In my new career as an explorer of podcasts available to the iPhone — and so a welcome step away from the tolling of daily news while driving, I have come across HowStuffWorks.com The site is not really laid out well: it’s not easy to find the blogs or the podcasts. But here’s a link to the blog of Stuff You Missed in History Class, a quirky two-woman show in which they deliver quick history lessons in a decidedly un-teacherly manner. This morning I listened to their pod-summary of the Taiping Rebellion, the biggest, deadliest war you’ve never heard about.

China

14 Years long

25,000,000 died (that’s 25 million)

Katie Lambert and Sarah Dowdy sometimes sound like two just adolescent girls talking about kids in school, except the “kids” are Anne Boleyn, Elizabeth I, Harry Houdini, Churchill, Stalin and Hitler. Once you get used to the lack of gravitas and the use of “cool” to describe an event 1,000 years ago you’ll look forward to what they are chatting about.

Hint: To get to the blog and podcasts go to the home page http://www.howstuffworks.com/ To the right is a section called Blogs. Lower right is “Blog Home” Click. Then, in the upper right is a list of the blogs: Explore the Blogs; each one will take you to that particular theme. If you scroll the page down, instead of clicking, you’ll see large icons under Listen to the Podcasts. Click and go.

If you want them on your iphone you go to itunes, search for How Stuff Works, find the podcasts you want and subscribe. Then sync your phone to the computer and go have a nice long walk or drive, learning all about the fall of Angkor Wat for example!