Talking history

Jem Duducu reveals what you can expect from Neon, a new podcast that explores historical topics through movies, music and video games Q Why explore history through picking apart pop culture? a You’re talking to a guy who has had seven history books published, and therefore people might assume that all I do is hang around in libraries and watch documentaries about the Civil War. But

I’m a normal guy who has access to the internet. It’s an opportunity for me to share multiple things that I love, but also I think there are a lot of people out there who would like to be entertained by history without being overwhelmed with dates or a potentially stuffy format. Q Must you be a movie buff to appreciate the show? a You don’t have to have seen the pop culture to understand the podcast. Instead, if you want to be taken on an enjoyable journey revealing some lesserknown facts about history that are grouped together under the banner of a piece of pop culture, then this is the podcast for you. Q How did you get involved with making the podcast? a Neon is the creative child of me and [producer] Dan Morelle. He discovered me when I created, in essence, an early version of Neon when I reviewed the 2017 video game Assassins Creed: Origins, which is set in Ancient Egypt. It got us talking about how we could push the interest of history beyond the usual areas of nonfiction and specialist magazines and websites… and here we are. Q What else can listeners expect from future episodes? a How can I not do a pop culture and history podcast without doing the videogame Civilization, which takes you from the Stone Age to the 21st century – a perfect and sensible choice. To something less obvious, I am particularly proud of being able to extract real history from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles – no, really!

New episodes of Neon are available weekly from itunes. For more information, visit neonpodcast.co.uk