Podcast Episodes

Marcus Brutus: The Brutal Reality Behind the Noble Assassin

Episode 7395

Marcus Brutus killed Julius Caesar in the name of the Republic, and Shakespeare turned him into the noblest Roman of them all. The real Brutus was a …

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Shivaji: Tiger Claws and the Founding of the Maratha Empire

Episode 7404

Shivaji Bhonsle carved the Maratha Empire out of Mughal-controlled India through guerrilla warfare, naval innovation, and a flair for the dramatic th…

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James Brown: The Violent Brilliance of the Godfather of Soul

Episode 7402

James Brown grew up in a brothel in Augusta, Georgia, served time in juvenile prison, and became the hardest-working man in show business. He invente…

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Tacitus: The Historian Who Survived by Staying Silent

Episode 7390

Tacitus served under the tyrant Domitian, kept his head down, and then wrote histories so scathing that they defined how the Western world understand…

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Belisarius: The Greatest General the Emperor Feared

Episode 7367

Belisarius reconquered North Africa, Italy, and parts of Spain for the Byzantine Empire with armies too small for the task. Emperor Justinian rewarde…

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Tecumseh: The Shawnee Leader Who Almost Redrew North America

Episode 7379

Tecumseh built the largest Native American military confederation since Pontiac, uniting tribes from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast against Americ…

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Murray Gell-Mann: Quarks, Jaguars, and Billionaire Scandals

Episode 7384

Murray Gell-Mann predicted the existence of quarks and reorganized particle physics with the Eightfold Way, winning the Nobel Prize for his work on e…

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Aeschylus: The Soldier-Playwright Who Invented Tragedy

Episode 7365

Aeschylus fought at Marathon and Salamis before writing the plays that created tragic drama as an art form. He valued his military service so highly …

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Herodotus: The Father of History and the Father of Lies

Episode 7369

Herodotus wrote the first work of narrative history in the Western tradition, an account of the Greco-Persian Wars that mixed battlefield reporting w…

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Euripides: The Playwright Who Humanized the Greek Hero

Episode 7372

Euripides won fewer prizes than Sophocles or Aeschylus, but his plays survived in greater numbers because later audiences preferred them. He gave tra…

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