Biographics: A History one Life at a Time
Biographics is a historical YouTube channel and Podcast, originally co-founded by Simon Whistler and Shell Harris in 2017. This Podcast is especially interesting because, on average, the listener learns fascinating facts about the men and women who shaped history in about twenty minutes. The Podcasts are relatively short. However, that makes listening easier because committing to multiple twenty-minute episodes is easier than an hour-long episode. They are very concise episodes and get straight to the point, and they are beautifully written and talked about. The episodes are initially posted on YouTube and then turned into a podcast format. The Podcast format, I find, is better than the YouTube version. Granted, the listener gets to see more visuals and pictures of the people being talked about on YouTube. However, podcasts are easier to listen to as you are waiting for the bus, an appointment or doing chores around the house. Watching a YouTube video is not as accessible to watch while doing something else.
There are currently 349 episodes with extraordinary ranges, from historical villains to heroes and ancient to modern societies; each episode is different, and there is something for everyone to listen to. To show the range of biographies, two episodes numbered 324, and 325 are respectively titled, “Tutankhamun – The Boy King of Egypt” and “Elvis Presley – Life and Death of the King.” Going from Ancient Egypt to the twentieth century shows how much history the podcast covers and the different types of biographies people can learn about depending on what they are interested in. Some people are more interested in Ancient history, whereas others prefer to learn about more recent people in history. There are also biographies from all over the world, from the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa. It is not a podcast dedicated to “westernized” history, and it is very inclusive. The Podcast also does an excellent job of involving as many women as possible and their contributions. Overall, there is more written about men in history, and many women in different societies are not written about or are mentioned very little compared to men. For instance, rulers in Ancient Rome had many people writing about them during their lives and after their deaths. Some historical sources might mention their wives, daughters, or sisters, but not many women in Ancient Rome had biographies written about them. So, I would say that there are more male biographies in the Podcast. However, many episodes are about women with what can be found about them, and even more women are mentioned in the modern historical biographies.
One of my favourite Biographics is episode #124, “Balto-The Canine Hero.” When going through the list of episodes, the titles are very catchy, draw your attention and make it sound really interesting. There is also a corresponding abstract that details what the episode is about. This one captured my interest because, like it says in the summary, there was a 1995 film about Balto that I remember watching as a child, and so wanting to learn more about the real hero, this is an episode that I really enjoyed.
In the episode about Balto, Simon, the narrator, begins with some background information to give context for the rest of the episode. Beginning by explaining that there was a gold rush in Alaska at the time and explaining how Siberian Huskies came to be used in the town of Nome, Alaska. Leonhard Seppala began breeding dogs to pull sleds, as it was one of the primary ways for people to travel when there was so much snow. One of the dogs that Seppala bred was Balto. During the gold rush, Norweigan man Gunnar Kaasen chose Balto to be his lead dog to carry supplies. During one of the coldest winters Nome was experiencing (-45°c), many children started to get sick with diphtheria, a highly contagious disease. Doctors around Alaska and even in Washington were contacted in hopes of getting antitoxins before it was too late to help the people who were sick; however, the biggest issue they faced was how the medicine was going to be delivered to Nome. They could get the medicine to Nanaimo, but Sled Dogs were the only way to get the medicine back to Nome. The plan was for a relay race involving 20 men and 150 sled dogs, with checkpoints to switch the medicine from sled team to sled team as fast and efficiently as possible. To reach the first checkpoint, the first man to carry the antitoxin travelled for 24 hours straight in -60° weather. Kaasen and Balto were given one of the easier treks of the relay because he was the most inexperienced as he had never participated in relay races before. There was a terrible blizzard while Kassen was travelling; not seeing anything due to the snow, Kassen put all of his trust in Balto to lead the way.
The Biographics Podcasts gives a large amount of information in such a short amount of time. Still, it leaves the listener feeling like they know everything about the person (or animal) that is being talked about. The above information is only from the first 10 minutes of the episode, whereas other podcasts that go into more detail could probably draw that out for at least thirty minutes. The podcast is quick enough to get all the information, but it is not lazy in that you are left not really knowing or wanting more answers. That is why this is one of my favourite history podcasts. In addition, I prefer learning about people in history rather than big events. The above episode could have just been about the 1925 Serum Run, found on Wikipedia. Still, the added emotion of Balto and Kaasen fighting through a blizzard to deliver medicine to sick children is more interesting to me.
