In the U.S., historians can be rock stars. But not in Canada

Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook — hosts of the best history podcast in the world, the Rest is History — appeared this week on none other than Conan O’Brien’s hugely popular podcast. Just think of that: two historians on one of the most famous comedy podcasts in the world. Now imagine inserting the word “Canadian” into that sentence. The mind would be blown. The universe would implode.

Conan, himself a bit of a history geek, began by saying how funny he found Holland and Sandbrook’s podcast — their running jokes about the absurd beards of First World War generals, for instance. But Holland and Sandbrook insisted that, for them, the stories come first and the humour flows naturally after that.

They joked about former U.S. president Richard Nixon wearing black shoes to the beach, and ab