A bad host. Her shows largely consist of her saying things and then trying to get the guest to agree with her.

This series is like two different podcasts. The one that comes out on Thursdays with Matt. Louis is usually awesome. The one that comes out the other day of the week, with Eleanor Janega, is bad. The topics are interesting, and the guests are interesting, but her presentation and tone and voice are just so annoying that I can hardly stand to listen to it. She is obviously intelligent, but just really does not present well at all.

Really interesting topics and love both hosts

Great show on Richard I!

For those criticizing Eleanore’s accent…This is the result of her living in England for years now! Over time many people develop an accent of some kind. She’s not faking it. It’s a natural result of living abroad.

This podcasts presents information that may be new to some or old info presented in new context. The time spent listening has been worth it. The episodes confirm that human beings have always been human beings and always will be …… and yet we are still here! Thank you.

I love the topics on this show but I can’t listen to the co-host say “Fronce” repeatedly and stay focused on the content. It’s so bizarre and the fake Brit words seem to be getting worse each time!

Quitting this pod because of stupid music track. Not even real music. Annoying electronic blips and bleeps - what purpose does it serve? What purpose?

Does Eleanor just insist on inventing her own pronunciations? It doesn’t seem to matter whether it’s French or English, she’s got this infuriating habit of unnecessarily butchering words. It’s like listening to an American trying to sound English trying to speak French.

I wish Dr. Janega’s presentation style matched her obvious intelligence and originality of contribution to the field of medieval studies. Unfortunately, her style comes off more as dying-comic-at-open-mic-night, and I’ve skipped some very intriguing episodes as a result. I was formerly a consistent listener. ** Updating my review to express my disappointment in having to avoid interesting topics when I read that Dr Janega is hosting. Producers, please consider retiring her from the podcast. Unlistenable.

The Zoom audio quality makes the interviews sound like a workplace meeting. The episode topics look interesting but I’m not gonna listen to that.

I listened to this episode with interest, but as an epidemiologist, there was one glaring omission: STDs and their consequences (particularly gonorrhea and syphilis), including neonatal transmission. There was no effective treatment or antibiotics back in those days. Given the potential for very widespread transmission, facilitated in large part by sex workers, what was the impact on society, including morbidity and mortality? As academics, I would have expected you to have researched this, as there is some literature out there. Sorry to spoil the fun!

I love this pod. i always learn and I’m always entertained. One criticism: Dr Eleanor Janega, PLEASE —you’re 🦅 AMERICAN 🇺🇸 for gods sake. When we Americans try to use “shag” and “fancy” as verbs, it just…doesn’t work. The A in “rather” is short A, as is the one in the word “France.” Please Professor, I’m begging u BEGGING YOU. it’s giving both pretentious and TS Eliot style wannabe Brit 😬 love love the pod otherwise, thank you for ur work!

Decent content most of the time. But wildly overproduced. And hosts randomly talking about video games without mentioning sponsorship? Yeah, no.

Just started listening - love the topics. However, the Black Death one had some odd sound issues. There was a bird cawing in background that was super distracting - I think it was on purpose - very odd. And do they edit or speed up all the normal gaps in conversation? It almost sounded like they sped up the voices and ended up sounding clipped and unnatural. And PS - did the earth cool due to folks dying during the plague?? Didn’t sound right lol. I’m bummed! Was hoping that I found my new podcast - but the audio & editing that is distracting away from content is not for me. Check out how Lindsey Graham uses sound effects in a way that enhances the show. Too bad.

Eleanor please… it’s HANGED not hung -pictures are hung people are HANGED thank you I couldn’t listen to to entire episode for this very reason

I look forward to every podcast episode and new documentary on the app! The hosts are incredible, the guests are wonderful, and I always leave learning something new and end up sharing what I’ve learned with friends or family - or go down to the library and get a book on a topic covered in an episode! I also really love Dr. Eleanor Janega and I’m so excited she’s hosting more episodes! Her energy is so much fun and her enthusiasm for history matches mine. I saw a couple reviews that seem to disagree, and to each their own, but my girl Dr. J is an absolute GEM! Check out the sister podcast Betwixt the Sheets too where she’s a regular guest. So glad I found history hit!

This is my favorite history podcast — it is academic with cutting edge research but presented in a way that is not pretentious. Okay now I’m going to comment on accents because I’m fascinated by the wide variety of global English accents and dialects and how they affect the listening experience. Eleanor Janega’s voice is uncannily like American actor Emma Stone’s. It is also like my own accent — and it is nice for me to hear another academic woman with a Chicago Area Midwestern accent. It is not uncommon in the US but it is distinctive. (Joan Cusack is another actor with this accent.) Sadly, women all too often have their voices criticized and reading the complaints of Janega’s accent shows this. It may take getting used to after all the Oxbridge speakers but to me it is charming, disarming, and along with her sense of humor it is very entertaining to listen to. I like all the hosts and most guests (when they are not pompous in a way that is off-putting to me) but Janega’s voice (what she says and how she says it) is, to me, a refreshing balance to all the Queen’s English.

This is really just regarding the recent Eleanor of Aquitaine episode, but it signifies a larger problem: I don’t know in what world Henry II of England was a “bad king” and Eleanor somehow eclipses his ability and cleverness, but it’s certainly not the real one. I suppose it’s the world where we gush over the wrongly forgotten sTroNG WOmeN of history and think the remedy to that imbalance is to shoehorn them, and place them on a pedestal above crucially important male figures. Male figures like oh, for instance, THE FATHER OF THE COMMON LAW. Eleanor was incomparable it’s true but Henry II is arguably the greatest Medieval English monarch—and the only reason, really, why Eleanor is so splendidly famous. Focusing on the former with no regard to the latter is a good marker, in one episode, that this podcast is more sociological axe-grinder than well-rounded, truly balanced historical reality. Balanced would be having an episode to put Eleanor in context of the larger Angevin world and remind us of Henry II’s remarkable kingship or his centrality to English medieval history, and beyond. Wisdom advises that experts like Nicholas Vincent, David Carpenter, Robert Bartlett, or the inimitable John Gillingham might appear. With the shabby parameters of this episode, I’d be surprised if that even occurred to them. I’m loathed to admit that I miss a Ricardian, but I miss Matt Lewis. Give approaches like this episode’s another generation, and history as a field simply won’t be worth its toil—we’ll all be sitting through grubby, moralizing lectures about the patriarchy and squalid sociological rants disguised as supposedly “good” medieval history.

Often they yap a LOT without telling you anything at all and when the info comes it isn’t anything you haven’t heard many times before on other podcasts or the history channel - not very well researched - just not very interesting.

Super interesting topics and guests that are rendered unlistenable by the eps hosted by Eleanor Janega . What IS that Valley Girl/ anglophile accent? Reminds of Madonna when she was living in the England in the early aughts. Cringe. And she doesn’t let the guests speak. I have to turn it off.

I have enjoyed this podcast for nearly two years, and am validated and challenged in history I feel confident in. I will admit, I miss Dr. Cat Jarman as the cohost, so my preferred episodes are early. Dr. Eleanor Janaga is knowledgeable but talks over/more than the guests she’s supposed to be interviewing as if she needs to prove she knows the information as well or better than the guest. The point of the guest is to allow their expertise to shine through, no need to prove anything. In a more petty vein, she uses hedging terminology too much. I could play a drinking game and be drunk at the end of a 30 min episode if I drank each time she said “rather” or “quite.”

I haven’t even finished the episode and I ordered the book . I can’t wait to read these recipies . This may be my favorite episode yet. Thank you !

I was catching up on past episodes and had to stop. Permanently. For Janega to suggest or imply that the medieval world cooled because of the Black Plague would be laughable except for the fact that too many people will believe a sparse, widely-dispersed, non-industrialized species could so impact the entire world that significant population loss in one landmass could change the climate. It is as absurd as the current fallacy of destruction bandied about by pseudo-scientists and actors.

I love this podcast but I don't like how you are mocking the Bible in the recent episode. It's fine to have an opinion but there are Christian's that listen to this. Just a thought

This is a wonderful show and I appreciate both hosts’ knowledge and passion on the subject. While I agree with some reviewers that I wish Eleanor would let her guests take the lead more (she gets excited about the topics and I get it), a lot of what has come out since she came on is straight up misogynistic and xenophobic (referencing these extremely common criticisms of women who dare to speak: “talks too much”, “sounds uneducated/stupid”, “Valley Girl American”, “not serious”, etc, etc.). It’s fine for someone’s presentation style to not be your cup of tea, but maybe examine where these criticisms actually come from.

Matt Lewis is terrific. He provides limited editorial back ground, has real experts as guests, asks great questions….and then gets out of the way of the guest in showing their expertise. Could Eleanor start following this model or I’ll have to stop listening to her episodes.

The lead up to Hastings series has been terrific thus far. Both hosts deliver strong examinations of their subject and adroitly illuminate their guests.

I’ve been listening for a while and always enjoy these episodes. Great for serious and armchair historians alike!

I really enjoy this show! All the hosts are wonderful at making history an approachable and enjoyable topic for an average person. So many historians fail at this. This is especially true for Dr. Eleanor Janega, who has been a joy to listen to since she joined the show.

I like the variety of topics, but the sound/recording of the current episode is so awful that I feel like I’m listening to a recorded phone call from the 1950s, covered by a pillow. It’s absolutely terrible, and couldn’t stand more then 5 minutes of it.

Absolutely love this podcast, I’m tearing through the full back catalog and I really appreciate how geographically varied the topics are.

Please, please consider replacing Dr Janega. I can only suppose she was brought in as host to make the podcast more “accessible”. However she comes across as glib and unserious. Further, she talks too much. I don’t tune in to a Medieval podcast to have it distilled into comedic American colloquialism.

I enjoyed the show more when Cat Jarman was cohost. Matt is good, but should not host anything related to Richard III due to his admitted bias. I do not understand why people identify with and become so personally invested in kings who died over 500 years ago. The mystery is intriguing but it’s not a sporting event - so why root for one side?

I started the St. Nicholas episode and felt like a high school teacher wincing through a student’s in-class report. ‘Like’ I ‘kind of’ wish you didn’t dismiss some potentially interesting topics as boring. Unlistenable if you’re not 14 and on social media all day. My first experience with these producers or whatever history hit is as well. Yikes no thanks!

The show that lost its soul. This used to be an insightful and interesting podcast. Tragically, it seems to have lost its way. Not to mention, who is this dreadful American woman that now hosts? She represents everything I loathe about America — being loud, obnoxious, opinionated, and not nearly as humorous as she seems to think she is — and I am an American, if that tells you anything about the dreadful extremes of this woman.

I love the subjects but it’d be nice to actually let the “guests” talk.

Rachel Maddow if she talked about the Diet of Wurms instead of current politics. So, super, super good.

Typically a good show but some truly shocking incorrect mentions on this episode. Maybe take another crack on this topic. Eleanor deserves better (RIP)

Just finished listening to the Saint Nicholas episode. I am wondering why you have a guest on the podcast if you don’t let them talk? The host did 90% of the talking. I didn’t care for that.

I used to listen to EVERY single episode. Dr. Janega’s attempt to deliver history in a quirky/comical way is painful, and makes me skip a lot of content as a result. I was really disappointed by the recent Saint Nicholas episode, where she refers to certain things as “boring”. I’m not religious, but it was honestly a lazy way of describing something. I’ve spent my entire career in the history field, and I hate that people might think she represents women in our field.

I’ve twice turned off an episode well before it ended because the host just talks nonstop and does not let the guest speak. It seems like the host is trying to prove what she knows. Let the experts be experts.

I’ve been listening for a while and always enjoy the topics, the guests, the enthusiasm everyone has for the discussions. But the recent episode on the princes in the tower blew me away! Who would have thought breaking news would be found on this history podcast!?

I just found this podcast and I’m 4 episodes in. I love both presenters and the research is impressive.

These shows are well-produced, thoughtful and non-frivolous. I’m an Eleanor Janega fan as well! I found the podcast after watching YouTube videos she features in.

While I adore Gone Medieval, I pass when Dr Eleanor Janega is hosting. Gah! She speaks in the cadence of a college kid and, frankly, she just talks too much. Let your guest speak! She seemingly needs to prove to them that she knows it all. I will listen to Matt or Cat or any other host, but I will not listen to a show Dr Janega ia hosting.

I admit that most episodes are great. But here are some serious flaws: 1)The host Matt Lewis claims that the Dark Ages never happened, since “there were still people there and they were still thinking”. He offers this not as his new perspective, but as fact…. even though several of the guest historians on the show give rational reasons to support the conventional view that there was a period that could be described as the Dark Ages. 2)Matt lewis once says “Everything we can’t explain by science we attribute to God”. This is clearly a devoutly religious man, which is fine for him. But I want to learn my history from an unbiased academic historian; not someone who may be recounting history with a religious bias. That’s what the Bible is for. 3)I was excited to have a new female host Eleanor Janega, but I just can’t listen to the show anymore after she made the following statements: -The feudal system never really existed. -The best thing about the Holy Roman Empire was that it spread Christianity, and there is nothing more holy than the Holy Roman Empire. 4)Historians should tell us exactly what happened in the past, not shape the story to coddle our modern sensibilities. It is then up to us to make sense of it, or learn to ask more questions to better understand it. This show had 2 episodes early on about slavery in Africa. Not once did they mention something that many people have never heard: Africa has at least 2000 years of history where black Africans were enslaved by other black Africans, especially by black African kings. In many regions of Africa, up to 1/3 of the population were enslaved by black Africans. Whether or not we can stomach it, this was part of their culture. When Mansa Musa, a black African king in the 14th century, and one of the richest men in history, went on a pilgrimage to Mecca, he took with him 12,000 black slaves, each carrying a 4 lb bar of gold. The podcast doesn’t mention any of this; just that “Mansa Musa sparked the interest of Europe in Africa”.

I enjoy many History Hit shows, but Dr. Eleanor Janega lends a voice, curiosity, and enthusiasm I find unparalleled by any other presenter. Her passion for Eastern European/Czech history has revealed what a gap I have in my knowledge and interest about the region. I’ve read that some reviewers don’t enjoy her episodes, which I think is a less commentary on her individually and more revealing of the preconception that medieval historians mustn’t be American, “young,” or overly expressive. I sincerely thank History Hit for bringing to my ears a new voice to interview and interpret these topics.

Prior to listening to this podcast, I hadn’t realized that there were so many facets to medieval history. Dr. Janega’s enthusiasm for the topic is palpable and her accessible, conversational nature has been a wonderful addition to an already solid show.

I did not enjoy this episode as much as the other episodes. The subject was fascinating but the irritating giggling and girliness of the two presenters robbed the whole thing of credibility.Please don’t use American commentators. The lapses into Valley Girl American is simply annoying. This kind of treatment of an interesting subject insults the Intelligent of your audience. You don’t have to dumb things down!