3/7

I have always been a book person. I'd never felt much need to get into podcasts or movies or other forms of entertainment. But having a child changes the way one can use time, and when you are out walking for hours and hours with a sleeping baby, you simply don't read books. But this is exactly where podcasts come handy - eyes and hands are kept on the pram but ears can do a thing of their own. 

I know there are podcasts out there on every imaginable topic but I only listen to history podcasts. I don't know why. I didn't particularly love history classes in school - literature classes were always much more interesting for me. But I've grown to love history pods - the research, the stories, the depth, the generalisations, the details, the aha-moments, the drama... 

Interesting as they are, I still thought I'd be able to keep my cool and listen to them with a degree of emotional detachment. What I was not ready for was getting completely hooked on a podcast, always counting days in my head until the next episode. But this is what happened. It is not only that I like The Rest Is History but I am displaying traits of a teenage fan girl I didn't know I still had in me. I am listening to and reading every interview made with or about Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, I stalk them on Twitter, and I am always secretly glad when it is Monday or Thursday when I can unwrap the new episode like a chocolate candy. These two historians have no idea how much I, a book-deprived young mother, have enjoyed their podcast over the past year. Their show has been an intellectual lifeline for me. 

There is other good stuff around, of course. I like to listen to Empire, or Legacy, or Instant Classics, or Journey Through Time. Solid historians, well-researched topics, brilliant guest historians, good dynamics between the hosts. But nothing will ever beat The Rest Is History. It is simultaneously very serious and absolutely hilarious, heavy and light, scholarly and entertaining. The hosts are real characters, and they complement each other like in no other podcast. 

Now I'm secretly hoping that a certain Santa (wink-wink) would get me a gift for Christmas I really want to have - The Rest Is History club membership.     

I still read books. With much slower pace than before and with a lot more interruptions, but I read them. My love for reading hasn't diminished. But I will also always remember - with nostalgia and joy - the endless hours of pram pushing, with The Rest Is History blasting in my ears.

If you aren't a friend of that show yet, do give it a try. You won't regret it.