I'll try to keep this question brief, but I feel like I'll need to elaborate a bit to get the answers I'm really looking for here.
Presently, I'm working my way through Mike Duncan's inimitable "History of Rome" podcast series on Spotify. I'm loving his dry wit, his casual way of attracting attention to things that will come back later, his admittance of that which is not well recorded, and his genuine enjoyment of the history he relays. His series is over 100 parts long, and though he's not bloating the episodes with minutia (Though sometimes I wish he would, I'm a very anecdotal person) he's ensuring we get the detail we need to fully understand the stories he's relaying. I won't be finished with this series for awhile, but I'm wondering: where to next?
I considered attending college for Classics studies. I took 2 years of Latin in HS, enjoyed my minimal Ancient Greek training, and have enjoyed both my trips to Italy, both times ensuring to see sights of the ancient world. Instead, I'm presently at an exclusively arts-based university, where there are no serious history courses taught (excepting a few intended to serve as liberal arts credits, and are often taught by Low level teachers who couldn't get a job elsewhere). That said, I took APUSH and APEURO in high school (AP world was, sadly, not offered), and I would really love to expand my reach. I was thinking a continuation of my classics roots (perhaps Greece or Carthage?) Or perhaps something stretching into Asian or African history? I mean, if there's a billion part "History of the world" series our there, hit me up. (Don't you dare post that Bill Wurtz video, I've seen it. I love it, but I've seen it.)
I should also add an amendment here: spotify is probably not the premier streaming service, so what is? I'm on a Samsung Galaxy S8, so whatever works on that. I like listening while I walk from class to class or whenever I'm chilling or driving (when I go home).
I'd like to conclude this post with a "Hey! If this isn't allowed, please let me know and I'll take it down!" Message. I'm aware this page is normally used for more specific historical based questions, but honestly, I didn't know where else to go for this. I figured most "ask reddit" pages wouldn't have the insight for this answer, but if this isn't the place, I'll remove it.
Cheers to everyone here, whether or not you have an answer for me!
On a general side of things there is the In Our Time bbc podcast. Premise is 3 academics and one presenter do a 45 minute introduction/summary on a topic. (Covers history, literature, philosophy, all sorts).
Has been running for decades now so has a huge archive and is nice to find new things to be interested in or just fill gaps between long podcasts.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/2Dw1c7rxs6DmyK0pMRwpMq1/archive
This subreddit actually has a sporadic podcast series, in case you weren't aware:
https://www.reddit.com//r/AskHistorians/wiki/podcast
You didn't mention it, nor have I seen any of it mentioned in comments. So forgive me if you were already aware of it. Each episode is on a unique topic.
First, the inestimable podcast of this own subreddit. You might not be interested in every topic they cover, but it's really cool to hear the opinions on experts on a lot of subjects.
I'd second recommendations on the History of Byzantium, and Fall of Rome alongside the new podcast, Tides of History. What I appreciate about both of these podcasts is they don't just give a narrative of the history but dive deeply into the deeper social and economic causes behind the events themselves. Tides of History and Fall of Rome are hosted by Patrick Wyman, who has a PhD in Ancient Rome, and I really like the way his podcast is in conversation with the latest in the literature. If you enjoyed History of Rome, you will probably like Revolutions. I think Duncan actually gets better (especially, after he finishes the English and American Revolutions) and does a much better job explaining the why, and finding really fascinating stories.
Some less known podcasts I like a lot are the Napoleonic Age, which is probably the most in-depth exploration of one of the most pivotal eras in the history of the world. The Second Decade, by Sean Munger, is also set in a similar period. The podcast is a broad ranging podcast on interesting events that happened during this period. The host is a doctoral student with tremendous expertise on climate history during this period, and I love how he can make the weather such an intersting subject. There's the History of the Twentieth Century. I really like how the podcast covers so many topics, especially the history of art during the period, and how so many periods are connected together. There's a eurocentric bias that frustrates me (not a single episode focusing on South Asia even though there have been 120 or so alread!) , but it is still very much worth listening to.
If you are interested in early American History, there's Ben Franklin's World, which is a regular interview podcast with experts and historians in that time of history. I'm a big fan of Migration Nation (although this podcast seems discontinued) that focuses on the peopling of America. Inward Empire is another really, really, really great podcast that focuses on the myths about how Americans percieve themselves, and the complex realities behind them. As far as expanding beyond a US and Europe perspective, I really like the History of Indonesia podcast, and the History of Latin America podcasts. Martyrmade also has a really great series on the origins of the Israel Palestine conflict.
Lastly, apologies for the blatant self-promotion, but I think my podcast does a good job of covering a lot of modern economic history in Asia and Africa, which you might be interested in. I'm the host of the Wealth of Nations Podcast. It's a podcast about the politics, economics and history of international development. For example, I have a podcast episode on the legacy of white settler and how it continues to effect Zimbabwe today, I just released a podcast episode on the trade history of India and Pakistan, and I am currently working on a series on the Green Revolution (the dramatic growth in rice yields in the 1960s and 70s), it's historic origins , it's successes and failures, and lasting legacy focusing on the Philippines, Ethiopia and Punjab.
www.wealthofnationspodcast.com https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/wealth-of-nations-podcast/id1276965678?mt=2
As far as how to listen to podcasts, I'd recommend getting a dedicated podcast app rather than spotify. I'm pretty happy with Podcast Addict, but there's a pretty huge range of choices.
History of Byzantium https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-history-of-byzantium/id527579475?mt=2
Revolutions https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/revolutions/id703889772?mt=2
The Second Decade https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/second-decade/id1170961607?mt=2
Inward Empire https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/inward-empire/id966298988?mt=2
Migration Nation https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/migration-nation/id1096511323?mt=2
History of Indonesia https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/a-history-of-indonesia/id1126179389?mt=2
History of the Twentieth Century https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-history-of-the-twentieth-century/id1039714402?mt=2
AskHistorians Podcast https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-askhistorians-podcast/id812302476?mt=2
Age of Napoleon Podcast https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/the-age-of-napoleon-podcast/id1223795973?mt=2
Patrick Wyman's Fall of Rome is similar but a little rougher around the edges, especially the early episodes.
Latrobe University's Emperors of Rome is in some ways more a general history, but is quite a bit more in depth so far than THOR.
Robin Pierson's The History of Byzantium continues where Mike Duncan left off without skipping a beat. It is also a five star podcast in it's own right.
The History of Egypt is not quite as smooth as some others but is doing an AMAZING job covering this civilization in much greater depth than anything else that I've encountered.
I've listened all the way through Mike Duncan's podcast over 17 times (I stopped counting) and these, along with a few others, fill in the voids.
EDIT: I am using Podcast Republic on a galaxy 7 with no issues- I have almost 50 gig of podcasts saved and it does not break.
If you're enjoying Mike Duncan, you could just continue to roll into his Revolutions podcast. He breaks it into mini series of ~20 episodes, each covering a specific revolution (or in the case of the current arc, series of interlinked revolutions)
I would definitely recommend Mark Painter's History of the Twentieth Century. I would also second Podcast Republic as an app choice.
I'd recommend the Ottoman History Podcast. Rather than being a single scholar giving an overview of a period of history, such as Mike Duncan's podcast, OHP is basically a series of interviews between the podcast's editorial team and scholars engaged in a plethora of different subjects, all tied together based on their relation to the 'Ottoman World.' This means the history of the Ottoman Empire as a polity, but it also covers the post-Ottoman history of Turkey, the Middle East, North Africa, Persia, and Islamic history more generally.
The podcast's main strengths is the massively diverse methodologies and subjects covered (because they invite some many different scholars) and that fact that it's got discussions in English that engage with scholarship written in Turkish, Persian & Arabic. The podcast can be quite helpful in discovering parts of world history that many people in the U.S. simply don't know exist, but I think one of the true gems of the podcast is the different angles of analysis that the show introduces by way of its diverse subject matter. It can open your mind about ways history can be engaged with, and how looking at specific microhistories within their own contexts can reshape the way you see broader historical narratives. I think the multi-subject structure would pique your anecdotal interest.
To give an example of how all over the place this podcast can be, a couple of recent episodes that I enjoyed were:
An interview with a historian who was traveling around Bosnia in the 1990s, documenting the destruction of historical monuments stretching back to the Ottoman Empire during the ethnic cleansing that took place. It never even occurred to me that this might be something a historian could end up doing.
These are all episodes from around the past year, and their back catalogue has something like 300+ episodes in it. There's one talking about Ottoman military logistics along the Danube river. There's an interview with a linguist studying the history of queer slang in Istanbul's hugely diverse back alleys. I swear there was an episode that was focused on the diary of a single barber in Aleppo for like 40 minutes, and it was awesome.
The downside to the podcast is its eclectic nature means the episodes are going to be hit-or-miss for many people. I'll sometimes skip episodes and just browse through old ones in the archive. Additionally, because they're bringing on a new person every time, the episodes spend a fair amount of time just going over theory and the process of research. The editors and the guests are almost all university academics, and methodology is a big part of what they study along with the sources. Personally, I really like this aspect because it gives insight into what it's like to be a professional historian, but it isn't for everyone & can be a bit jarring if all you're used to is narrative history.
P.S. The subreddit's own podcast is awesome.
P.S.P.S. I really wish there was some way to compile podcast recs and reviews from this sub's flairs. We get a ton of individual questions about Hardcore History and I think it could be useful. Perhaps the booklist could be expanded to allow flairs to post other forms of media if they want? Maybe there could be a floating feature dedicated to podcasts?
The two I always mention on here are The Ancient World and The History of China. I'm on mobile, otherwise I'd link them.
The Ancient World is getting close to the end of its third series, which details the familiar relationships of Roman nobility. The first series is a history of the truly ancient world up to about 500 BCE, and the second series is a short one about the people who rediscovered some of these lost civilizations.
The History of China is hosted by a flair here (not sure if it's polite or impolite to put their username?) and I love his style and the way he tells the story. This is nowhere near close to done, as he is currently approaching 1000 CE, but the first couple thousand years of Chinese history have been fascinating!
I was going to start a new thread but this seems relevant so - is Dan Carlin's Hardcore History an accurate podcast?