Byte Sized Biographies Podcast: The Famous, The infamous, The Quirky

 

 History podcasts have been part of the DNA of podcasting from its earliest days. There are some terrific independent history podcasts such as Why Wars Happened and 'Tis But A Scratch: Fact and Fiction About the Middle Ages. 

There are similarities between a history podcast and biography podcast, yet the subtle differences are distinctive. History podcasts deal with events from a broad scale, while a biography focuses on a person in history. 

 One of the best biography podcasts, which is an independent podcast, is called Byte Sized Biographies.

 Byte Sized Biographies has a complete title, which is "Some Very Famous People You've Never Really Heard of, the Famous, the Infamous and the Quirky in Less Than An Hour."

The creator / host of the podcast, Philip Gibbons, explains: "I take that five-hundred-page book that you will acquire with the best of intentions but never read and reduce it to a compelling, less than sixty-minute podcast. My subjects include Alexander Hamilton, Edgar Allan Poe, Amelia Earhart, Billy Holiday, Ernesto Che Guevara, Bob Marley as well as lesser-known folks like Kempton Bunton, who stole Goya's Duke of Wellington from London's National Gallery, Ludwig II, builder of Neuschwanstein, and Elvis Presley's manager, Colonel Tom Parker."

Mr. Gibbons must be doing something right, since the podcast has passed 175 episodes. 

The website is someveryfamouspropledotcom for more information about the podcast and the subjects of its episodes.  

Creator/Host Philip Gibbons enjoyed a successful career as a business development executive, before becoming a documentarian and free-lance journalist, Gibbons. He also worked for ten years as a teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School System and graduated from Brown University with a degree in European History.

Here are some examples of Gibbons' journalism, ranging from internet content to traditional published journalism:

Ranker.com content

Strange Things You Didn’t Know About the Wizard of Oz
Persistent Nazi Mysteries
Facts About the Tragic Life of Edgar Allan Poe

In 2013, Mr Gibbons released the documentary, “The Devil and the Death Penalty” which chronicles the dysfunction within the California capital punishment system by revisiting the case of Lawrence Bittaker, a convicted serial child killer and rapist who has been on death row at San Quentin since 1981.  More information about this film can be found here: The Devil and the Death Penalty

The Devil and the Death Penalty received a Silver Ace Award from the 2012 Las Vegas Film Festival and was the winner of the 2013 San Francisco United Film Festival’s Best Documentary Feature award.

Gibbons was also a contestant on Who Wants To Be A Millionaire on August 13th & 15th, 2000. He walked away with $500,000. 

The podcast's format is straightforward, with appropriately weighty intro music and then Gibbons introducing his subject of the episode. Often, a biographical subject may span several episodes, like Teddy Roosevelt in December 2024. At the end of each episode, Gibbons reviews his sources and offers recommendations for listeners who wish to learn more.

Gibbons is a superb narrator, with a deep, resonant tone and the ability to keep listeners engrossed in his biographical tale. Sound quality is excellent, and it's obvious that Gibbons does extensive research on his biographical subjects.

 I like Gibbons's respect for listeners' time by keeping each episode under an hour. In that hour, Gibbons extracts the most information possible in that under 60-minute time frame.

My favorite episodes are the ones on Johnny Carson, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Edgar Allan Poe, and Ian Fleming.

My favorite recent episodes include a two-parter on the U.S. Marines who raised the flag at Iwo Jima in 1945, the two-parter on F. Scott Fitzgerald, and the two-parter on John Dillinger where we learn about the infamous 
"Lady in Red" who betrayed John Dillinger. She tipped off the FBI to avoid deportation for her illegal activities, accompanying Dillinger to the Biograph Theatre on July 22, 1934, wearing an orange skirt that appeared red under theater lights.

Check out Byte Sized Biographies. It's an independent podcast that is scrupulously researched, narrated flawlessly, and timed perfectly.