School of War - Podcast Rankings and reviews

Just recently started listening and it’s instantly my favorite podcast. Always learn so much. Not only are the guests and books discussed super interesting, but MacLean is a provocative commentator and excellent interviewer with deeply insightful questions. Thank You and, while it will take me some time to listen to all the back-episodes, please keep the great content coming!

At its best, this podcast offers a platform for some serious strategic thinkers to outline how they assess the various actors in a given strategic context. At its worst, whole episodes are given over the partisan shills scoring points on current domestic US politics. Maddeningly, host can go either way - asking probing questions of the strategists or lolling around in couch potatoe politics for an hour at a time depending on the guest. Just listening to the first five minutes gives a pretty clear indication whether the episode will be a deeper dive or just more talking heads on current affairs. I’d unsubscribe entirely but for the occasional gem.

Love the show. It’s very easy to listen to and interesting. I love the variety of experts that you bring on. Everything is a great listen, zero skips. The draft and crusades episodes are my two favorite so far. Love hearing about war in the Middle Ages. Look forward to your future episodes.

Aaron has incredible and uncanny abilities to really delve into topics on war and has numerous acclaimed speakers. My only critique is that he will occasionally give hints of his political leanings, which I feel detracts from the overall podcast a bit. Once politics gets involved, it becomes more difficult to remain more fully objective on topics, especially war and the DoD. Although politics is “war by other means…” I think he could do better by giving a more balanced view of each political party’s influence on war past and present. Cheers!