Rachel Maddow Presents: Ultra - Podcast Rankings and reviews

Princeton University American history major here to say I never learned about any of this relatively recent American history and it is vital to understand so we are not completely flabbergasted and mystified by what is happening presently. Providing this series is an enormous public service and thanks to great storytelling and intelligent writing this is fun to listen to even as it is jaw-dropping to absorb.

As a historian, I relish podcasts that tell stories many Americans might not be familiar with, such as Ultra, both season one and 2. While the story Maddow tells is factual and riveting, I cannot understand why she repeats herself so often in every episode. She’s writing the narrative, per the statements given at the end of each episode, so surely she’s aware of the constant repetitive descriptions. For just one example, how many times do we have to hear that Lester Hunt was beloved by all. I’m not sure if the repetitions are to stretch the material into more episodes or because she thinks we’re all morons, but we’re not. The facts of each season’s story are so interesting, as are the spliced-in recordings of the time. Please stop repeating yourself, Ms. Maddow, and at least this historian would recommend your podcasts to friends, strangers, and even my students.

Rachel Maddow consistently uncovers important and not well known history, and is to be lauded for that. The stories in this series certainly fit that description and I learned a lot by listening to the series. But, unfortunately, this podcast series is so poorly produced, it makes it almost unlistenable. There are a lot of techniques copied from her television show, and TV “news programming” in general, including repeating items multiple times to lengthen a show. The total running time of this entire series could probably have been cut by 75% and still told the story in just as much depth. Most annoying to me is the background music that runs continuously in the episodes, which sounds like it’s lifted from a circus carousel, or a kids cartoon. I’d love if she’d continue bringing us important history like this, and like the excellent podcast she did earlier about Spiro Agnew, but produce the shows less “slickly“ and with a little more seriousness. Overall, good stories though!

Season 1 was amazing - eye opening, well written, well narrated, great research and super interesting topic. Season 2 is also fascinating but, the pizzicato violin is making me nuts. I feel like I’m in the Twilight Zone or the Shining once it catches my ear. Super distracting, please vary the music, or stop it altogether at times. It’s not really part of the story and sounds like AI. In any case, still worth the time. Lots to learn.