Dan Carlins’s Hardcore History is a ongoing podcast series spanning back to early 2013. Hardcore History has been uploaded very scarsely; about two episodes per year. It’s most recent addition was from October 28th titled ‘Supernova in the East III”. It is a reflection on the crucial decisions the Japanese leadership made and the profound effects this had, along with other consequences of the axis powers in WWII.

It is clear from the beginning of this podcast how clear and absolute of an understanding that Carlin possesses on this topic and his storytelling prowess makes this story more vivid than any other telling I’ve ever heard. Carlin opens this five hour podcast with a question: “Why don’t we give statues to leaders that lose and cave in to the opposing side?”

This question is furthered where he describes how much better off Japan would have been if they just chose to give up and quit. This idea sounds good, but as he discusses threats of assassination and heavy nationalism, it begins to deteriorate.

As a podcast, this is great in some aspects like length. Five hours is plenty to get invested in and a lot of information to take in overall. One of my favorite parts of this podcast is Dan Carlin’s tone of voice; it is low and doesn’t fluctuate much which is good to zone out to, but after a while but this advantage makes it hard to actively listen to. If you need an interesting podcast to do chores or to listen to in the background, Supernova in the East III works very well.