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Coincidentally, I am just 15 minutes away from finishing listening the 350 minutes podcast episode of Dan Carlin's Hard History: The Destroyer of Worlds(1), whi

by soneca 10y ago

Coincidentally, I am just 15 minutes away from finishing listening the 350 minutes podcast episode of Dan Carlin's Hard History: The Destroyer of Worlds(1), which is all about how the advent of nuclear weapons changed everything regarding international politics and the war itself. The podcast covers the political and military landscape and events between 1945 and 1962, culminating at the Cuban Missile Crisis, focusing on the American side of the Cold War. If you know Dan Carlin's work, and take a hint from the episode's length, you know that it is a profound analysis, thoroughly studied from a variety of sources and with a real, intelligent effort to understand all sides, all parties, all individuals, and all context of the events. A real historian work. Of particular interest is the glimpse on what was passing through all those brilliant scientists minds throughout and after the development of the tech. This is concentrated in the first half of the podcast if you are interested. (1): http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-59-the-destroyer-of-worlds/ http://www.dancarlin.com/hardcore-history-59-the-destroyer-o... EDIT: just finished it, I think the final words of the episode are worth sharing: "As I said, human beings are 70+ years into an on-going experiment to see if they can adapt or evolve to handle their weapon's technology. So far, so good. But let's remember that we are a long way from the edge of this tightrope. These might not even be the most powerful weapons we are creative enough to invent. And the systems we have in place still have human beings involved, which is one of those variables that makes it tough to think that we can go another 100, 30 or so years, and have the human story end with the words '...and we lived happily, ever after.'" Dan Carlin

koreyb 10y ago
Hope you used Overcast on 2x :)
- 33W 10y ago
  I normally listen to all podcasts on 2x speed, but I usually slow Dan Carlin down to 1.5x. He has such a great storytelling style that gets degraded at higher speeds, IMO.
- soneca 10y ago
  Lol no! I always use 1x on podcasts. In this case specially because i am no native english speaker and the content is very dense (on the more interesting parts I would even rewind to listen twice). On top, I agree with the other comment that his storytelling skills are great and worth savoring. But even on brazilian, humorous podcasts i dont speed up. I listen while doing chores and the ocasional commute. No hurry. I took about a month to finish this one.
  - fernandotakai 10y ago
    hah i do the same thing. even with audiobooks. i feel like anything higher than 1x feels weird.
  - fdupoo 10y ago
    Brazuca! Kkkkk. Uau! Your english is very good! Congratulations!
    - soneca 10y ago
      Yes, thanks! It is better in written form. Two tips: always review it after writing and use Grammarly (https://www.grammarly.com/ https://www.grammarly.com/).
  - koreyb 10y ago
    Agreed with several points in this thread. Your English is good! I can understand how keeping it at a normal rate is beneficial as deep as he goes on the material. I've found the audio has to be clean and clear to take advantage of higher speeds of listening. Takes practice, but almost every podcast I enjoy I do 1.5x+.
- graeme 10y ago
  How do you get his podcasts into overcast, since they're paid? I couldn't figure it out. Only thing stopping me from subscribing. (I can't bear 1x audio, since I read so much faster)
  - WillPostForFood 10y ago
    New and recent podcasts are free, and they eventually age into a paid archive (totally worth it!). Here is a link to the free feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/dancarlin/history?format=xml http://feeds.feedburner.com/dancarlin/history?format=xml
MaxfordAndSons 10y ago
Dan Carlin is excellent. Both his Hardcore History and Common Sense podcasts are always insightful. He's a great model of a practical skeptic - he's always skeptical, but he allows himself to think through both the skeptical and non-skeptical interpretation of a piece of information without giving preference to one or another based on his personal biases.
andrew_wc_brown 10y ago
I tried listening to your podcast episode, but the windiness of your intro didn't get me hooked after 10 mins of listening and I had to stop listening.
- soneca 10y ago
  It is not "mine" podcast, I just listened to it. I edited my original comment to include "finishing listening" - I am not sure it is correct English, but at least I think clears this misunderstanding.
  - throwanem 10y ago
    "Finishing listening" is arguably grammatical and certainly clear as to meaning, but a double verb like that is relatively rarely encountered in modern colloquial English, and falls somewhat oddly on the ear as a result. In a case like this, the lexical context generally supplies sufficient clue; one might instead, for example, say "...15 minutes away from the end of the...", or just "...from finishing the...", and have only a negligible fraction of readers fail to derive "listening" from the context of talking about a podcast. When that context might not be clear, it's worth expanding on the nature of the action described, but such cases are unlikely to be common and should be fairly obvious when they do occur. Hope this helps!
    - soneca 10y ago
      It does, thanks!
- snakeboy 10y ago
  Dan is definitely a bit long-winded at times, but for me, podcasts work best when the person behind the mic has a real persona that you can relate to. I tune in to Dan Carlin because he's a smart, insightful guy, but I also just love to listen to him talk and feel that I am connecting to someone when I do. To that end, I actually enjoy the intros and asides as much as the historical content of the episode! I feel that Ira Glass (This American Life), Jad Abumrad (Radiolab) and Roman Mars (99 Percent Invisible) all have this same effect.
ghaff 10y ago
Oh cool! I loved his WWI series but I couldn't really get into the ancient history (King of Kings) series given the time commitment involved. So it's great to have a new episode.
- Turbots 10y ago
  Oh, I listened to all of his episodes and King of Kings was one of my favourites (together with WWI and Eastern Front series). Goes to show everyone has their preferences :-)
  - ghaff 10y ago
    I should check out the Eastern Front series. It's just a one-off but American Peril (Spanish American War) is also good.
- jawilson2 10y ago
  I was the opposite. I've always preferred ancient history, and wasn't interested in WW1 or WW2. Ghosts of the Ostfront and Blueprint for Armageddon completely changed that for me.
  - throwanem 10y ago
    Blueprint for Armageddon, in particular, I cannot strongly enough recommend. Nothing else I've encountered has so thoroughly brought home the fashion in which World War I and surrounding events have determined the subsequent course of history. All six episodes are still on the free feed, and will be for at least a little while longer. Anyone reading this could do a lot worse than to at least download them for later listening, if not to go ahead and get into the series now.
    - kbenson 10y ago
      I agree. Funnily, I saw that the current Humble Bundle includes a game called Verdun, which is as you would expect, a game about WWI's battle of Verdun (as far as I know). Carlin painted such a bleak portrait of that battle, my first reaction was "Why the hell would anyone want to play that?" In my imagination, you play the game by huddling in a trench or bunker for extended periods as massive explosions go off around you, and if you try to leave you are almost immediately blown up or sink and drown in the mud. I suspect they went for something a bit less bleak. ;)
pdkl95 10y ago
> And the systems we have in place still have human beings involved While I agree very strongly[1] wist the rest of that comment, it is very important to require some human involvement. This isn't theoretical. Without Stanislav Petrov's good judgment[2] that the automated warning about an incoming missile attack was a false alarm, WW3 might have started in 1983. [1] How strongly? My username is a reference to a fictional drug in Schismatrix that forces the user to adapt to a new perspective/mode-of-thought. Tech only increases, so our need to learn how to live together also becomes increasingly urgent. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alar...
- soneca 10y ago
  I agree. Despite how this final comment looks, through the rest of the episode, he does not advocate in any way that we should find a way to automatize completely this kind of the decision. I agree that this final comment hints this way, but I think it is just the consequence of being out of the context. What seems to be his opinion is the danger of giving so much power in the hands of only one man (in this case the John Kennedy as the President of the USA and Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union). Never before the nuclear weapons one human being has had such a destructive power. In his other podcasts, he alerts about this danger in the current political environment as Obama worked to concentrate even more power in the presidency during his time and we never know who might end up being president in the future, it is a very risky thing to do. For some, Trump is the personification of this exact risk; but for others, who support Trump now, it worth thinking that they don't know either who might end up next at the presidency with all this power.
  - tormeh 10y ago
    The heads of state don't have a button linked directly to the weapons, though. They have to command others to launch it, and commands can be disobeyed. Sure, the consequences of treason are dire, but a nuclear counterattack is also highly unpleasant.
    - 10y ago
djhworld 10y ago
I'm currently listening to this too, probably have about 30 minutes to go. Oddly I listen to it in bed just before I go to sleep, I find Dan's voice very soothing
- rmcpherson 10y ago
  I do as well and know several other people that have admitted to falling asleep to Hardcore History. I wonder what it is about, drifting off to graphic accounts of historical genocides.
fdsfsafasfdas 10y ago
> A real historian work. Dan Carlin is great, but you should take his warning that he's not a historian to heart: he enthusiastically speculates and characterizes the people in a way a historian would not, and can be very guilty of picking and choosing events to support the narrative he paints. You will almost certainly get a better understanding of the topics from looking at the academic materials from which he bases his own podcasts. That said, enjoy him—he really does make the topics come alive, and I haven't been satisfied with JUST his podcast after he's piqued my interest. That's a great thing.
- soneca 10y ago
  I do have the impression of being informed when he is painting a non consensuous picture, but I might be extra cautious in the future. Good warning, thanks!
- tlrobinson 10y ago
  (He actually literally says "I am not a historian" in this podcast)
  - michaelcampbell 10y ago
    He says this in every podcast.

by soneca 10y ago

koreyb 10y ago

Hope you used Overcast on 2x :)

33W 10y ago
I normally listen to all podcasts on 2x speed, but I usually slow Dan Carlin down to 1.5x. He has such a great storytelling style that gets degraded at higher speeds, IMO.
soneca 10y ago
Lol no! I always use 1x on podcasts. In this case specially because i am no native english speaker and the content is very dense (on the more interesting parts I would even rewind to listen twice). On top, I agree with the other comment that his storytelling skills are great and worth savoring. But even on brazilian, humorous podcasts i dont speed up. I listen while doing chores and the ocasional commute. No hurry. I took about a month to finish this one.
- fernandotakai 10y ago
  hah i do the same thing. even with audiobooks. i feel like anything higher than 1x feels weird.
- fdupoo 10y ago
  Brazuca! Kkkkk. Uau! Your english is very good! Congratulations!
  - soneca 10y ago
    Yes, thanks! It is better in written form. Two tips: always review it after writing and use Grammarly (https://www.grammarly.com/ https://www.grammarly.com/).
- koreyb 10y ago
  Agreed with several points in this thread. Your English is good! I can understand how keeping it at a normal rate is beneficial as deep as he goes on the material. I've found the audio has to be clean and clear to take advantage of higher speeds of listening. Takes practice, but almost every podcast I enjoy I do 1.5x+.
graeme 10y ago
How do you get his podcasts into overcast, since they're paid? I couldn't figure it out. Only thing stopping me from subscribing. (I can't bear 1x audio, since I read so much faster)
- WillPostForFood 10y ago
  New and recent podcasts are free, and they eventually age into a paid archive (totally worth it!). Here is a link to the free feed: http://feeds.feedburner.com/dancarlin/history?format=xml http://feeds.feedburner.com/dancarlin/history?format=xml

MaxfordAndSons 10y ago

Dan Carlin is excellent. Both his Hardcore History and Common Sense podcasts are always insightful. He's a great model of a practical skeptic - he's always skeptical, but he allows himself to think through both the skeptical and non-skeptical interpretation of a piece of information without giving preference to one or another based on his personal biases.

andrew_wc_brown 10y ago

I tried listening to your podcast episode, but the windiness of your intro didn't get me hooked after 10 mins of listening and I had to stop listening.

soneca 10y ago
It is not "mine" podcast, I just listened to it. I edited my original comment to include "finishing listening" - I am not sure it is correct English, but at least I think clears this misunderstanding.
- throwanem 10y ago
  "Finishing listening" is arguably grammatical and certainly clear as to meaning, but a double verb like that is relatively rarely encountered in modern colloquial English, and falls somewhat oddly on the ear as a result. In a case like this, the lexical context generally supplies sufficient clue; one might instead, for example, say "...15 minutes away from the end of the...", or just "...from finishing the...", and have only a negligible fraction of readers fail to derive "listening" from the context of talking about a podcast. When that context might not be clear, it's worth expanding on the nature of the action described, but such cases are unlikely to be common and should be fairly obvious when they do occur. Hope this helps!
  - soneca 10y ago
    It does, thanks!
snakeboy 10y ago
Dan is definitely a bit long-winded at times, but for me, podcasts work best when the person behind the mic has a real persona that you can relate to. I tune in to Dan Carlin because he's a smart, insightful guy, but I also just love to listen to him talk and feel that I am connecting to someone when I do. To that end, I actually enjoy the intros and asides as much as the historical content of the episode! I feel that Ira Glass (This American Life), Jad Abumrad (Radiolab) and Roman Mars (99 Percent Invisible) all have this same effect.

ghaff 10y ago

Oh cool! I loved his WWI series but I couldn't really get into the ancient history (King of Kings) series given the time commitment involved. So it's great to have a new episode.

Turbots 10y ago
Oh, I listened to all of his episodes and King of Kings was one of my favourites (together with WWI and Eastern Front series). Goes to show everyone has their preferences :-)
- ghaff 10y ago
  I should check out the Eastern Front series. It's just a one-off but American Peril (Spanish American War) is also good.
jawilson2 10y ago
I was the opposite. I've always preferred ancient history, and wasn't interested in WW1 or WW2. Ghosts of the Ostfront and Blueprint for Armageddon completely changed that for me.
- throwanem 10y ago
  Blueprint for Armageddon, in particular, I cannot strongly enough recommend. Nothing else I've encountered has so thoroughly brought home the fashion in which World War I and surrounding events have determined the subsequent course of history. All six episodes are still on the free feed, and will be for at least a little while longer. Anyone reading this could do a lot worse than to at least download them for later listening, if not to go ahead and get into the series now.
  - kbenson 10y ago
    I agree. Funnily, I saw that the current Humble Bundle includes a game called Verdun, which is as you would expect, a game about WWI's battle of Verdun (as far as I know). Carlin painted such a bleak portrait of that battle, my first reaction was "Why the hell would anyone want to play that?" In my imagination, you play the game by huddling in a trench or bunker for extended periods as massive explosions go off around you, and if you try to leave you are almost immediately blown up or sink and drown in the mud. I suspect they went for something a bit less bleak. ;)

pdkl95 10y ago

> And the systems we have in place still have human beings involved While I agree very strongly[1] wist the rest of that comment, it is very important to require some human involvement. This isn't theoretical. Without Stanislav Petrov's good judgment[2] that the automated warning about an incoming missile attack was a false alarm, WW3 might have started in 1983. [1] How strongly? My username is a reference to a fictional drug in Schismatrix that forces the user to adapt to a new perspective/mode-of-thought. Tech only increases, so our need to learn how to live together also becomes increasingly urgent. [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alarm_incident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1983_Soviet_nuclear_false_alar...

soneca 10y ago
I agree. Despite how this final comment looks, through the rest of the episode, he does not advocate in any way that we should find a way to automatize completely this kind of the decision. I agree that this final comment hints this way, but I think it is just the consequence of being out of the context. What seems to be his opinion is the danger of giving so much power in the hands of only one man (in this case the John Kennedy as the President of the USA and Nikita Khrushchev as First Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union). Never before the nuclear weapons one human being has had such a destructive power. In his other podcasts, he alerts about this danger in the current political environment as Obama worked to concentrate even more power in the presidency during his time and we never know who might end up being president in the future, it is a very risky thing to do. For some, Trump is the personification of this exact risk; but for others, who support Trump now, it worth thinking that they don't know either who might end up next at the presidency with all this power.
- tormeh 10y ago
  The heads of state don't have a button linked directly to the weapons, though. They have to command others to launch it, and commands can be disobeyed. Sure, the consequences of treason are dire, but a nuclear counterattack is also highly unpleasant.
  - 10y ago

djhworld 10y ago

I'm currently listening to this too, probably have about 30 minutes to go. Oddly I listen to it in bed just before I go to sleep, I find Dan's voice very soothing

rmcpherson 10y ago
I do as well and know several other people that have admitted to falling asleep to Hardcore History. I wonder what it is about, drifting off to graphic accounts of historical genocides.

fdsfsafasfdas 10y ago

> A real historian work. Dan Carlin is great, but you should take his warning that he's not a historian to heart: he enthusiastically speculates and characterizes the people in a way a historian would not, and can be very guilty of picking and choosing events to support the narrative he paints. You will almost certainly get a better understanding of the topics from looking at the academic materials from which he bases his own podcasts. That said, enjoy him—he really does make the topics come alive, and I haven't been satisfied with JUST his podcast after he's piqued my interest. That's a great thing.

soneca 10y ago
I do have the impression of being informed when he is painting a non consensuous picture, but I might be extra cautious in the future. Good warning, thanks!
tlrobinson 10y ago
(He actually literally says "I am not a historian" in this podcast)
- michaelcampbell 10y ago
  He says this in every podcast.