Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchOliver Cromwell: From Depressed Farmer to Lord Protector of England
Episode 13200
Oliver Cromwell emerged from a personal collapse, including severe melancholy and life as a tenant farmer, to overthrow the English monarchy and rule…
4 days, 23 hours ago
Gregor Mendel: The Monk, the Peas, and the Birth of Genetics
Episode 13199
Gregor Mendel failed his teaching exams twice, yet his meticulous breeding of roughly 28,000 pea plants in a monastery garden uncovered the basic law…
4 days, 23 hours ago
Alexander Hamilton: From Caribbean Orphan to Architect of US Finance
Episode 13198
Alexander Hamilton arrived in America as a destitute, orphaned immigrant from the Caribbean, and went on to design the financial foundation of the Un…
4 days, 23 hours ago
Edith Piaf: The Sparrow's Life of Tragedy, Survival, and Song
Episode 13197
Long before Celine Dion sang Hymne a l'amour at the Paris Olympics, Edith Piaf was a child raised in her grandmother's brothel in Normandy, temporari…
4 days, 23 hours ago
Shaka Zulu: Military Genius, Brutal Ruler, and Contested Legend
Episode 13196
Shaka Zulu rose from an illegitimate outcast, exiled with his mother Nandi, to the ruler who transformed a small Zulu clan into a powerful kingdom in…
4 days, 23 hours ago
Alexander the Great: Ambition, Conquest, and the Price of Empire
Episode 13195
From taming the wild horse Bucephalus at age 10 to conquering the largest empire on earth by 25, Alexander the Great became a legend while still aliv…
4 days, 23 hours ago
The Beatles' Gritty Origins: Hamburg, Fame and the Breakup
Episode 13194
Before the matching suits and polite bows, the Beatles were Liverpool teenagers sharpening their sound in the clubs of Hamburg's red-light district. …
4 days, 23 hours ago
The Duke of Wellington: From Awkward Son to the Iron Duke
Episode 13193
Arthur Wellesley, the future Duke of Wellington, began as a broke, poorly regarded young aristocrat who burned his violins after Kitty Pakenham's fam…
4 days, 23 hours ago
Jack Johnson: Boxing's First Black Heavyweight Champion
Episode 13192
Jack Johnson, born in Galveston, Texas to formerly enslaved parents, became the first Black world heavyweight boxing champion and one of the most not…
4 days, 23 hours ago
Jan Žižka: The Blind General Who Never Lost a Battle
Episode 13191
Jan Žižka, a 15th century Czech commander, led armies of peasant farmers against crusader knights and never lost a battle, even after going completel…
4 days, 23 hours ago