Daniel L. Carlin (born November 14, 1965) is an American

podcaster A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...

and

political commentator A pundit is a person who offers opinion in an authoritative manner on a particular subject area (typically politics, the social sciences, technology or sport), usually through the mass media. The term pundit describes both women and men, altho ...

. Previously a professional

radio host A radio personality is a person who has an on-air position in radio broadcasting. A radio personality who hosts a radio show is also known as a radio host (North American English), radio presenter (British English) or radio jockey. Radio personali ...

, Carlin hosts three popular independent podcasts: '' Hardcore History'', ''Hardcore History: Addendum'', and ''Common Sense'', for which he received recognitions and awards, including best educational and history podcasts. His debut book, ''The End Is Always Near'', was published in 2019, and he has been involved in a range of other media appearances and collaborations.

Early life and education

Daniel L. Carlin was born in

Los Angeles County, California Los Angeles County, officially the County of Los Angeles and sometimes abbreviated as LA County, is the List of United States counties and county equivalents, most populous county in the United States, with 9,663,345 residents estimated in 202 ...

, on November 14, 1965. He is the son of

Academy Award The Academy Awards, commonly known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit in film. They are presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in the United States in recognition of excellence ...

nominated actress

Lynn Carlin Mary Lynn Carlin (née Reynolds) is an American retired actress. For her debut role in the 1968 John Cassavetes film ''Faces (1968 film), Faces'', she was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress, becoming the first nonprofessio ...

and film producer Ed Carlin. Carlin obtained a

B.A. A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts degree ...

degree in history from the University of Colorado Boulder.

Career

Carlin broke into the television news business in Los Angeles in the late 1980s and covered the

1992 Los Angeles riots The 1992 Los Angeles riots were a series of riots and civil disturbances that occurred in Los Angeles County, California, United States, during April and May 1992. Unrest began in South Los Angeles, South Central Los Angeles on April 29, after ...

. He has worked as a television news reporter, an author, a columnist, and a radio talk show host. Carlin has also achieved recognition in

internet radio Internet radio, also known as online radio, web radio, net radio, streaming radio, e-radio and IP radio, is a digital audio service transmitted via the Internet. Broadcasting on the Internet is usually referred to as webcasting since it is not ...

podcasting A podcast is a program made available in digital format for download over the Internet. Typically, a podcast is an episodic series of digital audio files that users can download to a personal device or stream to listen to at a time of their ...

, and the

blogosphere The blogosphere is made up of all blogs and their interconnections. The term implies that blogs exist together as a connected community (or as a collection of connected communities) or as a social networking service in which everyday authors can pu ...

. Carlin lives in

Eugene, Oregon Eugene ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lane County, Oregon, United States. It is located at the southern end of the Willamette Valley, near the confluence of the McKenzie River (Oregon), McKenzie and Willamette River, Willamette rivers, ...

, and was formerly a reporter for

KVAL-TV KVAL-TV (channel 13) is a television station in Eugene, Oregon, United States, affiliated with CBS. It is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, which provides certain services to dual NBC/ CW+ affiliate KMTR (channel 16) under a shared services a ...

Podcasts

''Common Sense''

''Common Sense'' began in 2005, and is similar in scope to several Carlin-hosted radio programs that aired between 1994 and 2004. He has described his political philosophy as "neoprudentist", taking a skeptical approach to evaluation of the current political trends and forces. He fosters discussion by developing and presenting self-deprecating ("

Martian Mars, the fourth planet from the Sun, has appeared as a setting in works of fiction since at least the mid-1600s. Trends in the planet's portrayal have largely been influenced by advances in planetary science. It became the most popular celes ...

") thought experiments on solutions to current problems. The podcasts are said to be broadcast "almost live from the end of runway two here at the Emerald International Airport." ''Common Sense'' was nominated for a Podcast Award in the Politics/News category in 2012 and 2013. The podcast, as of 2016, generated about 700,000 downloads per episode. ''Common Sense'' went through an almost two-year hiatus beginning in May 2018 and ending on April 1, 2020, with episode 319: "A Recipe for Caesar."

''Hardcore History''

''Hardcore History'' is Carlin's forum for exploring topics throughout world history. The focus of each episode varies widely from show to show but they are generally centered on specific historical events and are discussed in a "theater of the mind" style. New episodes are released approximately every four to seven months. ''Hardcore History'', which has millions of downloads per episode, received over 350,000 downloads in a 24-hour period on May 6, 2015. It was nominated in 2012 for a Stitcher Award in the Best Educational & Learning Podcast category. In addition, Carlin has received the Best Classic Podcast in iTunes' Best of 2014 awards, Best Educational Podcast of 2015 from the

Podcast Awards The People's Choice Podcast Awards, better known as the Podcast Awards, are global awards given annually to the best podcasts as voted by the general public. Founded in 2005 by Todd Cochrane of Podcast Connect Inc., the Podcast Awards changed han ...

, Best History Podcast of 2018 from the

IHeartRadio Podcast Awards The iHeartRadio Podcast Awards is a podcast awards show that celebrates podcasts heard throughout the year across List of radio stations owned by iHeartMedia, iHeartMedia radio stations nationwide and on iHeartRadio, iHeartMedia's digital music ...

, and in a top 25 best podcasts list in anniversary of 10 years of podcasts, ''Slate'' ranked Dan Carlin's 2009 episode "Ghosts of the Ostfront", regarding the

Eastern Front of World War II The Eastern Front, also known as the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Union and its successor states, and the German–Soviet War in modern Germany and Ukraine, was a theatre of World War II fought between the European Axis powers and Al ...

, the fifth best podcast of all time.

''Hardcore History: Addendum''

''Hardcore History: Addendum'' is an ancillary podcast feed which features "interviews, musings and extra material" that are more short form and deemed not to fit into the main ''Hardcore History'' feed. In addition to interviewing historians, notable guests interviewed include

Elon Musk Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a businessman. He is known for his leadership of Tesla, SpaceX, X (formerly Twitter), and the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). Musk has been considered the wealthiest person in th ...

Tom Hanks Thomas Jeffrey Hanks (born July 9, 1956) is an American actor and filmmaker. Known for both his comedic and dramatic roles, he is one of the most popular and recognizable film stars worldwide, and is regarded as an American cultural icon. Ha ...

Malcolm Gladwell Malcolm Timothy Gladwell (born 3 September 1963) is a Canadian journalist, author, and public speaker. He has been a staff writer for ''The New Yorker'' since 1996. He has published eight books. He is also the host of the podcast ''Revisionist ...

and

Max Brooks Maximilian Michael Brooks (born May 22, 1972) is an American actor and author. He is the son of comedian Mel Brooks and actress Anne Bancroft. Much of Brooks's writing focuses on Zombie (fictional), zombie stories. He was a senior fellow at the ...

Other projects

''The End Is Always Near''

Carlin's debut book, ''The End Is Always Near: Apocalyptic Moments, from the Bronze Age Collapse to Nuclear Near Misses,'' was released October 29, 2019, by

HarperCollins HarperCollins Publishers LLC is a British–American publishing company that is considered to be one of the "Big Five (publishers), Big Five" English-language publishers, along with Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group USA, Hachette, Macmi ...

. The book examines apocalyptic moments from history as a way to frame the challenges of the future.

''War Remains''

In 2019 Carlin developed a

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a Simulation, simulated experience that employs 3D near-eye displays and pose tracking to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video gam ...

experience in coordination with MWM Immersive and

Skywalker Sound Skywalker Sound is the American sound effects, sound editing, sound design, sound mixing and music recording division of Lucasfilm. Founded in 1975, the company's main facilities are located at George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch in Lucas Valley, nea ...

. The "Immersive Memory" is designed to put the viewer deeply into the experience of

trench warfare Trench warfare is a type of land warfare using occupied lines largely comprising Trench#Military engineering, military trenches, in which combatants are well-protected from the enemy's small arms fire and are substantially sheltered from a ...

along the Western Front of the First World War. War Remains premiered at the 2019

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by Tribeca Enterprises. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive programming. The festival ...

and subsequently shown in other venues around the United States. The exhibit is now on display at the National World War 1 Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri.

Political views

Carlin has referred to himself as a constitutionalist, social libertarian, a "radical", "neo-prudentist", "pragmatist", and "political martian". He is outspoken on issues like state surveillance,

foreign intervention Interventionism, in international politics, is the interference of a state or group of states into the domestic affairs of another state for the purposes of coercing that state to do something or refrain from doing something. The intervention ca ...

, concentrated power,

free speech Freedom of speech is a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction. The right to freedom of expression has been recognise ...

education reform Education reform is the goal of changing public education. The meaning and educational methods have changed through debates over what content or experiences result in an educated individual or an educated society. Historically, the motivations for ...

, the problems of a

two-party system A two-party system is a political party system in which two major political parties consistently dominate the political landscape. At any point in time, one of the two parties typically holds a majority in the legislature and is usually referr ...

, and

civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties of ...

. Carlin stated he would vote for

Joe Biden Joseph Robinette Biden Jr. (born November 20, 1942) is an American politician who was the 46th president of the United States from 2021 to 2025. A member of the Democratic Party (United States), Democratic Party, he served as the 47th vice p ...

in the 2020 Presidential election, despite not voting for Democrats or Republicans since 1992.

Other podcast and media appearances

Carlin has made guest appearances on numerous other podcasts, including Roifield Brown's "10 American Presidents Podcast" where he narrated the episode on

Richard Nixon Richard Milhous Nixon (January 9, 1913April 22, 1994) was the 37th president of the United States, serving from 1969 until Resignation of Richard Nixon, his resignation in 1974. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican ...

, Daniele Bolelli's ''The Drunken Taoist Podcast'', and "History on Fire", making five appearances on ''The

Joe Rogan Joseph James Rogan (born August 11, 1967) is an American podcaster, Ultimate Fighting Championship, UFC color commentator, comedian, actor, and former television host. He hosts The Joe Rogan Experience, ''The Joe Rogan Experience'', which is o ...

Experience Podcast'', two appearances on ''Smells Like Human Spirit'' and on a "crosscast" podcast on

Sam Harris Samuel Benjamin Harris (born April 9, 1967) is an American philosopher, neuroscientist, author, and podcast host. His work touches on a range of topics, including rationality, religion, ethics, free will, determinism, neuroscience, meditation ...

's ''Making Sense'' (formerly ''Waking Up''). Carlin has served as a panelist on ''

CBS This Morning ''CBS This Morning'' (''CTM'') is an American morning television program that aired on CBS from November 30, 1987 to October 29, 1999, and again from January 9, 2012 to September 6, 2021. On November 1, 1999, the original incarnation was repla ...

'' and was invited to speak at the

TEDx TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "Ideas Change Everything" (previously "Ideas Worth Sprea ...

Mt. Hood Conference on May 2, 2015. Carlin appeared on

season 17 A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperate and polar ...

of ''

Real Time with Bill Maher ''Real Time with Bill Maher'' is an American television talk show that airs weekly on HBO, hosted by stand-up comedy, comedian and political satire, political satirist Bill Maher. Much like his previous series ''Politically Incorrect'' on Comedy ...

'' on October 25, 2019, as part of the panel while promoting his book ''The End Is Always Near''. Carlin's voice was featured as a podcast host in a 2019 episode of ''

The Twilight Zone ''The Twilight Zone'' is an American media franchise based on the anthology series, anthology television series created by Rod Serling in which characters find themselves dealing with often disturbing or unusual events, an experience described ...

'' entitled " Nightmare at 30,000 Feet". Carlin has a chapter giving advice in

Tim Ferriss Timothy Ferriss (born July 20, 1977) is an American entrepreneur, investor, author, podcaster, and lifestyle guru. He is known for his ''4-Hour'' self-help book series—including ''The 4-Hour Work Week'', ''The 4-Hour Body'', and ''The 4-Hour Ch ...

' book ''

Tools of Titans ''Tools of Titans: The Tactics, Routines, and Habits of Billionaires, Icons, and World-Class Performers'' (2016) is a self-help book by Timothy Ferriss, an American entrepreneur. For the book, he interviewed more than one hundred "world-class pe ...

''.

References

External links

Official website

War Remains Official Website
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Carlin, Dan 1965 births Living people American history podcasters American political commentators Radio personalities from California People from Los Angeles County, California University of Colorado Boulder alumni