History: The longest running soap opera in… uh… history!

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I was trying to explain to my wife and kids why I enjoy listening to hundreds of hours of the history of England podcast by this British guy who records it in his shed. I came up with a good comparison. I asked my wife why she likes watching the soap opera called ‘The Young And The Restless’. She has spent more hours doing that than I have with my podcast at work.

So I tried to put it to her that history is basically just a soap opera that has been on for a long time.  She likes that there are characters on her soap that have been there since she was a kid. Hey, history is full of people who were around for a long time.  But my main point is that history has all the same elements of a soap opera. People screwing one another, literally and figuratively. Businesses rising and falling, family drama, relationship drama, human drama. People coming and going, and doing interesting stuff to and with each other. Murders and back-stabbing, plots and mysteries, who-done-its and psychotic behavior. No writer can make up stuff more filled with vile treachery, lust, revenge, betrayal, power-grabs, and byplay than real history. Throw in the wars, the inventions, the rise and fall of empires, the mass movements of peoples… and people, the exotic locations, the medical advancements, religious fervor, greed and romance, and history makes quite a story. Think about it, all the famous people were there, helping to make history.

I have always been fascinated by history. I wish more people were. Maybe, I they were, history would be even more interesting, because I could talk about history with more of them.

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10 Responses to History: The longest running soap opera in… uh… history!

  1. Trent Lewin says:

    History as a soap opera? Fake news! It’s all fake news! History is totally fake, and you can’t prove it otherwise. There is no history! Now let me get back to my soap operas… please ask your wife if I may join her for a bit of tube-surfing.

  2. I read more history than fiction these days. I love it, although sometimes I get discouraged when I know it’s not going to end well, like for any of Henry VIII’s wives.

  3. List of X says:

    And it’s all real, too, so it also captures the appeal of the reality TV. Well, okay, history isn’t actually 100%

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