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Hardcore History |OT| New episode: Painfotainment

Seems to me the indigenous people in the other stopped actually had a really good chance, except for some dumb decisions and bad alliances.

That series actually just wrapped, as well, and there were plenty of times Cortez could have lost but got extremely lucky.

Well Cortez got lucky sure, but if not him it would have been someone else. Their doom was inevitable, mainly due to disease. A completely hopeless cause.
 
Are there episodes that you do like? Because if you think Kings of Kings was awful and you think this was worse than awful I have a hard time thinking you enjoyed the show in the first place.
I enjoyed Prophets of Doom. I thought the episode on the Spanish American War was alright. Blueprint for Armageddon was fantastic. And I really enjoyed Destroyer of Worlds.

With King of Kings, I had no prior exposure to the story apart from 300, which made it difficult for me to connect to what Dan was talking about. It was the same with the Celtic episode - I know next to nothing about Roman history, and without a central theme to tie the story together, I found very little to engage with.
 
I enjoyed Prophets of Doom. I thought the episode on the Spanish American War was alright. Blueprint for Armageddon was fantastic. And I really enjoyed Destroyer of Worlds.

With King of Kings, I had no prior exposure to the story apart from 300, which made it difficult for me to connect to what Dan was talking about. It was the same with the Celtic episode - I know next to nothing about Roman history, and without a central theme to tie the story together, I found very little to engage with.

So I take it you haven't listened to his series Death Throes of the Republic?

It's one of my favorites and definitely worth a listen. Might be behind a paywall, but it's well worth it.
 
Seems to me the indigenous people in the other story actually had a really good chance, except for some dumb decisions and bad alliances.

That series actually just wrapped, as well, and there were plenty of times Cortez could have lost but got extremely lucky.
God damn did he ever get lucky.

The other factor was the Aztec propensity to try to capture prisoners (for later sacrifice) rather than kill their enemies. It saved his life more than one.
 
I tried King of Kings twice and couldn't get past episode 1. It was interesting, but I am not knowledgeable about most of the people and places he was talking about, and there were sooo many that I got lost. A lot. It is probably more on me than anything else. I need to whip out a pen and paper next time to write names of places down.
 

Regulus Tera

Romanes Eunt Domus
I dunno. Like...listening about battles is always awesome.
I feel the opposite way. I find my mind often wandering to other stuff when actual battle descriptions start occurring because th actual importance is often on the formations and not the individual combat, and that's difficult to convey in an audio only format. I think Dan excels at painting the character vignettes and relationships, and that's the stuff that makes me keep coming back.
 
Well Cortez got lucky sure, but if not him it would have been someone else. Their doom was inevitable, mainly due to disease. A completely hopeless cause.
I think you could say the same about the Gauls, though. Even if they'd been able to repel Caesar, eventually they would get got by Rome.

God damn did he ever get lucky.

The other factor was the Aztec propensity to try to capture prisoners (for later sacrifice) rather than kill their enemies. It saved his life more than one.
Yeah, he was so lucky. There were multiple times where they literally had their hands on him, and he got to escape because they just chose not to try to capture him alive instead of killing him right there, and it's silly that his greatest weapon against them--smallpox--only arrived when Vasquez sent his men to go take out Cortez for his illegal expedition.
 

Nerokis

Member
I tried King of Kings twice and couldn't get past episode 1. It was interesting, but I am not knowledgeable about most of the people and places he was talking about, and there were sooo many that I got lost. A lot. It is probably more on me than anything else. I need to whip out a pen and paper next time to write names of places down.

You can start at Dan's website: http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-56-kings-of-kings/ The episode notes have a ton of useful information.

For me, King of Kings ended up being especially amazing specifically because it was challenging material. Well, actually, both because the material was challenging and because it was so important. Getting a grasp on that stuff went a long way toward fleshing out a key stretch of history.
 

ST2K

Member
Punic Nightmares, Death Throes of the Republic, and now Celtic Holocaust make for a nice little Roman Dan Carlin Podcasting Universe. Anyone who doesn't know Roman history all that well owe it to themselves to check them out.
 
You can start at Dan's website: http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-56-kings-of-kings/ The episode notes have a ton of useful information.

For me, King of Kings ended up being especially amazing specifically because it was challenging material. Well, actually, both because the material was challenging and because it was so important. Getting a grasp on that stuff went a long way toward fleshing out a key stretch of history.
Oh wow. That is EXACTLY what I needed. This is great. I really was enjoying the material...I just kept feeling lost. This should help quite a bit when I try it again. It's been long enough I'll probably just start from the beginning.
 
Punic Nightmares, Death Throes of the Republic, and now Celtic Holocaust make for a nice little Roman Dan Carlin Podcasting Universe. Anyone who doesn't know Roman history all that well owe it to themselves to check them out.

I'd throw Thor's Angels in there too.
 
Punic Nightmares, Death Throes of the Republic, and now Celtic Holocaust make for a nice little Roman Dan Carlin Podcasting Universe. Anyone who doesn't know Roman history all that well owe it to themselves to check them out.

Don't forget Thor's Angels!


^ What he said, I should have read further
 
Finally finished the new episode. I definitely agree that it was kind of rambling and felt like an extra long addendum to Death Throes.

I hope the next episodes/series gets back to the 90 minute - 2 hour length.
 
Listening to the Radical Thoughts episode and it's so frustrating hearing how "liberals" were linked to communism as far back as the 60s, and upsetting when you think about how we can see the effects of that today as prevalent as ever
 
Just finished Punic Nightmares 1-3. Really great stuff. The only bit I didn't like was the very ending, where Dan theorizes "But knowing what happens to the Roman Republic, maybe Carthage got the last laugh?" Then he goes on a ramble that because Rome had to build this large army to fight Carthage, it started a domino effect of toppling other powers, getting power hungry, more power to generals, blah blah blah, suddenly Rome is an empire. Really felt like he had no clue how to end it, so he grasped at some weak straws. Besides that, it was great. I'm only sad this was back when his episodes were still on the shorter side, but just starting to stretch out. Instead of 3 1-hourish long episodes, I wish we had 3 3-hour long episodes. It felt like there was plenty of material to really go into. The first episode could have been spent laying the foundation for Rome and Carthage, who they were and what their regional power was at the time, etc.

Finally finished the new episode. I definitely agree that it was kind of rambling and felt like an extra long addendum to Death Throes.

I hope the next episodes/series gets back to the 90 minute - 2 hour length.
I like this for the one off-episodes, especially if it lets him crank out more. I'm kind of in the mood for 1 or 2 short episodes, then something big and meaty. I would still love something on the 100 year war.
 
Only the slightest tease, but the next episode might be especially gory/violent
@HardcoreHistory you made one of my students nauseous listening ProphofDoom execution descrip. Don’t let me down this year

oh...I won't. Promise.
 

frontovik

Banned
That makes me wonder if he would do an episode on the Inquisition, which certainly resulted in substantial bloodshed.

It would also make sense in context as this year is the 500th anniversary of the Reformation sparked by Martin Luther; which shattered the tenuous grips of the Catholic church on Europe and sparked a series of bloody counter-reformations and the penultimate Thirty Years War.
 
I just re-listened to Fall of the Roman Republic in an effort to make it stick more permanently. Can anyone recommend any good documentaries to compliment the episodes on Rome?
 
I just re-listened to Fall of the Roman Republic in an effort to make it stick more permanently. Can anyone recommend any good documentaries to compliment the episodes on Rome?

If you want another good (and free!) podcast, I can highly recommend Mike Duncan's The History of Rome. He covers the entire history, and while he's not quite as good of a storyteller as Carlin I feel he's more legitimate as a historical source. Less feels, more facts, basically, but he still does a good job of working in his own sense of (very dry) humor. His follow up series, Revolutions, is also great too.
 
If you want another good (and free!) podcast, I can highly recommend Mike Duncan's The History of Rome. He covers the entire history, and while he's not quite as good of a storyteller as Carlin I feel he's more legitimate as a historical source. Less feels, more facts, basically, but he still does a good job of working in his own sense of (very dry) humor. His follow up series, Revolutions, is also great too.
I just added and holy shit....170+ episodes?! This is going to take a while.
 

lazygecko

Member
Well, the Youtube comments should be interesting.

From what little I saw of Dan Carlin's forum, it was basically another altright cesspool. Then it was taken down last year without seeing any specified reason. I wonder if it had anything at all to do with that.
 
Whats up with Common Sense? Current events are so depressing, Dan dont even know what to say about them?

I think it's a combination of this and the fact that he has a really hard time switching gears from the History show which is by far his most popular endeavor. The fact that he has warned against a Trump like character taking power since the first episodes he did over a decade ago maybe makes him feel like there isn't a lot more he can say on the subject.
 

Broank

Member
I think my favorite episodes are the ones I have little knowledge of. The Magellan voyage episode (Globalization Unto Death) was mind blowing for me because I had never heard anything about it beyond that he circumnavigated the globe. Can't believe there hasn't been a big budget Netflix or HBO show about it because that was the craziest most interesting shit I ever heard. Even got me to get that Over the Edge book so I could get more details and that was even better than the podcast.

Same with the episode about the Assyrians (Judgment at Nineveh). That was when I first discovered the podcast and got me down the rabbit hole.
 
Whats up with Common Sense? Current events are so depressing, Dan dont even know what to say about them?

He’s been arguing for an outsider to shake up the system for decades and it actually happens and it’s Donald Trump. Also he says the things he cares about like corruption, constitutional questions, privacy, stuff like that have taken a backseat to what he says is basically the two sides of American politics hate each other and he doesn’t have any answers for that.
 
Even got me to get that Over the Edge book so I could get more details and that was even better than the podcast.

Same with the episode about the Assyrians (Judgment at Nineveh). That was when I first discovered the podcast and got me down the rabbit hole.
Over The Edge Of The World was the first book I had to read for school that absolutely engrossed me and got me into historical nonfiction books. It's excellent and fascinating
 
Whats up with Common Sense? Current events are so depressing, Dan dont even know what to say about them?

I just finished listening to Shades of Grey and the Day of the Dove back to back, which came out yesterday. He digs more into it, and he articulates what I've been trying to say on the forum for a long time.


He talks about how a Civil War would not play out like it did the last time. He points to an article by a WSJ writer Peggie Noonan who talks about the cynicism of the climate creating the canary in the coalmine.

Dan mentions Kaepernick. For all the arguing about a footballer taking a knee, the media is making 100s of millions of dollars of that controversy. Nobody is making any money of sensible policy proposals in some state house that passes new regulations with regards to the highwaytrust fund.
No matter what side you're on, you're getting played and used.


He talks about the problem with punching nazis, is not punching the nazis, but the ramifications and the slippery slope it creates. He talks about the folly of both sides trying to root out the other side. Both sides want to remove 150 million people "whose opinion are not worth existing". It's no attacking the ideas of people, but people themselves.
 
BUMP!

https://www.dancarlin.com/

New hardcore history is out!

HH61-cover-1400px-300x300.jpg
 

EviLore

Expansive Ellipses
Staff Member
"You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world. But then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive; who had ever been alive."
 
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