June 6, 2010

Its been like a month since I last posted and all I got is podcasts.

I drive a lot and music gets old so I'm always looking for a podcast to take with me on the road. I figure instead of wasting my time listening to music, I can listen to a podcast and learn something. Most of them are about philosophy or history, so if that isn't your cup of tea then this post will mean nothing to you.

Here are my favorites:

The History of Rome. 103 podcasts and I've listened to every one of them. You can tell Mike Duncan is a nerd by his voice, but he knows his shit and this is my favorite podcast by far. To the left is an image of the column of Marcus Aurelius (the guy from Gladiator) chronicling his years as emperor. I've included a link to Duncan's website where you will find this same image. Click on it and you can zoom in close to see all the minute details. Fascinating.

12 Byzantine Rulers. Equally impressive podcast as the previous. The creator, Lars Brownworth, samples a 1000 years of Byzantine history (an often ignored and little known piece of time) through 12 notable emperors.

Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. Carlin has a highly melodramatic read of history. I just finished 3 episodes on the Punic wars between Rome and Carthage. I've listened to a description of these wars from Mike Duncan and another from iTunes U (can't remember what university it was from) and neither brought it to life with such vivid intensity as Carlin.

The History Network. If you search The History Network on iTunes, you'll find one on Ancient Warfare and another simply subtitled as Military. Both are good, but I've listened to more from the Military podcast. In it, you'll find episodes on the Battle of Quatre Bras, the Maginot Line, the Russian Japanese War and the Siege of Constantinople (which Brownworth did a better job of describing in his episode in 12 Byzantine Rulers). Pretty much anything you want to know about military history, they cover.

Philosophy: The Classics. If you're looking for a brief overview of many of the major philosophical works in history, this is a great place to start. Nigel Warburton is the creator and author of a book by the same name. I was a bit disappointed when I bought the book and found he covers every chapter of the book in his podcasts, but they're good nonetheless. He covers works from Aristotle, Plato, Kierkegaard, Spinoza, Hume, Locke, Descartes and a few others.

Philosophy Bites. This podcast was created by Warburton as well but covers a broad range of topics from the perspective of philosophers. For example: Nietzsche on Art and Truth, Derrida on Forgiveness and Sartre's Existentialism.

Stuff You Should Know: Probably the best production of any of the podcasts listed here, it features a random collection of topics and has MANY subcategories with podcasts of their own, from Stuff You Missed in History Class (my favorite) to Stuff Mom Never Told You. Some topics covered are: Will the Moon Save Humanity? Bar Kokhba vs. the Romans, How the Taiping Rebellion Worked and Was There Really an Atlantis? If you are looking for information on a topic, chances are they have covered it to some degree. I've included a link to How Stuff Works, the guys who produce these podcasts.

The podcast section of iTunes is absolutely wonderful. I sometimes get giddy seeing all the things I can learn. There is a podcast for nearly everything and it's worth your time to take a look.