Love this show… It’s what keeps me coming back to the BBC. These two guys have great adventures in these countries, piece together the histories in a colorful way, and are hilarious to boot. I’ve learned so much about countries that I thought I knew, this show really fills in a lot of gaps for me, its the best of both worlds, information and entertainment!

Insightful, without overwhelming the listener by going down into the weeds. Each episode weaves a tapestry with history, geography, culture, language, and religion to give context to the world we live in today. If I was a secondary school teacher, every episode would be required listening for world history classes.

In order to know where we are going we have to know where we came from. An essential series for inquisitive minds and citizens of the world. Misha Glenny is also a great host. A brilliant historian and journalist who doesn’t take things too seriously.

Sufficient enough background noise. A few interesting bits. Riddled with historical inaccuracies (it’s the 3/5 compromise not 2/3 compromise. Georgia was the 13th colony. I’m sure there are others I missed. I mean come on people this would have taken a Google to correct?) inserts England into every story and gives them undue importance perhaps to nurse the wounded imperial egos of the denizens of that now 3rd rate power. Sure they were important but they were not the masterminds of all global conflict between 1500 and 1950? Nevertheless there are some very interesting bits that make it worth listening to. I especially found the history of Brazil section very interesting and a nice introduction to the topic to inspire further reading. Stopping at WWI is a serious mistake especially in the case of the US; America in 1914 and today are hardly the same country! How can you discuss what America is today without discussing how it became a superpower, the 1960s immigration reform, the expanding definition of whiteness, white flight, Cuban exiles, Jewish immigration, the Cold War, McCarthyism, the civil rights movement? In 1914 America was a country where Jews and Italians as well as Chinese, Mexican and Black Americans were lynched with relative regularity; it was far whiter than today and far less populated; defining American cities like Miami and Los Angeles barely existed. Today America on the verge of becoming a minority-majority country; we have a vice president who is the daughter of Indian and Jamaican immigrants. until recently the Supreme Court was entirely Catholic and Jewish. That’s not to say racism isn’t still a problem: it’s still at the heart of American culture and politics. But by stopping in 1914 you cut out the greater part of Americas transformation into perhaps the most diverse place on earth. The other big flaw of this series is the habit of overwhelmingly focusing on the negative aspects of countries histories. (Except Germany weirdly?) it’s simply untrue that Italian unification was exclusively the result of foreign decisions for example. It would not have succeeded without the active participation of Italians and Italian revolutionaries. And to describe the Revolutions of 1848 as not nationalistic in character is just somewhat absurd. Italy and America are probably the worst series in this podcast. Skip them. Brazil is good, as is Germany. Spain is also pretty good. If they keep going I hope they do some more non European countries (Mexico maybe, or India, Taiwan, Japan, Israel all very interesting choices)

This podcast appears to be designed for dumb people with short attention spans. Unlike, say, the History of Rome, which seems to appeal to smart people with long attention spans. The podcast may be a victim of its generous BBC budget. It seems the producer and presenter decided that their intended audience was to too stupid to listen to a well researched, coherent narrative. Their solution was to string together a series of soundbites from various locations with a meandering narrator (both literally and metaphorically). No cliche of “infotainment” is left unused. Most hilarious 🤣 is the breathless commentary as the presenter presumably stumbles his way to historical sites. Then there are the background noises for atmosphere 😂. How traffic noises are relevant to a 17th century war escapes me! Possibly this podcast is just the soundtrack from a TV show. In which case let’s be thankful that we are spared the visual cliches. No doubt it would have the dumb scenes of the narrator walking towards the camera or talking to himself in a crowd. Of course, the perpetrator of this style of “documentary” is the recently deceased (thank goodness), much over-rated James Burke (BBC 1970’s).

What a great series! I've long puzzled over the question of which people-groups / geographical areas get to have their own country - Israel, Palestine, Kurdistan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Catalonia, Ukraine, Georgia, etc etc being present day questions... Learning about the combinations of factors in play historically is sooooo enlightening. And, of course, as an American, I'm always pondering what KIND of country we ought to be - we seem to be in the birth pangs of re-inventing ourselves, or perhaps falling prey to reinvention. Thanks so much, BBC, for some historical context of the phenomenon of countries!

I’m enjoying the first two series covering the building inertia leading towards the formation of a Germany as nation. This fills in details of what I’ve always mistily seen as the inspiration of the traditional fairy tales. This series air far has a good balance between key details with a good summary covering the different regions with their intertwined history. It sets the scene for what becomes A country where such history gets smothered and forgotten in the mainstream due to the repetition of stories we get to hear over and over of the same select nations. I’m looking forward to what other conceptions of nation states this pod cast will have to offer. There is a good use of contributors on the subject which paints the relevant pictures. This includes cultural overviews of the different parties within the saga