You're Dead to Me, Greg Jenner of Horrible Histories. It's funny and fun and quite wholesome. Gone Medieval and The Ancients are great as well.

It would be remiss of me not to plug our very own AskHistorians podcast, with biweekly interviews of flairs, academic historians and public history figures. It's clean and covers a huge range of topics so your son can choose which ones he finds interesting.

Stuff you Missed in History Class is a good one-- there's content warnings for the rare episode that isn't age appropriate. They give high level overviews of whatever topic.

I've been listening to the History Hit podcasts recently (Not Just the Tudors/Gone Medieval, etc) which I'll include for posterity but can't recommend to an 11 year old--its interviews with scholars about their research and it doesn't really give an introductory spiel about any of the topics before it dives in.

Ologies is interviews with different kinds of scientists (e.g archeology, paleontology). The episodes are more varied than just history, but there's likely some episodes he'd find interesting!

Finally, the BBC has a few good history podcasts.

Good luck!

Revolutions is a great podcast - a very deep dive into some major historical turning points. Mostly age appropriate, although there is talk of affairs occasionally, and of course lots of revolutionary executions etc.

Archaeologist here! Favorite podcast for long drives to projects is Tides of History with Dr. Patrick Wyman. All the material is supported by archaeological and historical sources, solid professional guests, G rated but not boring to tears, great stuff! The current season that’s ending begins at the start of “civilization” and ends at the Bronze Age collapse. Next season is the Iron Age up until Rome since he did his Ph.D in the fall of Rome and already has a season on it.

I've been really enjoying the British History Podcast. It goes from the early settlement of the isles through the Saxon history, the Icenii etc up to the modern day. Quite Roman heavy and obviously Britain-specific but good and thorough (and clean).

Our Fake History, with Sebastien Major.

The show is about exploration of the historical myths that permeate our culture and, to a lesser extent, debunking historical misconceptions. He recently did a few episodes about whether the Wright brothers really invented the airplane that I really enjoyed.

This current season is not great, but the other seasons are all fantastic. Very kid friendly.

My rec would be to look out for podcasts by the British Museum. Their "History of the World in 100 Objects" series is great; each episode is about 15 mins long, and it focuses on an individual object from their collections, so it spans lots of different periods and regions which sounds like it'd be his cup of tea. It's a collab with the BBC so the production quality is high, it's aimed at non-specialists (though the tone might be a bit too fuddy duddy depending on your kid's tastes). I'm fairly certain there's nothing outright explicit in there, and definitely no swearing. The whole thing is available on spotify. They also have done a few other series in the last decade or two and they're usually very high-quality and will almost always be kid-safe.

The old front line. Military historian Paul Reed talks through different aspects and battles of the 1st world war while walking through the areas today. Some of the tales of soldiers are truly fascinating, often sad but overall awe inspiring. It’s on Spotify here in UK (I don’t know where you’re based or if Spotify is regional like Netflix?) but imagine you can get it elsewhere too.

I'm surprised to have not seen "The Rest is History" already mentioned here, especially if you like dry British humour and wit. Both hosts are parents who frequently mention their kids in the context of discussing history at home. One host, Tom Holland (not that one!), had his teenage daughter on to help host a fun "Love Island of History" episode, while the other, Dominic, has written a series of kids books about historical figures and events. I believe Dominic has a son around your son's age, actually.

Some of the content could be a little more serious, but definitely still accessible and mostly appropriate. Anything that's too grown up would likely just go over your son's head.

History of Persia is wonderful, and done by a common contributor to this sub! u/Trevor_Culley

If he’s into mythology, my kids have absolutely adored Greeking Out by National Geographic. They’ve covered most of the highlights of Greek mythology with other cultures peppered in a few times every season. It’s entertaining, funny, and clean (though they have to do a little bit of hand waving when it comes to Zeus’ shenanigans from time to time). It’s something that my kids really look forward to listening to.

Uncivil is a great podcast about the civil war from the prospective of enslaved people and anyone else that might have been marginalized at the time, but its def got a more "progressive" slant to its presentation (although everything is rigorously fact-check). There is a great episode where they interview confederate reenactors and get them to reckon with the "lost cause." It's produced by PBS, so its definitely "clean" and good quality.

There is also some great podcasts on history coming out of William & Mary that focus on early American history. Mostly done by grad students that are on their ps & qs in order to impress their advisors. A little dry, but very informative!

History of Rome is great. I also loved History of England, but had to tap out when it took several years to get through the Tudors (and I no longer had a commute), so I can't speak to the quality in the past few years.

I like Rex Factor, if he's interested in monarchy at all.

History of Japan podcast by Isaac Meyer is well-researched and clean of risque jokes or curse words. Meyer is a high school teacher and his scripts are well suited to non-specialists

If he's at all interested in Art History, The Lonely Palette is a great introduction to the big ideas, movements, and pieces in a lovely and accessible way. The host is an art history lecturer at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston and the information is accurate but also makes room for the personal opinions that always come up when art is mentioned (what is good art vs bad art? why do we care?)

Not Just the Tudors and Ben Franklin's World are also both fantastic and I originally found them through this sub. The former is about the history of the late 15th-mid 17th C in England that doesn't center the Tudor court, the latter is about the 18th Century in North America and while it is nominally focused on Franklin, it is much more about the multicultural landscape of the period and how various people would understand and interact with their world.