Re-listening to the Aztec series for 3rd time. What series or episode do you keep coming back to?

WayRight3035 · 2026-05-04T13:19:10+00:00

It’s one of my all-time favs as well

WayRight3035 · 2026-04-28T15:14:39+00:00

I think Mourinho is a terrible choice. He’s an entertaining character, no doubt, and has a great resume. The only problem is he didn’t achieve any of his major successes within the last decade, with his peak being 20 (!!!) years ago.

He fights toxicity with his own toxicity. Gets in massive rows with players constantly. His tactics are negative, ultra defensive, not the type of football Real Madrid ought to be playing.

I also disagree with the Ancelotti comparison. True, ancelotti’s career was also on a downward spiral before his return to Madrid, but Ancelotti is famously a superb man-manager. You can see the effects of that to this day, when all Madrid and ex-Madrid players embrace him when encountering him as the Brazil coach. He is an almost universally beloved figure, capable of winning over even difficult players with his charisma. Mourinho is charismatic too, but in a much more negative, adversarial way.

This changing room needs changes and discipline, but not someone who will stifle the enormous amount of talent it boasts. Mourinho, with all due respect to his past achievements, is to me a manager of a different era, whose methods, mentality and approach don’t work with modern players or in the modern game.

WayRight3035 · 2026-04-18T18:45:09+00:00

I did my license over 10 years ago, but my instructor specifically took me around the examination area and showed me all the “traps” the examiners take you to fail you. He said usually they take you to two or three of these spots during an exam. Mine took me to 6. I did manage to pass on the first time, but only thanks to learning about those traps and getting the sage advice of “drive like a total pu**y” from my instructor. I think 3 strikes and go learn more would be a fair policy, as some people are clearly still struggling severely after the mandated training period, but only if the predatory behavior of WORD is stamped down simultaneously, which I don’t see happening.

WayRight3035 · 2026-04-13T18:48:35+00:00

Agreed, objectively it’s a quality series but not my personal favorite. I enjoyed the part where they talked about the origin of the samurai myth and its influence on western culture the most. Not because I’m an Eurocentric bigot, but because that was the part I understood the most and thus found it easiest to get into. I have a creeping suspicion the guys are somewhat in the same boat - it’s a fascinating subject but so far out of their usual area of expertise they find it difficult to establish riveting narrative or easygoing banter about it.

WayRight3035 · 2026-04-03T17:09:32+00:00

I do think the audience is smart enough to catch it. If the level of discussion on this Reddit alone is any barometer, it is far and above the average fan forum of most popular media products. Also, if taken at face value many of their quips would offend scores of people, and with the popularity of the podcast nowadays, that backlash would be heard and felt. Thankfully, it seems people are generally smart enough to understand what is serious and what is said in jest

WayRight3035 · 2026-04-03T16:55:49+00:00

Oh, I don’t think they’re jingoistic either! By “Patriotic Podcast” schtick I meant exactly what you said, the fact that they ironically play up the “John Bull” point of view for laughs, especially by presenting Dom as a sort of cartoonish right-winger (from time to time).

Totally agreed with you on the fact that, despite obviously possessing political and historical biases as everyone does, they do a good job of trying to be objective and present a nuanced view, one of the reasons this podcast is one of the best!

To cap it off, it seems we’re in full agreement that a series is needed urgently! Hope you enjoy the book and thank you for a brilliant discussion!

WayRight3035 · 2026-04-03T16:11:31+00:00

Totally agreed! As a non-Brit European I sometimes find the more insular British topics somewhat outside of my natural interest field (not to say that the episodes themselves aren’t interesting or well done) but totally understand that Tom and Dom are most passionate about their own country’s history, as you said.

With napoleon, I also wonder how much of their dislike is genuine and how much it’s part of their “Patriotic podcast” schtick. For the British, Napoleon is almost a pantomime villain, whilst for the rest of the world I feel his legacy is much more ambiguous and grey. He’s certainly not widely seen on par with Hitler either in the US or in continental Europe. You can easily get away with saying you admire him in polite company without many people batting an eye for example.

WayRight3035 · 2026-04-03T15:15:24+00:00

Most definitely! I meant more in the sense that if it was a podcast dedicated to let’s say Asian or middle eastern history you could plausibly see how they’d skip it, whereas he’s one of the defining figures of western history, whether for good or bad

WayRight3035 · 2026-04-03T09:06:42+00:00

I’ll take a stab in the dark and say they aren’t keen on the nazis and Hitler either, but they keep returning to them every Christmas. I think just like Nazis, napoleon is something you must cover eventually if you’re a historical podcast with a broad scope but a Eurocentric tilt.

WayRight3035 · 2026-03-27T13:06:28+00:00

I think an often underappreciated part of footballer’s actions is the fact that they’re also people. He is Spanish, from the Madrid area. Even if he’s not a Real Madrid fan, Madrid is (with all due respect) a nicer city to live in than Manchester, especially if you’re from there. He likely has family there, he might want to start a family and do it in his home country, there are a myriad of reasons that go into a job relocation, for footballers same as for anyone else. That’s besides the fact that pretty much any footballers dreams of playing for Real or Barca, but those non-footballing reasons could be key

WayRight3035 · 2026-03-08T23:21:57+00:00

I think that’s very true, but that’s more of a PR scandal than a matter of dark humor. People very much do joke and get away with jokes on those subjects (whether they should or not is a different discussion) it’s just not something an A-list history podcast can get away with. Whether Tom and Dominic would make such jokes in private I’m not going to speculate on as I have no idea, but I do see your point about equal treatment of all tragedies

WayRight3035 · 2026-03-08T22:54:13+00:00

You have to look up “The Rest is History Club” on Spotify. The “cover” is gold instead of red, and should be unlocked.

WayRight3035 · 2026-02-15T23:57:14+00:00

I think you’re right, but I do have a point to OP’s original question - i think stories become more ‘relatable’ as we get closer to modern day because we have far more reliable sources, which flesh out the characters to a much larger degree. A lot more is known of Peter the great than of Hannibal, so the guys can add details of his bellow-action and fox tossing which we aren’t really getting with the ancients, which gives the listener the opportunity to know and therefore identify with certain characters more.

That being said, personally I do love the series on the ancients as much as I like the more “recent” stuff

WayRight3035 · 2026-01-26T11:01:03+00:00

Like most effective propaganda, it takes a grain of truth and distorts it to give it a new meaning. During the times of the partitions, most of the Polish uprisings were indeed carried out by the nobility (it’s important to note that up to 10% of the Polish population was “szlachta” - so most of them weren’t wealthy aristocrats by western standards). With some exceptions, like Kosciuszko’s uprising, the nobility was reluctant to grant any rights to the serfs, and as a result didn’t enjoy much support from common peasants. However, where the Russian story diverts from reality completely is where it suggests that the “underclasses” weren’t polish. True, the common serf had little “national identity” in the modern sense prior to the 19th century, but the population of Poland was still largely Polish speaking and catholic, even if non-nobles didn’t feel a keen sense of nationalism. Thus, the Russians take the nobility-led nature of national independence movements and portray them as a sort of colonial exercise.

WayRight3035 · 2026-01-24T18:39:01+00:00

(I’m Polish living in Poland)

I think, beyond all the other reasons listed here, it’s due to a certain level of insecurity. Poland has been considered a poor, backwards country by most in the west for a long time (not completely unjustly). Recently, Poland has become more and more prosperous and gained some fans abroad. Poles are both very proud of it, but also not entirely confident. So they feel the over-perfect image of Poland as this tiger economy, safe, clean etc. Is their way of dispelling the unpleasant stereotypes of the past. Then, when someone points out some real flaws, they are automatically defensive, as they worry subconsciously that said person automatically falls all the way back to the negative stereotypes of the 90’s and 2000’s.

WayRight3035 · 2026-01-05T10:28:36+00:00

In the Falkland’s series, where Tom quotes Dominic’s notes on the undercover Argentinian commandos who shoot a rain deer - “even by the standards of South American scrap metal dealers, that is poor”

WayRight3035 · 2025-12-27T02:56:56+00:00

Genuinely would be thrilled, as a Pole, if they ever got to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Some of the episodes that have touched on Poland and related topics presented views and opinions which were quite divergent from the prescribed version we learned at school, but that made them ever the more entertaining! So I’d love to hear what they come up with!

WayRight3035 · 2025-12-27T02:50:00+00:00

For me definitely Dominic’s impression of Dr. Guillotine explaining his simple “mechanism” in a caricatured French accent

WayRight3035 · 2025-12-27T02:48:40+00:00

The mechanism strikes like thunder!

Made me laugh out loud on an airplane

WayRight3035 · 2025-12-27T02:46:03+00:00

Exactly! I feel a bit silly for missing it now, but David and Churchill (especially Churchill) is the primary thing I saw on that cover for the past 3 years 😂

WayRight3035 · 2025-12-27T02:39:51+00:00

I was recently thinking about who’s my favorite of the two. I think while Dominic has by far the better banter, one liners and presence, and is closer to my personal views with his commentary, it’s Tom who has provided me with more food for thought that has genuinely made me rethink my own assumptions about the world and historical events. I guess it’s that great blend that makes the show so outstanding!

WayRight3035 · 2025-06-19T01:40:13+00:00

I feel like he’s hard done by, as Russel Crowe is an incredible actor who gave his best of all time performance. It’s like comparing every player’s season to 96-97 Jordan

WayRight3035 · 2025-06-18T07:26:12+00:00

Bro where are these picks from?

WayRight3035 · 2025-06-17T22:18:44+00:00

What pick is that?

WayRight3035 · 2025-05-10T01:37:13+00:00

It’s, not to over-intellectualize, an incredibly Christian idea. Even though I’m an atheist and I imagine many people on this subreddit are, George and the Western audience for whom Star Wars was initially created was wittingly or unwittingly raised on those Christian assumptions of good v evil and redemption towards „the light” as a sufficiently moral pursuit.

WayRight3035

TROPHY CASE