When James Marriott, the esteemed young columnist for The Times of London, wrote that The Rest Is History was his favorite podcast, that was enough for me. After spending hours with it, I can understand his enthusiasm. Hosted by Dominic Sandbrook and Tom Holland, both well-regarded popular historians, the podcast brings events of the past to life the way few teachers or professors ever do. I found myself shaving more slowly the other morning, just so I could finish their discussion of the fate of Jane Seymour—a subject that I previously had absolutely no interest in. Their discussions on the rise of Nazism, and a two-parter with Jonathan Freedland on his book The Escape Artist, about the first Jewish prisoner to escape from Auschwitz, are riveting. —Graydon Carter

Graydon Carter is the Co-Editor of AIR MAIL