The History Podcast
4.9/5
Critic Rating
Drawn to a family legend about his German-Jewish family's dramatic escape from Nazi Germany in 1936, the writer Joe Dunthorne accidentally discovers a far more disturbing history.
Critic Reviews
Score: 5
Giacomo Bagni • Orecchiabile Newsletter • May 30, 2025
"(Series: Half-Life) Ascoltando Half-Life, ci si rende conto di quanto sia difficile accettare che la verità – quella vera – non arriva mai tutta in una volta. È fatta di omissioni, di memorie che esplodono tardi, come le bombe inesplose di Oranienburg di cui a un certo punto sentirete parlare. E di domande che, una volta sollevate, non puoi più ignorare. /////////////// Listening to Half-Life, you realize how difficult it is to accept that the truth – the real one – never comes all at once. It is made up of omissions, of memories that explode late, like the unexploded bombs of Oranienburg that you will hear about at some point. And of questions that, once raised, you can no longer ignore."
Score: 5
Fiona Sturges • Financial Times • May 18, 2025
"(Series: Half-Life) Dunthorne has a clear ear for melodrama....Multiple narratives unfurl in this moving, meditative and, at times, improbably comic series (Dunthorne does a winning line in dry self-deprecation). The storytelling is first class...There are some startling twists in Half-Life that I won’t ruin here. But, along with pondering the life and career of a lone German scientist, it reveals much about inherited guilt and trauma, the subjective nature of truth and how the stories passed down through family generations are not always to be trusted."
Score: 4.5
Kev (Tea In The Sahara) • Tea In The Sahara • Nov 6, 2024
"(Series: The Lucan Obsession) Episode one elegantly sets the scene for anyone living under a rock for the last fifty years on the events leading to Lucan’s disappearance. I’ve been addicted to investigative journalism podcasts, and “The Lucan Obsession” scratches that itch perfectly. Listening to this podcast made me curious..."
Score: 5
Jenny McCartney • The Spectator • Oct 26, 2024
"(Series: Brighton Bombings) The Northern Irish novelist Glenn Patterson has expertly written and narrated a podcast on the story, demonstrating high alertness for tension and detail."
Score: 5
Anna Leszkiewicz • New Statesman • Oct 6, 2024
"(Series: Brighton Bombings) Patterson is a novelist, and this series is as much about storytelling as updating the historical record. The cold, deadly sequence of events is punctuated with comments from Magee...The most brazen attack on British politics since the Gunpowder Plot. It’s not a comfortable listen, especially for anyone who has just returned from party conference season."
