About the show
Are You Still Listening? is a history podcast for curious people of about eight and up, and whoever’s driving.
Use your own mind
AI makes this show, and the show tells you not to take its word for anything. Every quote and every fact in an episode comes from a source listed on this site. Each source has a link, so you can read it and check it yourself.
A translation is a source too. When a person from history wrote in Latin, Greek or ancient Egyptian, we name who turned their words into English, and when. You can question a translation the same way you question any other source.
Why history
We start with history because there is so much to read from the past. Primary sources are the words people wrote at the time: diaries, letters, chronicles and court records. A chronicle is a history told year by year.
Many old books and their old translations are in the public domain. Public domain means anyone may read and share them, and many are free to read online. On the show, the people from history read their own words aloud. On this site, you can open the same books.
The idea is bigger than history. Wherever you get information, you can ask the same three questions: who wrote it, when did they write it, and were they there?
Who you hear
AI writes the scripts and makes every voice except Will’s.
- Kate
- Kate is the host. She runs the show. She is dry and quick, and she always wants to get to the good bit.
- Helen
- Helen has the old records open in front of her. She tells you what they say, straight.
- The voices from history
- The people from history read only words they wrote, or words someone wrote down at the time. If they wrote in another language, they read a published English translation, so you can find the same words in the book.
- Will
- Will is real, and he doesn’t write the show. He chooses the subjects, sets the rules, checks every episode and decides which episodes go out. He records his own lines. He lives in the Yorkshire Dales.
How it’s checked
A checking tool finds every quote in the original it comes from. An AI model checks every fact the hosts give against the episode’s list of sources. Will releases an episode only when both checks pass. The page for grown-ups says how we make and check each episode.