Dan Snow was interviewed by Minter Dial. They discussed the origin of his podcast, HistoryHit, how it works with the TV platform he created as well as the backstory to some of his brilliant episodes.

SHOW NOTES

The best time to plant a tree is 10 years ago. Right? Obviously, but the second best time is right now. And so yeah, of course you should have started that podcast years ago, but you didn't, so start it today.

About history:

“…the weird thing is, and the nice thing is that if all you're doing is asking questions, you kind of realize that history doesn't repeat itself, but it sure rhymes.” 

About interview people across all of history:

“When you enter a new period. [Say] you're doing Medieval Byzantine politics. It seemed to all be about power, money. Who's paying for it? Religion, geography, famine, food, security and … human failing, love, lust, jealousy, brothers, all that kind of mums and dads, falling out with their parents. So it does, it is. If you do it enough, you're you feel like you're in familiar territory, you start to know how to ask the right questions.”

About women in history:

“We had a great podcast about the all-female hospital in London founded by two life partners, suffragists, who've done this hospital and every single member of staff from surgeons, pharmacists, doctors nurses to porters were women. And the British government was very unsure and this should work. Of course, predictably, what happened is that it became the best hospital in London. Every single, wounded servicemen in the first World War wanted to be sent there because clearly it was brilliant because it's run by women.”

About podcasting:

“With podcasting, it is hard because you can't expect any sort of charisma, or drone footage or dramatic footage to actually get you out of trouble.”

About how history can help put perspective on today:

“I think history can help. It helps us first of all, root where we are, like where we came from. If you're confused by Black Lives Matter, if you're confused by the nativist white response to Black Lives Matter. It's just helpful to know where all of those trends are coming from. And then you can try and navigate it and you can try and reconcile and talk about it.”

“If you look at South Africa or Northern Ireland, or the Middle East, a lot of the, a lot of the projects with the best chance and the best results that kind of bringing communities together, acknowledge their history. They acknowledge their history and then they work out ways to move on.”

About History Hit podcast:

“The purpose of it was to reach beyond the traditional media market, which just assumed that people were not interested in that. That we all had a very limited attention span, weren't interested in in-depth and long-form nor hearing from the historians themselves; and [traditional media] assumed that things have to be highly produced.”

“The purpose of it was to bring the world's best historians to the legion of history fans that are out there. Like there's millions of people around the world with history A'Levels, history degrees, passion for history. And whether it's no formal education, still passionate ministry and try and bring those people the world's best voices unmediated like they would be in traditional news media.” 

“Like every other podcast in the world we've worked out that people are comfortable with that breathing space.” 

“I think we will look back at highly polished. 1990s TV in the same way that we now look back at the very funny staccato Edwardian radio broadcasts or that very, very early cinema or whatever. I think that's why people want to watch YouTube. They like people making mistakes and falling over.”

Recommended Podcast: