David Kalivas' World History Podcast

Why didn't David Kalivas continue to publish his history lectures as podcasts? There are ten issues on line and that's it. The quality is very promising. I listened to them all, when I first discovered history podcasts. But then, as no new episodes came out, I discarded them. Now I went back and the lectures still stand out and still make for good history podcasts. So I am going over them again.

My first stop is with the two chapters about the Indus Valley civilizations. I knew nothing about them; I barely knew they had existed. I had never heard of Harappa, Mohenjo-daro, never knew anything about the rise (or the origins for that matter) of Hinduism and the migration of the Indo-Aryan speaking peoples into the region.


Kalivas makes a few connections, such as the language connection between Sanskrit and modern English and other migrations such as those into ancient Greece. It is also very fascinating to find out the Harappan cultures had script -- only we cannot read it, yet. He neatly starts this and in an enthusiastic lecture takes the listener on a journey that makes for a nice introduction into what is there to know about the Indus valley civilizations, if you are capable of sticking with the tangent. You really have to bear with him when he jumps from the Harappan to Beowulf to 'ice-creamy'.

I'll go over the series again and post some more reviews.