Subject to Change
I talk to the world's best historians and let them tell the stories. And the stories are wonderful! (And occasionally I change the subject and talk about films, philosophy or whatever!).
Episodes
106 episodes
The Return of the Emperor (Justinian II - part 2)
Part 1 of the podcast told the sad story of how some shocking misjudgements on the part of Justinian saw him dragged to the Hippodrome where a man with a pair of pliers cut off his nose, cut out his tongue.But in a misjudgement every bit...
Mutilated and exiled (the Emperor Justinian II - part 1)
Justinian II becomes emperor at sixteen. Even allowing for the hostility of our sources the reign is not all plain sailing.I'm joined by Professor David Parnell to work through the first half of one of Byzantium's most extraordinary reig...
Buckingham: the most hated man in England
You don't have to be young and beautiful to get ahead in Stuart England but it really doesn't hurt. The is the story of 'gorgeous George' - that is to say George Villiers (later Duke of Buckingham) who in his early 20's became the favourite of ...
YEAR ZERO: Jonathan Clements on the First Emperor of China
Jonathan Clements returns to talk about his book on the First Emperor of China and the man who was sent to kill him: facts and fictions in Zhang Yimou’s movie Hero (2002), the evil mirror-universe version of Confucianism, an impossibly...
The Big Hop of 1919
It is astonishing to me that we went from the first powered flight of a few hundred feet in 1903 to attempting to fly the Atlantic in 1919. The Daily Mail had offered a prize of £10,000 to cross the Atlantic. The pilots called it th...
Martin Luther, serfdom and the German Peasants’ War
Lyndal Roper, Regius Professor of History at Oxford University is on excellent form to talk me through the German Peasant's War of 1524-25. Things I learned:- take Martin Luther seriously (but not literally)- monasteries feed the ...
World War I: The surprising victory of 1918
Today the thing we find mysterious is why WWI lasted as long as it did. Why continue a pointless slaughter. Comparisions with the war in Ukraine suggest an answer!My guess is is Professor David Stevenson and for him the mystery is not wh...
Ed West on 1066 and all that
Ed West is a journalist and massively popular substacker - do check out his substack The Wrong Side of History. But he has a sideline in history so I got him on the show to talk about 1066 and the battle of Hastings. Ed is on top form so please...
Edward I - a Great and Terrible King
A six-foot-two prince who loved tournaments, outfoxed a revolution, and nearly died on crusade returns to build castles that still dominate the Welsh coast and to bend Scotland to his will until Robert the Bruce strikes back. We follow Edward I...
Empress Wu Zetian and the Age of Female Rule
“With the heart of a serpent and the nature of a wolf, she gathered sycophants to her cause and brought destruction to the just. She slew her sister, butchered her brothers, killed her prince, and poisoned her mother. She is hated by men and go...
Napoleon III Part 2: The Power of Lust
As promised in part 1 we started the podcast by talking about some of Napoleon III’s many mistresses. Women like Harriet Howard, the Brighton bootmaker’s daughter, Virginia de Castiglione, sent by the Italians to seduce and spy on him (an...
Napoleon III Part 1: The Lust for Power
From exiled prince to emperor, Napoleon III's rise to power reads like a political thriller too wild to be true. Edward Shawcross tells the story of Napoleon Bonaparte's nephew, a man who attempted not one but two comically failed coups before ...
From Eunuchs to Corsairs: The World of Islamic Slavery
Fourteen centuries of enslavement, from the Prophet Muhammad's day to modern Mauritania. Justin Marozzi's fascinating book
The Tokyo Tribunal: War Crimes, Justice, and Geopolitics
This episode looks at the courtroom drama that helped to shape Asia after World War II with Princeton University's Gary Bass. Far more than a simple account of justice served, the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal represents a fascinating intersection ...
The Pilgrimage of Grace: When England Fought the Reformation
When 50,000 northerners marched under their banners in 1536, England witnessed its largest rebellion since the Peasants' Revolt. The Pilgrimage of Grace wasn't just a protest - it threatened to undo the English Reformation completely and return...
Byzantium and the First Crusade
The ever excellent Professor David Parnell (of Belisarius and Antonina fame) came on to talk about the First Crusade. And given his i...
Shattered Jewels - Japan's Path to War (3 and final)
What makes a nation launch an attack it cannot hope to win? Admiral Yamamoto, who planned the Pearl Harbor attack, warned Japan's leadership they would have only six months before America would mobilize its entire continent to destroy them. He ...
Manchuria to Pearl Harbor: Japan's Path to War (2)
How did Japan become embroiled in one of history's deadliest conflicts? The answer lies not in December 1941, but decades earlier. Jonathan Clements returns to unravel the forces that propelled Japan down a path to war with the world's greatest...
An Alien Game: Japan's Path to War (1)
The transformation of Japan from hermit kingdom to imperial power happened with breathtaking speed. When American Commodore Perry's "black ships" steamed into Tokyo Bay in the 1850s, they shattered Japan's 250-year isolation with technology tha...
How England Nearly Conquered France & Why They Failed
The Hundred Years' War shaped medieval Europe's political landscape for over a century—but what really caused this epic conflict between England and France? In this illuminating conversation, former UK Supreme Court Justice and acclaimed mediev...
Imperial Twilight: How Trade, Tea, and Opium Led to War
The story of the Opium War is one of history's most consequential yet widely misunderstood conflicts. Professor Stephen Platt joined me to unravel the fascinating web of events that led Britain and China into a collision that would reshape Asia...
Suleiman's curse - with Christopher de Bellaigue
I spoke to Christopher before about his book the Lion House. That was part 1 of a trilogy on the life of Suleiman the Magnificent. Christopher is back to talk about part 2:
Anton Howes on Salt (and on much, much more!)
Anton Howes writes the brilliant Age of Invention substack. We were supposed to talk about the history of salt and its powerful impact on people and states. We certainly did talk about that but also a lot more!- history's efflorescences<...
Tiberius - a good emperor, a broken man
In this episode Professor Ed Watts and I look at the brilliant career and sad life of the Emperor Tiberius. We try to understand how this most capable and intelligent man came to be seen by history as one of the most monstrous of the Roman empe...
