One of the guilty pleasures of running your own blog is that you get to write about whatever you care about. At The Finch & Pea, we like to celebrate everything that excites us1, not just science. That may mean that Mike speaks at length about sixty year-old post-apocalyptic science fiction; or that Marie-Claire channels Barry from High Fidelity periodically; or that I launch into meandering digressions about, well, almost anything with some regularity.
It also means that I get to spend some time lamenting the end of one of my little joys. I started listening to Mike Duncan’s weekly podcast The History of Rome in 2007. I’m a bit of a history buff, especially for ancient/medieval stuff, as you might expect. I’m also pretty picky. Most efforts to address these periods drive me up a wall. Obviously, I have not been listening to The History of Rome for nearly 5 years because it irritates me.
The History of Rome not only inspired a whole genre of history podcasts, but has consistently dominated that genre. Mike Duncan is always honest about the quality, or lack thereof, of his sources. He does not pretend to be an expert. He tells us what is known or suspected with good humor and an accessible format.
Mike Duncan is not only going out on top. He is also quitting for a pretty good reason – he (technically, his wife) is having a baby. Lacking the time to be both a father and a podcaster at a standard that he would find acceptable, he picked. My rugby career ended on the same logic. I sympathize and know he chose well.
But, I will miss it2 and eagerly await his next project.
1. Everything that is “Safe for Work”. This is, after all, a respectable online science pub.
2. Every episode is still available on iTunes. I may or may not have already gone back and downloaded all of them with the plan to revisit Roman history in an ear blistering marathon.
The Finch and Pea 