{"id":67637,"date":"2025-09-16T13:41:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T13:41:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/67637\/"},"modified":"2025-09-16T13:41:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-16T13:41:09","slug":"theres-something-about-our-monotonous-drone-people-just-love-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/67637\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018There\u2019s something about our monotonous drone people just love\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

How does one measure success? For Tom Holland<\/a> and Dominic Sandbrook, the historians behind the hit podcast<\/a> The Rest Is History<\/a>, it could be the number of unexpected and overly familiar conversations with strangers. On a holiday high up in the mountains of Bulgaria<\/a>, Holland was wandering around a secluded monastery when someone called out: \u201cLove the podcast!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandbrook, meanwhile, is used to getting weird looks from fans who find it hard to compute that the man in front of them is one half of the soundtrack to their dog walks and commutes. \u201cThe weirdest thing that people say \u2013 which I\u2019ve heard more than once \u2013 is, \u2018My wife and I listen to you in bed every night,\u2019\u201d he says, looking mildly appalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlso, \u2018I listen to you to get to sleep,\u2019\u201d adds Holland, in his instantly recognisable hushed tone, forever sounding as though he\u2019s letting you in on a secret. \u201cIt\u2019s always meant as a compliment. There\u2019s something about our monotonous drone people just love. Maybe we need to try periodically shouting, just to keep people on their toes?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou do that already, Tom,\u201d Sandbrook says. \u201cOften in a German<\/a> accent.\u201d<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re among the millions who listen to the world\u2019s most successful history podcast: yes, they are really like that \u2013 a genial, articulate odd couple who love to gently bully one another. If you haven\u2019t heard it, The Rest Is History has these two British historians tackling the entire sweep of human history, explaining everything from the Neanderthals to the fall of Liz Truss<\/a>. \u201cWe\u2019re insanely hubristic,\u201d Holland says.<\/p>\n

Holland\u2019s professional focus is antiquity and Sandbrook\u2019s is modern history, though they are enthusiastic and entertaining storytellers no matter the topic. If you found history boring at school, this podcast will have you intently listening to 20 hours on the French Revolution \u2013 and that\u2019s before even getting to the Terror. (They promise they will in early 2026 \u2013 \u201cWe\u2019ve earned it,\u201d Sandbrook says.) They have 15 million downloads a month and more than half their audience is under 35. That their audience is so large, and so young, speaks to an appetite \u2013 or perhaps an anxiety \u2013 for the past to provide some answers about the present.<\/p>\n

About 150 episodes of The Rest Is History come out each year, including the free regular shows, plus live shows and bonus episodes for roughly 80,000 paid subscribers. It\u2019s lucrative and exhausting work: both men remain committed to doing all their research themselves.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mad thing is, we genuinely do all the reading and I still read people online saying, \u2018Well, you can tell when they\u2019re just reading out notes prepared by their researchers,\u2019\u201d Sandbrook complains. \u201cI\u2019ll be like, \u2018I spent three weeks on that episode!\u2019 And I\u2019m not whingeing!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, you are a little bit,\u201d says Holland.<\/p>\n

\n

Can I go anywhere without people mentioning Tom Holland? The answer is no<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Dominic Sandbrook<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

When I ask how much time they spend together, they burst out laughing.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the f**king time!\u201d Holland wails. \u201cIt never stops!\u201d<\/p>\n

Sandbrook, faux-wounded, responds: \u201cThis is sad to me, because I actually value every moment we spend together.\u201d <\/p>\n

Some of their subjects are sure-fire hits with listeners \u2013 the Romans, Atlantis and the Nazis \u2013 while their more offbeat successes include history\u2019s greatest monkeys and Elizabeth I\u2019s sorcerer, John Dee. But the biggest deciding factors for whether they cover a subject is whether they\u2019ll enjoy researching it and whether it is a good story \u2013 meaning they often focus on the grand narratives of history, such as the first World War or Watergate, or the lives of interesting individuals.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are a few characters from history \u2013 General Custer, the Kaiser, General Gordon \u2013 who will never again have a better airing,\u201d Sandbrook says. \u201cThey\u2019re all basically slightly bad men.\u201d<\/p>\n

When they meet their fans \u2013 perhaps in a Bulgarian monastery \u2013 they will often say they hated history at school, which says more about how it is taught today. \u201cPeople love history because of the story and the narrative,\u201d Sandbrook says. \u201cIt\u2019s a very basic question: what happened next?<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve moved towards more storytelling, which is ironically the thing that history in schools has moved away from. And characters \u2013 which people don\u2019t get particularly in schools, because it\u2019s slightly frowned on and seen as not intellectually satisfying. We try to put the drama back in as much as possible. When Tom did his Mary, Queen of Scots series \u2013 that\u2019s serious history, but also the stuff of a great HBO blockbuster<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Their research often leads to personal obsessions. Holland has discovered a new appreciation for the British naval commander Horatio Nelson while researching for an upcoming four-parter (\u201cIt opens up whole vistas\u201d); for Sandbrook it was Custer, who got eight episodes to himself: \u201cWhen we got into the details of the beard grown by Custer\u2019s father, I remember thinking, \u2018Maybe that\u2019s a little too much detail.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The two men met in 2005 at a charity quiz in London. \u201cI recognised Tom was somebody who needed friends \u2013 lonely,\u201d Sandbrook says.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe took me under his wing,\u201d says Holland, immediately playing along. \u201cI was just sitting there, peeling a napkin.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cActually, I think it was because we both like the Lord of the Rings<\/a>,\u201d Sandbrook says. \u201cTom, were you not banned from watching the films at home?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMy wife refused point blank,\u201d Holland says. \u201cAnd I had bought the director\u2019s cut, which is even insanely longer than the original. I didn\u2019t have anyone to watch it with, so I could watch it with Dominic, my new friend.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

It was nice to know that they didn\u2019t view us as shameless hucksters ripping them off<\/p>\n

\u2014 \u00a0Tom Holland<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It\u2019s a lovely image, I say, but how do you bond with someone via a nine-hour film trilogy during which, I imagine, talking is very much forbidden?<\/p>\n

\u201cAh, but it is a very male way to bond \u2013 you don\u2019t have to talk, it\u2019s brilliant,\u201d Holland says. \u201cLiterally, even in my dreams, I find myself talking to Dominic now.\u201d (For the curious, yes there is fan fiction written about them.) <\/p>\n

The Rest Is History began in 2020 when Goalhanger \u2013 Gary Lineker\u2019s<\/a> podcast company \u2013 approached Holland to make a history podcast; his brother James, also a historian, had just made one about the second World War. \u201cThey couldn\u2019t work out who I should be paired with and, idiotically, I suggested Dominic,\u201d Holland says.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, you regret that now, mate,\u201d Sandbrook says.<\/p>\n

Holland promised that \u201cthe podcast would not change my life in any discernible way\u201d, Sandbrook says. \u201cAnd the biggest single change is that now, whenever I do anything, people are always like, \u2018I really like Tom Holland. Do you like Tom Holland\u2019s books? Where\u2019s Tom Holland?\u2019 Can I go anywhere without people mentioning Tom Holland? The answer is no.\u201d<\/p>\n

The show is touring Australia this year, a country both men are fond of; it is their marker for how far the podcast has spread. On their last tour there in 2023 \u201cI remember standing there looking at the Opera House and pinching myself, thinking this is insane,\u201d Holland says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI assumed we\u2019d go to Australia and nobody would be there,\u201d Sandbrook says. \u201cBut people recognised us in the airport and said, \u2018I\u2019m coming to your show!\u2019 I couldn\u2019t believe that. I thought Goalhanger had phoned ahead and employed some out-of-work actors to loiter in arrivals.\u201d<\/p>\n

How do their fellow historians view the podcast\u2019s success? \u201cI\u2019m sure it gives them nothing but unalloyed joy,\u201d Holland says drily.<\/p>\n

\u201cHistorians \u2013 Tom and I included \u2013 are not renowned for their generosity of spirit towards other historians,\u201d Sandbrook adds.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0I got a text saying, would I like to meet The Rest Is History podcasters? Would I what?Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Though this isn\u2019t the whole truth, they amend; in 2023 the British Academy \u2013 the UK\u2019s body for humanities and social sciences \u2013 awarded them its highest honour, the President\u2019s Medal, for their \u201cwork to promote and popularise history to a global audience\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat meant a lot, because that was a pat on the back from the community of academics on whose work we massively depend and without whom we simply couldn\u2019t do what we do,\u201d Holland says. \u201cIt was nice to know that they didn\u2019t view us as shameless hucksters ripping them off. A huge reassurance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is, history is quite embattled as a discipline,\u201d Sandbrook says. \u201cLots of historians would probably say anything that tries to spark public interest must be a good thing \u2026 we wouldn\u2019t have the number of listeners we have if people didn\u2019t find history completely gripping.\u201d – Guardian<\/p>\n

The Rest is History podcast comes to Ireland next year for three shows on the Titanic: The Waterfront, Belfast, on April 17th; The Convention Centre, Dublin, on April 18th; and Cork Opera House on April 20th. Tickets go on sale on Thursday, September 25th<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"How does one measure success? For Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook, the historians behind the hit podcast The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":67638,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[75],"tags":[47287,18,117,5489,19,17,47286],"class_list":{"0":"post-67637","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-dominic-sandbrook","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-history","12":"tag-ie","13":"tag-ireland","14":"tag-the-rest-is-history"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67637"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67637\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/67638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}