Author Dana Schwartz explores the stories of some of history’s most fascinating royals: the tyrants and the tragic, the murderers and the murdered, and everyone in between. Because when you’re wearing a crown, mistakes often mean blood.
299 episodes transcribedThe British Monarchy were using the divisions of the Māori people against them. And so, some Māori thought that what they needed to face off against a...
Thanks to her McDonald’s fortune, Joan Kroc was one of the world’s wealthiest people. And she was determined to die nearly broke. * Hosted...
Eventually, Te Wherowhero would become the first Māori king. But decades before that, he would face off against rival tribes, proving his leadership a...
At the dawn of La Belle Epoch in Paris, a trans woman who became known as "The Countess" would journey from ballrooms to prison and back, a key figure...
In 1968, a woman wrote a romantic story about Kirk and Spock, passed it quietly among friends, and hoped it would never see the light of day. But befo...
In 1847, James Young Simpson successfully used chloroform for the first time to help in childbirth. But the anesthetic was still controversial and dan...
James Young Simpson, as a young surgeon, was distraught at the seemingly inescapable pain and fear that patients were suffering. He decided to try to...
When Josphine failed to produce heirs, Napoleon secured a divorce and arranged for another marriage: to the 18-year-old daughter of the Emperor of Aus...
Two families captivated the 20th century: the Kennedy clan in America, and the Windsors, the royal family of the UK. Both faced the tribulations of fa...
In 1826, a young man stumbled into town with limited language and a mysterious past: he revealed that he had spent his life in isolation, in a single...
Part two of our episode on Émilie du Châtelet, the brilliant female mathematician and physicist who helped to redefine our understanding...
History has often reduced the brilliant mathematician and physicist Émilie du Châtelet to her relationship with a famous man (Voltaire)....
When the future Queen Elizabeth I was just 13 years old, she was living with Catherine Parr, who remarried after the death of Henry VIII. Catherine's...
For eight months, Roman von Ungern-Sternberg took control of the capital of Mongolia, in a campaign that was less about international politics and mor...
In 1921, a Russian officer named Roman von Ungern-Sternberg invaded Mongolia, ostensibly with the goal to liberate it from Chinese forces. But he had...
Against the odds, Idia's son, Esigie, became the leader—Oba—of the Edo people. And against even greater odds, Idia survived to help him ru...
Dr. Hugh Doherty (University of East Anglia), the historical consultant for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, joins the podcast to discuss 14th century...
Born in Africa, enslaved, and brought to a foreign land, Abram Petrovich Gannibal forged an incredible path for himself, rising until he became a resp...
Kösem Sultan was the favorite of the Sultan and the mother of a ruler. She had extraordinary power over the Ottoman Empire, but, as we've learned...
When Heinrich VI, King of Germany, called a gathering of noblemen to deal with a property dispute, he couldn't have predicted how tragic—and dis...
