Over the past few years, debates have been waged over how American history should be taught in schools, particularly subjects like slavery and racism. Covering everything from ancient civilizations to 20th-century politics, these six shows deliver incisive and engaging lessons that will resonate no matter how much you learned (or paid attention) in history class.
This comedic history staple was an early example of a podcast format that’s become ubiquitous: one host talks in depth about a particular subject to a second host, who’s unfamiliar with the topic. In each episode, the comedian Dave Anthony reads out a different story from U.S. history to his co-host, Gareth Reynolds, with topics including politics, sports, even the origin story of cereal in America. Because Reynolds is always coming in cold, his reactions, riffs and impersonations feel spontaneous in a way that only improv can, and the pair’s natural chemistry makes the laughs infectious. The blend of off-the-cuff humor and rigorous research has made “The Dollop” a podcast-chart mainstay for more than a decade, and ensures that the show remains accessible to a wide swathe of listeners beyond history buffs.
Starter episode: “Ronald Reagan with guest Patton Oswalt (Part 1)”
Hosted by Paul Cooper, a historian and novelist, this podcast burrows into the stories of once-mighty ancient civilizations, exploring the complex web of political, economic and human factors that built them up and ultimately tore them apart. Episodes are infrequent (on average just two or three per year), but they’re dense and detailed epics, running more than two hours apiece and woven together from sources, including historical records, archaeological findings and contemporary academic opinions. Over the show’s 16 episodes, the collapses covered include the Cambodian Khmer Empire, the ancient Sumerians of Mesopotamia and the still-mysterious society that once existed on Easter Island. The listening experience feels like reading a comprehensive book from cover to cover, but with none of the dryness that might imply thanks to the immersive quality of Cooper’s retellings.
Starter episode: “The Catastrophic Fall of Roman Britain”
Hosted by the journalist Robert Evans, alongside a revolving series of guests, the podcast examines history through the lens of its very worst men. The definition of “bastards” is expansive, encompassing historical tyrants and dictators, abusive men in Hollywood and contemporary politicians and corporate executives. Also included are businesses and industries, like the East India Company, Purdue Pharma and the payday loan industry. Even when covering well-trodden ground, “Behind the Bastards” finds fresh and enjoyably weird angles — for example, the episode titled “Hitler: Y.A. Fiction Fan Girl.” Evans, who has reported on conflict zones, police brutality and far-right extremism for the investigative news website Bellingcat, also has a knack for drawing parallels from the past to the present. In June of 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, for example, he produced a mini-series spinoff titled “Behind the Police,” which explored the checkered history of policing in America.
