[throwawaylolx]

That's a very ungenerous characterisation of the show. Melvyn is very careful to keep a coherent progression in each episode, and he invites experts in fields relevant to the topic at hand. Among the ~1,000 episodes I'm sure there are some weak ones, but the way you frame it is as if British academics are not capable of discussing topics outside of their own culture or Melvyn is some amateur host who just wants to hear some pop history fun facts.

[nubbins]

Possibly I am judging too harshly on a few weaker podcasts (though isn't that always the risk when a show has so many episodes) but "pop history fun facts" is how I would characterize a lot of the non Western ancient/medieval history episodes. 45 minutes on "the Samurai" feels a little thin when we have no background on Japan prior to that episode. And "Maths in the early Islamic World" was really frustrating how sometimes the guests are in the middle of making an interesting technical point and he interrupts with a totally different question.