The History of the Twentieth Century Mark Painter

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First of all: this is an excellent podcast to listen to at 1.5x speed. He dictates clearly enough that he is still perfectly understandable when sped up. I think the host is smart and funny, and that this is a good resource for learning about the 20th century.

This is my favorite podcast right now. Essentially I have listened to 7 years of his work over the past 8 months. 284 episodes in and we're in about 1932, though not every year gets the same amount of love.

Episodes 1-79 are maybe disjointed. The many two-part episodes and the chunk of 6 Ruso-Japanese War episodes break up the narrative but it's still 79 episodes worth listening to. My favorite moments are when he explains that a new invention has been made that changes everyone's lives, and which may even be something we still use today. This happens surprisingly often.

Episodes 80-173 are mostly about WWI. I remember this section being kind of a slog to get through, especially since I'm unfamiliar with this period in history and I had trouble with all the names. I don't know how many times the host has said "Remember _______?" and me having no idea who he's talking about. I'll say he does a good job of catching you up to speed regardless.

Episodes 174-215 are a survey of the world after the Great War. This was really refreshing for me. It's a nice change of pace after an onslaught of hearing about death and destruction for so long.

Episodes 216-284, my current progress. After the world tour, I think the podcast really hits it's stride. Cultural achievements get their due, taboo topics are thoroughly illuminated, and interspersed are the latest advances in scientific knowledge and application. Though India becomes a core part of the narrative, the show remains UK-US-Germany centric, but I feel that the host is conscious of this and more countries are being discussed, like India and Spain.

The music may be something you're not used to, but he picks excellent pieces from which to play excerpts about 1-3 times an episode. The music at the top and bottom of the show is his own. The music is varied in length so there's no easy way to skip it, though I don't know why you would. Really, he picks good and famous tunes.

If you're reading this review, Mr. Painter, then I'd like to say that I really appreciate the work you put into the show.

From an otherwise good podcast, it shocks me to find you excusing the racist behaviors of President Wilson in the episode “The Birth of a Nation”. I suppose in order to keep the idea alive that Wilson was anything but a huge failure to this country you would have to excuse his overt racist ideas and behavior. You chant that the movie was racist while looking for reasons that Wilson was not. Do better.

I don’t know why it still astonishes me that you go out of your way to excuse Wilson. Your leftist “slip” shows too often in your scripts.