By day Lars Brownworth teaches American history at the Stonybrook School, but by night he creates podcasts for an audience of over 100,000. Brownworth’s podcasts, titled “12 Byzantine Rulers,” focus on Byzantium’s 1200-year history, from Diocletian in 284 to Constantine XI Palaeologus in 1453. So far Brownworth has covered 9 of the 12 rulers in 13 separate podcasts. The next podcast should go up in a month or two. Since Brownworth is a full time teacher, his podcasts go up as his spare time allows. But when the posts do go up they’re not only attracting a curious audience, they’re also inspiring listeners to pursue history on their own. One such listener, Christopher Roe, took up a master’s degree in history with a concentration in Byzantine History at Central Michigan University after hearing the podcasts. The “12 Byzantine Rulers” podcasts can be found on Brownworth’s web site, or through iTunes where it “routinely ranks in the top five educational podcasts on iTunes, and in the top 50 of all podcasts,” according to a recent NY Times article titled “History Teacher Becomes Podcast Celebrity”.

Thanks to Ralph Luker who mentioned these podcasts in a recent CLIOPATRIA blog post.

This post first appeared on AHA Today.