Podcast Episodes
Back to Search7205: Babe Didrikson Zaharias — The Greatest Multi-Sport Athlete Who Ever Lived | pplpod
Episode 7205
Babe Didrikson Zaharias won two Olympic gold medals in track and field, then became the greatest female golfer of her era. She also played baseball, …
1 week, 1 day ago
7206: Bessie Smith — The Empress of the Blues and Her Unmarked Grave | pplpod
Episode 7206
Bessie Smith was the highest-paid Black entertainer in America during the 1920s, selling millions of records and commanding enormous fees. She died a…
1 week, 1 day ago
7208: George Harrison — The Quiet Beatle's Beautifully Contradictory Life | pplpod
Episode 7208
George Harrison spent years in the shadow of Lennon and McCartney, then released a triple album that outsold anything either of them had made solo. H…
1 week, 1 day ago
7207: David Bowie — Ziggy Stardust, the Psychological Submarine, and Infinite Reinvention | pplpod
Episode 7207
David Bowie became famous by inventing a character, then killed that character onstage and became someone else entirely. He repeated this pattern for…
1 week, 1 day ago
7209: Harry Belafonte — The Calypso King Who Secretly Bankrolled the Civil Rights Movement | pplpod
Episode 7209
Harry Belafonte sold more records than any other artist in the world in 1956. He used the money and fame to quietly bankroll the civil rights movemen…
1 week, 1 day ago
7201: Gene Wilder — The Comedy Genius Who Hid His Final Illness from the World | pplpod
Episode 7201
Gene Wilder was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease in 2013 and told almost no one. He could not bear the thought of a child seeing Willy Wonka and le…
1 week, 1 day ago
7203: Carl Lewis — Why the World Booed the Greatest Track Athlete of His Era | pplpod
Episode 7203
Carl Lewis won nine Olympic gold medals and set world records that stood for years. He was also booed at the 1984 Olympics by his own home crowd. The…
1 week, 1 day ago
7200: Edvard Grieg — Why Norway's Greatest Composer Hated His Own Masterpiece | pplpod
Episode 7200
Edvard Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor is one of the most beloved pieces in classical music. Grieg himself grew to despise it, calling it dated and…
1 week, 1 day ago
7202: Gioachino Rossini — Why Opera's Greatest Talent Walked Away at Thirty-Seven | pplpod
Episode 7202
Gioachino Rossini wrote thirty-nine operas by age thirty-seven, including The Barber of Seville and William Tell. Then he stopped. He lived another t…
1 week, 1 day ago
7204: William Wordsworth — From French Revolutionary to England's Poet Laureate | pplpod
Episode 7204
William Wordsworth crossed the English Channel as a young man, fell in love with the French Revolution and a French woman, fathered a child, and retu…
1 week, 1 day ago