Some Good History Podcasts

These podcasts are like having that favorite professor talk to you, the one who was so passionate about his specialty that class was a pleasure instead of a chore.

MY HISTORY CAN BEAT UP YOUR POLITICS

History can smash and bash the politics of today. Much of what we think are new events have occured over and over again, though often in different ways and with different outcomes. My History Can Beat Up Your Politics is a podcast that examines the historical foundation behind today's politics and provides layers and layers of historical insight to help you better understand current events.

This speaker is an expert at raising a current area of political contention and then going back over American history to look at what the historical record shows is a real trend or possibility. He manages to do so without taking one side or the other and the analysis is so clear it makes even thorny issues such as immigration much easier to understand.

HISTORY ACCORDING TO BOB

Professor Bob Packett has been teaching history for thirty-one years. His passion for history permeates his entire life, from the thousands of primary resource materials in his personal library, to his collection of historical artifacts.

Professor Bob loves to tell stories of the real people behind the often sterile descriptions found in history texts. His conversational style, filled with anecdotes, quips, and humor, will bring to life the characters of history.

Bob usually has several series going at once. Lately I have heard several biographies of important Russian rulers, key events in the French Revolution, and, events from the life of Alexander the Great, bios of notable Egyptian rulers ... as well as the stray pirate biography thrown in here or there just for the heck of it. Bob makes it all fun to listen to.

MATT'S TODAY IN HISTORY
Once or twice a week Matt takes a topic that happened on that day in history (as you'd expect) and discusses the events that surrounded a key situation or person. I have learned about people that I never heard of (such as George Pullman, Igor Ivanovich Sikorsky or Colonel Petrov) and gotten the low down on events that I knew a bit about but never really thought about before (surrender at Yorktown or the first Liberty ships being launched). Matt set the gold standard in history podcasting as you will hear him mentioned time and again on other podcasts. Each episode is fairly short, around 6 minutes, but is well researched and presented without bias. He has four different intros of famous historical sound clips that he varies and I never fail to feel a thrill when I hear Ronald Reagan saying, "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!"

Tags: Catholicism, Christianity