Jamie Jeffers - The British History Podcast

It all started when ...

... our IT department outlawed streaming radio stations from the company computers and inlawed bandwidth rationing.  Apparently everyone slowing down everyone else's computer speed in the work place is frowned upon ("in this establishment" ... sorry ... I had to ... I love that e*trade baby!)

While searching for alternatives via my trusty iPhone I stumbled across podcasts, and soon thereafter, The British History Podcast. Turns out the author and creator, Jamie Jeffers, lives right here in Portland, Oregon!  People who know me at all know that this little factoid is amusing to me.

Fast-forward 5 months ...

I enter the homegrown NW coffee house and find a suitable empty table.  This place is uber-urban.  Perfect for what I'm about to do.  I spread out my gear on the surface before me and get settled.  I'm 10 minutes early.  Good. Time enough to clear my head and get the lay of the land ... and to breathe normally.

I'm about to interview a complete stranger who's not only consistently entertained me at various points during my work day over the past 5 months, but who has also become a legit big deal in the realm of podcasting. BHP is one of the top rated history podcasts featured on iTunes and was a finalist for Best Educational Podcast in 2012 and 2013 by The Podcast Awards.

... and now that the interview is over, I am not embarrassed to say that I was a jubilant ball of ecstatic glee leading up to this date.  My friends and co-workers can attest to this.  I all but did the Snoopy Happy Dance each of the three days leading up to this event.  Why?  Not because I think Mr. Jeffers is, himself, a demigod, but because I love it when I have the privilege of spending any amount of time with amazing people who have found their niche and are living out what they were put on this planet to do.  Jeffers is one such person.

 ~ Cue Jamie ~ 

He walks into the coffee house promptly at 10:00 a.m. sporting a plaid cotton shirt, jeans, a dark wool coat, black framed glasses, backpack and an easy smile.  "He is soooooooo PDX hipster" I think with an internal smile, as I'm imagining that my kids would be impressed that I used this word in proper context and that I even know what it means at all.  Already I feel accomplished.

Smiling, I stand to shake Mr. Jeffer's hand and we order the best cup of coffee I've had in .... EVER.

Allow me to introduce you ...

A former litigation attorney with a BA in English from Western Washington University and a Juris Doctorate (JD) in Law from Lewis and Clark, Jeffers was hit hard by the 2008 economic crash and was laid off from his job. Combining his extensive education and innate love of history, he turned to the podcast community for a much needed creative outlet.  It didn't take long for Jamie to officially resign from practicing law and take up podcasting as a full time gig.

And it paid off.  Two and a half years later The British History Podcast boasts over 60,000 listeners from around the world. To date, 128 regular episodes have been recorded, attracting a healthy base of listeners whom, upon becoming members, receive access to special "members only" episodes for the mere price of a latte per month.

Time for the Interview - 

(Photo credit - Jamie Jeffers)

Hi Jamie.  Thank you for meeting with me.

Absolutely!  I'm happy to do it.

So how is the podcast career treating you presently?  Are you glad you took the plunge?

It's amazing.  Honestly.  I could not have possibly imagined where life has taken me now based on where it was three years ago when I was practicing law.  This experience has been tremendously positive.

Of all the topics you could cover, why did you choose British History?

Well, because I am British. I'm an immigrant from the UK living in the US, though functionally I'm American since I went to American schools.

I chose history because far too many people think they hate it, but what they really hate is the way it's been taught to them.  History shouldn't be dry.  In school they teach us dates and events.  We're not taught to relate to the people themselves and we end up thinking they're something akin to demigods.  Almost everyone loves a good story so I'm doing my best to provide a three-dimensional image of real people in the ancient tradition of storytelling.  My aim is to bring history to life for my listeners ... to make it relatable.

Hipster Hadrian?  Heck, YES!
(Photo credit - Jamie Jeffers)

How long does it take you to prepare a podcast on average?  Can you tell me how you go about your research methods?

I put in about 40 hours of research per recording.  4 to 6 hours are spent on writing the script, 45 minutes to initially record it and then about 2 hours to edit it.

As far as research goes, I like to start out by finding a secondary source I trust and that gives me a starting point.  From there I find other related secondary sources that compliment and add to the breadth of knowledge.  I also try to find contrasting opinions in order to represent a bigger picture of what might have happened according to differing scholars.  After that I go into the author's footnotes and endnotes.  This is very important because I need to know where the information comes from.  I don't want to take anything on faith.  But I also find additional resources to look into from the footnotes and endnotes.  The last thing, and one of my favorite things to do while I'm researching, is to read scholarly articles on my subject.  I'm basically standing on the shoulders of giants.

What is your favorite time period in British history?

There are two.  The first is the Wars of the Roses.  The reason I like this period is because you're watching the entire Plantagenet dynasty self destruct and you have a tremendous amount of story lines and threads to follow.  You have people switching sides for really personal reasons ... situations you look at and think 'There's not a logical choice here.  This is entirely emotion driven.'  It's very human.  And you have family members fighting to the death.  It's an amazing period in history.

The second period is the English Civil War.  The reason I find this fascinating is because this is a period of tremendous upheaval and it's not just because Britain is trying to figure out whether it wants a monarchy. You have the royalists and the parliamentarians fighting, but within all of that you have all of this social upheaval because you've got religious infighting going on, you've got new religious sects that are appearing, new political thought is being introduced and the Levellers walking around who were basically early Communists who were saying 'Why do we even have aristocrats in the first place?'  It was absolute chaos.  I imagine this is going to take me forever to talk about because I'm going to want to go into some depth on just how tumultuous all of this was.  It's during times of chaos in history that we really get a sense of who these people were.  During periods of change like this you can far more clearly see the character of the people in power.

(Photo credit - Jamie Jeffers)

Are there any particular historical highlights you're looking forward to covering?

So obviously I'm very excited about the Wars of the Roses.  I'm also very excited about the execution of King Charles, the English Civil War ... Battle of Hastings I think is going to be phenomenal.  I think it's going to be a ton of fun.  In the near future we're coming up on an episode about the Great Heathen Army which was headed up by a guy named Ivar the Boneless.  That's going to be a helluva thing to talk about. That's when the Vikings went and invaded Britain.  (Fun Fact: The reason why the north is so different from the south in England is because the north is Viking).  I'm looking forward to talking about King Offa, who is one of my favorite kings, and King Penda who is known as "the Last Heathen King".  Oh god, and the American Revolution!  I'm so looking forward to talking about that from the British perspective!

Ooooooh!  I like that!

I still think that event should be referred to as either the Second English Civil War or the First British Civil War because it wasn't until it was over that it was an American thing.  It's just  Brit-on-Brit violence.  

I've always wondered what England thought about their own people defecting, basically.

Well, there are fascinating books on the subject. Most of the scholarly work done and most of the opinions are from the American perspective.  It's very americancentric.  At the time you had people who are trying to keep everybody together and you have other people who are not recognizing the sheer powder keg that was Boston, because Boston just lost their s***!  But not without reason, mind you.

(Laughing)  May I quote you on that?

Sure!

They actually did though!  It was like a spurned girlfriend where all of a sudden Boston was like 'I don't care. I'm done!  I hate you!'

I love that whole time period because you can really break it down to an abusive relationship.  You've got one partner who's starting to pull away and the reaction of the other is clamp down and hold on for dear life. You can follow that all the way to the war of 1812, which is Britain and America just kind of being bitchy to each other ... just not liking each other anymore.  They've had a bad break-up, they're still kind of pissed, and there's still some hurt feelings.  It's fascinating.

Why do you think the Tudors are so popular? 

Because they're sexy!  It's all sex.  I think the Tudors get too much press.  They're the Stonehenge of the monarchy.  It's something everyone knows about but there's so much more out there.  Are there interesting things about the Tudors?  Absolutely.  But there's interesting things all throughout British history.  What frustrates me about them is that they take all of the oxygen out of the room.

It's the same thing that frustrates me about Stonehenge.  For example, there's money for archaeology but there are many dig sites in Britain that are fallow and can't get funding to do anything.  Meanwhile, every year there's a new dig site at Stonehenge.  There's a new study or a new 'something' going on with Stonehenge because it's the hip thing.  It's 'sexy'.

#ThankGodForParkingLots

I imagine you've made some connections with some of your audience.  Who are a few of your most notable listeners?

Kids!  I'm a softy for kids.  There are a couple of kids that are listeners that I get updates on.  Ewan is a super awesome twelve year old who did a book report in school on Beowulf and I actually read part of it on the show.  He was angry because Beowulf mentions women but never actually names them.  I was impressed that he caught that.

Then there's Zoe.  She's a college-aged listener.  She wrote to me to tell me that as a result of listening to the show she decided to change her major.  That was mind blowing to me. It's really neat to hear about how knowledge inspires others.  It's amazing.

There are many others in all age groups but there's a few anyway. It's very exciting to hear from these people.

Jamie in his natural habitat

What advise can you offer to others who are thinking about starting a podcast of their own?

• Find what you love and do it.  
• Do your prep work!
• Understand that this is not a get-rich-quick scheme so don't plan on quitting your day job any time soon.
• Don't plan on becoming famous.  If you want to get a lot of attention this is not the way to do it.
• Try to find a creative partner.  If you can do that your work will improve dramatically.
• It will never be perfect.  Just do your best and enjoy the process.
• Don't 'showboat'.  Remember that listeners are smart and they can see through disingenuousness very quickly.  Conversely, they also recognize passion and enthusiasm, and even at times appreciate shear geekiness and reward it..
• It's okay if you hate an episode.  The reality is the more you do it the better you become so just get it out there and move forward.
• Practice, practice, practice before you go live.  This is how you will (continue to) find your voice.
• Expect negative reviews and emails.  Don't let them get to you.  If you start to get angry emails take it as a sign that your podcast is gaining popularity.
• Accept good constructive criticism and grow from it.

Well said.  Let's wrap this up with a few rapid fire questions.  Lancaster or York?

York.

On what historical event do you plan to end the BHP?

World War II.

And after that?

I'd like to delve into podcasts on America, France, and the Popes in that order.

Favorite podcasts?

• Welcome to Night Vale
• Stuff You Should Know
• The Bugle

You're banned in two countries?

Yes.  China and South Korea.  I blame it on Starcraft.

Most amazing thing you've learned about British History during this adventure?

The Staffordshire Hoard.  The sheer scale is staggering!

That's all of my questions.  Jamie, thanks for being so cool about this.  This has been a ton fun!

For more information on the British History Podcast and to become a member go to:

 www.thebritishhistorypodcast.com.

Post interview with Jamie Jeffers of the British History Podcast at Stumptown Coffee.  Thanks, Jamie!