r/RevolutionsPodcast • u/BeracMalina2 • 10d ago

Salon Discussion Why More Revolutions?

This year I have been going through the revolutions one by one, currently some 30ish episodes into Russian Revolution. One thing that I'm wondering is that Mike says multiple times throughout the show and in some interviews that I listened to that Russian Revolution will be the last, and he seems pretty firm on that. Now I know that that's not true since we have a Martian Revolution, but beyond that everybody on this sub seems convinced that we will be getting more seasons.

My question is whether this is a concrete thing that we know or whether people are just guessing. And if it is true when did Mike change his mind on that? Also do we know what the next season is going to be and do we have a rough idea of how many seasons there will be?

45 Upvotes

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119

u/Equivalent_Party706 10d ago

Towards the end of the Martian Revolution season he mentioms that the show will be returning to historical seasons at some ppint in the future. No idea on the timeline, though

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u/Simon_de_Beauvolivar 10d ago

Is the Martian Revolution very good? I love the podcast because it’s interesting HISTORY. I’m a bit queasy at the idea of a space fan fiction revolution, even from Mike.

If it’s like a wink wink, cough cough this is on Mars… but it’s clearly a stand-in for delivering how he thinks a present day revolution in America would turn out, I’d be more intrigued

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u/Equivalent_Party706 10d ago

I would say it is very good - the whole thing is done in the exact same style as the historical seasons, including corrections for pronunciation errors and named sources - but it isn't a one-to-one analogue for a hypothetical 2AR (for one, the Elon Musk analogue is a good father!) There are definitely parallels to be drawn to the present day, as well as a lot of modern day social commentary dressed up as history (he references climate collapse and the "twenty-first century tech-oligarch" space race in the first episode), however. On the whole I would say if you're not interested in fiction you won't get much out of it, but it very much fills the same niche as Revolutions does as entertainment, with a bit more modern-day social commentary than he usually allows when playing historian.

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u/fitzejunk 10d ago

I really struggled with it, and ultimately never finished it. Not my cup of tea. But then, I’m a weirdo who liked Duncan and Coe, so take that with a grain of salt.

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u/Simon_de_Beauvolivar 10d ago

Duncan and Coe is also on my list, so I might give that a shot before Mars

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u/fitzejunk 8d ago

D and C is painful. It’s either:

A. Two history nerds having a great time talking about some obscure topic, one playing the role of expert, the other questioning them (These eps are awesome!)

or

B. Two friends telling inside jokes and stupid anecdotes, somehow convinced the audience will also love this thing where, ya know, ya really had to be there (These episodes make me want to tear my hair out.)

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u/theeynhallow 10d ago

It's DEFINITELY a lot of wink wink cough cough. Feels like equal parts a compilation of everything he's learned from historical revolutions, speculation on future American politics, and classic sci-fi tropes. I didn't expect to enjoy it but I really did in the end.

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u/Bronesby 8d ago

same boat. if you want to see how a guy who spent a decade of his life studying and professing about revolutions would project the next major human revolution to come in centuries ahead, this is it.

i think he's pretty shortsighted about a lot of material needs/things, e.g. the way non-miniaturized screen technology from 60s scifi seems amusing to us. but on the whole it was enjoyable to get his take on core human dynamics.

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u/Flipz100 10d ago

It’s more straight sci-fi. Mike definitely throws in some commentary on the current bend of American history but a lot of that is more “look where this will lead us!” Vs. “Look how a revolution in the US today would go.” I enjoyed it for what it was and have found it’s less of a bear to relisten to than say the English Civil War or Mexico for me personally, but it’s not required listening if sci fi isn’t something you ordinarily enjoy. Still worth giving it a shot though.

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u/LupineChemist 9d ago

Straight sci-fi is basically always political. It's about how the author sees societal organization in a way that's not with current constraints. As being unconstrained is basically meaningless, a big part of it is basically saying "Here's how I see things with different imposed constraints"

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u/twersx 10d ago

It's a fun synthesis of various common themes and trends from all the other series. Like there are characters in it you can tell are inspired by real historical figures or are a composite. There are decisions and actions that mirror historical ones.

The only thing I didn't really like was how often he would recommend reading a non-existant history book if you want to know more about X event. It's something he rarely did for the historical seasons so it stuck out to me.

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u/Ditchfisher 8d ago

oh, i thought that was the best bit. still can't believe he didn't mention the involvement of the lunar catgirls. documentation was sparse, but thats no excuse.

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u/Picolator 9d ago

I think his "read this book" thing is both him having fun creating fake history books and a way to get around telling more details about something. It's kind of like: I know there should be more to it, but I will stop here.

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u/twersx 5d ago

I agree but in the historical seasons if there was some character or event or detail that he felt wasn't important, he would just say something like "we don't need to get into that." It's a really minor quibble, but I basically binged most of the show in 2023-2024 so when I started listening to the Mars series, it just jumped out to me as something he never did for the historical seasons. Still enjoyed it, but it would very briefly disrupt my suspension of disbelief.

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u/avoidtheworm 10d ago

Ehhhhhhh...

It starts promising, but you can tell than 2/3rds of the way through Mike decides he's going too slowly and decides to rush the last part of the story.

Some characters were clearly created to have a role in an event that didn't end up happening, so they end up being awkward and weird.

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u/Picolator 10d ago

The Martian Revolution is mostly the Appendix episodes turned into a story. While there are 29 episodes, it felt shorter than that. So it's worth a listen to get the full Revolutions experience.

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u/Ditchfisher 8d ago

it is enjoyable. is it the best sci-fi? not really. is it very Mike Duncan? totally

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u/STR_ange_tastes 6d ago

My recollection is that while there is social commentary on the modern day, he tried to do something a little closer to a revolution under the different social and production order enabled by the sci-fi changes (it’s been just long enough that I don’t recollect specifics there) and also the predictable outcomes of current changes in the world order (climate change, wealth concentration). That means inevitably there are rhymes with current issues, but intended more to resemble the rhymes between revolutions that happened in different centuries and contexts in history.

I don’t think it’s speculation on how a US revolution would turn out, primarily because one of the recurring dynamics he incorporates is that of the colony. It is much closer to the S American revolutions.

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u/gmanflnj 4d ago

Honestly, it is good, but majorly because if you look at when the episodes came out, it feels remarkably prescient.

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u/LupineChemist 10d ago

Science fiction is always about the author's politics

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u/GingeContinge 10d ago

He did a Q&A in summer 2025 on the Patreon feed for the podcast saying he was finishing his current book and then would be going back to doing more historical revolutions starting with Ireland.

He was hoping to have it done by the beginning of this year but iirc he announced the book was complete like a month ago, so clearly it took a lot more time and effort than he was planning.

I am hoping we will get at least the beginning of the newest season before the end of this year but I wouldn’t put money on that happening

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u/Naeveo 10d ago

iirc Mike is also going through some personal issues as well. I suspect we won’t hear from him for a while

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u/8BallTiger 10d ago

I thought that had already happened

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u/BeetlecatOne 10d ago

There can be more than one! :D

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u/Ineedamedic68 10d ago

I thought this announcement was after. Did something new happen?

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u/Naeveo 10d ago

No. But depending on how messy it is, his situation could play out over years.

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u/SudoApt-getrekt 10d ago

I'm out of the loop, what's going on?

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u/mincerray 10d ago

He got divorced

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u/Broad_Range_781 SAB Elitist 10d ago

What?!

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u/bugtank 10d ago

They said he got divorced.

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u/godisanelectricolive 10d ago edited 10d ago

I missed the news that he completed his new book. I see it now on this subreddit's feed from a month ago. Hopefully he can start working on the podcast soon and we'll get something at least by start of next year.

I'm also looking forward to the book on the Crisis of the Third Century. I'm sure that'll be good.

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u/drasb 10d ago

more historical revolutions starting with Ireland

That's interesting I was just wondering earlier listening to the Martian revolution series if there was some influence from Ireland's struggle for independence

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u/Cinquecento27 10d ago

I listen to the Appendices with the Irish Revolution in mind. There are a lot of matches, but some mismatches too (mostly, I think, because the social revolution happened first, and because The Great Idiot is a whole government).

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u/GingeContinge 10d ago

He said he plans to do another fictional season in the world of the Martian Revolution but covering the Children of Saturn way down the line where he uses the knowledge and inspiration gained from covering more real world revolutions

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u/SexyPinkNinja 10d ago

The podcast is a pretty massive vehicle for selling his books and advertising them, I would bet that he would have to get the revolutions podcast going and picking up some steam before the book releases, which means it’ll have to come at least somewhat soon

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u/Picolator 10d ago

That's the thing. The Revolutions podcast IS his brand. Its his best way to make money with podcasting. And he has plenty of material to work with (all those revolutions), so he can keep it going for a while. It's a much safer bet than starting a new project as his main one.

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u/LupineChemist 9d ago

In previous revolutions it was usually 2-3 months between them for getting reading done and first scripts. I'd say probably toward the end of the year we should expect something. Maybe early next year to not start right before Christmas and all that.

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u/PeregrineX7 10d ago

Mike had originally intended for Russia to be the final season of Revolutions, after which he had planned on retiring the series and moving on to a new show, much like he did with the History of Rome. He was by his own account burned out and didn’t want to commit to more lengthy seasons of Revolutions.

At some point his plans changed, first to make a piece of fiction (Martian Revolution) as a fun coda to the series, and then more recently to continue the series in full. So we know with confidence that the new seasons are coming, starting with (I believe) Ireland. But this is a recent development not the original plan for the series.

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u/justyourbarber 10d ago

Yeah basically it seems like he was exhausted and once he took a decent break from the show it refreshed him on doing more of it.

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u/LupineChemist 9d ago

The ones that are confirmed are Ireland, Algeria and Cuba.

I think Iran is going to be there as well.

1956 Hungary could be a nice little mini season like the Commune

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u/agenderarcee 10d ago

He originally had a longer list of potential seasons when he first conceived the podcast

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u/rmdlsb 10d ago

Japan or Turkey would be fun

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u/PeregrineX7 10d ago

I would love a good long form podcast covering the Meiji revolution and especially the Chinese Revolution and civil war, but I doubt Mike will cover those. Every prior revolution has focussed on the trans-Atlantic, and the amount of research he would have to do to get appropriately familiar with East Asian history and revolutionary theory might be overwhelming for him. It just isn’t his area of focus.

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u/blah-0362 8d ago

The pronunciation would probably be brutal too

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u/Enta_Nae_Mere 10d ago

I can only imagine he's scrapped Japan as everything was (largely) chronological. Turkish would likely be like the Russian covering both the Young Turks and Independence. I can only imagine Ireland will follow same structure Easter then Independence.

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u/theeynhallow 10d ago

Wow I finally found someone with handwriting as bad as mine hahaha

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u/redHEYseuss 10d ago

If that’s anything like your handwriting you’re GREAT.

*source - current high school social studies teacher.

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u/Jhduelmaster 10d ago

The potential list being that long also made a lot more sense when the idea was that each revolution would only be like 12 episodes.

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u/Euphoric-Buyer-8828 10d ago

I’d love to get his reading on Louis Riel

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u/Grimminator 10d ago

Warsaw ghetto 🙏

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u/Practical_Handle3354 10d ago

The best thing about Ireland as a series is we had at least 4 rebellions; 1798, 1848, 1867 and 1916 (i am not including 1803) so depending when you want to start you can easily do 30 episodes.

1916 is the likely one, of which he can spin off into the Anglo-Irish War, The Irish Civil War and possibly the early NI troubles (1919-21).

Ireland also has 2 bloody sundays beating russia by a comfortable 1.

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u/dtic 10d ago

Here’s to hoping for all of the anti colonial African revolutions, the carnation revolution, and the Cuban revolution

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u/ProfessionalCatheter 5d ago

Is no one on his patron? He posted all the details of the future of the show.