Dan Carlin's Hardcore History
21 episodes - English - Latest episode: 5 months ago - ★★★★★ - 61K ratingsIn "Hardcore History" journalist and broadcaster Dan Carlin takes his "Martian", unorthodox way of thinking and applies it to the past. Was Alexander the Great as bad a person as Adolf Hitler? What would Apaches with modern weapons be like? Will our modern civilization ever fall like civilizations from past eras? This isn't academic history (and Carlin isn't a historian) but the podcast's unique blend of high drama, masterful narration and Twilight Zone-style twists has entertained millions of listeners.
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Episodes
Show 70 - Twilight of the Aesir II
November 19, 2023 20:14 - 264 MBPagan Viking Sea Kings spend the 10th and 11th centuries morphing into Christian monarchs. But with rulers like Harald Bluetooth and Svein Forkbeard it's debatable whether things will be any less horrific for Scandinavia's neighbors
Show 69 - Twilight of the Aesir
January 15, 2023 23:20 - 216 MBThis show picks up where Dan's Thor's Angels show left off. In the early Middle Ages Pagan Germanic-language speakers like the Vikings are a dying breed. Many of their contemporaries wish they'd die faster.
Show 68 - BLITZ Human Resources
March 07, 2022 03:08 - 235 MBThe Atlantic Slave Trade mixes centuries of human bondage with violence, economics, commerce, geo-political competition, liberty, morality, injustice, revolution, tragedy and bloody reckonings. That sounds like a lot, yet this show merely scratches the surface of this enormous subject.
Show 67 - Supernova in the East VI
June 08, 2021 23:20 - 239 MBWhen do spirit, tenacity, resilience and bravery cross into madness? When cities are incinerated? When suicide attacks become the norm? When atomic weapons are used? Japan's leaders test the limits of national endurance in the war's last year.
Show 66 - Supernova in the East V
November 14, 2020 01:08 - 147 MBCan suicidal bravery and fanatical determination make up for material, industrial and numerical insufficiency? As the Asia-Pacific conflict turns against the Japanese these questions are put to the test. The results are nightmarish.
Show 65 - Supernova in the East IV
June 03, 2020 23:20 - 166 MBCoral Sea, Midway and Guadalcanal are three of the most famous battles of the Second World War. Together they will shift the momentum in the Pacific theater and usher in the era of modern naval and amphibious warfare.
Show 64 - Supernova in the East III
October 25, 2019 00:10 - 270 MBJapan's rising sun goes supernova and engulfs a huge area of Asia and the Pacific. A war without mercy begins to develop infusing the whole conflict with a savage vibe.
Show 63 - Supernova in the East II
January 12, 2019 18:07 - 169 MBDeep themes run through this show, with allegations of Japanese war crimes and atrocities in China at the start leading to eerily familiar, almost modern questions over how the world should respond. And then Dec 7, 1941 arrives...
Show 62 - Supernova in the East I
July 14, 2018 20:05 - 187 MBThe Asia-Pacific War of 1937-1945 has deep roots. It also involves a Japanese society that's been called one of the most distinctive on Earth. If there were a Japanese version of Captain America, this would be his origin story.
Show 61 - (Blitz) Painfotainment
January 28, 2018 07:58 - 189 MBPain is at the root of most drama and entertainment. When does it get too real? This very disturbing and graphic show looks into some case studies and asks some deep questions. WARNING Very intense subject matter.
Show 60 - The Celtic Holocaust
August 09, 2017 23:20 - 248 MBJulius Caesar is our travel guide as he takes us through his murderous subjugation of the native Celtic tribal peoples of ancient Gaul. It sounds vaguely like other, recent European colonial conquests...until the natives nearly win.
Show 59 - (Blitz) The Destroyer of Worlds
January 25, 2017 05:05 - 241 MBWhat happens if human beings can't handle the power of their own weaponry? This show examines the dangerous early years of the Nuclear Age and humankind's efforts to avoid self-destruction at the hands of its own creation.
Show 58 - Kings of Kings III
August 07, 2016 20:05 - 278 MBIf this were a movie, the events and cameos would be too numerous and star-studded to mention. It includes Xerxes, Spartans, Immortals, Alexander the Great, scythed chariots, and several of the greatest battles in history.
Show 57 - Kings of Kings II
March 20, 2016 08:08 - 234 MBFrom Biblical-era coup conspiracies to the horrific aftermath of ancient combat this second installment of the series on the Kings of Achaemenid Persia goes where only Dan can take it. For better or worse…
Show 56 - Kings of Kings
October 29, 2015 01:35 - 195 MBOften relegated to the role of slavish cannon fodder for Sparta's spears, the Achaemenid Persian empire had a glorious heritage. Under a single king they created the greatest empire the world had ever seen.
Show 55 - Blueprint for Armageddon VI
May 06, 2015 07:57The Americans are coming, but will the war be over by the time they get there? Germany throws everything into a last series of stupendous attacks in the West while hoping to avoid getting burned by a fire in the East they helped fan.
Show 54 - Blueprint for Armageddon V
December 30, 2014 06:24Politics, diplomacy, revolution and mutiny take center stage at the start of this episode, but mud, blood, shells and tragedy drown all by the end.
Show 53 - Blueprint for Armageddon IV
August 17, 2014 17:21Machine guns, barbed wire and millions upon millions of artillery shells create industrialized meat grinders at Verdun and the Somme. There's never been a human experience like it and it changes a generation.
Show 52 - Blueprint for Armageddon III
April 24, 2014 20:25The war of maneuver that was supposed to be over quickly instead turns into a lingering bloody stalemate. Trench warfare begins, and with it, all the murderous efforts on both sides to overcome the static defenses.
Show 51 - Blueprint for Armageddon II
January 31, 2014 05:12The Great Powers all come out swinging in the first round of the worst war the planet has ever seen. Millions of men in dozens of armies vie in the most deadly and complex opening moves of any conflict in world history.
Show 50 - Blueprint for Armageddon I
October 30, 2013 07:12The planet hadn't seen a major war between all the Great Powers since the downfall of Napoleon at Waterloo in 1815. But 99 years later the dam breaks and a Pandora's Box of violence engulfs the planet.