Outrageous History!
The emperor Napolean Bonaparte, the artist Caravaggio, the writer Oscar Wilde, the Roman Empire, the lawman Wyatt Earp, the French revolutionary leader Robespierre, the Watergate scandal…..outrageous individuals and events that have significantly influenced history. You’ll find it hard to believe some of the preposterous, scandalous and excessive behaviors which permeate history. Join journalist Ernest Granson as he interviews historians around the world, delving into some of history’s most outrageous moments. You can’t make this stuff up!
Episodes
37 episodes
The complicated and messy birth of the legendary Jeep
Why is it called the Jeep? Depends on who you ask. Who first designed and developed this workhorse of the US military? Again, not a simple question to answer. Decades after thousands of these historic and vital vehicles were shipped...
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Season 3
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Episode 35
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1:16:44
In the footsteps of T.E. Lawrence - a quest for understanding in the Middle East
The bitter and destructive struggle in the Levant has a lengthy, complex and grievous history. No doubt the region has experienced its share of territorial bloodshed from ancient times. However, much of the conflict and hostility which ha...
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Season 3
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Episode 34
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57:08
T.E. Lawrence: the archeologist turned desert warrior
Many of our images of the First World War emanated from the trenches at the European front lines. But the war was not limited to those deplorable conditions. In the Mideast, another conflict seethed as the Central Powers of Germany, Austria-Hun...
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Season 3
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Episode 33
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1:04:31
Jeep Shows: dodging bullets and bombs while entertaining on World War II front lines
World War II soldiers had to endure the grind of pushing through rough terrain in extreme cold and heat and to witness comrades dying in front of their eyes, sometimes for years. To help alleviate those hardships, even temporarily, soldie...
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Season 3
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Episode 32
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44:19
The legacy of Wyatt Earp - respected lawman, vigilante, gambler, pimp
A few years before his death, Wyatt Earp wrote to a friend, saying, "Notoriety has been the bane of my life. I detest it." As perhaps the most famous lawman in the United States, Earp and his brothers are well known for the infamous gunfight at...
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Season 3
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Episode 31
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49:37
The Germans and the Vikings - Hitler's Norwegian fantasy
The year is 1940. The German army occupies Norway and begins construction of superhighways, a polar railroad and a glistening new German city in northern Norway. The Nazi party encourages German soldiers and Norwegian women to produce babies - ...
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Season 3
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Episode 30
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51:58
Napoleon - the film. When history and entertainment clash.
The Ridley Scott- directed film "Napoleon" is a big film. Big battle scenes. Moscow going up in flames. Napoleon facing down his detractors. The over-the-top coronation of the emperor. But according to the noted Oxford Napoleonic...
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Season 3
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Episode 29
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48:52
Surfing the Time Capsule: Are architects doomed for tragedy?
Frank Lloyd Wright, Antoni Gaudi, Adolf Loos, Louis Sullivan; why were their lives such a mess?Maybe it's the Jekyll and Hyde conundrum. In this episode of Surfing the Time Capsule, we'll take a look at this puzzling conditi...
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Season 3
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Episode 28
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40:24
Surfing the Time Capsule - Buying up the brightest stars in the art universe
Is the Leonardo da Vinci painting entitled "Salvator Mundi" worth almost half a billion dollars? For Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman, that's chump change. Join journalist Ernest Granson as he examines the motivation behind the as...
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Season 3
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Episode 27
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20:17
Surfing the Time Capsule - John Dean cushions his behind in Poshinaya foam; John Galt slams volunteerism
Was Richard Nixon really a snivelling crook? Was Ayn Rand really a condescending, selfish snob? In this initial episode of Surfing the Time Capsule from Outrageous History, journalist Ernest Granson suggests that the two notorious personalities...
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Season 3
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Episode 26
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9:59
Da Vinci's Salvator Mundi - The Bargain of the Millenium
In 2017, a painting of Jesus Christ holding a crystal orb became the world's most expensive painting when Saudi Arabian crown prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) paid $450 million for the piece which was auctioned off by Christie's in London. MBS ...
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Season 3
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Episode 25
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48:26
The Evolution of Spin
Propaganda, publicity, public relations, spin. These words are really interchangeable but for many, they all evoke somewhat negative connotations. For politicians, the presidents of the United States especially, that's a problem. From the publi...
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Season 3
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Episode 26
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1:25:19
We are the real monsters!
The Anglo-Saxons of pre-England Britannia lived in a world of real monsters where walking through the unsettled areas outside of town could mean being scorched by dragons or gobbled up by terrifying, giant humanoids. Were these monsters r...
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Season 2
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Episode 25
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54:26
The van Gogh You Never Knew
Imagine becoming a young widow with a baby boy and being entrusted with the priceless legacy of one of the world's most famous painters. That is the situation in which Johanna van Gogh-Bonger found herself when her beloved husband of only two y...
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Season 2
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Episode 24
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31:47
The Ambiguity of Stan Lee
Just who was Stanley Martin Lieber - or as millions of superhero fans know him - Stan Lee? Sure, Stan Lee has been credited by those fans as the creator of Spiderman, The Avengers, The X Men and a whole universe of superheroes that dominate not...
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Season 2
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Episode 23
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53:17
The last man who might know all there is to be known
Could there be such a person? That is how scientist J.B.S. Haldane has been described. He is credited with laying the foundations of genetics but his knowledge spanned far beyond that and until he passed away he constantly strove to inform the ...
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Season 2
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Episode 3
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42:35
Martha Was Right
The Watergate scandal in the 1970s turned U.S. politics upside down, creating skepticism, cynicism and pessimism throughout the country. For those involved in both the burglary of the Democratic National Committee headquarters at Washington D.C...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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36:56
John Galt Lives!
The life story of Ayn Rand reads much like one of her block buster novels, except for the unhappy ending. In "The Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged", the main female and male characters, one of whom is John Galt, become heroin...
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Season 2
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Episode 2
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48:55
The Vengeance of the Shot Blue Marilyn
Art dealer and former gallery owner, Richard Polsky, spent a career trying to become the owner of an Andy Warhol silk screen. As a passionate admirer of Warhol's works, Richard eventually achieved his goal of purchasing, not one but two pieces,...
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Season 2
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Episode 1
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50:19
The Bricklin: automotive fantasy or lost opportunity for prosperity?
When American automotive entrepreneur Malcolm Bricklin and the Province of New Brunswick's Premier Richard Hatfield sat down for coffee at the Lord Beaverbrook Hotel in Fredericton in 1973, little did they realize the bumpy road they would soon...
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Season 1
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Episode 18
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45:15
The Peculiar World of Prime Minister Mackenzie King
If you're taking part in contemporary politics, you had better board up your closet to prevent any skeletons from being revealed. It wasn't necessarily so 100 years ago. The private lives of politicians, were for the most part, kept private, ev...
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Season 1
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Episode 17
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47:59
Tsar Nicolas' Game of Russian Roulette
Russia's Tsar Nicolas and his family died a gruesome death, executed by the Bolsheviks, after Nicolas was forced to abdicate following the Russian Revolution of 1917. King George V of Great Britain was Nicolas' cousin and agonized over offering...
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Season 1
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Episode 16
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54:16
Rhea Clyman: the Canadian Bourgeois Troublemaker
Rhea Clyman, born in Poland and raised in Canada, jostled her way into becoming an foreign correspondent for the Toronto Evening Telegram in the 1920s. One of the few women journalists during that era, she managed to land an assignment...
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Season 1
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Episode 15
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37:02
The Scientist Explorer who Died a Viking's Death
Alfred Wegener's life as a scientist in the early 1900s spanned numerous fields including astronomy and meteorology. But his theory of continental drift or displacement sparked a furor amongst geologists, many of whom branded him a scientific o...
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Season 1
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Episode 14
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34:40
Maximilien Robespierre: Hero or Monster of the French Revolution?
The French Revolution is considered one of the most important events in the history of civilization. When it ended in the late 1700s, the feudal system, the French Catholic Church as it then existed and the French monarchy had been dismantled. ...
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Season 1
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Episode 13
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36:52