Podcast Episodes
Back to Search7183: Sergei Prokofiev — The Composer Who Died in Stalin’s Shadow on the Same Day | pplpod
Episode 7183
Sergei Prokofiev died on March 5, 1953 — the same day as Joseph Stalin. The dictator’s death consumed all public attention, and one of the century’s …
5 days, 11 hours ago
7184: Sidney Poitier — From Dishwasher to Hollywood’s Barrier-Breaking Leading Man | pplpod
Episode 7184
Sidney Poitier arrived in New York from the Bahamas barely literate and working as a dishwasher. He taught himself to read with newspapers, was laugh…
5 days, 11 hours ago
7179: Ma Rainey — The Fearless, Unapologetic Mother of the Blues | pplpod
Episode 7179
Ma Rainey was performing the blues before the genre had a name. She dressed in gold and ostrich feathers, sang about desire with a frankness that sca…
5 days, 11 hours ago
7182: Prince — The Paradox of Total Control and Purple Genius | pplpod
Episode 7182
Prince played twenty-seven instruments on his debut album. He wrote, produced, and performed nearly everything himself, maintaining that control for …
5 days, 11 hours ago
7181: Modest Mussorgsky — The Aristocrat Who Wrote Masterpieces While Living in Squalor | pplpod
Episode 7181
Modest Mussorgsky was born into Russian aristocracy and died in a charity hospital wearing a borrowed dressing gown. Between those points he composed…
5 days, 11 hours ago
7180: Felix Mendelssohn — The Prodigy Who Rescued Bach from Two Centuries of Silence | pplpod
Episode 7180
Felix Mendelssohn composed a string octet at sixteen that professionals twice his age could not match. But his most consequential act was conducting …
5 days, 11 hours ago
7178: Jimi Hendrix — The Quiet Genius Beyond the Burning Guitar | pplpod
Episode 7178
The defining image of Jimi Hendrix was a guitar on fire at Monterey Pop. The reality was a shy, soft-spoken man who practiced obsessively, heard musi…
5 days, 11 hours ago
7175: Madonna — How She Hacked the Music Industry and Never Stopped Reinventing | pplpod
Episode 7175
Madonna arrived in New York in 1977 with thirty-five dollars and a conviction she would be the biggest star in the world. Within seven years she was …
5 days, 11 hours ago
7177: The Rolling Stones — How Rock’s Greatest Outlaws Built an Empire on Rebellion | pplpod
Episode 7177
The Rolling Stones were marketed as the band your parents should fear. What started as genuine blues devotion became the most carefully managed outla…
5 days, 11 hours ago
7176: Muddy Waters — How a Mississippi Sharecropper Plugged In and Electrified the Blues | pplpod
Episode 7176
Muddy Waters was recorded on a Mississippi plantation by Alan Lomax for the Library of Congress. Within a decade he had moved to Chicago, plugged in …
5 days, 11 hours ago