Podcast Episodes

This Is Not a Drill: Hawaii's Text Message Debacle [from Very Special Episodes]

On a quiet morning in Hawaii in 2018, cell phones lit up with a text message that felt impossible. A ballistic missile was inbound, and this was not …

16 hours ago

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The Queen Mother Who Refused to Die

Episode 279

Against the odds, Idia's son, Esigie, became the leader—Oba—of the Edo people. And against even greater odds, Idia survived to help him rule.

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4 days, 17 hours ago

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A Medievalist of the Seven Kingdoms (with Dr. Hugh Doherty)

Episode 278

Dr. Hugh Doherty (University of East Anglia), the historical consultant for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, joins the podcast to discuss 14th century…

1 week, 4 days ago

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Fortune Has Changed My Life

Episode 277

Born in Africa, enslaved, and brought to a foreign land, Abram Petrovich Gannibal forged an incredible path for himself, rising until he became a res…

2 weeks, 4 days ago

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Politics and Murder in the Harem

Episode 276

Kösem Sultan was the favorite of the Sultan and the mother of a ruler. She had extraordinary power over the Ottoman Empire, but, as we've learned fro…

3 weeks, 4 days ago

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Movie Mystery: The 2000 Oscars Heist [from Very Special Episodes]

In 2000, weeks before the Academy Awards ceremony, 55 Oscars vanished during shipment to Los Angeles. The disappearance triggered a frantic search. T…

4 weeks ago

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A Terrible Waste

Episode 275

When Heinrich VI, King of Germany, called a gathering of noblemen to deal with a property dispute, he couldn't have predicted how tragic—and disgusti…

1 month ago

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Daughters of the Empress (with Veronica Buckley)

Episode 274

Veronica Buckley, author of the new book SEVEN SISTERS, joins us to discuss the daughters of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, who remade Europe with…

1 month, 1 week ago

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Olympic Glory for a Princess

Episode 273

Though Queen Elizabeth II's daughter, Princess Anne, competed in the Olympics, the first princess to do so beat her to it by more than a thousand yea…

1 month, 2 weeks ago

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The Winter Queen

Episode 272

Elizabeth Stuart was the daughter of King James I and VI of England and Scotland. Her husband was offered the throne of Bohemia, and who would ever s…

1 month, 3 weeks ago

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