What are the best audiobooks and/or podcasts on medieval Europe?

by SadSisyphus

I'm looking to learn as much as I can when I don't have the opportunity to sit and read. I'm interested in everything from farming to sieging a castle to the daily life for a street urchin in 12th century London. Thanks for any answers.

sunagainstgold

I've really enjoyed the medieval episodes of the BBC's podcast series In Our Time. They bring in a panel of experts--usually UK-based scholars--to discuss a particular topic. As a warning, the English history ones like the War of the Roses one can have kind of a steep learning curve; they tend to assume you know a lot more about the WOTR that the average, say, American high school graduate. But topically, they run a full range of medieval themes with a pleasantly expansive definition of "medieval."

(The non-medieval ones are great, too, don't get me wrong!)

On street urchins in 12th century London specifically, the best book I know on that is Barbara Hanawalt's Growing Up in Medieval London, but I don't think it has an audio version.

iliketeaalot

I quite liked Europe from its Origins when I listened to it. It provides a broad overview and I find that useful for making more sense of detail later. I think that it compares favorably to this Yale course.

Aanslacht

It's not explicitly focused on medieval Europe, but the British History Podcast https://www.thebritishhistorypodcast.com/ is pretty fantastic and goes into pretty detailed reviews of not just the 'important' stuff (like kings and battles) but also unpacks daily life, social issues, humour and lots of other things.

Rittermeister

I enjoyed Philip Daileader's lectures for the Teaching Company's Great Courses series. There are three lecture series, each about twelve hours in length, and focused on the early, high, and late middle ages. I found them to be a valuable overview that filled in some gaps in my education. You can get them through audible or through the great courses website.