On the recommendation of a colleague, I recently started listening to Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History Podcast – specifically, his Blueprint for Armageddon series about World War One.
Since I started the series last week, I’ve been pretty hooked.
Dan Carlin is a captivating and passionate story teller. The material is incredibly well researched and presented in a way that’s truly compelling. It’s really an incredibly body of work and I highly recommend you check it out.
What really fascinates me, is that the material that Carlin covers in the podcast is the exact same material we all learned in 9th grade history class. The first podcast starts with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and leads up to the German invasion of Belgium. Pretty familiar stuff, right?
I remember learning about these same events back when I was in high school – perhaps you do as well? If I close my eyes, I can picture the room where I first learned about Franz Ferdinand – I can see my classmates and my teacher. I also remember what I thought of the material: it was boring, dry, and uninspiring.
However now, 18 years later, I find the exact same source material to be completely enthralling.
What’s the difference?