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Michael William Duncan
American Podcaster Mike Duncan.png
Mike Duncan in his study (2013)
Born (1980-02-14) February 14, 1980 (age 45)
Redmond, Washington, U.S.
Education Western Washington University (BA)
Texas State University
Occupation Podcaster, author, historian
Known for The History of Rome, Revolutions

Michael William Duncan, born on February 14, 1980, is an American podcaster and author who loves history. He's famous for his podcasts, The History of Rome and Revolutions, where he tells exciting stories from the past. He has also written two popular history books.

In 2007, Duncan couldn't find any good podcasts about Roman history, so he decided to create his own. This led to The History of Rome, a podcast that told the story of Rome from its beginning until the fall of the Western Roman Empire. This podcast finished in 2012.

A year later, he started Revolutions. This podcast covered many important historical revolutions, like the American, French, and Russian ones. It ran for ten seasons over nine years. The main part of the series ended in July 2022. After a break, the podcast returned in October 2024 with a fictional story about a Martian Revolution. In December 2024, Duncan announced he would continue Revolutions with real historical events after the Martian story.

Besides his podcasts, Mike Duncan has written two history books. His 2017 book, The Storm Before the Storm, was very popular and became a New York Times Best Seller. His most recent book, Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution from 2021, also became a New York Times Best Seller.

About Mike Duncan

Early Life and Education

Mike Duncan was born in Redmond, Washington. He went to Western Washington University, where he studied political science and philosophy. He is a big fan of the Seattle Mariners baseball team.

Before he started The History of Rome podcast, he worked selling fish. He continued working in the fish business for most of the time he was making that podcast. While recording Revolutions, Duncan lived in Madison, Wisconsin. He also sometimes creates political comic strips with artist Jason Novak.

In 2018, Duncan moved to Paris, France. He went there to do research for his 2021 book, Hero Of Two Worlds, which is about the Marquis de Lafayette. In April 2021, after finishing his work on the book, he moved back to the United States.

Why History Matters to Him

Duncan's interest in Roman history started from a general curiosity about ancient civilizations. As a child, he loved looking through his parents' encyclopedia. He would often read about Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece, the Maya, and the Inca. For him, the Romans were the biggest and most impressive of these civilizations. Mike became especially interested in Roman history after reading his grandfather's book, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire by Edward Gibbon.

Duncan calls himself "a complete history geek." He is also very interested in American history. He thinks the biggest difference between America and Rome is that America has been a major world power for a much shorter time compared to Rome. Even though he studied political science in college, Duncan spent a lot of his free time reading old Greek and Latin texts. He enjoyed reading works by famous historians like Livy, Suetonius, and Tacitus.

He believes that the last twenty years, with all the new technology from Silicon Valley, might be seen as important as the Renaissance was in history.

Mike Duncan's Podcasts

The History of Rome

Mike Duncan started The History of Rome in 2007. He couldn't find any good podcasts about ancient history, so he decided to make one himself. This project became a very popular weekly podcast. It had 179 episodes and ran until 2012. The podcast was downloaded over 100 million times!

The podcast covers the history of Rome from the very beginning of the Roman Kingdom to the fall of the Western Roman Empire. It focuses on the most widely accepted historical events. In 2010, The History of Rome won the award for best educational podcast at the Podcast Awards.

Revolutions

The First Two Stages of Revolutions

Revolutions aired from September 15, 2013, to July 3, 2022. This podcast explored modern political revolutions, starting with the English Revolution. Each season focused on one revolution or a period of many revolutions. Duncan told these stories in order, just like he did in The History of Rome. However, because the time periods were shorter and episodes were longer, he could go into more detail about each event.

Each season usually began with one or two episodes explaining the background and causes of the revolution. Sometimes, he even discussed how the revolution might have been avoided. Duncan originally planned to have only 12-15 episodes per revolution. But he went over this limit for the English Civil War and the American Revolution. For the French Revolution, he gave up on the limit entirely, and that season ended up having 54 episodes!

The series covered many important events:

The main story episodes finished in July 2022. After that, Duncan released some episodes that looked back at the bigger picture of how revolutions work.

Revolutions also had extra episodes, called "supplementals." These were not part of the regular episode count and varied in length. Some of them went deep into a specific topic or person. Others were exact readings of historical documents, like the United States Declaration of Independence or the French Declaration of the Rights of the Man and of the Citizen.

Duncan was inspired to create the Revolutions podcast because of his own interest in history from his teenage years. He said that when he was a teenager, the American Revolution was his favorite part of American history. He also spent a lot of time learning about the Russian Revolution. Just like with The History of Rome, Duncan led tours to historical places mentioned in the show. Magazines like Time and The Guardian have recommended Revolutions as a great podcast.

Mike Duncan is thought to have created the phrase "the entropy of victory." This phrase describes how winners of a successful revolt or takeover often become divided among themselves.

The Martian Revolution and Beyond

Revolutions started again on October 20, 2024. Duncan changed the focus from real Earth history to a fictional series. This new series tells a story about a revolution on Mars in the 23rd century, looking back at it 250 years later.

On December 16, 2024, Duncan announced that he would continue the Revolutions podcast after the Martian Revolution story. He said the Martian Revolution season would be like an "intermission" for the podcast. After that, he plans to return to telling true stories of revolutions. He mentioned wanting to cover the Irish Revolution, the Cuban Revolution, and the Iranian Revolution, among others.

Seasons of Revolutions

The Duncan & Coe History Show

In 2022, Mike Duncan announced he would host "The Duncan & Coe History Show" with historian Alexis Coe. He was very happy about this collaboration because he admired her work.

In late 2024, they launched a "Season Zero" as an experiment. They described it as a show where "Bestselling authors and historians Mike Duncan and Alexis Coe are far-flung buddies who slice through centuries with the sharpness of a guillotine." They aim to explore many historical topics. Duncan and Coe first worked together in 2021 when Coe hosted an event for Duncan's book, Hero of Two Worlds.

Mike Duncan's Books

The Storm Before the Storm

On October 24, 2017, Mike Duncan published his non-fiction book, The Storm Before The Storm. This book looks at the history of Rome between 146 and 78 BC, which was the time just before the end of the Roman Republic. In its first week, the book reached eighth place on The New York Times Best Seller list for Hardcover Non-Fiction.

Duncan said he wrote the book to "pull back two generations [from the time of Caesar] and ask, 'What was it that opened the cracks in the foundation of the Republic?'" Many reviewers praised the book, noting how the events in ancient Rome seemed similar to modern times.

Hero of Two Worlds

Duncan's second book, Hero of Two Worlds: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution, is a biography about the Marquis de Lafayette. It covers Lafayette's life during the American and French revolutions and what happened afterward. The book was published on August 24, 2021. In September of that same year, it reached number three on The New York Times Best Seller list.

Many important publications, including The New Yorker, liked the book. Duncan has also said he is interested in making a TV series based on this biography. He has even written a first script for the show.

Television Appearances

Mike Duncan has appeared as a historian on seasons two and three of the Netflix documentary series Roman Empire. He also worked as a historical consultant for The Simpsons episode I, Carumbus.

In July 2022, Duncan released a recording through his Revolutions podcast. It was a reading of a script he wrote for a possible TV show about the Marquis de Lafayette. Duncan hopes to turn this idea into a multi-season series and is currently talking with people about making it happen.

Influence on Others

Mike Duncan's work has inspired many other people. Benjamin Wittes based the introduction to the Lawfare Podcast directly on The History of Rome. Robin Pierson's podcast, The History of Byzantium, was made to be like The History of Rome in its style and quality. Pierson even intended it to be a kind of sequel.

Similarly, Peter Adamson said that Duncan was one reason he started his History of Philosophy Without Any Gaps podcast. Even movie director Rian Johnson was listening to The History of Rome podcast while writing the script for Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Johnson mentioned that the stories of Rome and Star Wars have many similarities, like family drama, politics, and war.

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