Dear Mindy Thomas, you’ve been accepted into the CCC (crazy crazy community) your first meeting is on 30/2/25. Emila and Gemma (co-founders)

The narrative history episodes are great: interesting, well researched and written, and well produced with a solid narrator. The guests are good too (though the discussion episodes do leave a lot to be desired from the host’s interviewing skills.) If it weren’t for Wondery constantly pushing inane ads for their other shows in to the feed, this would be a five star review.

I love history and history podcasts when they are done well. Like, Dan Carlin good. Patrick Wyman NAILS IT. Example: Interviews can be iffy or weird. Lot’s of interviewers can’t prop up a researcher who isn’t great on their feet, and when things go flat, struggle to save the moment; not Patrick. He’s right there to spot them and help the specialist get back on track. Done better than a standard journalist. Kuddos, as well, to an excellent audio editing team. In addition to being a pro interviewer, he is not detached. Despite not necessarily having expertise in a topic, he cultivates a subject, and prepares to be an enthusiastic and interested contributor to the conversation. The interviewed people love talking to him. It’s like he has a relationship with them, and they’re having a beer on the patio and chatting deeply and meaningfully about a research topic. He has significant academic credit, but that’s a jump point, not a lane. If he tackles a subject, buckle up. It’s going to be good. The only episodes I’m not crazy about are the occasional book minipods. There. That’s my only meh critique (and that’s just my preference. He does those well too). Not Feckless. Totally OG. If I had to pay beyond my Amazon sub I would. HE’S THAT GOOD.

I say yes. Patrick is a great host who really has a difficult job. He’s gotta make us relate to human being and civilizations thousands of years old, many before writing existed. Yet somehow he does it in such an enjoyable way. He really makes you see the similarities between all humans over the millennia, while not losing what is unique to each culture place and time. Can’t recommend this show enough. Wondery better renew it!!

Love the approach to story telling and truly appreciate how the rationale is shared for the stories presented. Absolute favorite podcast. Hope it continues for a long time to come!

I came to this podcast for the breathtaking array of eras and cultures he covers, from ancient China to medieval Europe. I stayed for the methods! As a non- historian I love learning about the archeological and historical research methods to create the evidence. It’s a window into fascinating professions.

This show is awesome, particularly in covering pre and early history. Patrick is very careful to distinguish what we know from what we speculate happened and the many ways to look at the evidence, including what appears most likely to describe an age and culture.

We love to see it

I always learn a great deal from episodes of “Tides of History”. Patrick’s research and interviews have filled in a lot of gaps in my own education and helped me gain huge appreciation for what has come before. Highly recommend following this series and paying attention to the excellent interviews Patrick frequently includes! Thank you for all the hard work, Patrick!

You will never hear someone sound more full of themselves than Patrick Wynan. An arrogant, smug, egotistical, conceited mansplainer if there ever was one.

The host is smug, condescending, and clearly an egomaniac. He has many episodes where he interviews himself. He literally has other people come onto his show and interview him, on his own show. He actually devoted an entire episode to giving a negative review to a random book that had nothing whatsoever to do with the the time period his show was covering (his co-host is prompted to continually agree with him despite admittedly not reading the book herself). He opens each episode with a really inept attempt at creative writing, for which he always sounds way too pleased with himself (he basically just sees how many adverbs he can fit into a sentence). I wanted to like this show, as it does have interesting material and information which is not well covered in other podcasts. But the awful host makes it really frustrating and difficult to get through a full episode. (Also, the show is all but ruined by loud, repetitive, extremely distracting background music)

This is my favorite podcast hands down and I listen across genres. I replay episodes multiple times and I have new questions and ideas each time, which is a joy.

I get so much out of listening to these podcasts - they are well researched, so engaging (spanning a wide variety of eras and cultures, including, the Austronesian expansion in the Pacific islands, the War of the Roses, ancient African history, and other intriguing subjects). The host and his guests also discuss the process of unearthing historic discoveries.

Love the story of the Scythians. I know most people don’t ride horses. I am a long distance trail rider. I ride with my legs. It’s easier than you think, and preferred. Having said that, it’s all about that trust relationship with the horse. They are really great beings!

Deeply researched and thoughtful. Shows a lot about process and the contingent nature of our knowledge. Great story telling too.

This is a wonderful podcast. As a United States History teacher I have been able to gather so much knowledge for this podcast. The in-depth information that has been presented allows me To be a better educator.

It grabs and holds enough of my interest to want to stay awake and the delivery + sound effects make it like I’m drifting off to some mythical land in sleep. It keeps my mind from racing as I start to drift and the longer it grabs my attention, the better I sleep. I tend to skip guest interview episodes for episodes downloaded for sleep time. The ancient history content is on repeat but it’s all high quality content.

Amazing episodes that get me excited about history.

I am delighted I found a podcaster who is willing to start with the Denisovans and chronicle every step to the present. It is stunning the amount of scholarly study and inclusion of so many fields to arrive at an opinion. This is a masterclass! Jim T

I have found this podcast to be informative and presented well. However, it does seem to be written with an obvious tilt to a liberal view of history. Wish it was more objective and less biased.

Must listen

This was the first podcast I tried years ago, and it’s still my favorite. I’ve enjoyed every season. Patrick explains things in such a clear, well-thought-out way. He brings up things that I’m still thinking about days later. He does a great job of reminding us what we can and can’t find out from archeologists, ancient historians, literature, and DNA evidence. I never feel like he’s dumbing down the material for us. The sound effects and music are top notch , and the stories he creates about the imagined everyday lives of “regular” people from the past are very effective. I tend to prefer the episodes that are just Patrick over the interviews, but those are good, too. This is the one podcast that I’m nearly always caught up on! Thanks to Patrick and his crew for all the hard work you put into it. I hope you’ll continue for many years to come!

I’ve been listening to this podcast from the beginning. I found a lot of other history podcasts that would only provide a summarized and superficial view of historical events, but this one finds the right balance between telling a good story and providing detailed and insightful analysis of each topic. Always looking forward to the next episode!

Amazing binge-worthy show. Literally the only reason to subscribe to Wondery, but it still makes it worth it.

This is my new favorite podcast. Always been interested in history but there is a lot I thought I knew but Patrick has filled in so much more and helped me understand the context. It feels like a good story —-never a dry history lecture. Easy to follow. Highly recommend.

What’s up, Wondery? This show is the only reason I subscribe to Wondery. It’s great. But your feed has been atrocious. Please fix it.

The only history podcast I know with great historical fiction snippets that makes it come to life for me. Very well researched, balanced and concisely written episodes. Among the podcasts I regularly listen to, this really is one of the highlights of the week for me!

The content is very good; I really want to follow this program. However, I absolutely cannot abide listening to the author 1) talking too fast and running words together, 2) reading his text (too fast) and not metering his content to make it more conversational, and 3) talking with that annoying background music/sound that crops up for a period of time under his voice (detest that!). I know he has lots to say and I want to hear it! Take more time in each installment or move some of it to the next one. I love the content, but it’s like taking a great piece of meat and then burning it on the grill.

Migrated over from Patrick’s “Fall of Rome”. In sum: great narration and editing, fascinating topics, and a great balance of academic rigor with accessibility for a popular audience. Keep up the great work!

Patrick Wyman and producers provide one of my FAVORITE podc. Everything about it is stellar. Thanks very much.

In theory I should love this podcast. But the terrible historical fiction intros and nonstop ads really ruin it. This is not a show I enjoy.

This is a history podcasts but it has turned into the Oprah Show equivalent where historians come on to say their piece and the host just listens. Does not add ANY useful information, just regurgitates whatever ideology or “expertise” the historian claim to have. Do better, practice the ultimate goal of historical pedagogy, discourse.

Was very interesting today. Learned a little bit about the Greeks, but I want to see some evidence that Sparta wasn’t a warrior society. Also, I’m very curious because I’m sure this can be a pro gay thing. If we all Marched to India and withstood that. Would we bring olive oil along to have anal sex? I think that’s a no I think that there’s no evidence for Sparta not being a war society I think that if you’re honest, there’s very little evidence in the ancient world I don’t think there’s much written records, or anything else.

I love the storytelling and depth of research/accuracy. The early episodes’ realism is awesome and the details on political economy and the economic life that underpinned past societies is fascinating and draws a lot of parallels to geopolitical challenges today. Keep up the good work!

Love this show

Patrick consistently delivers captivating episodes that are both accessible and academically rigorous. Intelligent and entertaining, Tides of History is the perfect way casual historian to continue learning!

There is a lot of good here but it often suffers from trying to apply modern morality to the ancient world which I believe actively hurts a person’s ability to understand their world and their lives.

Excellent on so many levels- topics, story telling and enjoyable.

We’ll done and comprehensive historical survey

Patricks podcast Tides of History are so enjoyable and informative while driving a great podcast . Sean Yonkers New York

Ok show but too many ads on wondery

The Tides of History is my go-to Podcast while driving. I believe it is written in such a great manner even my wife and kids like to listen during our road trips. I enjoy the story like narration he does.

I went back to the beginning and am mostly though the episodes. They are illuminating and entertaining and I have learned a lot about the history of our world. Keep up the good work!!!

Al Franken is a serial sexual predator

The content is great but the music that plays occasionally for too long while the host is too much of a distraction from the historical topics being discussed

Great production. Like you were there

This guy and this program are the most magnificent example of modern education failing in spectacular fashion.

Wyman serves up deep cuts of history while maintaining a sense of narrative in his reconstruction of the past. The way he’s able to speak with top experts in specialized fields speaks not only to the admiration and respect they hold for his work, but also reflects the ability he has to make the esoteric accessible. In short: an excellent podcast

The show is often over my head. It seems to not matter. I keep listening & wondering. Love it.

Listening, this clear voiced iteration recounting three evenings of discussion woven in a sentence, I could not help to discern, though somewhat dim, a sort of Hemingwayish economy of verbiage pleasant in tone without the urgency of contemporary fulfillment.