Must Listen: History podcasts

Chuck away those history books, and tune your ears into these podcasts about the past.

Podcast creator and host Laura Gallop has chosen three of her favourite podcasts about history as part of 5 Live's Must Listen, on air every Monday at midnight on the Sarah Brett show.

She's picked: Evil Genius, Case Notes and In Our Time.

Plus scroll down to listen to an interview with Greg Jenner, from the history podcast You're Dead To Me, speaking to 5 Live's Sarah Brett.

Have you listened to any of these podcasts? Comment below to let us know what you think.

Evil Genius

"This is a BBC podcast, hosted by comedian Russell Kane. He gets three comedians around a table and they have to talk about an historic figure who may have a good or bad reputation in the public's mind.

"Each comedian has to open an envelope containing a fact about that person, often it's a fact that goes against the general perception of the famous person. After they've all discussed their facts, they have to each decide if that person is evil or a genius.

"Russell's reasoning for making people choose evil or genius is that he says we're all so scared of having an opinion that we end up giving very nuanced and often non committal answers. It's quite interesting when you force people to take a side, which way they'll go.

"I was reading a lot of reviews on various podcast apps and people have been quite keen to criticise it because the guests each week tend not to know very much about the historical figures. I have to say I quite like that the panellists know as much as I do, they know the stereotypes about that person or the general myths about them.

"In short, I think this is a pretty good podcast!"

Case Notes

"Case Notes is a podcast from Classic FM, it's about a year-and-a-half old now but i'm really excited about this, it's very new on my radar.

"It's a true crime show that explores the darkest mysteries and murkiest stories of the history of music, which is really clever, taking true crime as a really popular genre that everybody is obsessed with and putting the history of music with it.

"I listened to the Mozart one today which tells the tale of how he composed his requiem, which is a death tune, and then got taken ill. The Requiem was ironically his first death tune and his last ever composition.

"The sound design of this podcast is gorgeous, obviously it's made by a big, stonking broadcaster, so they know what they're doing!

"But the intro to the Mozart episode is just the narrator with beautiful classical music, and then it's interrupted by knocks at the door which Mozart was getting while he was working on this composition. It really makes you feel like Mozart in that moment and I really enjoyed the storytelling."

In Our Time

"I'm the sort of person who has to listen to the radio before going to sleep, hence my love of radio and podcasts. Back in the day, when smartphones had only just come out, I remember having this weird app for these things called podcasts that meant even if I was staying over at someone's house, I could still listen to the radio while going to sleep.

"In Our Time was one of the first podcasts I ever downloaded, before even knowing what podcasts were, and at the time I didn't realise how iconic this show is, and was.

"The show is about the history of ideas and it covers the biggest range of subjects, from Frankenstein to the Inca, from the 18th Century gin craze to kinetic theory, there's just so much stuff.

"Melvyn Bragg is your host and he normally has three or four academics who are there to discuss a specific topic. It's so wonderful to hear people at the top of their game, flexing their academic muscles and occasionally getting angry at each other. It's just really fun and I love it.

"The best bit of the podcast is where they get to the end of the scheduled radio programme and they leave the microphones running while they all have a cup of tea and a bit more of an informal chat - that feels golden and makes you feel like you're there. You're like 'OMG what are they going to reveal that they couldn't positively broadcast on national radio?!'"

Listen: Interview with presenter of You're Dead To Me