Dan Carlin makes most people’s deep dives look shallow. Discursive, digressive, both grand and granular, Carlin has a commanding grasp of history’s nuances and how events and figures big and small fit together to create the world we inhabit today. Unlike some of the other podcasts on this list, “Hardcore History” doesn’t really lean on music or sound effects or historical soundbites; most of Carlin’s multi-hour-long episodes are just him, alone, telling you what happened and what people remember and what it might all mean. It’s like sitting in on a lecture by a particularly sharp (and indefatigable) history professor.
Consider starting with Episode 50, “Blueprint for Armageddon I”—the first installment of Carlin’s excellent WWI arc, which is loosely arranged around Gavrilo Princip, who helped assassinate Archduke Franz Ferdinard. It also has the advantage of being, at 3 hours…
