the true origins of our modern society. Using imaginative forms of analysis and introspection, Patrick Wyman allows us to truly consider the way History has shaped our lives. 

Historically Black 

Using objects to uncover hidden narratives of Black History, Historically Black brings stories to life through audio files and interview discussions of lived experiences, and inter-generational understandings of History. Featuring guests such as Issa Rae and Roxane Gay, Historically Black provides a unique take in uncovering unseen histories.

You’re Wrong About

Full of witticisms and quick comebacks, You’re Wrong About is the podcast for those with a love of high and low culture History. Unpacking both historic and contemporary cultural phenomenon, host Sarah Marshall and guests (including long-time co-host Michael Hobbes) attempt to redress some of the most common misconceptions about cultural history today.

School Colors 

A podcast that utilizes the form’s ability to hyper-focus on specific history is School Colors. Immersing itself in the interplay between race, politics and power, School Colors depicts the history of the American education system across generations of parents, educators and students fighting for education reform in Black neighborhoods across Brooklyn, New York.

Ancient History Fangirl

For those who had a borderline unhealthy obsession with Ancient civilizations in their childhood, Ancient History Fangirl is for you. Geeking (Editor’s note: Greeking?) out together over topics such as ancient sexuality and Greek Gods, hosts Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy are living out their own historical obsessions, with smart quips and hilarious chemistry between the two.

Noire Histoir 

Describing itself as a podcast dedicated to “Black History and Literature from a noir perspective,” Noir Histoir prides itself on celebrating Black culture in all its many forms. Spanning various histories and locations, Noir Histoir dismisses the assumption that Black History can only be celebrated during Black History Month, encouraging year-long appreciation of these rich histories.

You’re Dead to Me

Providing his signature child-like joy and enthusiasm for History, Greg Jenner hosts You’re Dead to Me, a podcast for ‘people that don’t like History…or just forgot to learn any at school’. Reinvigorating History takes from comedic talents such as Phil Wang, and intellectual know-how from the likes of Peter Frankopan, You’re Dead to Me never fails to deliver on quality history knowledge. 

This Place 

Honoring the sacrifice and resistance of Indigenous communities in Canada, This Place recounters over 150 years of Indigenous History. Focusing on heroes, triumphs and traditions of native peoples, This Place works to shape national narratives of identity in a bid to learn, share and heal from the wounds of the past. 

Noble Blood

For a podcast overflowing with drama, intrigue and scandal, look no further than Noble Blood. A deep-dive across the world’s most controversial and complex monarchies, host Dana Schwarz recounts in vivid detail the weird and wacky eccentricities of past royalty. 

Code Switch 

Charting the effects of racial inequality and discrimination through a variety of communities, histories and political spheres, Code Switch never shies away from the most difficult conversations about our shared histories. Hosted by Shereen Marisol Meraji and Gene Demby, Code Switch combines rigorous research and lived experiences to provide full scope in understanding the lives of marginalized communities.

One from the Vaults 

Bringing you “all the dirt, gossip and glamour from trans history,” One from the Vaults is an essential exploration of a field of history just waiting to be explored. Discussing trans icons such as Marsha P. Johnson, and the concept of “passing,” One from the Vaults represents a key change in representation across popular historical narratives. 

With history podcasts acting as a key access to new understandings of the past, this genre promises to continually expand and explore on the plethora of podcasts already available.

The Lonely Palette

The Lonely Palette’s goal is to bring art down out of the ivory tower and empower listeners to ask questions and feel confident in commenting on artwork, especially the ones found in museums. Tamar Avishai has done beautiful work here, with every episode opening with recordings of her asking museum-goers their thoughts on the artwork in question. That kind of opening is a cue to listeners that this art history for them and about them, and not just accessible to academics, as further shown by Avishai’s excellent historical rundowns on artists and their work.

ICONography

Host Charles Gustine creates beautiful audio about historical icons and their presence in our modern-day world. Each season focuses on one particular place and the icons that are strongly associated with the area, with season one discussing England and season two focusing on New England. And that means, for instance, an episode on Paddington and an episode on witches and witch hunts. Gustine digs deep into those icons that we all know and around which much of modern understanding revolves.

The Marble Garden

Sawyer Westbrook’s podcast centers itself on people, specifically, the people found in cemeteries and the stories that can be discovered through cemetery tombstones. The atmosphere in this podcast is found in the hushed, reverent tones of Westbrook’s telling of someone’s history. These episodes are intimate, personal, and tender even when covering the history of cemeteries themselves, and are written as though watching salient moments of their lives as they unfold.

Undiscovered

Undiscovered covers the history of science and scientific discoveries, and the ways that scientific progress moved forward (or didn’t). The two hosts, Annie Minoff and Elah Feder, are stellar storytellers and interviewers, keeping the story moving and within a doable time frame. Minoff and Feder make sure listeners are all on the same page, and some of these stories are really wild; it includes great snippets of interviews, recorded audio, and most importantly, all the nuance necessary when tackling science and when they don’t have an answer.

Burst Your Bubble

I love in-depth, critical analyses of our pop culture history, especially media that’s considered foundational in its particular genre or medium. Morgan Jaffe, creator and host of Burst Your Bubble, comes from a deeply-researched perspective to media literacy and criticism to dissect specific topics within entertainment media. The episodes dedicate a chunk of their time to playing clips as examples, and Jaffe sharply points out how many things that we consider to be “in the past” are current issues we are actively working to change.

The Dirt

Anna and Amber of The Dirt talk about archaeology and anthropology with adorable rapport and hilarious commentary, as well as complete and detailed information. In about 45 minutes, they track a particular subject through ancient history, like the position of cats in ancient cultures or different kinds of curses. Anna and Amber break down myths, misconceptions, and misunderstandings with nuance and care and usually, a lot of puns.

Toasted Sister

When considering the history of food, Toasted Sister is a must-listen, as it weaves together the history of Indigenous food cultures and the stories of current Native chefs, historians, journalists, and more people. These interviews are about how they work with traditional dishes and Native ingredients to show that this is more than a pop culture fad, but also deal with the long histories of food sovereignty, cultural appropriation, and heritage. Creator and host Andi Murphy is a superb interviewer who has focused in on Native and Indigenous food histories and memories, how they work with them and incorporate them into their lives in the present day, and why we need to keep talking about it.

Echoes of India: A History Podcast

Echoes of India discusses ancient India in incredibly scored and soundscaped immersiveness. Anirudh Kanisetti does amazing work as the host, having scripted a clear plotline for each episode, going above and beyond when he describes a battle to the sounds of a raging war in the background or bringing on voice actors to read lines from various translated records, like a Sanskrit drama and Buddhist debates. Kanisetti expertly sets the mood and scene and, as a specialist in geopolitics, has the necessary understanding of how these threads of history have remained influential.

Spirits

One of the best mythology and urban legends history podcasts out there, Spirits is a conversational podcast that covers all kinds of myths, legends, and ancient lore. Julia Schifini and Amanda McLoughlin have an endearing relationship, full of goofs, boozy drinks, and intricate education on the place mythology has in our daily lives, institutions, and structural oppression. Their long-running show has included a popular ongoing miniseries called Your Urban Legends, where listeners submit local urban legends from their areas, and episodes featuring various popular guests, such as Paul Bae and Adal Rifai.

Clear and Present Danger

Hosted by Jacob Mchangama, founder of human rights think tank Justitia, this podcast discusses the history of free speech as an evolving world concept. These episodes are hour-long deep dives, starting in ancient Athens and Rome. Mchangama is an excellent historical guide, clear and precise, and with the right sense of drama when needed even though the episode has a practical focus rather than a theological or philosophical one. Interspersed throughout are expert opinion episodes, where Mchangama’s talent at guiding questions leads to a vibrant, insightful talk on a particular aspect of free speech.

Hollywood in Color

People of color are left out of history lessons and books everywhere, and Hollywood in Color aims to rectify that gap. With three seasons under her belt, creator and host Diana Martínez does amazing work at the intersection of race, gender, and feminism in Hollywood. Martínez is a wonderful storyteller, which makes for an engaging, often jaw-dropping listen, touching on cultural icons that were shaped and later erased by Hollywood and cultural memory. And she always keeps it fresh every season, from the intertwined paths of Las Reinas de Los Angeles in season one to the life of Hattie McDaniel to the the history of musicians and their Hollywood movies.

The post 20 History Podcasts to Kick the Dust off the Past appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

From deep dives into my cultural comforts to shows which admitted to the truly maddening state of modern love, being able to escape into these intricately crafted podcast worlds was a soothing balm for my broken heart. Admittedly, these podcasts might be specific to my ways of coping with crisis, but, there are some universal threads of wisdom throughout these recommendations.

And, although I have formed some questionably close attachments to various voices these last few months, I set aside the fear of parasocial relationships and truly relished the creative goodness which exists in the world. 

Sentimental Garbage 

First up is the wickedly funny Sentimental Garbage. Based on the premise of appreciating all the culture that is often deemed a guilty pleasure, Sentimental Garbage gives the likes of Mamma Mia and Ru Paul’s Drag Race the critical analysis they so rightly deserve. Listening to the podcast, is both a healing and hilarious experience, allowing listeners to rid themselves of all guilt ever bestowed upon them for loving what they love, whilst laughing alongside host Caroline O’Donaghue and her absolutely incredible laugh.

When in the early stages of my breakup, I turned to Sentimental Garbage’s “Sentimental in the City” series, a no-holds-bar seven-part series discussing all seasons of Sex and the City. Through the series, the show reaches a higher, and rightly deserved status, as a prism to explore the complexities of human relationships across a wide spectrum of characters and circumstances.

The series is made all the better by series co-host Dolly Alderton and O’Donaghue’s incredible chemistry, bouncing jokes off each other with ease, leading to intimate personal revelations as well as the odd embarrassing anecdote. At a time when I was feeling my lowest, listening to two women admit to their own painful encounters with love, as well as fueling hope for a brighter future, was nothing short of soothing. 

Read more: 7 Tear-Jerking Podcasts To Pull at Your Heartstrings

The Friend Zone – One of the Best Breakup Podcasts

When it comes to self-care, I used to be a bit of a sceptic. After coming out of being a full-time caretaker for my mum, I have only recently adjusted to the concept of having the free time to practice self-care. So, when it came to my breakup, I knew I had to turn to self-care but, I struggled to really understand what self-care meant, beyond bubble baths and candles.

The Friend Zone consistently prides itself on discussing real, genuine ways to care for oneself, going beyond the easy shallow work of running yourself a bath, to really thinking clearly and openly about how to make your life better in the long run. Each week hosts Assante, Dustin and Fran explore concepts of mental wealth, mental health and mental hygiene, because, as is their catch-phrase, who in the hell wants a musty brain? 

Out to Lunch 

I have always loved food. From my nana’s kitchen peering over counters at batches of fruit crumble in the autumn, to big bowls of spaghetti made hurriedly in cramped kitchens as we revised for tests the next day, cooking has always felt joyful. It’s no wonder that I found myself back in the kitchen post-breakup, reimmersing myself in the recipes I loved. 

Someone I feel who always, effortlessly, manages to capture the joy of food is restaurant critic and host of the Out to Lunch podcast, Jay Rayner. The energy and excitement of his columns are transformed as he delights in great conversation over great plates of food. With a myriad of guests, such as Derren Brown and Tim Minchin, Rayner proves that food universal love, which can uplift even the most broken-hearted.

My Dad Wrote a Porno

After my breakup, intimacy felt foreign. So, when I starting listening to My Dad Wrote a Porno, I relished the opportunity to see intimacy contorted and mocked through the medium of a very poorly written porno. The premise of My Dad Wrote a Porno really is as embarrassing as it sounds: Jamie, the podcast’s host and son of the porno writer known only as Rocky Flintstone, reads the titular porno Belinda Blinked to his two equally mortified co-hosts, friends Alice and James.

With a bizarre combination of hilariously inaccurate descriptions of female anatomy, along with a surprising amount of references to business strategies, My Dad Wrote a Porno is a wildly funny listening experience. 

You’re Dead to Me

A common thread that consistently crops up whenever I’m faced with any form of crisis or stressful period is my sporadic obsessions with obscure histories. This pattern naturally followed me in the aftermath of my breakup, as I found myself joyful sucking up new knowledge of history, like a cold drink through a straw. 

Fulfilling this obsession perfectly was You’re Dead to Me. Branded as ‘a podcast for people who don’t like history, or just forgot to learn any at school’, host Greg Jenner invites a historian and a comedian on each week to discuss a new historical period, event or individual.

Ranging from the stereotypical classroom history to the more niche and unusual tales often missed off of syllabuses, You’re Dead to Me strikes a great balance between engrossing historical details and humorous vignettes of dialogue to keep you laughing through the absurdity of ancient times. 

The Receipts

The Receipts podcast has been a mainstay of my weekly listens for the last four years, consistently providing me with laughs I have to suppress on public transport and full belly laughter in my kitchen as I cook dinner. Three friends, Audrey, Milena and Tolly sit down each week to discuss anything and everything, from relationship drama to their everyday lives trying to make it in London, all served up with a big slice of unfiltered honesty.

This unadulterated truth-telling comes into play during the “Your Receipts” episodes of the show, where the girls answer some of the wildest and weirdest listener queries I have ever heard on a podcast. With episode titles such as “He cheated, and then proposed“ to “he’s perfect, but has no front teeth“, the podcast delivers its fair share of absolutely outrageous content, as well as the odd heartfelt words of wisdom. 

Nancy 

As I began to reconsider my identity outside of a relationship, I wanted to explore my queerness in a safe space, particularly after coming out of a straight-presenting couple dynamic. Previously, I’ve found it difficult to stand in that identity of queerness but was determined to better embrace it in the aftermath of my breakup.

Through the Nancy podcast, I was able to better understand my own queerness, as well as the identities of others within the LGBTQ+ community. Hosted by Kathy Tu and Tobin Low, though completed in 2020, Nancy celebrated and shared all aspects of LGBTQ+ experiences, with a mix of queer histories, pop culture analysis and refreshingly honest conversations about what it means to be a queer in modern-day society. 

How To Fail 

Sometimes, even good change can feel bad at first. When my relationship began to fall apart, I felt like it was a personal failure, and I took on the weight of that failure in all its entirety.

As the months have gone by, I’ve shed this feeling, but when I truly did feel disappointed in myself, How to Fail was the perfect podcast to redefine what it means to fail. In each episode, Elizabeth Day invites wildly successful people, from celebrities to politicians to authors, to reflect on their biggest failures, providing a deeply humbling view of people who seem unfaltering brilliant. 

Read more: “Asking for It” Wants Honesty about Queer Domestic Violence

This American Life

For British people, America is an inherently strange place. It exists as a perfect dichotomy, feeling both deeply familiar and outrageously different, all at once. However, what alleviates that strangeness is the knowledge that there are threads of feelings and solidarity which connect us all. 

From timely episodes discussing the reverberations of a recent news event in a given community to throwback episodes that fully encapsulate the full range of human emotion, This American Life is a deeply comforting window into another cultural world. Host Ira Glass leads us through each weekly theme, charting how a feeling, phenomenon or thought has fundamentally shaped the lives of people across America, and beyond. It’s this juxtaposition that makes This American Life on of of the best breakup podcasts available.

Throughout my breakup, episodes of This American Life provided moments of much-needed happiness, as well as stark realisations of what it is to live in this current cultural and political moment. In many ways, it has radicalised me into action and shown me what it means to live in a society and a wider community. 

The New Yorker Fiction Podcast

Something unique to podcasts is the ability to dip between several genres, stories and hosts almost seamlessly. Podcasts like the New Yorker Fiction podcast utilise this strength perfectly, providing revelatory snippets of stories and compelling narratives, served up and ready to be dissected in vivid detail.

Each week, host Deborah Treisman invites acclaimed writers to choose a short story from the New Yorker archive to read and discuss, with guests such as Margaret Attwood and Ottessa Moshfegh. Providing glimpses into the interior lives of writers and the choices they make when creating new material, this podcast is the perfect antidote for any writer who has fallen out of love with writing. As I struggled through my post-breakup writer’s block, listening to Deborah Treisman and her co-hosts delight in the power of the written word was the inspiration I needed I needed to get writing again. 

The post The 10 Best Breakup Podcasts That Got Me Through Mine appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

Ultimately, hosts like Louis Theroux are thrown in to represent an intellectual Everyman. For the most part, Louis is deemed as someone remarkably similar to the listeners, but with an added intellectualism that grants him access to foreign spaces. When encountering a new subject or culture, he is intelligent enough to know the parameters of a subject, but will still ask leering and ignorant questions, creating a false persona of naivety. This naive charm often has varied consequences, with guests either politely indulging his questions, or slyly playing off feelings of anger or annoyance. The intellectual Everyman format goes beyond just Theroux, and can similarly be seen amongst a whole group of British podcasting men, with the likes of Adam Buxton similarly upholding this same, detached naivety when interviewing individuals on similarly serious subject matter. 

Read more: What to Listen to Instead of Reply All

Empathy and Grounded with Louis Theroux

A recent example of this false naivety backfiring is a recent interview with Michela Coel on his podcast Grounded, where after repeated questioning from Louis, Coel turns the interview on its head. Whilst discussing her most recent TV show, I May Destroy You, which covers the sticky morals of consent and sexuality, Theroux flippantly asks, “What are the rules?”, with an expectation that Coel will dogmatically and strictly describe specific sexual rules.

Resisting this expectation, she instead asks Theroux what she thinks her intentions are as a writer, and whether he believes she is trying to purposefully sway someone towards a specific conclusion, or if she is merely presenting a realistic moral dilemma:

“It’s not that I’m saying ‘okay, this is good and this is bad’ because, as we’ve discussed, I don’t have those labels. What I think is really interesting is how we look at the actions of somebody else. And based on our experiences, we see it’s a certain way. And depending on our trauma, we deem the person bad, good, right or wrong. If we look at that really complex thing, which I just love so much, there’s a lot going on.”

Michaela Coel on Grounded with Louis Theroux

What Michela expertly picks up on is that trauma is complex, but it colours our understanding of the world in ways that someone who has not experienced that same trauma would realise. In fact, it’s this naivety towards how trauma shapes us that plays into the heart of Theroux’s problematic nature, and why his theoretical empathy can be so damaging. 

Naturally, this isn’t to say that privileged people can’t also experience trauma; however, Theroux’s work never quite allows for him to personally share in his own experience. There is always a strange, and unnerving sense of distance, particularly in his episodes interviewing Black women. 

For many podcasts, be that investigative or interview-based, much of the content relies on addressing past trauma, with much of that discussing gender, race and class. How, therefore, can those topics be fully and properly dissected under the scope of one of the most privileged sets of people in society? 

Although Theroux may have unsuccessfully explored his own privilege, many other podcasts are able to successfully explore privilege in relation to trauma, with many giving unflinching, raw accounts of honest, lived experiences.

Moving Past Theoretical Empathy

In The Heart’s “Race Traitor” series, producer and host Phoebe Unter, a Jewish Lesbian, is confronted by her own participation in upholding white supremacy culture. Over the four-part series, Phoebe asks difficult, sometimes painful questions of how her whiteness has come to affect her friendships with Black people and people of colour, and how she navigates the world differently as a result of her race. With questions such as, “Who taught you to be white?” and recorded testimonials of Phoebe’s friends describing their struggles to reconcile with her whiteness, The Heart digs deep into what it truly means to confront your own participation in racism. 

By centering the experiences of others in relation to Unter, the “Race Traitor” series aptly begins to undo the damage of theoretical empathy, forcing Unter to sit in the discomfort of how her privilege affects others, but also working through solutions to begin to undo the damage of white supremacy within her surrounding community. 

Read more: “Asking for It” Wants Honesty about Queer Domestic Violence

Another podcast which shies away from theoretical empathy, exposing the true, unfiltered experiences and histories of indigenous people through indigenous voices is This Land. Framed around the assassination of a Cherokee leader in 1839, and a 1999 murder case, This Land documents one of the most significant moments in indigenous history to date, as the fate of indigenous ownership of ancestral lands hangs in the balance. Hosted by Oklahoma journalist and citizen of the Cherokee Nation, Rebecca Nagle provides a genuinely insightful and sympathetic look into the histories and perspectives of indigenous people. 

Unlike hosts like Theroux, Nagle enters these private indigenous spaces with a noticeable care, and respect for these communities, an approach which is so rarely viewed in other investigative series. Rather than merely exploiting these individuals for their stories and perspectives, Nagle has vested interest in these people’s lives, which is clearly reflected in the quality of her story-telling. 

In considering This Land’s clear-eyed, meticulous structure, it’s become clear that, when we rely on an intellectual Everyman like Theroux, we miss out on an important aspect of quality. Of course, generic, disattached podcast hosts can tell an adequate story, but there is always likely to be something missing. 

It could be in key terms and phrases, which are so obvious and apparent to experts, but can be easily misappropriated by outsiders. It could be that quiet confidence in the voices of interviewees, as it is instead replaced by exasperated individuals trying repeatedly to explain, and failing to get through. It might even be losing out on those endearing, forgetful moments, where subjects are less poised, and more honest, failing to give into the fake grandeur of a podcast and its host.

A podcast which similarly benefits from the more relaxed, confident outlook of inclusive hosts discussing a subject they know intimately is Griefcast. Examining the human experience of grief and death, host Cariad Lloyd (someone who has also previously dealt with loss) creates a safe space for guests to express their grief in whatever way feels most comfortable, be that through humour, or through frank honest conversation about losing someone.  

Through Griefcast, we see the importance of these collective emotional experiences, and the fulfillment it brings even to those going through their own unique journey through grief. When setting out to host podcasts like this, it is podcasts like Griefcast that demonstrate why we need representation across all forms and subjects.

A Takeaway for Listeners

In the same way we should allow indigenous people to retell their histories and narratives on their terms, we should similarly allow people who have dealt with loss and other trauma to tell that on their terms, with the host being a confident, and inclusive representative of these experiences. 

In spite of its shortcomings, Theroux’s model is a popular one, and one that has remained a mainstay of British podcasts for many years. It’s a model which dominated the 90s documentary scene, and has quickly seeped into the investigative podcast realm too. However, it is ultimately a model of imagined empathy which belongs to a different era. 

Although Theroux remains a comforting, familiar face to many, a podcast cannot solely rely on someone’s personality or likeability. It has to upkeep a quality and an interest which is difficult to maintain when relying on such a tired format. As podcasting continues to expand, and celebrities continually make half-hearted attempts at interviewing strangers, theoretical empathy will soon become a glaringly obvious aspect of podcasts to come. 

Rather than giving in to the facade, it’s important for us to patronise the podcasts which actively fight this. The podcasts which bring in experts when it’s necessary, the podcasts which are honest about where their expertise lies, and the podcasts which feel nuanced and complex in their storytelling, rather than just a man in a room asking too many questions, and not listening nearly enough. 

The post The Louis Theroux Effect: Podcasts and Theoretical Empathy appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.

Unfortunately, in historical records to date, it is often only the stories of those with the most power, and therefore the most privileged, who survive. However, in coming to view History on our own, more personal terms in the pandemic, it is the stories of those historically suppressed who have gained the most traction in recent times. 

In this process of reassessing our histories, it appears that our usual spaces of cultural understanding, in the form of the museums and galleries, have failed to revise and interrogate our past perceptions fully. This was particularly true in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter protests, as cultural spaces and institutions pledged support of the movement, but continued to undervalue and under-represent the Black community within their exhibitions and in their leadership. 

Instead, podcasts are attempting to fill the cultural gap, reconciling and revising historical narratives with unwavering clarity and dedication. Through a variety of podcasts, hosts have been able to realign the personal with the historical, making space for radical empathy and honest consideration of the people behind the history. 

A podcast which encompasses this philosophy, whilst also fighting the spread of misinformation in the past and the present, is You’re Wrong About. Encompassing a vast subject matter of historical trends, figures and events, hosts Michael Hobbes and Sarah Marshall center empathy in considering and critiquing the historical record, and how it can often differ from the reality. 

Read more: I Want You to Listen to Lolita Podcast

In one of their most acclaimed multi-part series, Hobbes and Marshall utilize their radically empathetic perspective in confronting the controversial history of Princess Diana, and her status as a cultural icon. Rather than attempting to rest their judgements in moral absolutes, painting Diana as wholly good and the royal family as wholly bad, Hobbes and Marshall invite an important level of nuance in their revising of past events. Instead of leaning too heavily into mourning for Diana and her legacy, they remain skeptical of sources when they need to be, and only judge individuals against their own moral misgivings. Frequently, Hobbes and Marshall will pause the narrative to discuss similar experiences they have faced, or have seen play out within contemporary society. 

This important break from the past and realignment with the present is a necessary process to ground listeners in reality. As with many historical novels or academic histories, there is a constant attempt to sweep audiences up into the drama of the time, to ignore the moral misgivings of past cultures and civilisations, writing it off as being “a different moral era.”

However, throughout the podcast, we are forced to confront significant lessons from the past which are repeated time and again, regardless of how progressive a given era is. In this way, You’re Wrong About acts as a vital moral compass in our path to revising and reconsidering historical narratives in an honest, and genuine manner. 

In spite of the severity of the subject matter in episodes of You’re Wrong About, the podcast remains a charming homage to pop culture and the issues of media literacy in creating an archive to these monumental moments of our shared histories. However, in looking to revise and reconsider History, there also needs to be a concerted effort to reconcile the discomfort and shame which many stories carry with them. 

This process of exploring and sitting with the discomfort of shared histories is most apparent in 1619, produced by The New York Times. The podcast, spawned from New York Times Magazine’s 1619 project, is a historical analysis of how slavery shaped American political, social, and economic institutions. 

Rather than positioning History as a force untethered to our existence, host Nikole Hannah-Jones positions the narratives of Black Americans at the center of this historical analysis. Throughout the series, Hannah-Jones actively invites the personal to sit alongside the historical, inviting in the experiences of other Black Americans to further investigate cultural perspectives and give insight into the nature of historical oppression. In a deeply unsettling and emotional finale, June and Angie Provost tell the story of how farm land, held by their family for generations, was covertly stripped away from them, in a scheme to actively undermine Black farmers and dispossess them of their land. 

Read more: “Asking for It” Wants Honesty about Queer Domestic Violence

Although this modern-day story may feel like it belongs to the civil rights era of 1960s and 70s America, 1619 makes it starkly apparent that historic methods of racial discrimination are still alive and well in American society today. In sitting with the discomfort of the past, we are simultaneously able to confront our contemporary failings and address them. Rather than desperately clutching to the idea of the “post-racial society” as mythologized by the Obama era, 1619 forces us into the light of our own racism, and the systems which uphold it. 

In spite of its thorough unpacking of historic and modern-day systems of racism and oppression, the project has consistently been critiqued by a body of historians, seemingly unwilling to believe 1619’s revised narrative. After critiquing the project’s ‘cynicism’, Princeton historian Sean Wilentz circulated a letter objecting to the project, gaining the signatures of James McPherson, Victoria Bynum, Gordon Wood and James Oakes, all leading historians at prestigious institutes. The letter accuses 1619 of “factual errors”, stating that the project represented “a displacement of historical understanding by ideology.” In response to the fact that all signatories are white historians, the letter states that “dismissals of objections on racial grounds – that they are the objections of only ‘white historians’ – has affirmed that displacement”. 

Historians who declined to sign the letter stated doubts over the true purposes of the letter to dispel factual inaccuracies, with many suggesting an ulterior motive to discredit those challenging entrenched ideas of American identity, as upheld through specific historical narratives. 

Although the podcast may have garnered criticism, its critics have failed to consider one key advantage which 1619 has in revising past narratives: its accessibility. On the whole, national spaces of cultural and historical exploration have failed to sit with the truth and discomfort of America’s racist past, with many organizations failing to even address their contemporary racist attitudes within their staff, let alone the racism of the past. 

So, if not podcasts like 1619, then what will document and revise the narrative of America’s racist past in an accessible way? If we have any hope of confronting our own complicity in racism today, then Americans need to have accessible, deeply personal historical accounts, which academics have thus far been unable to provide. 

Another project and podcast which similarly encourages the unpacking of shame and discomfort is Floodlines, produced by The Atlantic. Interweaving the background sounds of disaster, from the torrents of water to the haunting call-ins into radio stations, Floodlines is a visceral exploration of Hurricane Katrina, and its untold narratives. 

In retelling the story of Hurricane Katrina, host Vann R. Newkirk II goes beyond the quietly tragic, simplified narrative we have come to rely on in explaining away Katrina. Rather, Newkirk centres the experiences of survivors, mourning the loss of a reality which could have been. 

In choosing to center survivors, we are introduced to Le-Ann Williams, whose story begins just as Katrina hits New Orleans, when she is just 14 years old. Le-Ann excitedly recounts the joy of being enrolled at her competitive high school, dreaming of attending college, and embarking on an ambitious career. It feels like a life we’ve all aspired to, at some point. Then, on 29th August 2005, Katrina hit New Orleans. Over the course of the series, Le-Ann’s story is interwoven into the terrifying scenes of survival in New Orleans, as she continually finds herself displaced, never quite returning to the aspirational life she deserved. 

In this way, Floodlines utilizes the individual experience in revising history. In framing the story of Katrina, it defies the “great men of history” trope, and embarks on understanding individuals with the same complexity and empathy we treat so-called icons of history with. Although Newkirk astutely analyses failures at Federal and State level, he continually focuses on how the consequences of action were felt in New Orleans, sitting with the shame and discomfort of human loss. 

In the finale of Floodlines, Newkirk attempts to use this shame and discomfort to hold individuals accountable, in a remarkable and chilling interview with Michael Brown, the FEMA director at the time of Hurricane Katrina. Brown plays a careful game in framing his involvement with Katrina, allowing himself to admit mistakes, but never quite apologizing, never quite giving into any formal responsibility for the hurt and pain he inadvertently caused. The interview feels almost claustrophobic, as we are forced into the thin gap between basic human error and personal culpability, neither of which Brown firmly sits on. 

Listening to Floodlines, and the testimony of Michael Brown, is made all the more haunting as we too experience a public crisis, which is only just nearing its conclusion. As we look to this revised account of Katrina, it feels almost inevitable that the same failures in upholding  historical truth will crop up in our own historical narratives of the pandemic. When there is such a myriad of stories and experiences coming out of the pandemic, it’s a wonder as to what will survive, and what efforts we will put in to ensure that certain perspectives and narratives are protected. 

However, in projects such as You’re Wrong About, 1619 and Floodlines, it appears that these efforts are already being made to protect hidden perspectives, and will once again be made by other revisionist podcasts in the future. In utilising this genre of cultural media, our understanding of historical periods will continually grow towards a more realistic, nuanced version of History.

In this way, we are creating a version of History that we would like to be remembered by, and a version of History that figures of the past deserve to be commemorated by, with the full force of human complexity and empathy. 

The post How Podcasts Fight Falsified History appeared first on Discover the Best Podcasts | Discover Pods.