Thanks to support from Imperial War Museums for this piece.
There’s a small boom going on in history podcasting at the moment. Large and loyal audiences have long gathered around big hitters including The Rest Is History, Wondery’s Legacy, You’re Dead to Me from the BBC, and the History Hit network of shows.
But there is still space for new or returning series to arrive and thrive. The past few months have seen a slew of interesting, innovative shows that take a different approach to one of podcasting’s most popular genres.
Conflict of Interest
This new series from Imperial War Museums returns to the successful format of inviting celebrity guests for a private tour of the museum alongside subject experts and museum curators.
This time, guests including Sanjeev Bhaskar, Susan Wokoma, and Kill List’s Carl Miller are exploring the Blavatnik Art, Film and Photography Galleries. Where episodes in previous seasons each focused on one specific conflict, this series sees guests exploring themes such as protest and propaganda or destruction and reconstruction through the history of art, film and photography.
It’s a great idea. Frankly, with 10 million items in IWM collections, it would be rude not to bring some of them to the attention of podcast listeners’ ears.
The back catalogue is fantastic too, with episodes including Russell Tovey on the Berlin Wall, Eddie Izzard on the Korean War and Sophie Duker on Ukraine.
What’s Your Map?
This cartography-based podcast often seems to be dipping its toe into history almost by accident.
Each guest brings a map to explore with host Jerry Brotton, leading to some really fascinating discussions and plunging you into worlds you would never have thought to look into otherwise.
Some episodes are straight history, such as Empire’s William Dalrymple discussing a Jain cosmological map from c.1770. Others take a more circuitous route such as the most recent episode where wine expert Jane Anson discusses a geological map of the Bordeaux wine region.
That the 1855 classification of Bordeaux’s finest wines listed the best as coming from châteaus that sit above the most scientifically desirable soil, based solely on taste and reputation in the absence of geological evidence, is one of the most fascinating things I’ve learned from a podcast in a long time.
This Is History
Historian Dan Jones is obsessed with the Plantagenets, who ruled England from 1154 to 1485. Despite such a lengthy period to choose from, series six focuses on just one particular king: Edward III.
Perhaps that’s because Edward’s story has a bit of everything. At 50 years it’s one of the longest reigns in English history, featuring war, orgies, revenge and heists all set against the backdrop of the Black Death.
There’s also bonus episodes addressing some of the more esoteric questions you might have about Medieval England, including “”What did an Edward III diss track sound like?”, “how did people tell the time?”, and “were sex parties and hot pants to blame for the Black Death?”
You might think that dedicating an entire podcast to one dynasty alone would be too narrow to keep audiences entertained. But six seasons in, it seems specificity is This Is History’s strength.
Intoxicating History
Sometimes you need an alternative point of view to learn something new and this podcast from TellTale Industries provides just that.
Author Henry Jeffreys and journalist Tom Parker-Bowles are tracing the story of alcohol, and you’d be surprised how much that can tell us about the story of the world.
From port we get medieval crusaders, geopolitics and bear-riding. Claret gives us scheming courtiers and royal friction, while champagne brings tales of pirates, lovers and a snake venom anti-ageing serum.
