I think it's reasonable to say that any history podcast is to some extent a response to this one: the "Cosmos: A Personal Voyage" of history. It searches for "the extremes of human experience", and avoids being desensitized by them: that's what I find so admirable about Dan Carlin's work. History as it is documented can seem sterile, it's easy to get fixated on the wars, the conquests, on the intrigue, without considering the implications of what we're hearing, what life was like in that environment. Dan Carlin doesn't let that happen, he focuses on the sensations, the good, the bad, makes the alien past relatable. There has been criticism leveled at Carlin for his lack of accuracy, but that's okay if he makes you research further, no?