My history podcast gets to Number 3

The Binge Thinking History Podcast seems out of the blue to have risen up the charts on iTunes.  On the UK site under History (of course) it’s now No 3 keeping excellent with Melvyn Bragg, Matthew Parris and Neil Oliver.  Not sure how long this fame, if that what it is, will last but it’s nice to know people are listening and enjoying.

BTHP is back

Now my case of ‘podblock’ is gone I’ve posted the latest episode of the Binge Thinking History Podcast and…it gets a great review. 

The podcast gets a review and a ‘big up’

I never thought for a moment that the Binge Thinking History Podcast would have taken off quite as well as it has.  OK…it’s not getting monster downloads like my mate Pete Cogle does with his fantastic Dub Zone, but for a history podcast it holds it’s own and bubbles under or on occasion breaks into the top 20 or 25 on iTunes both in the US and UK. 

Now it gets it’s first, or that may be second review by history blogger and podcast reviewer Anne Frid De Vries. 

And a must listen from Dan Brown.  Surely not that Dan Brown.

Podcast Episode 5

The Binge Thinking History Podcast episode 5 is now up…and it’s the biggest so far at 51 mins. 

This one looks at the origins of the Battle of Britain.

I is with Podcast

Finally I’ve got round to record and post my first ‘official’ podcast.  The details for downloading including the RSS feed are as follows:

http://bingethinkinghistory.libsyn.com/rss

http://bingethinkinghistory.libsyn.com/

The plan is to be up on iTunes as soon as I can.

Podcast Number 3

Podcast number 3 is complete and is the longest so far at 33 mins.  I think it’s probably the best sounding one too, I’ve managed to slow down a bit and played around with faux voices for the quotes etc.  I hope like it.

I’ve a huge amount about creating Podcasts in a very short space of time…

My 2nd Podcast

This weekend saw Podcast number two issue forth from the modest studio called Bedroom 3.  My brain still works faster than my mouth and I’m not sure I build a completely convincing story but there is still part three.

My First Podcast

Last weekend I sat down and recorded my first Podcast, it’s not particularly slick but hey it is a first attempt.  My reason having a go was firstly to try it out the process and secondly to respond to a few interesting threads on Dan Carlin’s rather excellent discussion forum.   Dan has does two excellent Podcasts, Hardcore History and Common Sense with Dan Carlin and listening to him gave me the push I needed to have a go.  It’s the first of a few I have in mind which will attempt to draw a historical thread between the American Founding Fathers and two English republicans, Simon de Montford and Oliver Cromwell. 

Anyway I keep being told I have a face for Radio…

If you’d like to listen you can download it from the rather neat Skydrive site here.

Henry VIII, John Lewis, Monarchy and David Starkey

The annual Kingston Reading Festival is a month of lectures and readings from local authors, writers and journalists which kicked off at John Lewis last night with Dr David Starkey giving a fascinating, insightful and at times humorous assessment of how Henry VIII is possibly the most significant individual in English, if not European history.

Here’s some of the salient bits as I remember.

• When Henry VIII came the throne England was staunchly Catholic, probably the most devout Catholic county in Europe.  This is likely due to the fact that is was the furthest from Rome.
• Henry himself was a devout and committed Catholic.
• The Monarchy and the Church until quite recently were hand in glove, the Queen after all is still the Supreme Governor of the Church of England although this isn’t quiet the gig it used to be.
• In Henry’s time the Monarch was therefore was not only the head of the church but the Executive leader too.  England was therefore by definition a totalitarian state.
• Significant points in history more often than not turn on the smallest of events.  In this case a chance meeting between Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.
• In the 1500s the Pope wasn’t adverse to granting divorces especially to the ‘great and the good’ who supported and defended the faith.  The timing of the request by Henry to divorce Catherine of Aragon was appalling as the Pope was busy trying to see off the French and he wasn’t in the mood or position to grant anything.
• Once a divorce wasn’t forthcoming Henry did what any devout does when they don’t get they want, they examine the texts for reasons they should get what they want.  One justification Henry came up with was based around the supremacy of a Monarch over the Pope, the bible after all has lots things to say about Kings and how great they are but the bible doesn’t contain one reference to a Pope of any kind.  Henry concluded that Popes weren’t actually Gods idea therefore can’t tell a King what to do.

Must go and read the book.

I.Clavdivs

It’s not often that something you remember from the dim and distant turns out to be as good as you remember if not better.  Well it does happen…honest.  BBC4 has just finished showing the whole of I.Claudius over thirteen consecutive nights and I was hooked; it is without doubt some of the best TV ever produced.  By modern standards the production values seem a little low rent but the quality of the script and the actors means this doesn’t matter, in fact it adds to the claustrophobic feel of the Imperial House and makes you feel a like to have front row seats to all the plots, schemes and excessive goings on.

Historians may think it portrays the fourth Julian Roman emperor in too favourable a light, after all being a Emperor was a bloody and nasty business two thousand years ago, but Robert Graves gave us a compelling and fascinating story.  Besides much of the early post Republic history was written by only a few historians and we know how inaccurate they are and it’s not as if Graves is claiming some monster contradictory version of history like the Americans discovering the Enigma machine or winning the Battle of Britain.

Claudius was a fascinating figure as he limped, stammered and twitched his way to building the famous port at Ostia, successfully quelled the British tribes which both Julius and Caligula failed to do, gave almost a million people Roman citizenship, build a couple of aqueducts and ensured that the Roman road network expanded to accommodate the larger Empire. 

Oh…our cat is named after his grandmother.