So, you are interested in history and Maine’s varied and colorful past? We’ve got the guide for you.

All of the podcasts featured here lean into history, but not all stay within state lines.

The selections below spotlight the episodes that keep their stories rooted firmly in Maine.

MAINELY HISTORY

For anyone interested in Maine’s past, the “Mainely History” podcast is a great place to begin — 79 episodes in and still expanding.

Hosted by historian Ian Saxine and Tiffany Link, the show takes an informal, conversational approach to exploring Maine and broader New England history. Through unscripted discussions with writers, curators and other experts, the hosts connect local stories to larger historical themes.

Standout episodes include “Dogsledding in Maine with Jonathan Hayes” and “Stephen King’s Maine,” the latter highlighting the cultural impact of Stephen King.

Another notable episode, “Logging the Maine Woods with Jason Newton,” dives into the history of the Northern Forest and Maine’s long, complicated logging relationship with Canada.

Upcoming topics will cover Maine’s early female stenographers, sled dogs, hiking culture and colonial history in the Fryeburg area.

“Mainely History” is available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Amazon Music. Follow them on X and Instagram, too.

SALT AND WATER

Sadly, there are only six episodes of “Salts and Water: Stories from the Maine Coast,” all produced in 2017. Only a few fit squarely within the Maine history genre, but all are worth a listen.

Host Rob Rosenthal is a skilled storyteller who uses vivid detail to transport listeners to coastal Maine, including Eastport, Stonington and Portland. The podcast is richly layered and immersive.

Rosenthal explains the podcast’s title by pointing to Maine’s “salts” — people deeply tied to the sea — and its 3,500 miles of coastline.

In Episode 6, “Bath to Bristol: 400 Years of Wooden Boatbuilding,” Rosenthal explores the craft’s history and explains why “Maine is the bastion of wooden boat building.” In just 19 minutes, he takes listeners inside a boatbuilding shop, to the Maine Boatbuilders Show and into a workshop for teens, with added perspective from a museum curator.

In “The Drama of Eastport Tides,” Rosenthal explores the region’s extreme tidal forces, describing the Old Sow whirlpool as churning like a cauldron. Eastport resident George Harris Jr. says as many as 50–100 whirlpools can form at once, driven by three colliding currents in a narrow passage.

A harbor pilot tells Rosenthal the tides “get your attention.” The episode also highlights local wildlife, including minke whales, finbacks, seals and eagles.

AMAZING MAINE PODCAST

History runs through all 10 episodes of the “Amazing Maine Podcast,” (2020–2021), available on Apple Podcasts.

Hosted by Scott Owings, the series blends storytelling with firsthand insight into life in western Maine, especially his hometown of Andover, which he calls “a half hour from everywhere.” He captures rural life, from clearing heavy rooftop snow to snowmobilers lining up at the town’s only gas station.

Early episodes move from a broad look at Maine to small-town traditions like town meetings, summer concerts and Olde Home Days. Later episodes explore local industries and customs, including Maine Maple Sunday, noting the state produces about 13% of the nation’s maple syrup. There are also features on Black Mountain and the region’s snowmobile trails.

Though the series is brief — just 10 relatively short episodes — it offers an engaging, accessible snapshot of western Maine and is worth a listen.

MAINE HISTORICAL SOCIETY

You could make the case that the Maine Historical Society recordings are not purely podcasts and you’d be right, but then you would miss out on some great Maine history. Many of the podcasts are actually videos uploaded to Spotify and Apple, but no matter.

Thoroughly enjoyable are the audio (and video) versions of, “A Long, Long Time Ago: The Major Rock and Roll Concerts of Southern Maine, 1955-1977.”

An interesting 2007 photo presentation by Earle G. Shettleworth Jr., of the “Vickery-Shettleworth Collection of Early Maine Photography,” is better watched on the website. Daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and tintypes depicting Maine subjects or taken by Maine photographers are part of a collection dating from about 1840–1860, when photography was new to the state and the nation. The images capture governors, statesmen, artists, historians and everyday Mainers.

In this talk, “‘Magic Town’: Selling Rumford in the Nineteenth Century,” recorded in September 2025, C. Ian Stevenson explains how paper industry magnate Hugh Chisholm assembled 1,100 acres at Rumford Falls on the Androscoggin River in 1890, a powerful site dubbed “New England’s Niagara,” and promoted a planned industrial city using illustrated pamphlets, postcards and coordinated railroad station design to attract investors. By 1906, a Boston newspaper called Rumford “Magic Town,” reflecting the height of Chisholm’s vision, which ultimately failed.