Mike Duncan (podcaster) facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Michael William Duncan
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Mike Duncan in his study (2013)
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| Born | February 14, 1980 Redmond, Washington, U.S.
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| Education | Western Washington University (BA) Texas State University |
| Occupation | Podcaster, author, historian |
| Known for | The History of Rome, Revolutions |
Michael William Duncan (born February 14, 1980) is an American podcaster and author. He loves history and shares exciting stories about the past through his podcasts and books. Mike is known for his popular shows, The History of Rome and Revolutions, which have taught millions of listeners about important historical events.
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About Mike Duncan
Mike Duncan was born in Redmond, Washington. He went to Western Washington University and studied political science, which is about how governments work. He also took classes in philosophy, which explores big ideas about life. Mike is a big fan of the Seattle Mariners baseball team.
Before he became a famous podcaster, Mike worked selling fish! He even kept this job for some of the time he was making his first podcast. Later, while working on his Revolutions podcast, he lived in Madison, Wisconsin. In 2018, Mike moved to Paris, France, to do research for one of his books. He returned to the United States in 2021 after finishing his work.
Mike's Love for History
Mike's interest in history started when he was a kid. He loved looking through his parents' encyclopedias, especially at pages about Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, the Maya, and the Inca. But the Romans always seemed the biggest and most interesting to him. He became super interested in Roman history after reading a book called The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon, which belonged to his grandfather.
Mike calls himself "a complete history geek." Even though he studied political science in college, he spent a lot of his free time reading old Greek and Latin books. He believes that compared to ancient Rome, America is still quite new on the world stage.
Mike's Amazing Podcasts
Mike Duncan is most famous for his podcasts, where he tells history like a story.
The History of Rome
Mike started The History of Rome in 2007. He couldn't find any good podcasts about ancient history, so he decided to make his own! This podcast became very popular. It had 179 episodes and ran until 2012. It was downloaded over 100 million times!
The podcast tells the story of Rome from its very beginning as a kingdom all the way to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It focuses on the most widely accepted historical facts. In 2010, The History of Rome won an award for being the best educational podcast.
Revolutions: Real-World History
After The History of Rome ended, Mike started a new podcast called Revolutions in 2013. This show covered modern political revolutions, starting with the English Revolution. Each season focused on one revolution, telling its story in order, just like he did with Rome. This allowed him to go into much more detail about each event.
Mike originally planned to have only 12-15 episodes per revolution, but he often went over that limit because there was so much to talk about! The series covered many important revolutions, including:
- English Revolution (September 2013 to January 2014)
- American Revolution (February to May 2014)
- French Revolution (July 2014 to November 2015)
- Haitian Revolution (December 2015 to April 2016)
- Spanish American Revolutions (June 2016 to February 2017)
- July Revolution (March to May 2017)
- Revolutions of 1848 (July 2017 to April 2018)
- Paris Commune (May to June 2018)
- Mexican Revolution (August 2018 to March 2019)
- Russian Revolution (May 2019 to July 2022)
Mike also made extra episodes for Revolutions. Some of these went deeper into a specific topic or person, while others were readings of important historical documents, like the United States Declaration of Independence. Mike got the idea for Revolutions from his own interest in history as a teenager, especially the American and Russian Revolutions. He even led tours to historical sites mentioned in the podcast!
Revolutions: A Martian Adventure and Beyond
In October 2024, Revolutions returned with a new and surprising twist! Mike started telling a fictional story about a revolution on Mars in the future. He called this season an "intermission."
In December 2024, Mike announced that after the Martian Revolution story, he would go back to telling stories about real revolutions. He mentioned wanting to cover the Irish Revolution, the Cuban Revolution, and the Iranian Revolution next.
The Duncan & Coe History Show
In late 2024, Mike Duncan also started a new podcast called "The Duncan & Coe History Show" with another historian named Alexis Coe. They talk about history together, exploring different time periods and topics.
Mike's Books
Besides his podcasts, Mike Duncan has written two history books that have been very successful.
The Storm Before the Storm
Mike's first book, The Storm Before The Storm, came out in 2017. This book explores the history of Rome between 146 and 78 BC, which was a time of big changes before the end of the Roman Republic. The book was very popular and even made it onto The New York Times Best Seller list!
Many people who reviewed the book said that the events Mike described in ancient Rome felt very similar to things happening in the world today.
Hero of Two Worlds
Mike's second book, Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution, was published in 2021. It's a biography about a famous person named the Marquis de Lafayette, who was important in both the American and French revolutions. This book also became a New York Times Best Seller!
The book received great reviews from many important publications. Mike has even said he's interested in turning this book into a TV series and has written a first script for it.
Mike on TV
Mike Duncan has also appeared on television! He was a historian on seasons two and three of the Netflix documentary series Roman Empire. He also helped as a historical consultant for an episode of The Simpsons called I, Carumbus.
In 2022, Mike released a reading of a script he wrote for a possible TV show about the Marquis de Lafayette. He hopes to make this into a multi-season series.
How Mike Inspired Others
Mike Duncan's podcasts have inspired many other people. For example, the podcast The History of Byzantium was made to be like a sequel to The History of Rome. Another philosopher, Peter Adamson, said Mike was one of the reasons he started his own podcast, History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps. Even the director Rian Johnson listened to The History of Rome while writing the movie Star Wars: The Last Jedi, saying that the stories about family, politics, and war had many similarities.
