Podcast that you can not put down

Headphones on, podcast playing and Autopilot turned on. Since I live in London I always loved listening to podcasts. My taste went with my work (or hobby, hard to find where one ends and the other starts). As a software engineer, I tend to listen to quite a lot of engineering podcasts. I listen on the road, while running, on the Tube or even when I jump down to the shop. I find myself taking a walk around the block just to get a few more minutes to listen.

One day at work I exchanged podcast subscriptions with my friend James. I knew him well at the time and we regularly talked about good movies and books, it was not a surprise either that he had some secret treasures on his podcast list too.

When James suggested a few of the podcasts I instantly subscribed for them and started to listen. They were great content with a wide variety so it was a new world from the constant engineering podcast. We both love history, I'm not exactly sure how much he is into it but he gave me a bunch of nice episodes and podcasts to listen to.

It is good to know that I like to jump to the topic quickly rather than talking around it, so I usually turn speed on slightly. Up to 1.4x or 1.6x sometimes even 2x when I feel the conversation goes too slowly but keep it 1.0x for the podcasts that I feel they would deserve the time.

One of Jame's suggestions was Dan Carlin's Hardcore History. As I mentioned we both love history, so yeah, it sounded great! When I checked out the podcast my jaw dropped. Four and a half hours for one single episode!? This guy must have lost his mind! I like history, but who on earth listen to history podcasts for that long? (well I couldn't be more wrong but later on that).

I just put it asides, and never thought about it too much to start listening. Jams tried to tell me, that I will like it, just to give it a chance. I guess, I was simply too busy to listen at that time so I kept pushing it.

Time passed, maybe a year or two, and then Covid19 hit the world and everyone was staying home. Every weekday after 9 pm, I got out to the closest parks and walked around 10 km just to keep healthy. Walking is great but you need something to occupy your mind and I start to listen to podcasts again. I remembered Jame's suggestion about Hardcore History and walking for hours was a perfect opportunity to get invested in a long journey!

I downloaded my first episode, (King of Kings), and I left for my evening walk. Quick jump ahead of my 10km, my feet were sore after walking more than 3 hours and at that point, I should have a head home but I didn't. I hit play on the next episode and continue walking while listening to King of Kings II. It was crazy... I got home after 1 am exhausted, I was blown away by the first two episodes and there was no way back to normal.

If you are a fan of historical context and human drama, you will love Hardcore History. It is an excellent podcast and despite the scary 4 hours long episodes, you will enjoy the show... just trust me ;)!