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I believe you're talking about Mike Duncan's "A History of Rome'. He went on to do another podcast called "Revolutions" which goes in-depth (like dozens of eps each) on various...revolutions. From the English Revolution to the French (a revelation for me, who got only brief mentions of it in school), to the Mexican and Russian (and others in between).

After a 2 yr hiatus, he's just started another one on the _Martian_ revolution. A work of fiction, of course, but in the same documentary format with book references and lots of little easter eggs.

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Yes! That's the guy.

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love Mr Duncan's work.

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Thing you have to remember about the Roman Empire is that they had approximately 97.5% fewer people to deal with than we have in today's world.

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You probably already know about Empire with William Dalrymple & Anita Anand (https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/empire/id1639561921).

For 'bite-sized' series (4 or 5 episodes per series, about 50 mins per episode), I'd recommend Legacy (https://wondery.com/shows/legacy/) and The Spy Who (https://wondery.com/shows/the-spy-who/).

On the history-adjacent side, Origin Story (https://www.podmasters.co.uk/origin-story) is very good.

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The French History podcast is excellent from what I recall:

https://www.thefrenchhistorypodcast.com/

And Read This is very good too (you should send them a "DON'T YOU KNOW WHO I AM?" email inquiring why they've not interviewed you yet):

https://www.themonthly.com.au/readthis

For total movie geekdom The Best Pick podcast is a must, as is You Must Remember This, and for fiction these are all amazing:

Wolf359

City of Ghosts

Alice Isn't Dead

1865 (although it's dealing with politics - what happened after Lincoln's assassination)

12 Ghosts

Within the Wires

EOS 10

King Falls AM

Passenger List

Terms

Tomorrow's Monsters

Unseen

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it looks like you have recreated a big section of my podcast list. Wolf359 I loved particularly because it finished and the story was wrapped up, same Alice isn't dead. Have you tied Unwell a midwestern gothic mystery ? and Midnight Burger always makes me laugh.

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Oh yes! I have Unwell in my podcast list but I haven't listened to it yet. I loved Wolf359 so much, the writing and voice acting was incredible.

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sounds like your to_be_listened_to stack is as lengthy as mine.

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It is SO LONG 😭

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I would heartily recommend the We Have Ways podcast. Hosted by James Holland and Al Murray.

The Second World War is still being unpacked and has a happy ending.

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Tom Holland's brother, if I recall.

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Yes, he is the one who told Tom he should do a podcast.

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Those two plus Empire are all produced by Goalhanger podcasts, which is run by former England star striker Gary Lineker. Hard to imagine a sports star doing something that cerebral - can you imagine King Wally Lewis or Mal Meninga doing anything comparable?

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From what i hear, some of those roman rulers were a bit Trumpy, so delving into western civilisation history might not be the break you need lol

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Apologies my nonfiction podcasts tend to lean to the sceincey end of the spectrum, the few history podcasts tend to be a bit on the lighter end for what you seek, 'Fall of Civilizations' (Paul Cooper), BBC's 'You're Dead to Me', and 'Who did what now' with Katie Charlwood.

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I also prefer "you're dead to me" over "The Rest is History" - TRiH host's tendency to chortle derisively at terms like "woke" gives me the decided impression they're barely centrist.

For mindless escapism I've been diving into nice chatty pods (Kill James Bond, Infinite Monkey Cage, A More Civilized Age) and actual plays (mainly Worlds Beyond Number, which is stunningly good collab storytelling)

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Worlds Beyond Number sounds good. What's that about?

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Nov 8Liked by John Birmingham

It's a long-form DND actual-play with close to zero actual dnd, DM'd by Brennan Lee Mulligan.

The story revolves around a group of friends, a witch (Erica Isshi), a wizard (Aabria Ieyngar) and a fey spirit (Lou Wilson), as they journey across the world of Amora. It's hard not to get into spoilers, but it's a world precariously balanced between wizards, witches, and spirits, which allows for plenty of intrigue and conflict as the friends are pulled in different directions by their bonds to each other, their institutions, and the world in general.

This leads to the characters often being in conflict with each other, which could be painful but, due to the quality of the players, is not.

They regularly have me in tears (joyful, sorrowful, and other). And BLM's NPCs (particularly the fox familiar) are absolute crackers.

Well worth listening to a couple of eps to see if it clicks for you.

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and anything that includes the amazing Erika Ishii I will listen/watch.

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this is the way

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My go to recommendation for the best story telling podcast (not history, but not current affairs either) is always "The Tobolowsky Files". Completely fabulous, engrossing and definitely something to take your mind off <waves hands around> all of this.

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What are you working on at the moment, John? I’m registering to your “disappearance trilogy” at the moment, it’s so damn motherfuckin’ good!!

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At the risk of this comment being a distraction, for some reason the idea of clash of empires / alternate history reminded me of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End, with all the different nationalities in the pirate court.

Surely you can make a better fist of it of than Disney 😜

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(this has been a helpful post - i've been listening to the Dungeon Crawler Carl books and although they are great, i need a distraction and change of topic)

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