Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchBooker T. Washington: The Secret Double Life of America's Most Powerful Black Leader
Episode 7009
Booker T. Washington publicly preached accommodation with white supremacy — urging Black Americans to accept segregation and focus on economic self-i…
1 week, 2 days ago
Elizabeth Taylor: The Child Star Who Broke the Hollywood Machine and Rewrote the Rules
Episode 7010
Elizabeth Taylor was a child star who grew into the most expensive actress in Hollywood history — the first to demand and receive a million-dollar sa…
1 week, 2 days ago
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: How Basketball Became the Trojan Horse for His Real Mission
Episode 7008
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar was the most dominant player in NBA history — six championships, six MVPs, the all-time scoring record that stood for nearly four…
1 week, 2 days ago
Katsushika Hokusai: The Artist Who Produced 30,000 Works and Still Felt Like an Amateur
Episode 7004
Katsushika Hokusai created The Great Wave off Kanagawa — the most reproduced image in the history of art — when he was seventy years old. He changed …
1 week, 2 days ago
Edouard Manet: The Painter Whose Art Was So Shocking It Needed Armed Guards
Episode 7006
Edouard Manet's Olympia required a police guard when it was exhibited in 1865 because visitors tried to attack it with umbrellas and canes. The paint…
1 week, 2 days ago
Jean Sibelius: The Finnish National Hero Who Burned His Eighth Symphony and Went Silent
Episode 7005
Jean Sibelius was Finland's greatest composer and a national symbol so powerful that the Finnish government paid him a lifelong pension. He spent ove…
1 week, 2 days ago
Cormac McCarthy: The Uncompromising Recluse Who Wrote America's Darkest Masterpieces
Episode 7002
Cormac McCarthy lived in poverty for decades rather than compromise his writing, gave almost no interviews in sixty years, and produced novels of suc…
1 week, 2 days ago
Diego Velazquez: The Court Painter Who Captured Truth and Faked His Own Noble Bloodline
Episode 7003
Diego Velazquez painted the Spanish royal court with such unflinching honesty that he made kings look human and dwarfs look dignified. Las Meninas is…
1 week, 2 days ago
William Faulkner: The Nobel Winner Who Failed English Class and Reinvented the American Novel
Episode 6997
William Faulkner dropped out of high school, failed a university English course, and worked as a postmaster who was fired for reading on the job. He …
1 week, 2 days ago
Franz Liszt: The Piano Rockstar Who Became a Monk and Invented the Modern Concert
Episode 6998
Franz Liszt was the first rock star. Women fainted at his concerts, fought over his cigar butts, and wore his portrait in brooches. He was the greate…
1 week, 2 days ago