The Historical, Informational, and Educational Podcast Megathread

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Rapidly Going Deaf > The Historical, Informational, and Educational Podcast Megathread

BottledBodhisvata: Jul 26, 2013; by Lowtax

WDIIA posted:

Having just finished my second run-through, I think it's fitting that the History of Rome podcast peters out the way that it does, because I think it tonally simulates the decline of the empire. It really imparts a sense of melancholy sor something that had been so vigorous

As a dude who has studied a lot Chinese history, I really didn't like "The Chinese History Podcast" (which I think people have been referring to as The History of China) . The host just irks me and I recall thinking that his scholarship wasn't up to snuff. And he's really into Communist era stuff, which I find to be the least interesting part. But that's just me, and I admittedly stopped early

A Short History of Japan was really good but the dude hasn't updated in a year

Anyway, I just downloaded "The History of China" and "History of Japan." Haven't listened to the former yet. The latter seems OK so far except that the host's way of speaking drives me kinda nuts

\/Ok, yeah that's the one I just downloaded. The OP recommends a different one though, so it's hard to know what's what \/

His podcasts are informative, but I do feel like the guy is just reading off a lecture he transcribed or wrote down. He does a lot of names and dates but rarely gives you the rich sense of detail that Dan Carlin does. My favorite parts are the ending bits, where he plugs his town in some overly sumptuous manner.

# ¿ Jan 31, 2014 06:07

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 15:07

BottledBodhisvata: Jul 26, 2013; by Lowtax

Damo posted:

As a side note holy poo poo Kirk Douglas is still alive?

He'll outlive his son. He'll outlive us all.

# ¿ Feb 26, 2014 20:58

BottledBodhisvata: Jul 26, 2013; by Lowtax

I thought his whole nuke analogy/idea was more of a thought experiment than a literal plan of action. As is, giving everybody the means of destroying the world does, on paper, make some semblance of sense based on the concept of deterrence, but I think there's a lot of...flaws to the notion, to say the least. Too many variables that you can't really count on.

# ¿ Mar 25, 2014 17:17

BottledBodhisvata: Jul 26, 2013; by Lowtax

rypakal posted:

It's ok. He says "listen up folks" enough that you know he's a crazy conspiracy nut that shouldn't be taken seriously. I'm 100% positive he believes in Bigfoot and ancient aliens. But he does decent historical research and has a well trained audio delivery.

Oh, and his summary of Teddy is spot on. I'd go further and say Teddy's conservation initiatives were poo poo because he only did them so he could do more trophy hunting at home.

Dan Carlin believes in Bigfoot. Dan Carlin believes in Teddy Roosevelt.

Teddy Roosevelt is Bigfoot.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2014 13:54

BottledBodhisvata: Jul 26, 2013; by Lowtax

^^^--The shutdown crisis more or less WAS a distraction, as well as a giant waste of time and money.

stealie72 posted:

I think that all depends on your politics. I'm only pretty left, which makes me a conservative for SA, I realize, but I got a bit of a bad taste in my mouth from some of his earlier stuff 3-4 years ago which was pretty flat-out libertarian. As I've gotten into my late thirties and slightly less lefty, his last year's worth of shows, especially since snowden, have made a ton of sense. Except for his "share a nuke" plan, which is either genius or stupid.

edit: And on TR, don't forget that he started life as a sickly, bookish kid who got wrapped up in the whole Victorian ideal of vigorous manhood in response to his desire to no longer be a sickly kid. I've always looked at him as a former nerd who hulked out once he grew up, and because of that, can never be sure what of his ideas are really his, and what of his ideas are what he thinks are the opposite of what a wan, sickly person would do. This is all Dr. Phil level psych-101 poo poo, and I may be completely wrong, but it's helped me see the guy as a human, even as he enjoys a bit of a spike in popularity lately as the dream of the 1890s is alive everywhere.

I don't think Carlin would identify as libertarian today either. I think he's largely just focused on political corruption rather than any political platform. I like a lot of his rhetoric and his Common Sense podcasts tend to at the very least raise interesting questions without resorting to blanket hyperbole. When you have heels like Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck or Hannity dominating the realm of political talking points or opinion pieces, Carlin is hardly the most lunatic voice on the air, even disregarding the Alex Jones crowd.

And to be fair, nobody is as crazy as Alex Jones. Carlin's got some very out-there ideas, but he's a lot more sensible than the Stefan Molyneuxs or Alex Joneses of the world.

# ¿ Mar 28, 2014 15:40

BottledBodhisvata: Jul 26, 2013; by Lowtax

Antti posted:

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the numerous TV shows he's hosted and starred in, but let's just say the UK thread in D&D has a specific rule about Frychat so I thought to be inclusive in my recommendation.

Whatever that rule is, it is a dumb rule.

# ¿ Apr 4, 2014 23:31

BottledBodhisvata: Jul 26, 2013; by Lowtax

Jazerus posted:

I don't think I get the Common Sense hatred. Dan's had a few episodes where he's slipped lately between Snowden and Crimea but the Crimean situation seems to have focused him again.

You guys do realize that he's not actually a crazy conspiracy type of person, right? If Dan's talking about something that is considered a conspiracy sort of thing he's usually quite right about it being worth serious discussion, as with the NSA revelations - most of SA probably knew from Drake or Binney or whatever that this stuff was certainly going on but the mainstream news would have called you a nut for seriously discussing it. Dan spent years sounding like "a crazy conspiracy theorist" on the issue and was unequivocally correct about these programs long ahead of the Snowden leaks. If you've never listened to Common Sense give it a whirl but you might want to start with the shows of about 5 years ago as there's a pretty long run of great CS shows during the first few years of the Obama administration.

I guess he's quasi-libertarian on some things? He always says he's a little sympathetic to libertarianism but I frankly do not see all that much of it in his stances. He is definitely not isolationist in his foreign policy except in comparison to the MIC - advocating fewer foreign adventures and more cautious diplomacy doesn't correspond to the "close all military bases on foreign soil" libertarian isolationism. The only policy position of his that has ever made me thrown my hands up in exasperation is his poor understanding of the flat tax's consequences.

I think Dan would probably be pretty far left if he hadn't grown up during the Cold War. His age has firmly rooted him in capitalism but his other views defy classification IMO.

Well said and very true. Dan's not a libertarian by any popular definition, and I think he has a lot of pretty drat good insights that shouldn't be hastily dismissed by the goonmind.

# ¿ Apr 15, 2014 17:17

BottledBodhisvata: Jul 26, 2013; by Lowtax

Beeez posted:

This is why I've never listened to a whole episode of his podcasts, hopefully if I try again I'll have a similar experience to you guys. Because when I tried listening to him he reminded me of Alex Jones.

And the MONGOLS put the ARABS in FEMA CAMPS where they were subjected to ABHORRENT EXPERIMENTS funded by ILLUMINATI AGENTS, we have the documents folks, infowars dot com, fight the power and take back OUR COUNTRY. We're up against HEAVYWEIGHTS and they're knuckleballing us hard, but if we feint to the right and left, they'll never get a hit in and we can outLAST them, WAKE UP AMERICA. Infowars dot com.

# ¿ Aug 1, 2014 21:34

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# ¿ May 3, 2024 15:07

BottledBodhisvata: Jul 26, 2013; by Lowtax

WrathOfBlade posted:

Dan Carlin doesn't sound like a morning zoo crew, but oh man I'd be first in line to listen to a show that covers the decline of the Roman Empire with heavy use of a soundboard and muted hard rock riffs on loop in the background.

"And then we get to Cleopatra!" *Audience going OOOOOOO* "And Julius Cesar met her and was instantly infatuated." *cartoon spring noise* and then he conquered her river basin if ya know what I mean--PLAY ME OUT CHUCK! *copyright free soft rock*

# ¿ Oct 23, 2014 06:48

The Something Awful Forums > The Finer Arts > Rapidly Going Deaf > The Historical, Informational, and Educational Podcast Megathread