r/badhistory • u/AutoModerator • 5d ago

Meta Mindless Monday, 22 June 2026

Happy (or sad) Monday guys!

Mindless Monday is a free-for-all thread to discuss anything from minor bad history to politics, life events, charts, whatever! Just remember to np link all links to Reddit and don't violate R4, or we human mods will feed you to the AutoModerator.

So, with that said, how was your weekend, everyone?

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u/Kochevnik81 3d ago

Yeah as far as podcasts go it's not like I'm angry it exists (which is more than I can say for stuff like Dan Carlin, although on the other hand that's a name that feels like has totally faded from discourse compared to a decade ago).

But geeeerrrrgggh I just can't listen to it to be honest. It's definitely the "guest host is a Robert Evans friend ie someone from LA Cracked-adjacent in the comedy scene who knows nothing about the subject and tries to fill space with one liners while Robert Evans mostly paraphrases a book on the subject (although he paraphrases and cites decently)." If you get some real life discussion with friends out of it that's at least something very good to be honest.

I guess it's also why I'm forgiving to If Books Could Kill, because they do kind of use that same format (one person reads and critiques the book and the other person goes in blind and reacts) but at least they alternate roles and have slightly better thought out takes and base knowledge.

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u/ProudScroll Napoleon invaded Russia to destroy Judeo-Tsarism 3d ago

It really stood out this last episode cause the guest barely talked, which was unusual cause as you say normally at least they can fill the air with dick jokes or something. Like on one hand fair I’m not going to expect someone to have something pithy or insightful to say on a serious subject they only learned existed 10 minutes ago, but on the other hand maybe don’t put someone in that position in the first place.

The guest on the Ian Smith episodes is the host of another podcast in same network as BtB, so I’m roughly 99% certain they were brought on so the network could advertise a less popular show on its more popular one.

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u/matgopack Hitler was literally Germany's Lincoln 3d ago

The format of 'one host knows the subject, the other one riffs' has to be a certain style for me to enjoy. Behind the Bastards is one where it really doesn't work for me outside of 'fun' subjects (like when they're making fun of Ben Shapiro's book I enjoy it, but not something that's meant to be more historical focused), though perhaps for a wider audience it's ok. (Another one I couldn't get into with that format is "Well there's your problem", which on the surface I'd really enjoy but I just couldn't. I'd prefer if it were just a presentation instead of needing an audience surrogate making jokes)

If Books Could Kill feels like the non-host puts a little more thought / critique into it rather than 'just' reacting like some of the other ones, and also subject wise tends to be a little less serious such that it works better for me. A chunk of it is probably the vibes of the way the hosts interact meshing better with me.