Podcast Love

A quick little blog post to talk about some of the podcasts I have been loving lately. Last year, I mentioned how I recently started enjoying podcasts. That love has continued and grown lately, and I just needed to share some of my favorites.

Empire

If you are a history nerd, you might want to give this a shot. Recorded by historians and writers William Dalrymple and Anita Anand, this series is a little gem. I particularly loved their second season on the Ottoman Empire, and I am holding off on the fourth season and fifth seasons that talk about the Russian and Iranian empires. Wonderfully informative and chatty and gossipy, I just know they are going to be as good as the first three seasons.

Highly recommend!

The Strike and Ellacott Files

I”ll be honest, I like the Cormoran Strike series by Robert Galbraith, but I am not in love with them (not like the way I adore Harry Potter). But I was curious about some of the epigraphs in her books, and I googled them, wanting to learn more. And I ended up in this rabbit hole of the Cormoran Strike fandom. I had no idea there was this rabid fanbase, and the gals in this podcast got me appreciating the books a lot more. They practically read into each line, and some of their conclusions are hilariously wrong, but it’s all good fun, and I enjoyed listening to the podcast as I reread the books.

Stuff the British Stole

Another history podcast, but with a slight twist. Each episode focuses on one or two items that the British purloined during their Empire-building days. Some of the items are valuable cultural artifacts. Some of them are people, and animals. This is one of those podcasts where you don’t need to listen from start to finish. Each episode is fairly standalone, so you can pick and choose what interests you. Fun and informative, and also sometimes angry-making.

Have you listened to any of these? What are you listening to lately?