Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchAkhenaten: The Heretic Pharaoh Egypt Tried to Erase From History
Episode 13274
Akhenaten led one of the most radical revolutions in ancient history, and his successors tried to chisel his name out of existence. This deep dive dr…
6 days ago
Sun Yat-sen: The Revolutionary Claimed by Both China and Taiwan
Episode 13273
Sun Yat-sen is revered in Taiwan as the father of the nation and honored in mainland China as the forerunner of the revolution. This deep dive traces…
6 days ago
Cornelius Vanderbilt: Steamboats, Railroads and a Ghostly Will Fight
Episode 13272
Cornelius Vanderbilt left school at 11, started running a ferry in New York Harbor as a teenager, and built one of the greatest fortunes in American …
6 days ago
Thomas Jefferson: Architect of Liberty and Its Deepest Contradiction
Episode 13271
Long before the Declaration of Independence, Thomas Jefferson argued in a Virginia courtroom that an enslaved client had a natural right to liberty, …
6 days ago
Richard the Lionheart: Warrior King vs. Absentee Ruler
Episode 13270
England's great national hero barely spoke English, spent perhaps six months of his ten-year reign in the country, and joked about selling London. Th…
6 days ago
James Brown: Control, Chaos and the Invention of Funk
Episode 13269
James Brown went from a juvenile detention center to meeting three U.S. presidents and calming a city on one of the most volatile nights in American …
6 days ago
Elvis Presley: The Shy Kid Who Became the King of Rock and Roll
Episode 13268
The most recognized performer on the planet started out as a painfully shy boy from Tupelo, Mississippi, who was teased as a mama's boy and reportedl…
6 days ago
Freddie Mercury: How Farrokh Bulsara Designed a Rock Legend
Episode 13267
Before he was Freddie Mercury, he was Farrokh Bulsara, a Parsi boy born in Zanzibar who refused to fix his extra teeth because he believed they shape…
6 days ago
Horatio Nelson: Seasick Admiral, Rule Breaker and Hero of Trafalgar
Episode 13266
Britain's greatest naval hero suffered from seasickness his entire life and won his most famous victories missing an arm and the sight in one eye. Dr…
6 days ago
Richard Francis Burton: Explorer, Linguist and Victorian Rebel
Episode 13265
Richard Francis Burton infiltrated Mecca in disguise, survived a javelin through both cheeks, kept a troop of monkeys to study their sounds, and shoc…
6 days ago