Description
The rise and fall of empires and the events that shaped world history.
William Dalrymple and Anita Anand explore the intricate stories of revolutions, imperial wars, and the people who built and lost empires.
From the British Empire to the Ottomans to Ancient India, history is shaped by power struggles and territorial conquests. How does it continue to affect the world today?
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Episodes
- 2026 / 3 / 3338.Chairman Mao: Birth of A Dictator (Ep 1)A revolutionary hero or a brutal despot? Mao Zedong has one of the most recognisable portraits on Earth. How did he rise to become the founder of the People’s Republic of China? ** Binge all six episodes of...
- 2026 / 2 / 26337. Bronze Age Apocalypse: Philistines, Israelites, & Rebuilding The Ruins (Ep 6)How did the Phoenicians create the alphabet we still use today? Was the Bronze Age collapse comparable to the fall of Rome? What does DNA evidence tell us about the origins of the Philistines and...
- 2026 / 2 / 26337. Bronze Age Apocalypse: Philistines, Israelites, & Rebuilding The Levant (Ep 6)How did the Phoenicians create the alphabet we still use today? Was the Bronze Age collapse comparable to the fall of Rome? What does DNA evidence tell us about the origins of the Philistines and...
- 2026 / 2 / 24336. Bronze Age Apocalypse: How To Survive The End of The World (Ep 5)Which ancient civilisation was the best at surviving the Apocalypse, and which was the worst? Who were the Hittites, and what did they actually call themselves? Does the Bronze Age collapse serve as a warning...
- 2026 / 2 / 19335. Bronze Age Apocalypse: Solving The Mystery of The Collapse (Ep 4)Who were the ‘Sea Peoples’? Was the Bronze Age Collapse caused by a single catastrophic event? How did the Egyptians try to adapt to the changing climate? From the scientific evidence hidden in ancient pollen...
- 2026 / 2 / 17334. Bronze Age Apocalypse: Did Homer Write History? (Ep 3)The legendary ancient Greek poet, Homer, is a key source to our understanding of the Bronze Age Collapse, but did a single genius named Homer even exist? How could sophisticated poems like The Iliad and The...
- 2026 / 2 / 12333. Bronze Age Apocalypse: The Fall of Troy (Ep 2)Stephen Fry joins William and Anita to discuss how Greek Myths have shaped our understanding of the Bronze Age Collapse. Was the Trojan Horse real? What can we learn about the end of ancient civilisations...
- 2026 / 2 / 12333. Bronze Age Apocalypse: The Fall of Troy with Stephen Fry (Ep 2)Stephen Fry joins William and Anita to discuss how Greek Myths have shaped our understanding of the Bronze Age Collapse. Was the Trojan Horse real? What can we learn about the end of ancient civilisations...
- 2026 / 2 / 10332. Bronze Age Apocalypse: Before The Collapse (Ep 1)This is the beginning of the most dramatic imperial collapses in history. Why were Ancient civilisations so interconnected 3000 years ago? How did this interconnectedness lead to their downfall? Did people at...
- 2026 / 2 / 5331. The Iranian Revolution: Will The Shah Return To Iran? (Ep 2)In 1979, the people of Iran took to the streets to topple the Shah. This year they are back in the streets shouting “Long Live The Shah”. How did this happen? How did a country which so volcanically threw out...
- 2026 / 2 / 3330. The Iranian Revolution: 1979 vs. 2026 (Ep 1)In recent weeks, protestors have swarmed the streets in Iran in defiance of the regime, and it feels as if the country is on the precipice of a transformative change. Yet these scenes feel familiar. In the...
- 2026 / 1 / 29329. India’s Greatest Rebellion: The British Raj is Born (Part 8)How did Lucknow become the final battleground of the 1857 Uprising? Who was Begum Hazrat Mahal, and how did she hold together a rebellion against overwhelming odds? How did the 1857 Uprising lead to the fall...
- 2026 / 1 / 29329. Indian Uprising 1857: The British Raj is Born (Part 8)How did Lucknow become the final battleground of the 1857 Uprising? Who was Begum Hazrat Mahal, and how did she hold together a rebellion against overwhelming odds? How did the 1857 Uprising lead to the fall...
- 2026 / 1 / 27328. Indian Uprising 1857: The Reign of Terror (Part 7)How did the British finally break into Delhi during the 1857 Uprising? Why did a sudden solar eclipse change the fate of the siege overnight? Why is the British victory considered one of Delhi’s greatest...
- 2026 / 1 / 27328. India’s Greatest Rebellion: The Reign of Terror (Part 7)How did the British finally break into Delhi during the 1857 Uprising? Why did a sudden solar eclipse change the fate of the siege overnight? Why is the British victory considered one of Delhi’s greatest...
- 2026 / 1 / 22327. Indian Uprising 1857: The British Strike Back (Part 6)How did the tide turn towards the end of 1857 as British reinforcements gathered to strike the hearts of the rebellion: Delhi and Lucknow? Who was the British Commander, John Nicholson, and why was he feared...
- 2026 / 1 / 22327. India’s Greatest Rebellion: The British Strike Back (Part 6)How did the tide turn towards the end of 1857 as British reinforcements gathered to strike the hearts of the rebellion: Delhi and Lucknow? Who was the British Commander, John Nicholson, and why was he feared...
- 2026 / 1 / 20326. India’s Greatest Rebellion: The Indian Joan of Arc – Rani of Jhansi (Part 5)The warrior queen who fought the British on the battlefield, Rani of Jhansi –or Rani Lakshmibai– is still a hero in India, with comic books and Bollywood movies about her. But what’s the true history behind...
- 2026 / 1 / 20326. Indian Uprising 1857: India’s Joan of Arc – Rani of Jhansi (Part 5)The warrior queen who fought the British on the battlefield, Rani of Jhansi –or Rani Lakshmibai– is still a hero in India, with comic books and Bollywood movies about her. But what’s the true history behind...
- 2026 / 1 / 15325. Indian Uprising 1857: The Siege of Lucknow (Part 4)An entire city turns on the British and revolts in unison. 3000 East India Company soldiers and civilians in Lucknow are under siege in one compound, hiding in tunnels and surrounded by snipers. But who will...
- 2026 / 1 / 15325. India’s Greatest Rebellion: The Siege of Lucknow (Part 4)An entire city turns on the British and revolts in unison. 3000 East India Company soldiers and civilians in Lucknow are under siege in one compound, hiding in tunnels and surrounded by snipers. But who will...
- 2026 / 1 / 13324. India’s Greatest Rebellion: Massacre and Revenge in Kanpur (Part 3)In one of the darkest chapters of the 1857 uprising, brutal massacres are met with revenge brutal massacres as the rebellion reaches the East India Company garrison town of Kanpur or “Cawnpore”. Who was...
- 2026 / 1 / 13324. Indian Uprising 1857: Massacre and Revenge in Kanpur (Part 3)In one of the darkest chapters of the 1857 uprising, brutal massacres are met with revenge brutal massacres as the rebellion reaches the East India Company garrison town of Kanpur or “Cawnpore”. Who was...
- 2026 / 1 / 8323. Indian Uprising 1857: The Rebels March On Delhi (Part 2)How did the mutiny amongst sepoys –Indian soldiers– turn into a national crisis? What ultimatum did the rebels give the Mughal emperor when they reached the Red Fort in Delhi? Why did the British fail to see...
- 2026 / 1 / 8323. India’s Greatest Rebellion: The Rebels March On Delhi (Part 2)How did the mutiny amongst sepoys –Indian soldiers– turn into a national crisis? What ultimatum did the rebels give the Mughal emperor when they reached the Red Fort in Delhi? Why did the British fail to see...
- 2026 / 1 / 6322. Indian Uprising 1857: The Mutiny (Part 1)Secret messages are being passed from city to city inside chapattis, rebellion is in the air. When Indian soldiers in the East India Company army hear that bullet cartridges are greased with pig and cow fat,...
- 2026 / 1 / 6322. India’s Greatest Rebellion: The 1857 Mutiny (Part 1)Secret messages are being passed from city to city inside chapattis, rebellion is in the air. When Indian soldiers in the East India Company army hear that bullet cartridges are greased with pig and cow fat,...
- 2026 / 1 / 1321. Exploding Rum-filled Coffins, Anglo-Indian Sisterhood, & Julia Margaret CameronHow did Julia Margaret Cameron - Virginia Woolf's great aunt - become one of the most influential photography artists of her time? Who were the Anglo-Indian Pattle Sisters who charmed Victorian society in...
- 2025 / 12 / 30320. Photos That Shook The World: Exposing Leopold in The CongoHow did one woman take on the brutal colonial King Leopold II in Congo with her camera? Who was Alice Seely Harris and why should we remember her name? How did she smuggle her photographs of the horrors going...
- 2025 / 12 / 25319. Heist of St Nicolas: The Medieval Mafia Who Stole Santa (Part 2)Who were the Italian sailors who stole the bones of St Nicolas from his church in Turkey in 1087? How was the mythology of St Nicolas combined with Germanic pagan stories of Odin riding a white horse...
- 2025 / 12 / 23318. Heist of St Nicolas: Raiding Santa's Tomb (Part 1)The original Santa Claus, Saint Nicolas, was a real bishop from Myra in modern-day Turkey, whose tomb there was popular with pilgrims, but 700 years after his death, a group of sailors decided to steal his...
- 2025 / 12 / 23318. Heist of St Nicolas: Tomb Raiding In Ancient Turkey (Part 1)Saint Nicolas was a real bishop from Myra in modern-day Turkey, whose tomb there was popular with pilgrims, but 700 years after his death, a group of sailors decided to steal his magic bones… What myth about...
- 2025 / 12 / 18317. Churchill's Photographer: From Escaping Genocide to MLKWho was Karsh and how did he become one of the most famous portrait photographers of the 20th century? How did Karsh escape from the Armenian Genocide as a child? What was the story behind some of the most...
- 2025 / 12 / 16316. Hitler's Photographer: Nazi Secrets, Eva Braun, & Escaping JusticeWho was Heinrich Hoffman and how did he use his photography to promote Adolf Hitler and Nazism? When did Hoffman introduce Hitler to Eva Braun? What lies did he tell a Jewish journalist who interviewed him in...
- 2025 / 12 / 12Introducing: The Rest Is ScienceForget what you think you know about reality. The Rest Is Science is a mind-bending new show from Goalhanger that tears down familiar ideas… time, randomness, beauty, it will reveal just how bizarre the...
- 2025 / 12 / 11315. Controversy, Colonialism, & V.S. NaipaulWho was V.S. Naipaul and why was he so controversial? How did Naipaul alter the way in which writers and readers saw the world, and in particular how they saw Trinidad? Why did he make an enemy of Salman...
- 2025 / 12 / 9314. Rudyard Kipling: Villain or Visionary? (Part 3)Should we still read Kipling today? What family tragedy did Kipling face in the later half of his life? How did he fan the flames of jingoism during and after the First World War? William is reunited with...
- 2025 / 12 / 4313. Rudyard Kipling: Escaping India & Writing The Jungle Book (Part 2)What inspired Kipling to write his two most famous works: The Jungle Book and Kim? Why did Kipling hate London and swiftly move to the US? How did Kipling develop such astute observational writing about...
- 2025 / 12 / 2312. Rudyard Kipling: Son of Empire (Part 1)Rudyard Kipling was one of the most evocative writers of India, yet he was a jingoist and an imperialist until his dying day. So how do we grapple with this conundrum, why was Kipling such a man of...
- 2025 / 11 / 27311. Cricket In India: Beating The Brits At Their Own Game (Part 2)How did Britain’s imperial game become so popular in India? Why were India’s princes the ‘nepo babies’ of cricket? How does the legacy of Partition continue to affect matches in India and Pakistan...
- 2025 / 11 / 25310. The Origin of The Ashes & The Killer Cricket Scandal (Part 1)How is the history of cricket completely intertwined with the history of the British Empire? What was the Bodyline Controversy of the 1930s and how did it nearly kill a player? Who was Don Bradman and why is...
- 2025 / 11 / 20309. Tintin, Nazis, & SovietsHow did the young journalist with the quiff haircut and his companion Snowy The Dog feature in Nazi propaganda in the 1940s? What was the origin story of Hergé, the Belgian illustrator who created The...
- 2025 / 11 / 18308. Asterix and Obelix, Babar The Elephant, & Colonial CartoonsHow did a story made up by a mother for her sick children turn into Babar The Elephant? Why did two immigrants to France create such a patriotically French cartoon in Asterix and Obelix? How should we feel...
- 2025 / 11 / 13307. Austen vs Brontë: Unmasking Slavery HeiressesWhat is the true history behind the “madwoman in the attic” in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre? How was Jane Austen’s aunt deeply connected to slavery in Barbados? Who were the British heiresses who married...
- 2025 / 11 / 11306. Joseph Conrad: From Russian Exile To The Heart of DarknessHow did a Polish sailor become one of the greatest writers in the English language? Why were Conrad’s parents exiled to the harsh conditions of northern Russia? Should we continue to read The Heart of...
- 2025 / 11 / 6305. Orwell: Dark Secrets, The CIA, & His Forgotten Failures (Part 4)Why was Orwell’s wife, Eileen, written out of his story when she co-wrote Animal Farm? How did the CIA twist the novel into anti-communist propaganda? As a writer who was so ahead of his time on imperialism...
- 2025 / 11 / 4304. Orwell: Animal Farm, 1984 & Totalitarian Dystopia (Part 3)What was the inspiration behind George Orwell’s most famous works? Why did he move to the remote Scottish island of Jura to finish writing 1984? What was Orwell’s “Snitch List” which he handed over to the...
- 2025 / 10 / 30303. Orwell: Fighting Fascism In The Spanish Civil War (Part 2)Why did George Orwell go to Spain to fight on the Republican side against General Franco? Who saved his life when he was shot in the throat? How did internal feuds on the leftist side of the war influence his...
- 2025 / 10 / 28302. Orwell: The Anti-Imperialist in India & Burma (Part 1)How was George Orwell’s childhood rooted in the British Empire and the opium trade in India? Why did George Orwell become a colonial police officer in Burma? When did Orwell develop his anti-imperialist...
- 2025 / 10 / 28302. Orwell: The Anti-Imperialist In India & Burma (Part 1)How was George Orwell’s childhood rooted in the British Empire and the opium trade in India? Why did George Orwell become a colonial police officer in Burma? When did Orwell develop his anti-imperialist...
- 2025 / 10 / 22301. Gaza: The First Arab-Israeli War & The Creation of The Gaza Strip (Part 11)How did neighbouring Arab nations respond to the displacement of Palestinians in 1948? Why was the future Egyptian prime minister, General Nasser, stationed in Gaza in 1948? How did the population of Gaza...
- 2025 / 10 / 20300. Gaza: The 1948 War (Part 10)Why did the British decide to end their Mandate in Palestine less than three decades after it began? What was the UN Partition Plan for Palestine and why did the Zionist leadership accept it whilst the Arab...
- 2025 / 10 / 15299. Gaza: The Palestinian Revolt, The Black and Tans, & Bomber Harris (Part 9)When Palestinian Arabs rose up against the British in 1936, what repressive tactics were used to quell the revolt? Who was the WW2 hero “Bomber” Harris, and why did he bomb Palestinians in the 1930s? How did...
- 2025 / 10 / 13298. Gaza: The British Occupation of Palestine (Part 8)What was the British Mandate of Palestine that emerged after World War I? Why were the Black and Tans sent to Palestine and what methods did they use to enforce order? How did tensions between Zionist...
- 2025 / 10 / 8297. Gaza in WW1: A Rematch For Gallipoli (Part 7)How did British Army General Murray fail to take Gaza in 1917? Who was General Allenby and how did his tactics in the cavalry charge on Gaza City lead to transformation in the region? What are the connections...
- 2025 / 10 / 5296. Ottoman Gaza: Gunpowder Conquests & Rising Nationalism (Part 6)In 1516, the Ottomans defeated the mighty Mamluk Empire in the Middle East, taking control of Gaza. How did Ottoman forces roll out scorched-earth tactics on Gaza City to punish those who had rebelled against...
- 2025 / 10 / 1295. Crusader Gaza: Saladin & Richard The Lionheart (Part 5)Why did Crusaders travel from Western Europe to Gaza and The Levant in the 11th century? Who was Saladin and how did he conquer the Franks? How did the Mamluks defeat the Mongols in the 1200s and usher in an...
- 2025 / 9 / 29294. Gaza & The Islamic Conquest (Part 4)How did the expansion of Islam out of the Arab peninsular affect Gaza in the seventh century? Who was ‘Amr ibn al-As and how did he ambush the Byzantines in Gaza? Why is the Islamic Conquest described as the...
- 2025 / 9 / 24293. Ancient Gaza: The Rise of Christianity (Part 3)How did Gaza become a centre of learning and festivals during the Byzantine era? Who was St. Porphyrius of Gaza, and why did he destroy pagan temples in the city? Why is the Early Christian period considered...
- 2025 / 9 / 24293. The Gaza Erotic Literature Festival: Byzantine Gaza (Part 3)How did Gaza become a centre of learning and festivals during the Byzantine era? Who was St. Porphyrius of Gaza, and why did he destroy pagan temples in the city? Why is the Early Christian period considered...
- 2025 / 9 / 22292. Ancient Gaza: From The Assyrians to The Romans (Part 2)Why did the Assyrians spare Philistine port cities like Gaza when they conquered The Levant? How did the Persians overthrow the Babylonians in the region? What did Alexander The Great send back to his tutor...
- 2025 / 9 / 17291. Ancient Gaza: The Philistines (Part 1)Gaza is one of the oldest urban centres on Earth, and in this series we are exploring its long history. It was first referred to by Pharaoh Thutmose III in the 15th century BC when it was known as Ghazzati....
- 2025 / 9 / 15290. Medieval India’s Alexander The Great: The Cholas (Part 2)Who was South India’s equivalent to Alexander The Great? How did the Chola dynasty conquer Southeast Asia? And what was life like for the enslaved “service women” in the Chola court? William and Anita are...
- 2025 / 9 / 10289. Medieval India’s Game of Thrones: The Cholas (Part 1)Who were the Cholas who ruled in South India from the 9th century? How was a Hindu symbol of a Chola queen the inspiration behind the Christian hymn “Lord of The Dance”? What was the Medieval Indian...
- 2025 / 9 / 8288. Suez Crisis: The End of The British Empire (Part 5)How did the Suez Crisis end? Why did the Suez Crisis mark the end of the Anglo-American “special relationship”? And was it Egypt or India that marked the nail in the coffin of the British Empire? William and...
- 2025 / 9 / 3287. Suez Crisis: Lies, Cyanide Pills, & Soviet Tanks (Part 4)Who was Dulles Airport named after and why was he instrumental in de-escalating the Suez Crisis? Why did Nasser order cyanide pills for his military generals during the crisis? How did the Egyptians use beer...
- 2025 / 9 / 1286. Suez Crisis: Hungary Revolts & Britain Bombs Egypt (Part 3)What did the Queen think about Britain’s humiliating failures in Suez in 1956? Why did France and Britain not inform their American allies of the invasion? What was simultaneously going on in Hungary that...
- 2025 / 8 / 27285. Suez Crisis: The Secret Meeting Between Israel, Britain & France (Part 2)Why did France & Britain secretly collude with Israel against Egypt? What did America think was going on in Suez? Why did the Soviets think the US was behind an uprising in Hungary? William and Anita are...
- 2025 / 8 / 25284. Suez Crisis: The British Imperialist vs The Arab Nationalist (Part 1)How did Britain and France almost start World War 3 in 1956? Who was Anthony Eden and why did he hate Egyptian leader Gamal Abdel Nasser? Why was the Suez Canal so vital to European oil supplies in the...
- 2025 / 8 / 20283. Partition: East Pakistan Becomes Bangladesh (Part 6)How did Bangladesh separate from Pakistan in 1971? When did India and Pakistan go from sharing intelligence to being at the brink of nuclear war? Why did George Harrison from the Beatles organise a concert...
- 2025 / 8 / 18282. Partition: The Birth of The Kashmir Conflict (Part 5)What happened to the 565 princely states within British India when it became independent from the empire? How are the current conflicts in Balochistan and Kashmir linked to the partition of the princely...
- 2025 / 8 / 13281. Partition: Why Was India Split In Two? (Part 4)Why was the Partition of India and Pakistan so rushed in 1947? How did Partition divide everything from stationery to army boots in a matter of weeks? And how do South Asians today grapple with the memory of...
- 2025 / 8 / 11280. Partition: The Creation of Pakistan (Part 3)Why did Jinnah initially accept that Pakistan could be part of an Indian Federation? When did Jinnah start to push for Pakistan to be independent from India? What was Direct Action Day in 1946, and how did it...
- 2025 / 8 / 6279. Partition: How Dubai Almost Became Part of India (Part 2)Why have we forgotten that much of the Arabian peninsula was once legally part of India? How were the founding fathers of Yemen influenced by Indian nationalists? Which British spy was a double agent for the...
- 2025 / 8 / 4278. Partition: India’s Break With Burma (Part 1)Why did Japan’s invasion of Burma in WW2 affect its path to independence? Who was the Burmese fascist leader who praised Hitler for his views on immigration? How did the separation of Burma link to the origin...
- 2025 / 7 / 30277. America Drills Through Hell’s Gorge (Part 5)How did the US orchestrate the Panamanian Revolution to be able to build the Panama Canal? Why did French engineer Bunau-Varilla and the US sign a treaty about Panama without a single Panamanian in the room?...
- 2025 / 7 / 28276. The Biggest Corruption Scandal in French History (Part 4)How was George Eiffel of the Eiffel Tower involved in a huge corruption scandal associated with the Panama Canal? How many workers died during the French attempt to build the canal? And who was Bunau-Varilla...
- 2025 / 7 / 23275. The Battle To Build The Panama Canal (Part 3)What madcap schemes did French engineers use to drum up support to build the Panama Canal in the 1880s? How did the Gold Rush affect the flow of travellers through Panama looking for a shortcut? Who was the...
- 2025 / 7 / 21274. Pirates of Panama: Francis Drake Strikes Spain's Empire (Part 2)Who was Captain Morgan, and why is a spiced rum named after him? How did a Welsh buccaneer lead an attack on the heart of Spain’s empire in Panama? How did Elizabeth I fund Francis Drake’s first slaving...
- 2025 / 7 / 16273. Panama’s Brutish Conquistador Who Found The Pacific and Lost His Head (Part 1)Who was the first European to see the Pacific Ocean? Who was Balboa and why did he set his bloodhounds on Native people in Panama? Why do we remember Cortes over the brutish conquistador Balboa? Anita and...
- 2025 / 7 / 15272. Solving The Mystery of America's Lost ColonyHave archaeologists finally solved the 400 year mystery of the lost American colonists? Who orchestrated historical hoaxes in the 1930s and did they get away with it? How has the history of the Roanoke Colony...
- 2025 / 7 / 9271. Canada’s Dark Secret: Stolen Children, Unmarked Graves, & Survival Stories (Ep 5)What was life like for Indigenous children forced to attend Residential Schools in Canada in the 1800s and 1900s? When was the final residential school closed? Which grim discovery in 2021 forced...
- 2025 / 7 / 7270. The Day The Brits Burned The White House (Ep 4)Why did Washington invade Quebec? How did the US fail to take the Canadian territories during the Revolutionary Wars? And why did the British burn the White House? Anita and William are once again joined...
- 2025 / 7 / 2269. Colonising Canada: The Truth Behind ‘The Last of The Mohicans’ (Ep 3)Is there any truth in the film 'The Last of The Mohicans' and how did the French and Indian War that it's based on change the make-up of Canada? Why was the Seven Years War the first truly global war? What is...
- 2025 / 6 / 30268. Colonising Canada: Why Does Quebec Speak French? (Ep 2)How did beaver fur and codfish turn a failed French attempt at colonisation into a success? What is the historical context behind Quebec as a French-speaking region of Canada? Did Indigenous leaders cleverly...
- 2025 / 6 / 25267. Colonising Canada: Kidnapping, Scurvy, & Fool’s Gold (Ep 1)Who was the first European to try and colonise Canada? Who was John Cabot and why was he spied on by Columbus? Why did Jacques Cartier kidnap Indigenous Canadians and take them back to France? What is the...
- 2025 / 6 / 23266. American Greenland: Nazis, Secret Nuclear Bases, & Trump (Ep 4)When did the US first ask to buy Greenland? Why did America occupy the region in World War II? And how did a secret plan codenamed “Project Iceworm” lead to nuclear waste spilling on Greenland’s soil? Anita...
- 2025 / 6 / 18265. Danish Greenland: Eradicating Inuit Culture (Ep 3)How did the Danish missionary Hans Egede combine capitalism and religion in his colonisation of Greenland in the 1700s? Why have we forgotten about Danish colonialism in India and Greenland? When did...
- 2025 / 6 / 16264. Viking Greenland: Mysteries of the Lost Norse Settlers (Ep 2)How did the Vikings and the Inuit interact in Greenland? When was the last record of Norse settlers in the region? How did climate change affect the decline of Viking settlers in Greenland, and why is their...
- 2025 / 6 / 15Murder in the Congo, The Cuban Missile Crisis, & India in the UN (EXTRACT)How did the first Asian UN Secretary General prevent multiple Armeggedons in the 1960s? What is the mystery surrounding his predecessor’s death? How did the Global South shape the UN in a post-colonial...
- 2025 / 6 / 11263. Viking Greenland: Erik The Red & Horny Zombies (Ep 1)How did the Norse settlers in Greenland adapt to the harsh Arctic environment, and what did their diet consist of beyond fish? What role did walrus ivory play in their trade with Norway? And who were the...
- 2025 / 6 / 9262. Berlin Blockade: Airlift Across The Iron Curtain (Ep 2)When was Checkpoint Charlie created in Berlin? What triggered Stalin to enact a blockade on West Berlin? And how did the Western powers airlift over 2.3 million tons of supplies to their occupied zone of the...
- 2025 / 6 / 4261. Race To Berlin 1945: A Devastated City Divided (Ep 1)What was life like in Berlin in the immediate aftermath of the Second World War? Why did the Red Army steal taps from Berlin houses when they reached the city? Was the famous photo of the red flag on the...
- 2025 / 6 / 2260. Yalta: Signing Away The Fate of The World (Ep 5)Did the Western powers fail at Yalta? Did Churchill hold strong in his red line about the fate of Poland? Why did the Big Three eat a huge feast in the middle of a war zone? In the final episode in the story...
- 2025 / 5 / 28259. Eastern Europe & “The Great Betrayal” (Ep 4)Who created the United Nations? How did The Big Three divide Germany between themselves? Why did Poland see the Yalta conference as “The Great Betrayal”? Anita and William explore the origins of the United...
- 2025 / 5 / 26258. The Big Three & The Big Carve Up (Ep 3)Where did The Big Three stay as they carved up the post-war world map, and why were their rooms full of bedbugs? Why did FDR refuse to allow the press to photograph him arriving at Yalta? What role did...
- 2025 / 5 / 21257. Churchill, FDR, & Mind Games at Yalta (Ep 2)How did FDR become the mediator between Stalin and Churchill at the 1945 conference? Why did Churchill call Yalta the “Hades Riviera”? What was Mussolini’s rude nickname for FDR? Anita and William dive into...
- 2025 / 5 / 19256. Stalin & 8 Days That Changed The World (Ep 1)How did one peace conference in Yalta in 1945 completely transform the world in just eight days? What was Joseph Stalin's backstory before becoming the Soviet leader? What is the relevance of the Yalta...
- 2025 / 5 / 14255. Victorian Narcos: From Opium To Fentanyl (Ep 9)What led to the Second Opium War? Why wasn’t China colonised by Europeans? When did China start referring to this period as the “century of humiliation” and how did this narrative shape nationalism in the...
- 2025 / 5 / 12254. Victorian Narcos: Fire Monkeys, Iron Gunships, & Peasant Warfare (Ep 8)Who won the First Opium War? Why did British troops feel guilty about their role? What treaty led to Britain taking control of Hong Kong? Anita and William discuss the tragic imbalance of The First Opium...
- 2025 / 5 / 7253. Victorian Narcos: Drug Dealers Lead Britain to War (Ep 7)How did opium traders convince the British Cabinet to wage war on China? Who was Lord Palmerston? Why was China, one of the biggest empires in the world, so ill-prepared for war at sea? William and Anita...
- 2025 / 5 / 5252. Victorian Narcos: Selling Drugs To The Queen (Ep 6)Who was Commissioner Lin and how did he crack down on foreign opium in China? Why was Charles Elliot so hopeless that he landed Queen Victoria with a bill owing millions to drug dealers? What was the Canton...
- 2025 / 4 / 30251. Victorian Narcos: Flooding China With Indian Opium (Ep 5)Who were Jardine and Matheson? What was life like for workers growing opium in India? How does George Orwell relate to the East India Company opium trade? William and Anita explore how William Jardine and...
- 2025 / 4 / 28250. Victorian Narcos: Banished From Beijing (Ep 4)How did the Macartney Mission fail so spectacularly? Where does the word ‘kowtow’ come from? Why were the diplomats banished from the Forbidden City? Listen as William and Anita continue the story of how...
- 2025 / 4 / 23249. Victorian Narcos: Doomed Envoy to China (Ep 3)Who led the first British envoy to China? What did Europeans think of China in the 1700s? Why did the diplomats bring a huge planetarium as a gift for the Chinese emperor? William and Anita continue the...
- 2025 / 4 / 21248. Victorian Narcos: Sex, Drugs, & The Opium Agency (Ep 2)How did Britain create a violent monopoly on opium production in India in the 1700s? What was the Opium Agency? Why did Chinese elites use opium during sex? Anita and William discuss how the East India...
- 2025 / 4 / 16247. Victorian Narcos: Tea Starts A Drug War (Ep 1)How did the British taste for tea start a war over the right to sell drugs to China? When did tea become fashionable in Britain? How did the Dutch bring tea to India? William and Anita explore how the...
- 2025 / 4 / 14246. Ireland Transformed: From Banning Condoms to Exporting ViagraHow did Ireland go from a farming economy to the home of Big Tech and Big Pharma in Europe in a few decades? Why were women imprisoned in “Magdalene Laundries” in Ireland until 1996? How did Irish society...
- 2025 / 4 / 9245. Inside The Good Friday Agreement with Alastair CampbellWhat ended The Troubles? Why was 1998 the right moment for a peace treaty? Which issues caused the most heated debate? What was the food like in the negotiating room? Exactly 27 years on since the Good Friday...
- 2025 / 4 / 7244. The Troubles: IRA Secrets Exposed (Ep 4)Who was responsible for the murder of Jean McConville? Which IRA secrets were revealed in the Belfast Project tapes? How did Gerry Adams move into politics and become a key figure in the signing of the Good...
- 2025 / 4 / 2243. The Troubles: London Bombings, Hunger Strikes, & The Graveside Grenade (Ep 3)Who organised the bombing of The Old Bailey in Central London? Why was Jean McConville abducted in December 1972? Why did the British government choose not to intervene when hunger strikers like Bobby Sands...
- 2025 / 3 / 31242. The Troubles: Bloody Sunday & The British Army in Belfast (Ep 2)What was the British Army’s policy of “Internment” in Northern Ireland, and how did it drive membership for the Provisional IRA? Who was General Kitson? How did the Price sisters go from peaceful protestors...
- 2025 / 3 / 27241. The Troubles: War in the Streets of Northern Ireland (Ep 1)What were The Troubles and why did they lead to 30 years of violence and division in Northern Ireland? How were Irish Catholics inspired by the American Civil Rights movement in 1969? Why did the British...
- 2025 / 3 / 25240. Ireland’s Fight For Freedom: The Irish Civil War (Ep 3)In the aftermath of the Irish War of Independence in 1921, Michael Collins is sent to London to meet Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George and other British officials to negotiate a treaty. After weeks of...
- 2025 / 3 / 20239. Ireland’s Fight For Freedom: The Rise of The IRA (Ep 2)The Irish republicans who led the Easter Rising of 1916 are tried for treason by the British government, and sentenced to death. Some are so unwell they have to be tied to a chair to be killed, and the...
- 2025 / 3 / 18238. Ireland’s Fight For Freedom: The Easter Rising (Ep 1)The 1916 Easter Rising was a definitive moment in 20th-century Irish history. Its memory was evoked throughout The Troubles, with republicans wearing commemorative Easter Lily badges to honour the...
- 2025 / 3 / 13237. The Great Famine: The Irish Exodus to America (Ep 2)The legacy of the Great Famine continues to shape not only Ireland, but the Irish diaspora in America, Canada, and the UK. In the mid-1800s, starving families fled the country in search of survival, gathering...
- 2025 / 3 / 11236. The Great Famine: The Blight Strikes Ireland (Ep 1)How did the memory of the Great Famine shape Irish identity? Could it have been prevented? From 1845 to 1852, a disease decimated potato crops across Ireland. Farmers of small plots who relied entirely on...
- 2025 / 3 / 6235. The Viceroy, The Psychopath, and The Merchant: The Irish in Empire (Ep 3)Ireland may have been England’s first colony but, by the 17th century, Irishmen were carving out their own imperial legacies in India. Gerald Aungier, an ambitious East India Company official, saw Bombay as a...
- 2025 / 3 / 4234. Battle of the Boyne: Clash of Two Kings (Ep 2)The Restoration reinstates the monarchy in England, Scotland & Ireland, and Irish Catholics believe that they will get their lands back for their loyalty to the king. And when the openly Catholic King James...
- 2025 / 2 / 27233. Blood and Betrayal: Oliver Cromwell's Irish Invasion (Ep 1)His statue may stand proudly outside the Houses of Parliament in London, but in Ireland, Oliver Cromwell is remembered as “the Devil from over the Sea” for the bloodshed he unleashed there from 1649 to...
- 2025 / 2 / 26Legacy: Genghis KhanAfter victory in China, Genghis Khan goes west and takes on the Khwarezmians, surprising his enemy with a daring assault. He conquers all in his path and now controls the biggest empire the world has ever...
- 2025 / 2 / 25232. Colonising Ireland: The First Plantations (Ep 2)In 1607, after launching a failed rebellion in Ulster against the English, Hugh O’Neill and other Irish nobles are forced to flee Ireland, and their lands are confiscated. In response to the revolt, an...
- 2025 / 2 / 20231. Colonising Ireland: Henry VIII, Elizabeth I, & The Tudor Conquest (Ep 1)Ireland is the only country in Western Europe that has experienced being colonised in the modern era. It was used by England as a laboratory for imperialism, and was the site of bloody colonial wars for...
- 2025 / 2 / 18230. Britain’s Last Colony: Trump, Brexit, and Russia-Ukraine (Ep 2)The future of the Chagos Islands hangs in the balance as world leaders debate how really owns the islands and who should be allowed to live there. Since the 1970s, the evicted Chagossian people have been...
- 2025 / 2 / 13229. Britain’s Last Colony: The Second World War, Forced Deportations, and 9/11 (Ep 1)The Chagos Islands have dominated news headlines over the past few months, but the struggle of the Chagossian people to reclaim their island home has spanned decades. First colonised in 1513 by the...
- 2025 / 2 / 11228. The Man Who Lived A Thousand Lives: Prisoner of War (Ep 2)Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel transformed India’s landscapes but faced immense personal struggles. Despite rising to prominence as the Maharaja of Mysore’s trusted landscape architect, Krumbiegel suffered greatly...
- 2025 / 2 / 6227. The Man Who Lived A Thousand Lives: Taming Nature (Ep 1)Gustav Hermann Krumbiegel's visionary work transformed the landscapes of India. From humble beginnings in Germany to an apprenticeship at Kew Gardens, Krumbiegel’s journey led him to Baroda, where he became...
- 2025 / 2 / 4226. The Rise and Fall of East India Company Painting (Ep 2)Calcutta in the late 18th century was a chaotic, fast-growing city, filled with fortune seekers, towering mansions, and an ever-present sense of impermanence. Inspired by the botanical and zoological...
- 2025 / 1 / 30225. Painting the Empire: Art of the East India Company (Ep 1)Company School painting is a fascinating yet often overlooked artistic tradition that emerged during the British East India Company’s rule in India. Indian artists blended Mughal, Rajput, and European styles...
- 2025 / 1 / 28224. Empire in Your GardenHow did plants power imperialism? Gardening may be a quintessentially British hobby, but many of the familiar plants in our lives have a global – and colonial – history. From “fern-mania” leading wealthy...
- 2025 / 1 / 23223. Empire of Plants: From Kew Gardens to Botany BayKew Gardens near London is one of the most famous botanical gardens in the world, welcoming countless visitors every year. But what many visitors may not know is that the history of Kew and that of the...
- 2025 / 1 / 21222. The Downfall of the Mughals (Ep 3)Aurangzeb is arguably the most controversial figure in Indian History. The mere mention of his name provokes fierce debate. Aurangzeb succeeded in seizing the throne by betraying his father and brothers....
- 2025 / 1 / 16221. War of Succession: The Battle That Shook India (Ep 2)With their father in very bad health and rumours of his death swirling around the empire, Shah Jahan’s four sons decide it is their time to take his place. Only one has been chosen by Shah Jahan… The...
- 2025 / 1 / 14220. Battle of Brothers: The Puritan vs The Mystic (Ep 1)The battle of succession that erupted during a severe illness of Shah Jahan is often regarded as one which determined the fate of India. The eldest of Shah Jahan’s sons was Dara Shukoh—the Glory of Darius....
- 2025 / 1 / 9219. Building The Taj Mahal: Love, Loss, & Splendour (Ep 2)Within days of his beloved wife’s death, Shah Jahan starts designing his grandest architectural project yet to express his love for her. Her mausoleum is to be a domed, symmetrical, bright white building...
- 2025 / 1 / 7218. Creator of The Taj Mahal: Shah Jahan’s Rise to Power (Ep 1)Shah Jahan, the third son of the opium-addicted Jahangir, was born in 1592 with the name Khurram. More interested in precious gems and architecture than dancing girls at court, Khurram was reserved and...
- 2025 / 1 / 2217. Zebras and Zodiacs: Jahangir’s Art RevolutionOften overshadowed by his son’s architectural wonders like the Taj Mahal, Emperor Jahangir was a true connoisseur of beauty. His reign witnessed a flourishing of art, architecture, and craftsmanship through...
- 2024 / 12 / 31216. Seeds of British India: England’s First Ambassador to the Mughal CourtWhat do you buy for a man who has everything? Thomas Roe is tasked with wooing the Emperor Jahangir. On March 6th 1615, he sets sail from England on the 8 month voyage to the Mughal Empire, home to one...
- 2024 / 12 / 26215. Jahangir: A World of Light And DarknessPrince Salim grows up in the continuously expanding empire of his father, Akbar. The young prince is being primed to take on this legacy, but he is more interested in studying the natural world with intense...
- 2024 / 12 / 24214. The Empire of Frankincense & Myrrh“The Nabateans are a silent partner in everything that goes on in the high summer of the Ancient period” - Bettany Hughes By the time of Jesus’ birth, a mysterious empire had built its wealth through trading...
- 2024 / 12 / 19213. How Three Wise Men Became Three KingsThe story of the Three Wise Men has been reinterpreted since it was first written down. The gift-bearing visitors to the newborn Jesus were initially described as “Magi”, meaning Persians of a priestly caste,...
- 2024 / 12 / 17212. Who Were The Three Wise Men?The truth behind the story of the Three Wise Men has more connections to empire than many of us realise… Featured in every Nativity scene in school plays, churches, and art around the world, the Three Wise...
- 2024 / 12 / 12211. A Beautiful World: The Art of AkbarAs a dyslexic child, Akbar explored his curiosities about the world through visual wonders, and by having literature read aloud to him. As an adult, his love of art evolved as he became the patron of a...
- 2024 / 12 / 10210. Akbar the Great: Revolutionising Religious ToleranceRaja Birbal is a man of such exceptional wisdom and wit that he will become the stuff of legends. Birbal is just one of the Nine Gems Akbar surrounds himself with, remarkable people who will help the emperor...
- 2024 / 12 / 5209. Akbar the GreatIt’s 1542, and the baby who will grow up to be Akbar the Great is born into nothing and nowhere. His father, Humayun is on the run to Persia and the young family are living like beggars in the desert. Later,...
- 2024 / 12 / 3208. Humayun Reconquers IndiaKicked out of India, Humayun roams the desert as a nomad, accompanied by his young pregnant wife, his court poets, and his library camels. Sher Shah has taken his throne and the Mughal Empire seems as though...
- 2024 / 11 / 28207. The Stargazing Hippie vs The Lion KingOn his death bed, Babur tells his eldest son not to fight with his brothers however awful they will be to him. As his father passes away, Humayun inherits a fragile empire on shaky ground. And his dad’s...
- 2024 / 11 / 27Introducing... The Rest Is ClassifiedIt's Iran 1951. Mohammad Mosaddegh, fuelled by an ever-growing nationalism, has just been elected Prime Minister. Immediately he chooses to nationalise the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company, much to the anger of the...
- 2024 / 11 / 26206. Babur: Guns, Gardens & DiamondsAgainst all odds, Babur defeats Sultan Lodi and captures Delhi. But despite the wealth that India can provide him, Babur hates his new home. He complains of the heat, the lack of his favourite fruits, and the...
- 2024 / 11 / 21205. Babur: The Taking of Delhi“In Herat a man can’t stretch out his leg without touching a poet’s backside” - Babur It’s 1506, and Babur leaves his beloved base in Kabul to visit his cousins in Herat, Afghanistan. But whilst he is shyly...
- 2024 / 11 / 19204. Babur: The First Mughal Emperor“To wander from mountain to mountain, hopeless and homeless, has nothing to recommend it” - Babur Before he became the father of the Mughal dynasty, and the author of one of the most important memoirs in...
- 2024 / 11 / 14203. Captain Hook, Peter Pan & The Dark Side of NeverlandJ.M. Barrie, the fascinating Scottish writer, gave us Peter Pan - the boy who never grows up, and his notorious pirate nemesis: Captain Hook. But where did this iconic rivalry come from, and how did Barrie’s...
- 2024 / 11 / 12202. Long John Silver: The Truth Behind Treasure IslandRobert Louis Stevenson, a sickly boy with a vivid imagination, grew up along Scotland’s rugged coast, where tales of shipwrecks and buried gold stirred dreams of pirates and treasure. Out of this coastal...
- 2024 / 11 / 7201. The Raj at WarFor many years, commemorations of the two World Wars excluded the memorialisation of soldiers from the British Empire. But campaigners have gradually turned the spotlight on their experiences. In the First...
- 2024 / 11 / 5200. The East India Company’s Global ManhuntAfter robbing the fleet in a brutal, barbaric fashion, Henry Avery caused a diplomatic incident of global proportions. The Mughals were furious and the East India Company, which at this very moment was trying...
- 2024 / 10 / 31199. Robbing the World’s Wealthiest DynastyOne of the most notable pirates of his day, Henry Avery would go on to make potentially the most lucrative heist ever on the high seas. Originally a navy man, Avery then took the well-trodden path of starting...
- 2024 / 10 / 29198. The Pirate Trial of the CenturyWilliam Kidd, a respectable Scottish privateer during the late 17th century, tasked with hunting down pirates on the orders of a murky cabal of British aristocrats, but with the crown’s blessing, finds...
- 2024 / 10 / 23197. The Pirate HunterAlongside legends like Blackbeard and Calico Jack, William Kidd is one of the most famous pirates to have entered the public consciousness, thanks to Hollywood, sea shanties and literary mythologization. A...
- 2024 / 10 / 21196. Blackbeard’s Reign of Terror“At our first salutation he drank damnation to me and my men who styled cowardly puppies saying he would neither give nor take quarter…” By the end of November 1717 Blackbeard had become one of the most...
- 2024 / 10 / 16195. Blackbeard & the Pirates of the CaribbeanThe history of pirates is a thrilling kaleidoscope of adventure, devastation, violence and political intrigue, and never more so than during the 17th and 18th centuries: the golden age of piracy. This saw the...
- 2024 / 10 / 14194. Empire of Numbers: Fibonacci and the Birth of Modern MoneyWhen King Alfonso VI of León took Toledo from the Arabs in 1085, the history of western christendom changed forever. Within the city existed a number of texts full of the ideas that we would call Arabic...
- 2024 / 10 / 9193. Empire of Numbers: The Indian Origin of Arabic NumeralsOften called Arabic numerals, the modern number system we use today actually originates in India. Whilst in the west they were using Roman numerals, in India they were using numbers 1-9. Then, the great...
- 2024 / 10 / 7192. Native American Chiefs, the Founding of Canada, and the KKK: Scots in AmericaFrom India to Africa, the involvement and influence of Scots in the British Empire has been profound. In both arenas, they rose through the ranks as soldiers, merchants and bureaucrats, to carve out, govern...
- 2024 / 10 / 2191. Slave, Slaver, Abolitionist: Three Scots in AfricaThe extraordinary lives of three Scotsmen - John Henderson, Richard Oswald, and David Livingstone - encapsulate the polarities of the Scottish experience in Africa prior to the 20th century. Henderson,...
- 2024 / 9 / 30190. Rags to Riches: The Scots in IndiaIn the wake of Culloden, much of Scotland was on its knees. Crippled by defeat and the subsequent backlash of the British government, along with famine and poverty, they were in dire need of new horizons. The...
- 2024 / 9 / 25189. Culloden: Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Last StandFew battles in history have been remembered as powerfully, nor been as mythologised, as Culloden on the 16th of April 1746. Under the leadership of Charles Edward Stuart - Bonnie Prince Charlie, ‘the Young...
- 2024 / 9 / 23188. Bonnie Prince Charlie: The Young PretenderIn 1688 the Stuart King James II was ousted from the throne by his daughter Mary and her husband William of Orange, in what is called the Glorious Revolution. This momentous change would set in motion decades...
- 2024 / 9 / 18187. The Birth of BritainWith the accession of James I and VI in 1603, Scotland was assimilated into the composite monarchy of the United Kingdom. James, an eccentric, insecure and rambling figure, preoccupied with witches, was...
- 2024 / 9 / 16186. Scotland: A Nation in CrisisWhen charting the rise of Scotland’s global influence, few events have been as tragically remarkable as the Darien Scheme of 1698, which saw woefully unprepared Scottish pioneers attempt to settle and...
- 2024 / 9 / 11185. The God Kings of Angkor WatIn the 9th century AD, two years after the Holy Roman Empire was established in Western Christendom, another world-shaking empire was rising in the east, more powerful even than that of Charlemagne and far...
- 2024 / 9 / 9184. The Buddhist MerlinWhile in the West the legends of King Arthur were being born, a Buddhist tantric magician of immense magical powers - Vajrabodhi - was enshrining himself as the Merlin of first India, and then China....
- 2024 / 9 / 4183. The Poet Kings: Taking Hinduism to Southeast AsiaIndia’s transformation of the ancient world is indisputable, and tangible evidence of this can be found in the magnificent Hindu and Buddhist temples scattered across the landscapes of South East Asia. But...
- 2024 / 9 / 2182. The Lady Macbeth of ChinaHaving garnered absolute power through bloody means, Empress Wu Zetian begins seeing apparitions, haunted by her violent schemes. With her husband incapacitated, the Empress at first held counsel on his...
- 2024 / 8 / 28181. The Dragon Empress: China’s Game of ThronesThe inculcation of Buddhism from India as the state religion in China was enabled by the violent rise of China’s only ever woman Emperor. Raised by pious Buddhist parents, Wu Zetian left a trail of bodies in...
- 2024 / 8 / 26180. Gold & God: Connecting India & Ancient RomeIt was actually India, not China, that was the greatest trading partner of the Roman Empire. During this era, it’s clear that sea travel was the fastest, most economical and safest way to move people and...
- 2024 / 8 / 21179. The Golden Road: Rise of the IndosphereFor a millennium and a half, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilisation, creating around it a vast empire of ideas. Indian art, religions, technology, astronomy, music, dance, literature,...
- 2024 / 8 / 19178. The Vietnam War: Nixon, Vietnamisation, and the Fall of SaigonWith Richard Nixon now in the White House and not wanting to have his presidency consumed by Vietnam like his predecessor’s was, he begins to search for ways to disentangle America from the war. It begins...
- 2024 / 8 / 14177. The Vietnam War: Lyndon Johnson, Americanisation, and Operation Rolling ThunderWith the death of JFK, Lyndon B. Johnson took over the Presidency and immediately had to wrestle with America’s relationship with Vietnam after the killing of Diem. Right from the start he prophesised that it...
- 2024 / 8 / 12176. The Vietnam War: The Rise of Ho Chi MinhVietnam, or Indochina as it was known, had been under French colonial rule since the nineteenth century. This was until the Vietnamese nationalist group, the Viet Minh, took on the French in 1946. Ho Chi...
- 2024 / 8 / 7175. The CIA vs Fidel CastroFollowing the fall of Batista, the Cuban revolution took a more radical turn. Castro was not a communist to begin with, but as those around him became increasingly Marxist, the CIA’s desire to regain control...
- 2024 / 8 / 5174. The Cuban RevolutionIt’s 1959 and the swaggering Cuban revolutionary, Fidel Castro, has just overthrown the unpopular American backed dictator, Fulgencio Batista. Che Guevara, the Marxist physician whose face would become an...
- 2024 / 7 / 31173. The Korean War: Dividing the PeninsulaThe Korean War was a brutal affair. It is estimated that 3,000,000 people were killed in the conflict that absolutely devastated the Korean Peninsula. And the legacy of it is still with us today; it was over...
- 2024 / 7 / 29172. The Birth of North KoreaWhilst we know the Korean Peninsula is split into two quite separate countries, North Korea and South Korea, that has not always been been the case. Korea was an independent, singular nation until the...
- 2024 / 7 / 24171. The Bengal Famine: Chaos in CalcuttaBy 1943, the price of rice was beyond unaffordable for most in Bengal, and people were dying in the streets. Despite government censorship of letters, news spread about the famine and the tide turned with the...
- 2024 / 7 / 22170. The Bengal Famine: A Disaster on the HorizonIn 1942, in the midst of the Second World War, the British administration feared that Japanese forces would take India as part of their campaign. To prevent access to resources in the event of a potential...
- 2024 / 7 / 17169. Freedom Fighters Betrayed: Colonising the PhilippinesBy the end of the Spanish-US war, the Philippines was on the menu. Two battles played out simultaneously on the archipelago: and old and a new empire fought for power over a colony, whilst Filipinos fought...
- 2024 / 7 / 15168. Teddy Roosevelt Takes on the Old WorldIn 1898, whilst his boss was on a break at the osteopath, Teddy Roosevelt basically started a war. A master of the press, he managed to whip up war fever amongst jingoists in Congress, leading the United...
- 2024 / 7 / 10167. Paradise Lost: The Taking of HawaiiOn 7th July 1898, President McKinley formally annexed Hawaii, making it a colonial territory of the USA. It was not until 21st August, 1959, that it became the 50th state. Orchestrated by the American planter...
- 2024 / 7 / 8166. How To Hide An EmpireNot everyone agrees that the USA should be classed as an empire. But in the late 1800s, after white settlers had colonised western states, America turned to acquiring overseas territories in what could be...
- 2024 / 7 / 3165. A Massacre at DawnArizona Territory, April 30, 1871. The canyon known as Aravaipa lies still in the predawn darkness, the only sounds to be heard in the early-morning calm the song of birds and the lilt of running water as it...
- 2024 / 7 / 1164. How the West was Won: The Truth Behind the WesternsA whole genre of movies is based on a relatively short period of nineteenth-century American history. But what is the real story behind battles between Native Americans and white settlers during westward...
- 2024 / 6 / 26163. The Tattooed Girl: From Mormon to Native AmericanIn 1850, 13-year-old Olive Oatman and her family set off on the perilous journey by foot from Missouri to Arizona. Olive and her little sister were captured by a group of Native Americans and then sold to...
- 2024 / 6 / 24162. The Oregon Trail & the Gold RushFort Laramie was once a stockade where European fur traders and Native Americans lived together peacefully. But by the 1850s it became a stop-over along the busy trail of emigrants moving westwards seeking...
- 2024 / 6 / 19161. The Trail of TearsDespite having fought alongside them, President Andrew Jackson hated Native Nations. In the early 1800s, he sought to deceive Cherokee tribes into giving up their lands. How did Jackson overturn the precedent...
- 2024 / 6 / 17160. Native Nations vs Thomas JeffersonNorth America was never virgin territory. For thousands of years it has been home to established nations of Indigenous people who founded ancient cities like Cahokia. When European settlers arrived on the...
- 2024 / 6 / 12159. The American Revolution: Building The New Rome (Ep 4)The British have surrendered, they’ll be leaving soon. Now the Americans have a new and arguably harder task than before. They have to meld those 13 states, each with their own sense of independence and...
- 2024 / 6 / 10158. The American Revolution: Life, Liberty & The Pursuit of Happiness (Ep 3)The Declaration of Independence establishes the ideals on which this break away nation founds itself on. But it’s full of contradictions. It complains of white colonists being enslaved by King George III, yet...
- 2024 / 6 / 5157. The American Revolution: The Shot Heard Around the World (Ep 2)The infamous Boston Tea Party sees colonists dressed as Native Americans dump British tea in the surrounding waters. Calls of “the British are coming!” rally untrained militias to stand together against one...
- 2024 / 6 / 3156. The American Revolution: No Taxation Without Representation (Ep 1)From sugar to paper, a series of taxes in the 1760s spark outrage amongst American colonists that snowball into a revolution. Was it inevitable that thirteen of Britain's 26 colonies in the Atlantic would...
- 2024 / 5 / 30155. The Founding Fathers: Benjamin Franklin (Ep 5)We're all about the Benjamins. Franklin is unquestionably the most well-rounded of the Founding Fathers. Not only did he help draft the Declaration of Independence and help America define itself, but he also...
- 2024 / 5 / 29154. The Founding Fathers: John Adams (Ep 4)Often given less attention than the other Founding Fathers, John Adams is no less significant. Not only did he go on to be the second US President, but he was an accomplished diplomat and had a strong moral...
- 2024 / 5 / 28153. The Founding Fathers: Alexander Hamilton (Ep 3)How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence impoverished in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar? Listen and find...
- 2024 / 5 / 27152. The Founding Fathers: Thomas Jefferson (Ep 2)Thomas Jefferson is one of the most complex figures in the whole American Revolution. A child of the enlightenment, it was he who wrote 'we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are born equal'....
- 2024 / 5 / 22151. The Founding Fathers: George Washington (Ep 1)Everybody knows Washington as the strapping, powerful general and then president who helped to overthrow the British and forge America, but how did he get there? He was born into a respectable Virginian...
- 2024 / 5 / 20150. Worlds Colliding: Seizing Settlers in New EnglandDeerfield, February 1704. The small, puritan town of roughly 300 inhabitants in western Massachusetts has been riven with tension ever since the French and Native American forces had begun raiding them at the...
- 2024 / 5 / 15149. Pocahontas: Kidnapped in VirginiaOne of the most famous names in American history, Pocahontas had an extraordinary life. She was the daughter of Powhatan, a great Native American chief, and was born in Werowocomoco, in what we’d now call...
- 2024 / 5 / 13148. America: The Empire of LibertyThe Empire that dare not speak its name. America was born through an explicit rejection of empire as it forced the British from the continent and indeed many of its citizens would baulk at the suggestion...
- 2024 / 5 / 8147. Queen Victoria: Empress of India (Ep 4)In 1877 Queen Victoria took on the title Empress of India, a nation which she undoubtedly had close to her heart. Yet, under her reign and that of her successors, India was exploited. At the same time, she...
- 2024 / 5 / 6146. Queen Victoria: The Empire on Which the Sun Never Sets (Ep 3)Across 1851, over 6,000,000 people went to London to see the Great Exhibition. Designed to showcase the very best of what Britain and the empire could offer the world, the event was an incontrovertible...
- 2024 / 5 / 1145. Victoria & Albert (Ep 2)It is one of the great love affairs of history. Upon meeting again shortly after her 18th birthday, Victoria and Albert became smitten with each other and within 5 days Victoria asked him to marry her. Whilst...
- 2024 / 4 / 29144. The Making of Queen Victoria (Ep 1)Born on the 24th May 1819, Alexandrina Victoria was fifth in line to the throne at a time in which the monarchy’s popularity was declining. Yet, over the course of her reign, which at the time was the longest...
- 2024 / 4 / 24143. Isabella of Castile: The Spanish Inquisition, the Conquest of Granada, and ColumbusFor centuries Spain had been an outlier in Europe due to its religious diversity; Christians, Jews, and Muslims all existed reasonably peacefully across the Iberian peninsula. Under Isabelle of Castile that...
- 2024 / 4 / 22142. Isabella of Castile: Uniting SpainTo some she is Europe’s first great queen, to others she is one of history’s great villains, but there is no doubt that Isabella of Castile holds one of the most significant legacies in European history. Born...
- 2024 / 4 / 17141. Nur Jahan: The Most Powerful Mughal WomanWith Jahangir sliding into more of an opium and alcohol fuelled slumber with each passing day, Nur Jahan took the reins of the Mughal Empire. In this she demonstrated her political prowess, but she was also a...
- 2024 / 4 / 15140. Nur Jahan: The Light of the WorldNur Jahan was born on a roadside as her well-to-do parents fled from Safavid Persia for the tolerant court of the Mughal emperor. Her first marriage was respectable although unremarkable, but then her husband...
- 2024 / 4 / 10139. Mrs Genghis KhanBörte came from a powerful nomadic tribe and in many ways her marriage to Genghis Khan set him up to become the great conqueror we know. They married young and when they were twenty, he brought his new bride...
- 2024 / 4 / 8138. The Graceful Reed: Ruling the Islamic EmpireSold as a slave to the great Abbasid Caliph, al-Khayzuran quickly rose to the very top of the pyramid. Through marriage and motherhood, she became wife of the caliph and then Queen Mother and in both...
- 2024 / 4 / 3137. Empress Theodora: Making Heaven on EarthThe Empress Theodora is often unfairly remembered for the salacious stories that have been told about her when she was forced to work in a brothel. She was far more than that. She used her power to improve...
- 2024 / 4 / 1136. Empress Theodora: From the Brothel to the ThronePlaced by her mother into a brothel when she was just a child, Theodora was born into the most brutal of worlds. It was a Constantinople riven with division, whether due to theology or circus factions it was...
- 2024 / 3 / 28135. Helena: Queen of the World and Finder of the One True CrossBorn in poverty at a time when the Roman Empire was in danger of cracking up and disintegrating, Helena was set for a life of obscurity as a stable hand, bar maid, and, according to some, a prostitute. Yet,...
- 2024 / 3 / 26134. Cleopatra: The Would-Be Empress of RomeWith Julius Caesar dead, Cleopatra turned to another of Rome’s dominant figures. She became entwined with Mark Antony, the ruler of the eastern half of the Roman Empire, but even with their enormous combined...
- 2024 / 3 / 21133. Cleopatra: Queen of the NileBorn in the romantic splendour of Ptolemaic Egypt, not far from the Library of Alexandria, Cleopatra was destined for greatness. She ascended to the throne at 18 and very quickly asserted her authority across...
- 2024 / 3 / 19132. Journey to Nalanda and the Library of JewelsIn late autumn, 629 AD, Xuanzang set out for the great university of Nalanda from Chang’an. Across the desert, over the Pamirs, and through multiple robberies, it was an epic journey. As he neared the...
- 2024 / 3 / 14131. Buddhism Goes to ChinaBuddhism reached China in the 1st century AD, yet it remained a minor, foreign religion for the next 100 years. It was not until the fall of the Han dynasty in 220 AD and the cracking of the classical...
- 2024 / 3 / 12130. India meets Rome: Making the Image of the BuddhaIn the 1st century AD, the nomadic Kushans settled in what is now Afghanistan and established settlements and trade. From here, they moved down over the Hindu Kush and took large sections of Northern India....
- 2024 / 3 / 7129. Ashoka: The Great Buddhist Emperor of IndiaRuling in the 3rd century BC, Ashoka was one of India’s greatest ever rulers. Under his rule, the Mauryan Empire grew into the largest empire India had ever seen. Its capital, Pataliputra was a dazzling,...
- 2024 / 3 / 5128. The Life of the BuddhaIndia was the forgotten heart of the ancient world. For a millennium and a half, from about 250 BC to 1200 AD, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilisation, creating around it a vast empire of...
- 2024 / 2 / 29127. Inventing Curry: The British Taste for IndiaFrom the beginning of the Raj, British tastes began to turn away from Indian cuisine towards a European palate. The colonial classes sneered at Indian food, instead seeing French food as the height of...
- 2024 / 2 / 27126. Punch & Chilli: The East India Company at the TableWhen the East India Company first arrived on the shores of India, the food they ate in their first factories was not so different from that of Britain. It was all stews, heavy with butter and stuffed with...
- 2024 / 2 / 22125. The Origin of the HouthisSince November 2023, the Houthis have been attacking international shipping lanes in the Red Sea. They set off from the Yemeni coastline on speedboats, armed with guns and unmanned drones, often supplied by...
- 2024 / 2 / 20124. Saddam Hussein vs The AyatollahIn September 1980, Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces invaded neighbouring Iran and so began the longest conventional war in modern history. After initial Iraqi successes, a brutal stalemate set in that was...
- 2024 / 2 / 15123. Hezbollah: The Party of GodIn June 1982, Israeli tanks rolled over the Lebanese border. Soon after, Iran sent 1,500 Revolutionary Guards into Lebanon to help fight them. Thereafter, funded by Iran but largely manned by Lebanese...
- 2024 / 2 / 13122. Iran & Saudi Arabia: The Rivalry that Split the Islamic World1979 was the year that set the Islamic world on the path to today. In Iran, the revolution established the nation as a theocracy that sought to defend Shi'ism across the world. In Saudi Arabia, the siege of...
- 2024 / 2 / 8121. The Fall of the Shah of ShahsThe Shah cracks down on dissent, to the point even his great ally Jimmy Carter begins to cool on the relationship. The economy continues to overheat and the exiled Ayatollah Khomeini has never been more...
- 2024 / 2 / 6120. The Iranian Revolution: The Rise of Ayatollah KhomeiniWith the Last Shah’s reforms - known as the White Revolution - starting to take effect, Iran looked to be in a healthy position. Economic growth is strong, Tehran is a thriving cultural centre, and women now...
- 2024 / 2 / 1119. The Last ShahReza Pahlavi rules but he is still bedevilled by the interference of the great powers. Britain has its claws in deep with the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (the future BP) which makes more money from Iranian oil...
- 2024 / 1 / 30118. Iran's First RevolutionThroughout the 19th century, Iran was a pawn of the great colonial powers. It failed to industrialise, its economy stagnated, and resentment at foreign interference grew. This came to a head in 1906 with the...
- 2024 / 1 / 25117. Nader Shah: The Sword of PersiaNader Shah was not born to rule. He was poor, the son of a shepherd in a semi-nomadic tribe, and had no connection to the throne. But he was physically impressive; he stood over six feet tall, had dark...
- 2024 / 1 / 23116. Isfahan: The City of DreamsIsfahan, half of the world. It had been a city for years, but at the end of the 16th century Shah Abbas made it his capital and totally transformed it. With the immense wealth he brought to the city, Isfahan...
- 2024 / 1 / 18115. The Great Conversion: How Iran became ShiaHow did the great divide within Islam, the split between Sunni and Shia, develop? We trace how the great 16th century confrontation between the Ottomans of Turkey and the Safavids of Iran cemented what had...
- 2024 / 1 / 16114. The Persian RenaissanceAfter conquering much of Eurasia, Timur showed no interest in building institutions and so after his death, like the Mongol Empire before it, the Timurid Empire soon fragmented and collapsed. However, some of...
- 2024 / 1 / 11113. Timur: Scourge of GodTimur, known to many as Tamburlaine the Great from the iconic Marlowe play. Despite having a limp and struggling to get onto a horse, he erupted from what is now Uzbekistan at the head of a mounted army to...
- 2024 / 1 / 9112. Ferdowsi: How One Poet Saved Persian CivilisationAfter the Arab conquest, Persia was turned upside down. Patronage went to Islam as opposed to Zoroastrianism. The official language of state was now Arabic. Even the very nature of the state changed; for...
- 2024 / 1 / 4111. Shackleton: The Hero of AntarcticaAs the timber creaked under the pressure of the Antarctic ice, Shackleton knew his voyage aboard the Endurance was doomed. What the ice gets, the ice keeps. And so followed one of the most obscenely daring -...
- 2024 / 1 / 2110. Antarctica: The Continent that wouldn’t be ConqueredAntarctica, the great land of ice. It was first spotted in the early years of the 19th century but it wasn't until 1895 that humans, in the form of a Norwegian expedition, actually landed on one of the...
- 2023 / 12 / 28109. The Endeavour: Into the UnknownWith Alexander Dalrymple sidelined, Captain James Cook and Joseph Banks are ready to set off on an expedition to track the Transit of Venus and see whether there really is a great southern continent. Over the...
- 2023 / 12 / 26108. The Endeavour & the Great Southern ContinentIn the 1760’s a clever, young, ambitious Scotsman named Alexander Dalrymple began advocating a theory as to the existence of a great southern continent. The idea of a landmass that would counterbalance the...
- 2023 / 12 / 19107. China's Greatest Admiral: The Story of Zheng HeIn the 15th century, Admiral Zheng He, on the orders of the Emperor of China, embarked upon a series of extraordinary voyages of exploration. These voyages were undertaken in fleets of up to 300 colossal...
- 2023 / 12 / 14106. The Rise of IslamWith the Sassanian Empire defeated and the Byzantine Empire exhausted, there is a power vacuum in the centre of the world. Both of these superpowers have drained their resources fighting each other over the...
- 2023 / 12 / 12105. The Last Great War of AntiquityEurasia is divided into two great superpowers. Khusrow II rules the Sassanian Empire. Maurice, the last of the Justinian dynasty, rules their mighty rivals, the Byzantines. When he is overthrown, Khusrow...
- 2023 / 12 / 7104. How Persian Religion Changed the WorldThree great religions have come out of Persia and all of them have influenced world history. First there was Zoroastrianism, the first monotheistic religion, which had significant influence over Christianity,...
- 2023 / 12 / 5103. Alexander the Great: Defeating DariusDarius has already been defeated by Alexander. His wife has been kidnapped and has now died in childbirth. The omens sent by the gods bode ill for him. Yet, the two are ready to face off at Gaugamela. Will...
- 2023 / 11 / 30Alexander the Great: The Conquest of PersiaDarius III rules Persia and he has already demonstrated his heroism and skill in battle. The Empire itself, despite having been through a period of court intrigue, was stable. Yet, coming through their...
- 2023 / 11 / 30102. Alexander the Great: The Conquest of PersiaDarius III rules Persia and he has already demonstrated his heroism and skill in battle. The Empire itself, despite having been through a period of court intrigue, was stable. Yet, coming through their...
- 2023 / 11 / 28101. Salamis: Athens’ RevengeLeonidas and the 300 have been defeated at Thermopylae, leaving the way to Athens open. With the Persians advancing, many Athenians flee to the island of Salamis in the hope it will give them shelter. From...
- 2023 / 11 / 28The Battle of Salamis: Athens’ RevengeLeonidas and the 300 have been defeated at Thermopylae, leaving the way to Athens open. With the Persians advancing, many Athenians flee to the island of Salamis in the hope it will give them shelter. From...
- 2023 / 11 / 23100. Thermopylae: Xerxes, Leonidas, and the 300August 480BC; the might of the Persian army, roughly 100,000 soldiers, face down a few thousand Greeks, led by Leonidas and his brave 300. In light of their overwhelming advantage, an embassy of Xerxes asks...
- 2023 / 11 / 23Thermopylae: Xerxes, Leonidas, and the 300August 480BC; the might of the Persian army, roughly 100,000 soldiers, face down a few thousand Greeks, led by Leonidas and his brave 300. In light of their overwhelming advantage, an embassy of Xerxes asks...
- 2023 / 11 / 2199. Marathon and the Rise of GreeceIonia has revolted and so Darius turns his gaze away from India and towards Greece. He crushes the rebellion, quelling all resistance. He then looks to take much of the Greek mainland and many city states...
- 2023 / 11 / 21The Battle of Marathon and the Rise of GreeceIonia has revolted and so Darius turns his gaze away from India and towards Greece. He crushes the rebellion, quelling all resistance. He then looks to take much of the Greek mainland and many city states...
- 2023 / 11 / 16Darius the Great: Ruling from India to the MediterraneanThe Persian Empire that Darius took control of was already mighty and powerful; his predecessor, Cambyses, had conquered Egypt, further expanding its territory. But it was under Darius it reached its zenith....
- 2023 / 11 / 1698. Darius the Great: Ruling from India to the MediterraneanThe Persian Empire that Darius took control of was already mighty and powerful; his predecessor, Cambyses, had conquered Egypt, further expanding its territory. But it was under Darius it reached its zenith....
- 2023 / 11 / 1497. Cyrus the Great: Building the First SuperpowerBorn the son of a khan, a tribal chieftain, Cyrus would go on to be a titanic figure of world history. He took Persia from being a minor regional power to the first superpower the world has ever seen....
- 2023 / 11 / 14Cyrus the Great: Building the First SuperpowerBorn the son of a khan, a tribal chieftain, Cyrus would go on to be a titanic figure of world history. He took Persia from being a minor regional power to the first superpower the world has ever seen....
- 2023 / 11 / 996. Empires of IranPersia was the first great superpower. The empire built by Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes and the rest of the Achaemenids stretched from India in the east to the Mediterranean in the west, from Russia in the north to...
- 2023 / 11 / 996. Series 5: Empires of IranPersia was the first great superpower. The empire built by Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes and the rest of the Achaemenids stretched from India in the east to the Mediterranean in the west, from Russia in the north to...
- 2023 / 11 / 9Series 5: Empires of IranPersia was the first great superpower. The empire built by Cyrus, Darius, Xerxes and the rest of the Achaemenids stretched from India in the east to the Mediterranean in the west, from Russia in the north to...
- 2023 / 11 / 7The History of Putin's WarVladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on 24th February 2022, but how did we get to this point? After the brutality of the Second World War, Ukraine was completely under the control of Moscow. Then in the 1980s, with...
- 2023 / 11 / 795. The History of Putin's WarVladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on 24th February 2022, but how did we get to this point? After the brutality of the Second World War, Ukraine was completely under the control of Moscow. Then in the 1980s, with...
- 2023 / 11 / 6Welcome to the Empire ClubLadies and gentlemen, we give you the Empire Club. Do you want bonus episodes? Do you want discounts on the books mentioned in the weeks podcast? Do you want reading lists? Do you want ad-free listening? Well...
- 2023 / 11 / 2The Bloody History of Russia & UkraineThe history of Russia and Ukraine has been irrevocably entwined for centuries. When the Bolsheviks took over and Civil War erupted across the Russian Empire, Ukraine was one of the bloodiest centres of the...
- 2023 / 11 / 294. The Bloody History of Russia & UkraineThe history of Russia and Ukraine has been irrevocably entwined for centuries. When the Bolsheviks took over and Civil War erupted across the Russian Empire, Ukraine was one of the bloodiest centres of the...
- 2023 / 10 / 3193. Murdering the Romanovs: The End of a DynastyDawn breaks on 16th July 1918. For Nicholas, Alexandra, and the rest of the Romanov family this is just another day in exile. They sit down for breakfast - today it is eggs - and then go about their usual...
- 2023 / 10 / 31Murdering the Romanovs: The End of a DynastyDawn breaks on 16th July 1918. For Nicholas, Alexandra, and the rest of the Romanov family this is just another day in exile. They sit down for breakfast - today it is eggs - and then go about their usual...
- 2023 / 10 / 26Killing RasputinBorn in Siberia to a peasant family, Rasputin was an incredibly charismatic, physically striking, and politically savvy figure. He was a holy man, a mystic, who found his way to the centre of Imperial Russian...
- 2023 / 10 / 2692. Killing RasputinBorn in Siberia to a peasant family, Rasputin was an incredibly charismatic, physically striking, and politically savvy figure. He was a holy man, a mystic, who found his way to the centre of Imperial Russian...
- 2023 / 10 / 2491. Lenin and The Rise of the BolsheviksThe Tsar has abdicated and the provisional government rules Russia, but Petrograd is overflowing with revolutionaries who want more radical change. Lenin has returned from exile and is looking to seize power...
- 2023 / 10 / 24Lenin and The Rise of the BolsheviksThe Tsar has abdicated and the provisional government rules Russia, but Petrograd is overflowing with revolutionaries who want more radical change. Lenin has returned from exile and is looking to seize power...
- 2023 / 10 / 19The Russian Revolution: Overthrowing the TsarRussian politics is fast destabilising. Strikes, assassinations, and famines have made Russia increasingly turbulent at the turn of the century. Revolutionary politics is on the rise, as is dissatisfaction...
- 2023 / 10 / 1990. The Russian Revolution: Overthrowing the TsarRussian politics is fast destabilising. Strikes, assassinations, and famines have made Russia increasingly turbulent at the turn of the century. Revolutionary politics is on the rise, as is dissatisfaction...
- 2023 / 10 / 1789. The Final Act of the Great GameFearing Russian designs on the region, the eyes of the British turn towards Tibet. Francis Younghusband, the Victorian adventurer and elite player of the Great Game, and Lord Curzon decide that with the...
- 2023 / 10 / 17The Final Act of the Great GameFearing Russian designs on the region, the eyes of the British turn towards Tibet. Francis Younghusband, the Victorian adventurer and elite player of the Great Game, and Lord Curzon decide that with the...
- 2023 / 10 / 1288. The Russo-Japanese War: Asia Strikes Back1905 was one of the most pivotal moments in history. Japan, the supposedly weaker Asian power, overwhelmingly defeated the mighty Russian Empire. The effects of this rippled through the 20th century,...
- 2023 / 10 / 12The Russo-Japanese War: Asia Strikes Back1905 was one of the most pivotal moments in history. Japan, the supposedly weaker Asian power, overwhelmingly defeated the mighty Russian Empire. The effects of this rippled through the 20th century,...
- 2023 / 10 / 1087. Tolstoy: War and the Russian EmpireTolstoy was one of the greatest writers of all time. His books have constructed how we think about Russian imperial history. But he was not just an observer, he was also a participant. As a young man, Tolstoy...
- 2023 / 10 / 10Tolstoy: War and the Russian EmpireTolstoy was one of the greatest writers of all time. His books have constructed how we think about Russian imperial history. But he was not just an observer, he was also a participant. As a young man, Tolstoy...
- 2023 / 10 / 586. Crushing the Khans: Russia Seizes the Centre of the WorldAs the other European empires were consolidating their holdings in Asia, Russia took 1.5million square miles of territory. Moving south from the Orenburg line, the Russian Empire swallowed up the Khanates of...
- 2023 / 10 / 5Crushing the Khans: Russia Seizes the Centre of the WorldAs the other European empires were consolidating their holdings in Asia, Russia took 1.5million square miles of territory. Moving south from the Orenburg line, the Russian Empire swallowed up the Khanates of...
- 2023 / 10 / 3The Russian Conquest of AmericaIn the 18th century Vitus Bering went from Russia's east coast and landed in America. Over the next 150 years, Russia colonised more and more land, first taking Alaska and then working down America's west...
- 2023 / 10 / 385. The Russian Conquest of AmericaIn the 18th century Vitus Bering went from Russia's east coast and landed in America. Over the next 150 years, Russia colonised more and more land, first taking Alaska and then working down America's west...
- 2023 / 9 / 28A Tale of Two Nurses: Seacole & NightingaleThe Lady with the Lamp, the great nurse who forever changed public health for the better: Florence Nightingale lives large in the national consciousness. Mary Seacole, however, has been largely forgotten by...
- 2023 / 9 / 2884. A Tale of Two Nurses: Seacole & NightingaleThe Lady with the Lamp, the great nurse who forever changed public health for the better: Florence Nightingale lives large in the national consciousness. Mary Seacole, however, has been largely forgotten by...
- 2023 / 9 / 2683. The Charge of the Light BrigadeThe Crimean War continues to drag on. The allies' siege of Sevastopol is grinding to a stalemate. The Russians seek to counterattack to tip the balance back in their favour. As they make gains at Balaclava,...
- 2023 / 9 / 26The Charge of the Light BrigadeThe Crimean War continues to drag on. The allies' siege of Sevastopol is grinding to a stalemate. The Russians seek to counterattack to tip the balance back in their favour. As they make gains at Balaclava,...
- 2023 / 9 / 21Crimea: The War on RepeatA slow grind of sieges and massacres. Long distance bombardments and gruelling inch-by-inch trench warfare. Battles for Sevastopol, Odessa, and control of the Black Sea. Is it 1853 or 2023? The parallels...
- 2023 / 9 / 2182. Crimea: The War on RepeatA slow grind of sieges and massacres. Long distance bombardments and gruelling inch-by-inch trench warfare. Battles for Sevastopol, Odessa, and control of the Black Sea. Is it 1853 or 2023? The parallels...
- 2023 / 9 / 19The Graveyard of EmpiresAfter the calamitous retreat from Kabul left thousands of British dead, the East India Company wants revenge. They will call upon the Army of Retribution which will leave Afghanistan, once the Crossroads of...
- 2023 / 9 / 1981. The Graveyard of EmpiresAfter the calamitous retreat from Kabul left thousands of British dead, the East India Company wants revenge. They will call upon the Army of Retribution which will leave Afghanistan, once the Crossroads of...
- 2023 / 9 / 141842: The Retreat from KabulAs the British occupation of Kabul collapses, the troops flee. What follows is one of the darkest events in British imperial history. A treacherous journey through mountain passes in crippling winter...
- 2023 / 9 / 1480. 1842: The Retreat from KabulAs the British occupation of Kabul collapses, the troops flee. What follows is one of the darkest events in British imperial history. A treacherous journey through mountain passes in crippling winter...
- 2023 / 9 / 1279. Invading Afghanistan: The Return of a KingIt is 1839 and Britain has declared its intention: to invade Afghanistan and return Shah Shuja to the throne. Despite its vast size, the British invasion force is not impressive. Overstocked with luxuries and...
- 2023 / 9 / 12Invading Afghanistan: The Return of a KingIt is 1839 and Britain has declared its intention: to invade Afghanistan and return Shah Shuja to the throne. Despite its vast size, the British invasion force is not impressive. Overstocked with luxuries and...
- 2023 / 9 / 778. The Battle of the SpiesThe rivalry between Russia and Britain continues to grow as both of their attentions begin to centre more and more on Afghanistan. In a bid to gain influence in the region, both empires send young, daring...
- 2023 / 9 / 7The Battle of the SpiesThe rivalry between Russia and Britain continues to grow as both of their attentions begin to centre more and more on Afghanistan. In a bid to gain influence in the region, both empires send young, daring...
- 2023 / 9 / 5The Great Game BeginsIt will all begin on the banks of the River Niemen. Tsar Alexander forms a pact with Napoleon; the Russian Empire, along with the French, will try to take control of British India. The British increasingly...
- 2023 / 9 / 577. The Great Game BeginsIt will all begin on the banks of the River Niemen. Tsar Alexander forms a pact with Napoleon; the Russian Empire, along with the French, will try to take control of British India. The British increasingly...
- 2023 / 8 / 31The Empress & The GeneralWith her reign in peril in three separate arenas, Catherine begins to turn her attention to a young soldier, Grigory Potemkin. What follows is one of the great partnerships (and love affairs) of history....
- 2023 / 8 / 3176. The Empress & The GeneralWith her reign in peril in three separate arenas, Catherine begins to turn her attention to a young soldier, Grigory Potemkin. What follows is one of the great partnerships (and love affairs) of history....
- 2023 / 8 / 2975. Catherine the Great: The Golden AgeNot a drop of Russian blood. A woman in a world ruled by men. A loveless marriage to a man who lacked even a shred of empathy. The odds were always stacked against Catherine the Great when she arrived from...
- 2023 / 8 / 29Catherine the Great: The Golden AgeNot a drop of Russian blood. A woman in a world ruled by men. A loveless marriage to a man who lacked even a shred of empathy. The odds were always stacked against Catherine the Great when she arrived from...
- 2023 / 8 / 24Peter the Great: The First EmperorA giant of Russian history, and a giant of a man. Peter the Great, standing at 6'8, established Russia as the world power that it is today and is famously one of Vladimir Putin's inspirations. He expanded...
- 2023 / 8 / 2474. Peter the Great: The First EmperorA giant of Russian history, and a giant of a man. Peter the Great, standing at 6'8, established Russia as the world power that it is today and is famously one of Vladimir Putin's inspirations. He expanded...
- 2023 / 8 / 22Ivan the Terrible and the Founding of RussiaSubjected, downtrodden, brutalised. The principality of Muscovy had long suffered at the hands of the Mongols. But as their overlords weaken, their ruler, Ivan the Great, begins to lead the Muscovites to...
- 2023 / 8 / 2273. Ivan the Terrible and the Founding of RussiaSubjected, downtrodden, brutalised. The principality of Muscovy had long suffered at the hands of the Mongols. But as their overlords weaken, their ruler, Ivan the Great, begins to lead the Muscovites to...
- 2023 / 8 / 1572. The Russian Empire and the Great GameThe story of the Russian Empire spans centuries and continents. It is one of tsars and revolutionaries. Sex and power. Invasions and conquests. In the new season, William and Anita will explore the roots,...
- 2023 / 8 / 1572. Series 4: The Russian Empire and the Great GameThe story of the Russian Empire spans centuries and continents. It is one of tsars and revolutionaries. Sex and power. Invasions and conquests. In the new season, William and Anita will explore the roots,...
- 2023 / 8 / 15Series 4: The Russian Empire and the Great GameThe story of the Russian Empire spans centuries and continents. It is one of tsars and revolutionaries. Sex and power. Invasions and conquests. In the new season, William and Anita will explore the roots,...
- 2023 / 8 / 10Nazis, reparations, and laws 'just for the English to see'Did the Nazis use slave labour? Should Britain pay reparations? What is the origin of the Portuguese phrase 'just for the English to see'? What was the role of Islam in abolition? Listen as William and Anita...
- 2023 / 8 / 1071. Nazis, reparations, and laws 'just for the English to see'Did the Nazis use slave labour? Should Britain pay reparations? What is the origin of the Portuguese phrase 'just for the English to see'? What was the role of Islam in abolition? Listen as William and Anita...
- 2023 / 8 / 870. The Haitian Revolution, Dutch royals, and what happened to the Caribs?What happened to the Caribs, the indigenous people of the Caribbean? Why did indentured labour become so prominent? What is the current Dutch monarchy's approach to slavery? Did Native Americans keep slaves?...
- 2023 / 8 / 8The Haitian Revolution, Dutch royals, and what happened to the Caribs?What happened to the Caribs, the indigenous people of the Caribbean? Why did indentured labour become so prominent? What is the current Dutch monarchy's approach to slavery? Did Native Americans keep slaves?...
- 2023 / 8 / 169. A Reckoning with SlaverySlavery may have been abolished in 1838, but its legacy lives on in Britain today. A lot of the nation benefited financially from the trade, none more so than the slaveholders who were compensated during...
- 2023 / 8 / 1A Reckoning with SlaverySlavery may have been abolished in 1838, but its legacy lives on in Britain today. A lot of the nation benefited financially from the trade, none more so than the slaveholders who were compensated during...
- 2023 / 7 / 2568. The Long Death of SlaveryEmancipations are never clean, they don't happen overnight. Instead, they are long, drawn-out, messy processes that leave many still oppressed. Listen as William and Anita are joined by Kris Manjapra to...
- 2023 / 7 / 25The Long Death of SlaveryEmancipations are never clean, they don't happen overnight. Instead, they are long, drawn-out, messy processes that leave many still oppressed. Listen as William and Anita are joined by Kris Manjapra to...
- 2023 / 7 / 20Slavery's DemiseThe slave trade has been abolished, but the number of slaves within the British Empire remains colossal. Thomas Fowell Buxton, the Elephant, has taken the mantle of leadership from William Wilberforce with...
- 2023 / 7 / 2067. Slavery's DemiseThe slave trade has been abolished, but the number of slaves within the British Empire remains colossal. Thomas Fowell Buxton, the Elephant, has taken the mantle of leadership from William Wilberforce with...
- 2023 / 7 / 1866. Wilberforce and the Fight for FreedomThe abolition movement is growing in Britain, at its helm are two men. William Wilberforce leads the campaign in parliament and Thomas Clarkson powers it from the grassroots. Their combined might will win a...
- 2023 / 7 / 18Wilberforce and the Fight for FreedomThe abolition movement is growing in Britain, at its helm are two men. William Wilberforce leads the campaign in parliament and Thomas Clarkson powers it from the grassroots. Their combined might will win a...
- 2023 / 7 / 13When the Enslaved Took on NapoleonNapoleon is emperor of France. Having consolidated his rule at home, he starts to look abroad and to the re-institution of slavery. His eyes set upon Haiti, where Toussaint L’Ouverture, the Black Spartacus,...
- 2023 / 7 / 1365. When the Enslaved Took on NapoleonNapoleon is emperor of France. Having consolidated his rule at home, he starts to look abroad and to the re-institution of slavery. His eyes set upon Haiti, where Toussaint L’Ouverture, the Black Spartacus,...
- 2023 / 7 / 11The Black Spartacus'A courageous chief only is wanted. Where is he, that great man whom nature owes to her vexed, oppressed and tormented children? Where is he? He will appear, doubt it not; he will come forth and raise the...
- 2023 / 7 / 1164. The Black Spartacus'A courageous chief only is wanted. Where is he, that great man whom nature owes to her vexed, oppressed and tormented children? Where is he? He will appear, doubt it not; he will come forth and raise the...
- 2023 / 7 / 663. Creating Sierra Leone: The Land of the FreeThese former slaves have fought valiantly for the British and have been promised a new life. With things not working out in North America, eyes turn toward Africa. Could their homeland, from which they had...
- 2023 / 7 / 6Creating Sierra Leone: The Land of the FreeThese former slaves have fought valiantly for the British and have been promised a new life. With things not working out in North America, eyes turn toward Africa. Could their homeland, from which they had...
- 2023 / 7 / 462. When Slaves Fought for the British EmpireThe Boston Tea Party has occurred. War has broken out on the American continent. The British need to bolster their forces to keep hold of the 13 colonies, but to whom do they turn? Their own slaves. Listen as...
- 2023 / 7 / 4When Slaves fought for the British EmpireThe Boston Tea Party has occurred. War has broken out on the American continent. The British need to bolster their forces to keep hold of the 13 colonies, but to whom do they turn? Their own slaves. Listen as...
- 2023 / 7 / 4When Slaves Fought for the British EmpireThe Boston Tea Party has occurred. War has broken out on the American continent. The British need to bolster their forces to keep hold of the 13 colonies, but to whom do they turn? Their own slaves. Listen as...
- 2023 / 6 / 2961. The Black AbolitionistOlaudah Equiano: slave, free man, captive, abolitionist, public figure, entrepreneur, successful author, family man. His life is one of the most extraordinary tales of ups and down, with more happening to him...
- 2023 / 6 / 29The Black AbolitionistOlaudah Equiano: slave, free man, captive, abolitionist, public figure, entrepreneur, successful author, family man. His life is one of the most extraordinary tales of ups and down, with more happening to him...
- 2023 / 6 / 2760. Britain's Most Famous SlaveOlaudah Equiano is Britain's most famous slave. In many ways he lived the life which many slaves did, but in others he was totally unique. A brilliant man with extraordinary abilities, listen as William and...
- 2023 / 6 / 27Britain's most famous slaveOlaudah Equiano is Britain's most famous slave. In many ways he lived the life which many slaves did, but in others he was totally unique. A brilliant man with extraordinary abilities, listen as William and...
- 2023 / 6 / 27Britain's Most Famous SlaveOlaudah Equiano is Britain's most famous slave. In many ways he lived the life which many slaves did, but in others he was totally unique. A brilliant man with extraordinary abilities, listen as William and...
- 2023 / 6 / 2159. Francis Barber: Abolition, the Navy, and the EnlightenmentFrancis Barber is established in Dr Johnson's household. He is his servant, but he is more than that. Their relationship is more akin to father-son, than master-servant. So how did this impact Dr Johnson? And...
- 2023 / 6 / 21Francis Barber: Abolition, the Navy, and the EnlightenmentFrancis Barber is established in Dr Johnson's household. He is his servant, but he is more than that. Their relationship is more akin to father-son, than master-servant. So how did this impact Dr Johnson? And...
- 2023 / 6 / 2058. Dr Johnson's Black HeirDr Johnson is one of the most famous Brits to ever exist. A raucous, genius of a giant, he is remembered for writing the dictionary. Much less is known about his black servant and heir, Francis Barber. Listen...
- 2023 / 6 / 20Dr Johnson's Black HeirDr Johnson is one of the most famous Brits to ever exist. A raucous, genius of a giant, he is remembered for writing the dictionary. Much less is known about his black servant and heir, Francis Barber. Listen...
- 2023 / 6 / 15Tacky's Revolt: An Atlantic Slave WarThe stage is set. It's 1760 and the enslaved people of Jamaica are ready to rise up. It will begin with Tacky. William and Anita are again joined by Vincent Brown, Professor at Harvard and co-founder of...
- 2023 / 6 / 1557. Tacky's Revolt: An Atlantic Slave WarThe stage is set. It's 1760 and the enslaved people of Jamaica are ready to rise up. It will begin with Tacky. William and Anita are again joined by Vincent Brown, Professor at Harvard and co-founder of...
- 2023 / 6 / 1356. Tacky's Revolt: Causes of the RebellionWhat was life like for enslaved people on the plantations? How did white people treat their slaves? What economic model did plantation owners operate on? William and Anita are joined this week Vincent Brown,...
- 2023 / 6 / 13Tacky's Revolt: Causes of the RebellionWhat was life like for enslaved people on the plantations? How did white people treat their slaves? What economic model did plantation owners operate on? William and Anita are joined this week Vincent Brown,...
- 2023 / 6 / 8The Fall of the Royal African CompanyThe Royal African Company has a monopoly on the trading of slaves, given directly by the Stuarts. But the Glorious Revolution sweeps in and they are deposed. How will The Company fare? And, more importantly,...
- 2023 / 6 / 855. The Fall of the Royal African CompanyThe Royal African Company has a monopoly on the trading of slaves, given directly by the Stuarts. But the Glorious Revolution sweeps in and they are deposed. How will The Company fare? And, more importantly,...
- 2023 / 6 / 654. Royal African Company: Slavery IncThe Royal African Company was at the heart of England's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. From its inception to the abolition of the trade, it was responsible for shipping more enslaved people...
- 2023 / 6 / 6Royal African Company: Slavery IncThe Royal African Company was at the heart of England's involvement in the transatlantic slave trade. From its inception to the abolition of the trade, it was responsible for shipping more enslaved people...
- 2023 / 5 / 30Barbary Corsairs: Raiding the British islesSlave raids on the south coast of Britain. Islamic executioners from Exeter. North African pirates in the Mediterranean. The Barbary slave trade is quite extraordinary. Listen this week as William and Anita...
- 2023 / 5 / 3053. Barbary Corsairs: Raiding the British islesSlave raids on the south coast of Britain. Islamic executioners from Exeter. North African pirates in the Mediterranean. The Barbary slave trade is quite extraordinary. Listen this week as William and Anita...
- 2023 / 5 / 23The Slave who RuledBorn in Ethiopia, 1548, Malik Ambar was taken from his people at the age of 12 and sold into slavery. First he was sold to an owner in Baghdad, where he converted to Islam, but he ended up in India, on the...
- 2023 / 5 / 2352. The Slave who RuledBorn in Ethiopia, 1548, Malik Ambar was taken from his people at the age of 12 and sold into slavery. First he was sold to an owner in Baghdad, where he converted to Islam, but he ended up in India, on the...
- 2023 / 5 / 1651. Vikings: Slavs to SlavesIndian beads found on a Viking in Britain, how did this come to be? The story includes the origin of the word slave, a surprising trade, and a horrific funeral ritual. Listen this week as Anita and William...
- 2023 / 5 / 16Vikings: Slavs to SlavesIndian beads found on a Viking in Britain, how did this come to be? The story includes the origin of the word slave, a surprising trade, and a horrific funeral ritual. Listen this week as Anita and William...
- 2023 / 5 / 950. Rome: A Slave SocietyWas Rome a slave society? Did Caesar really take a million Gauls captive? And what is the real story of Spartacus? Listen as William and Anita are joined by Mary Beard to discuss slavery in Ancient...
- 2023 / 5 / 9Rome: A Slave SocietyWas Rome a slave society? Did Caesar really take a million Gauls captive? And what is the real story of Spartacus? Listen as William and Anita are joined by Mary Beard to discuss slavery in Ancient...
- 2023 / 5 / 449. The Dawn of EverythingIs slavery hardwired into society? Is hierarchy inevitable? Who built the pyramids? Listen as William and Anita are joined by David Wengrow to discuss slavery in the world’s most ancient civilizations. Sign...
- 2023 / 5 / 4The Dawn of EverythingIs slavery hardwired into society? Is hierarchy inevitable? Who built the pyramids? Listen as William and Anita are joined by David Wengrow to discuss slavery in the world’s most ancient civilizations. Sign...
- 2023 / 5 / 2Series 3: The History of SlaveryOne series ends, another dawns. With the Ottomans now behind us, we move on to the history of slavery. Listen as William and Anita discuss what will be covered in the next series, why they want to do it, and...
- 2023 / 5 / 248. Series 3: The History of SlaveryOne series ends, another dawns. With the Ottomans now behind us, we move on to the history of slavery. Listen as William and Anita discuss what will be covered in the next series, why they want to do it, and...
- 2023 / 5 / 248. The History of SlaveryOne series ends, another dawns. With the Ottomans now behind us, we move on to the history of slavery. Listen as William and Anita discuss what will be covered in the next series, why they want to do it, and...
- 2023 / 4 / 27Rebels Against the RajAnnie Besant. BG Horniman. Satyanada Stokes. Madeleine Slade. What do they call have in common? They were all Rebels Against the Raj. Listen as Anita and William are joined by Ram Guha to discuss what this...
- 2023 / 4 / 2747. Rebels Against the RajAnnie Besant. BG Horniman. Satyanada Stokes. Madeleine Slade. What do they call have in common? They were all Rebels Against the Raj. Listen as Anita and William are joined by Ram Guha to discuss what this...
- 2023 / 4 / 2546. The Mau Mau, the court case, and the hidden documentsThe Mau Mau emergency began in 1952. Over the next eight years, the British abused thousands of Kenyans; detaining them, torturing them, murdering them. Yet, when Caroline Elkins published her book detailing...
- 2023 / 4 / 25The Mau Mau, the court case, and the hidden documentsThe Mau Mau emergency began in 1952. Over the next eight years, the British abused thousands of Kenyans; detaining them, torturing them, murdering them. Yet, when Caroline Elkins published her book detailing...
- 2023 / 4 / 20Successors to the Romans, progressive harems, and living OttomansDid the Ottomans see themselves as the successors to the Roman Empire? Was the Ottoman harem more progressive than others? How tolerant was the Ottoman Empire? And where are the descendants of the Empire...
- 2023 / 4 / 2045. Successors to the Romans, progressive harems, and living OttomansDid the Ottomans see themselves as the successors to the Roman Empire? Was the Ottoman harem more progressive than others? How tolerant was the Ottoman Empire? And where are the descendants of the Empire...
- 2023 / 4 / 1844. The Legacy of the Ottomans, Queen of the Desert, and giant turbansHow did Ataturk view the Ottomans? What is the status of the Ottoman Empire today? Who was Gertrude Bell? And how did Ottomans wear such big turbans? Listen as William and Anita answer your questions in our...
- 2023 / 4 / 18The Legacy of the Ottomans, Queen of the Desert, and giant turbansHow did Ataturk view the Ottomans? What is the status of the Ottoman Empire today? Who was Gertrude Bell? And how did Ottomans wear such big turbans? Listen as William and Anita answer your questions in our...
- 2023 / 4 / 1143. The Birth of Saudi ArabiaA Saud. A Bin Laden. A Philby. They all, along with the discovery of oil and a BBC demon, come together in the birth of the modern state of Saudi Arabia. Join William and Anita as they are joined by Steve...
- 2023 / 4 / 11The Birth of Saudi ArabiaA Saud. A Bin Laden. A Philby. They all, along with the discovery of oil and a BBC demon, come together in the birth of the modern state of Saudi Arabia. Join William and Anita as they are joined by Steve...
- 2023 / 4 / 6The Fiery End of the Ottoman EmpireThe Greeks are retreating to Smyrna in the face of Ataturk’s victory. The city, once one of the jewels of the Ottoman kingdom, is set to face devastation hitherto unknown. William and Anita are once again...
- 2023 / 4 / 642. The Fiery End of the Ottoman EmpireThe Greeks are retreating to Smyrna in the face of Ataturk’s victory. The city, once one of the jewels of the Ottoman kingdom, is set to face devastation hitherto unknown. William and Anita are once again...
- 2023 / 4 / 441. The Rise of AtaturkThe First World War is over. There is unrest across Anatolia, exacerbated by the Greek invasion coming through Smyrna. Turkish forces are swelling to fight back against the Greeks, and at their head......
- 2023 / 4 / 4The Rise of AtaturkThe First World War is over. There is unrest across Anatolia, exacerbated by the Greek invasion coming through Smyrna. Turkish forces are swelling to fight back against the Greeks, and at their head......
- 2023 / 3 / 28Origins of the Israel-Palestine ConflictThe Balfour Declaration was published on the 9th November 1917. It stated the intent of the British government to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This week, William and Anita are joined by Tom Segev to...
- 2023 / 3 / 2840. Origins of the Israel-Palestine ConflictThe Balfour Declaration was published on the 9th November 1917. It stated the intent of the British government to create a Jewish homeland in Palestine. This week, William and Anita are joined by Tom Segev to...
- 2023 / 3 / 2139. Lawrence of Arabia and the Arab RevoltOften understood through Peter O’Toole’s iconic display, who really was Lawrence of Arabia? His role in the First World War and the Arab Revolt had a defining effect on the Middle-East. Listen as William and...
- 2023 / 3 / 21Lawrence of Arabia and the Arab RevoltOften understood through Peter O’Toole’s iconic display, who really was Lawrence of Arabia? His role in the First World War and the Arab Revolt had a defining effect on the Middle-East. Listen as William and...
- 2023 / 3 / 14Sykes-Picot: Carving up the Middle-East3 characters. 2 nations. 1 disastrous deal. The Sykes-Picot agreement is often blamed as the cause for much of the unrest in the Middle-East today, but what was it exactly? Listen as William and Anita are...
- 2023 / 3 / 1438. Sykes-Picot: Carving up the Middle-East3 characters. 2 nations. 1 disastrous deal. The Sykes-Picot agreement is often blamed as the cause for much of the unrest in the Middle-East today, but what was it exactly? Listen as William and Anita are...
- 2023 / 3 / 937. The Armenian Genocide: Death MarchesThe secret orders have been given. The Armenian community is to be destroyed. Ordered to march across the desert, to unsupplied camps in Deir ez-Zor. Listen as William and Anita are, for the final time,...
- 2023 / 3 / 9The Armenian Genocide: Death MarchesThe secret orders have been given. The Armenian community is to be destroyed. Ordered to march across the desert, to unsupplied camps in Deir ez-Zor. Listen as William and Anita are, for the final time,...
- 2023 / 3 / 7The Armenian Genocide: Road to the DeportationsThe Armenian community has ancient, deep roots in Anatolia. But from the late 19th century onwards, violence and forced deportations at the hands of the Ottoman Empire puts them in doubt. Listen as William...
- 2023 / 3 / 736. The Armenian Genocide: Road to the DeportationsThe Armenian community has ancient, deep roots in Anatolia. But from the late 19th century onwards, violence and forced deportations at the hands of the Ottoman Empire puts them in doubt. Listen as William...
- 2023 / 2 / 2835. Gallipoli: Death at the Cliff EdgeThe Great War has begun. The British want to open supply lines through the Black Sea to support their Russian allies. Therefore they must take the Gallipoli peninsula. Cue one of the most famous events of the...
- 2023 / 2 / 28Gallipoli: Death at the Cliff EdgeThe Great War has begun. The British want to open supply lines through the Black Sea to support their Russian allies. Therefore they must take the Gallipoli peninsula. Cue one of the most famous events of the...
- 2023 / 2 / 21The Sick Man of EuropeThe winds of nationalism are blowing through Ottoman territory in the Balkans. Unrest is rife and the Empire is bankrupt. The young sultan Abdülhamid is at the helm. Listen as William and Anita are joined by...
- 2023 / 2 / 2134. The Sick Man of EuropeThe winds of nationalism are blowing through Ottoman territory in the Balkans. Unrest is rife and the Empire is bankrupt. The young sultan Abdülhamid is at the helm. Listen as William and Anita are joined by...
- 2023 / 2 / 14Lady Mary: Our Woman in ConstantinopleShe was a pioneering scientist, proto-feminist, and letter writer extraordinaire. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu escaped a marriage to Clotworthy Skeffington to become one of history's most incredible women....
- 2023 / 2 / 1433. Lady Mary: Our Woman in ConstantinopleShe was a pioneering scientist, proto-feminist, and letter writer extraordinaire. Lady Mary Wortley Montagu escaped a marriage to Clotworthy Skeffington to become one of history's most incredible women....
- 2023 / 2 / 7The Greatest Ottoman AdventurerEvliya Çelebi travelled for 41 years. He documented his adventures, which included interactions with vampires, humans transforming into chickens, and dervishes riding rhinos. Listen as William and Anita are...
- 2023 / 2 / 732. The Greatest Ottoman AdventurerEvliya Çelebi travelled for 41 years. He documented his adventures, which included interactions with vampires, humans transforming into chickens, and dervishes riding rhinos. Listen as William and Anita are...
- 2023 / 1 / 3131. Conquering the Night: The History of CoffeeCoffee is everywhere today, but where does it come from? Was it originally a sex drug? What is the connection between Starbucks and a medieval goat herder? Why are coffee houses political? Listen as Anita and...
- 2023 / 1 / 31Conquering the Night: The History of CoffeeCoffee is everywhere today, but where does it come from? Was it originally a sex drug? What is the connection between Starbucks and a medieval goat herder? Why are coffee houses political? Listen as Anita and...
- 2023 / 1 / 2430. Sultanas to Slaves: Voices from the HaremWhat was life like for women in the Ottoman Empire? Was the Sultanate of Women the golden era? What was the role of the Harem? Listen as William and Anita are joined by Bettany Hughes to discuss the role of...
- 2023 / 1 / 24Sultanas to Slaves: Voices from the HaremWhat was life like for women in the Ottoman Empire? Was the Sultanate of Women the golden era? What was the role of the Harem? Listen as William and Anita are joined by Bettany Hughes to discuss the role of...
- 2023 / 1 / 1729. The Tudors and the TurksSlave raids in Cornwall. Englishmen spying for the venetians. The East India Trading Companies’ older brother. Join William and Anita this week as they discuss the relationship between Britain and the Ottoman...
- 2023 / 1 / 17The Tudors and the TurksSlave raids in Cornwall. Englishmen spying for the venetians. The East India Trading Companies’ older brother. Join William and Anita this week as they discuss the relationship between Britain and the Ottoman...
- 2023 / 1 / 1228. The Battle of LepantoDawn breaks on the 7th October 1571 over the Gulf of Patras. On this day, the Holy League will face down the Ottomans in one of the most pivotal battles in Ottoman history. Listen as William and Anita are...
- 2023 / 1 / 10The Siege of CyprusSelim II leads the Ottomans. Marco Brigadin the Venetians. They will clash over the island of Cyprus. But who will be victorious, and who will be defeated (and flayed)? The two sides meet on this...
- 2023 / 1 / 1027. The Siege of CyprusSelim II leads the Ottomans. Marco Brigadin the Venetians. They will clash over the island of Cyprus. But who will be victorious, and who will be defeated (and flayed)? The two sides meet on this...
- 2023 / 1 / 326. Suspicion and Sorrow in Suleiman's CourtMurdered love interests, intellectual curiosity, incredible barbarity, and body doubles all make an appearance in this week’s episode. Listen as William and Anita are once again joined by Marc Baer to discuss...
- 2023 / 1 / 3Suspicion and Sorrow in Suleiman's CourtMurdered love interests, intellectual curiosity, incredible barbarity, and body doubles all make an appearance in this week’s episode. Listen as William and Anita are once again joined by Marc Baer to discuss...
- 2022 / 12 / 2725. Suleiman the MagnificentWho is Selim the Grim? How does a slave come to be one of the most powerful members of Suleiman’s court? How does Suleiman anger the Christian powers? Listen as William and Anita are joined by Marc Baer to...
- 2022 / 12 / 27Suleiman the MagnificentWho is Selim the Grim? How does a slave come to be one of the most powerful members of Suleiman’s court? How does Suleiman anger the Christian powers? Listen as William and Anita are joined by Marc Baer to...
- 2022 / 12 / 2024. The Fall of ConstantinopleThe biggest gun in history. A giant underwater chain. A previously unconquerable fortress. Inspirational leaders. Join William and Anita as they discuss the extraordinary story of 1453 and the Fall of...
- 2022 / 12 / 1323. The First of the OttomansHow did the Ottomans seize the Balkans? Who is their first leader? How did the fourth crusade pave the way for their rise to power? Join William and Anita as they, along with Peter Frankopan, detail the birth...
- 2022 / 12 / 13The First of the OttomansHow did the Ottomans seize the Balkans? Who is their first leader? How did the fourth crusade pave the way for their rise to power? Join William and Anita as they, along with Peter Frankopan, detail the birth...
- 2022 / 12 / 1322. Byzantium and the Rise of the TurksThe lights are dimmed. A hush has fallen. The curtain is rising. Season two of Empire is here. Our topic? The Ottoman Empire. In the opening episode, Anita and William are joined by Peter Frankopan to...
- 2022 / 12 / 13Byzantium and the Rise of the TurksThe lights are dimmed. A hush has fallen. The curtain is rising. Season two of Empire is here. Our topic? The Ottoman Empire. In the opening episode, Anita and William are joined by Peter Frankopan to...
- 2022 / 12 / 1321. Series 2: The Ottoman EmpireHow did an Empire that stretched over thousands of miles and over half a millennium impact the world we live in today? William and Anita explain the focus for the second series of the Empire, which will focus...
- 2022 / 12 / 13Series 2: The Ottoman EmpireHow did an Empire that stretched over thousands of miles and over half a millennium impact the world we live in today? William and Anita explain the focus for the second series of the Empire, which will focus...
- 2022 / 12 / 1321. The Ottoman EmpireHow did an Empire that stretched over thousands of miles and over half a millennium impact the world we live in today? William and Anita explain the focus for the second series of the Empire, which will focus...
- 2022 / 12 / 1Nationhood, the Indian constitution, and the railwaysJoin William and Anita for the second part of this week’s special question time bonanza where they answer all of your queries. In this episode they discuss the impact Jallianwala Bagh had upon Indian...
- 2022 / 12 / 120. Nationhood, the Indian constitution, and the railwaysJoin William and Anita for the second part of this week’s special question time bonanza where they answer all of your queries. In this episode they discuss the impact Jallianwala Bagh had upon Indian...
- 2022 / 11 / 2919. Federal India, indentured labour, and naked yogisThis week, Anita and William are doing two episodes in which they answer all of your questions about Empire. Join William and Anita today as they discuss whether partition was inevitable, why the British...
- 2022 / 11 / 29Federal India, indentured labour, and naked yogisThis week, Anita and William are doing two episodes in which they answer all of your questions about Empire. Join William and Anita today as they discuss whether partition was inevitable, why the British...
- 2022 / 11 / 22The Empire ImplodesIn the finale of our series on the British in India, William and Anita are joined by Sathnam Sanghera. With him they discuss the legacies of the Empire: how has it affected the politics, curriculum, and...
- 2022 / 11 / 2218. The Empire ImplodesIn the finale of our series on the British in India, William and Anita are joined by Sathnam Sanghera. With him they discuss the legacies of the Empire: how has it affected the politics, curriculum, and...
- 2022 / 11 / 1517. Rishi Sunak's Ancestry: Indians in East AfricaIn this episode, Anita and William are joined by Mahmood Mamdani to discuss the East African Indian diaspora. How did Indians come to live in East Africa? Why did so many move to Britain? What was the role of...
- 2022 / 11 / 15Rishi Sunak's Ancestry: Indians in East AfricaIn this episode, Anita and William are joined by Mahmood Mamdani to discuss the East African Indian diaspora. How did Indians come to live in East Africa? Why did so many move to Britain? What was the role of...
- 2022 / 11 / 8PartitionThe line has been drawn. India and Pakistan have been divided. Mountbatten and Radcliffe have left. But how will ordinary people caught up in this geopolitical event fare? Listen as William and Anita are...
- 2022 / 11 / 816. PartitionThe line has been drawn. India and Pakistan have been divided. Mountbatten and Radcliffe have left. But how will ordinary people caught up in this geopolitical event fare? Listen as William and Anita are...
- 2022 / 11 / 115. The Last Viceroy of IndiaIn this episode, Anita and William are joined by Alex von Tunzelmann to discuss Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India. Listen in to hear all about his superstar marriage to Edwina Ashley, his...
- 2022 / 11 / 1The Last Viceroy of IndiaIn this episode, Anita and William are joined by Alex von Tunzelmann to discuss Lord Louis Mountbatten, the last Viceroy of India. Listen in to hear all about his superstar marriage to Edwina Ashley, his...
- 2022 / 10 / 25Muhammad Ali JinnahListen as William and Anita discuss the life of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. They will discuss the pivotal role he played in the creation of Pakistan, his rivalry with Gandhi, and the vision he had for his nation's...
- 2022 / 10 / 2514. Muhammad Ali JinnahListen as William and Anita discuss the life of Muhammad Ali Jinnah. They will discuss the pivotal role he played in the creation of Pakistan, his rivalry with Gandhi, and the vision he had for his nation's...
- 2022 / 10 / 1813. The Patient AssassinJoin William and Anita as they discuss the life of Udham Singh, who is as much man as he is myth. Coming from nothing, he killed a leopard with a knife as a toddler, then joined the revolutionary Ghadar...
- 2022 / 10 / 18The Patient AssassinJoin William and Anita as they discuss the life of Udham Singh, who is as much man as he is myth. Coming from nothing, he killed a leopard with a knife as a toddler, then joined the revolutionary Ghadar...
- 2022 / 10 / 11Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, RevolutionaryJoin William and Anita as they discuss the extraordinary life of Princess Sophia. Her story includes a debut at Buckingham Palace, a meeting with Gandhi, fierce involvement in the suffragette movement, and...
- 2022 / 10 / 1112. Sophia: Princess, Suffragette, RevolutionaryJoin William and Anita as they discuss the extraordinary life of Princess Sophia. Her story includes a debut at Buckingham Palace, a meeting with Gandhi, fierce involvement in the suffragette movement, and...
- 2022 / 10 / 6Queens and the Koh-i-NoorJoin William and Anita for the final episode in their series on the Koh-i-Noor diamond. This remarkable story includes Prince Albert’s inadvertent creation of Britain’s first sauna, an elderly Duke of...
- 2022 / 10 / 611. Queens and the Koh-i-NoorJoin William and Anita for the final episode in their series on the Koh-i-Noor diamond. This remarkable story includes Prince Albert’s inadvertent creation of Britain’s first sauna, an elderly Duke of...
- 2022 / 10 / 410. Killing for the Koh-i-NoorDivide and rule, a man described as Brian Blessed but ‘with a bigger, bushier, blacker beard’, and a whole lot of regicide. Join Anita and William as they continue to take us through the rip-roaring history...
- 2022 / 10 / 4Killing for the Koh-i-NoorDivide and rule, a man described as Brian Blessed but ‘with a bigger, bushier, blacker beard’, and a whole lot of regicide. Join Anita and William as they continue to take us through the rip-roaring history...
- 2022 / 9 / 299. The Curse of the Koh-i-NoorIntense paranoia, palatial looting, and murder. Join Anita and William as they discuss the bloody origins of The Curse of the Koh-i-Noor. Twitter: @EmpirePodUk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...
- 2022 / 9 / 29The Curse of the Koh-i-NoorIntense paranoia, palatial looting, and murder. Join Anita and William as they discuss the bloody origins of The Curse of the Koh-i-Noor. Twitter: @EmpirePodUk Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...
- 2022 / 9 / 278. The Koh-i-Noor DiamondA single stone has been fought over for at least 250 years by four different empires, and now sits in the Queen Consort's crown as part of the British royal family's Crown Jewels. William and Anita trace the...
- 2022 / 9 / 27The Koh-i-Noor DiamondA single stone has been fought over for at least 250 years by four different empires, and now sits in the Queen Consort's crown as part of the British royal family's Crown Jewels. William and Anita trace the...
- 2022 / 9 / 20Mahatma GandhiIn the latest episode of Empire, William and Anita are joined by Ram Guha to explore the incredible life and story of Mahatma Gandhi. LRB Empire offer: lrb.me/empire Email: empirepoduk@gmail.com Instagram:...
- 2022 / 9 / 207. Mahatma GandhiIn the latest episode of Empire, William and Anita are joined by Ram Guha to explore the incredible life and story of Mahatma Gandhi. LRB Empire offer: lrb.me/empire Email: empirepoduk@gmail.com Instagram:...
- 2022 / 9 / 136. Queen Elizabeth II & Empire (with David Olusoga)Anita and Willie are joined by David Olusoga for a special episode of Empire, where they discuss the Queen, the Commonwealth, the future of the monarchy and the long shadow of Empire. LRB Empire offer:...
- 2022 / 9 / 13Queen Elizabeth II & Empire (with David Olusoga)Anita and Willie are joined by David Olusoga for a special episode of Empire, where they discuss the Queen, the Commonwealth, the future of the monarchy and the long shadow of Empire. LRB Empire offer:...
- 2022 / 9 / 136. Queen Elizabeth II & EmpireAnita and Willie are joined by David Olusoga for a special episode of Empire, where they discuss the Queen, the Commonwealth, the future of the monarchy and the long shadow of Empire. LRB Empire offer:...
- 2022 / 9 / 6The Jallianwala Bagh MassacreIn the latest episode of Empire, Willie and Anita dive into the story of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, alongside Professor Kim Wagner. Plus a discussion as to whether analysing the darker parts of a...
- 2022 / 9 / 65. The Jallianwala Bagh MassacreIn the latest episode of Empire, Willie and Anita dive into the story of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, alongside Professor Kim Wagner. Plus a discussion as to whether analysing the darker parts of a...
- 2022 / 8 / 30Between Two Massacres: 1857-1919Join William and Anita for the latest episode of Empire, which picks up in the aftermath of the 1857 Rebellion and the establishment of the British Raj. The episode covers the birth of Gandhi, the arrival of...
- 2022 / 8 / 304. Between Two Massacres: 1857-1919Join William and Anita for the latest episode of Empire, which picks up in the aftermath of the 1857 Rebellion and the establishment of the British Raj. The episode covers the birth of Gandhi, the arrival of...
- 2022 / 8 / 233. Mutiny, Uprising, and RebellionIn 1857 tensions in Company-controlled India came to a head in what the British called 'The Indian Mutiny', now referred to in India as the First War of Independence. The uprising and bloody reprisals sent...
- 2022 / 8 / 23Mutiny, Uprising, and RebellionIn 1857 tensions in Company-controlled India came to a head in what the British called 'The Indian Mutiny', now referred to in India as the First War of Independence. The uprising and bloody reprisals sent...
- 2022 / 8 / 162. Company Rule in IndiaEmerging victorious from the Battles of Plassey and Buxar, The East India Company cements its grip on power in India. Join Anita and William as they discuss the nature, horrors, and key figures of 'Company...
- 2022 / 8 / 16Company Rule in IndiaEmerging victorious from the Battles of Plassey and Buxar, The East India Company cements its grip on power in India. Join Anita and William as they discuss the nature, horrors, and key figures of 'Company...
- 2022 / 8 / 161. The East India CompanyWelcome to Empire, a brand new history podcast hosted by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand. The first series looks at the British in India: The East India Company, The Raj, Gandhi, Independence and...
- 2022 / 8 / 16The East India CompanyWelcome to Empire, a brand new history podcast hosted by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand. The first series looks at the British in India: The East India Company, The Raj, Gandhi, Independence and...