Profiles in Contrast
Sophie Manners delivers her thoughts on the life and times, traits and exploits of a prominent historical figure and then contrasts that individual with a mystery modern-age figure who is similar in the arc of their life, their personal credo, and how they have been treated by history. She begins with a brief biographical sketch, followed by a tease in which she describes the modern era contrasting figure before revealing their identity. She then explains her reasoning for her choice and contrasts the pair before concluding with summary comments and a personal statement about which one she finds the more compelling figure and why.
Music by Gregor Quendel from Pixabay
Episodes
30 episodes
William the Conqueror and the England He Remade
He never spoke English, was barely literate, and had more influence on the English language than any other person before or since. He killed the Anglo-Saxon aristocracy, gave their land to his Norman followers, commissioned the most compr...
Adam Smith and the Book that Remade the World
He spent fourteen years in a small Scottish coastal town writing a nine-hundred-page book that created the discipline of economics, coined the phrase "invisible hand," and has been invoked in support of almost every economic policy position sin...
Euclid and the Architecture of Certainty
He produced the most widely read mathematics textbook in history. It has been continuously in print for approximately two thousand three hundred years. It shaped the thinking of Newton, Galileo, Einstein and every mathematician who ...
Sun Tzu and the Art of Not Fighting
He may or may not have existed. The text attributed to him was probably written, revised and compiled over more than a century. The story of how he proved his military theories by having two of the king's concubines executed is almo...
Catherine the Great and the Empire She Made Her Own
She arrived in Russia at sixteen as Sophie von Anhalt-Zerbst, daughter of a minor Prussian prince nobody had heard of, speaking no Russian, with nothing to recommend her beyond an acceptable lineage and the specific quality of ambition that wou...
Philip Wylie and the Prophet Nobody Wanted to Hear
He wrote the prototype for Superman in 1930 and got no credit. He warned about nuclear war before Hiroshima and was put under house arrest by Army Intelligence for knowing too much. He coined "Momism" in 1942 and was denounced as a ...
Hannibal Barca and the Victory that Could Not Win the War
He crossed the Alps with elephants in late autumn because the expected route was defended and he was constitutionally unable to take the expected route. He then spent fifteen years winning every significant battle in Italy - Trebia, Lake ...
Ferdinand Magellan and the World That Fit in His Head
Five ships left Seville in 1519. One came back. Of the 270 men who set out, 18 completed the first circumnavigation of the globe - and the man who planned it, navigated the unknown strait at the bottom of South America, crossed the ...
Nikola Tesla and the Inventor Who Gave It All Away
When you flip a light switch, that is Tesla. When an X-ray is taken, that is Tesla. When a radio signal crosses the ocean, that is Tesla. The alternating current electrical system that powers virtually every building on earth ...
Galileo and the Courage of What You Can See
He looked through the telescope, saw the moons of Jupiter, and understood that almost everything the authorities had said about the universe was wrong. Then he published it, named the geocentric spokesman in his masterpiece "Simplicius," ...
Marie Antoinette and the Price of the Image
She didn't say "let them eat cake." She also didn't cause the French Revolution, didn't empty the treasury, and wasn't the scheming traitor of revolutionary mythology. In this episode Sophie cuts through two centuries of propaganda ...
Voltaire and the Weapon Called Wit
He was imprisoned twice, exiled repeatedly, censored constantly, and outlived all of it to become the most celebrated mind in Europe. In this episode Sophie examines the life of François-Marie Arouet - better known as Voltaire - whose wit...
Vlad the Impaler and the Politics of Terror
Set aside the cape, the castle and the coffins. In this episode Sophie cuts through twelve decades of gothic fiction to find the real Vlad III of Wallachia - a fifteenth-century military commander of genuine strategic brilliance who deployed te...
Lady Godiva and the Legend that Replaced Her
Nearly everyone knows the legend of Lady Godiva - the noble Saxon woman who rode naked through the streets of Coventry to win tax relief for its suffering citizens. Far fewer know the woman beneath the legend: a major landowner in her own...
Pontius Pilate
In this episode Sophie discusses the complex life of the very able, but conflicted and at times cruel, Roman administrator Pontius Pilate. Known most famously for presiding over the trial of Jesus of Nazareth before reluctantly authorizin...
Mary Queen of Scots
Mary Stuart, a woman widely known as Mary Queen of Scots, led a remarkable life marked by tragedy, abdication, imprisonment and execution. Sophie traces the arc of her tumultuous life and links her to a universally loved and admired...
Thomas Manners - 1st Duke of Rutland
Sophie's profile of Thomas Manners is especially poignant and personal, as she counts the Tudor-era nobleman and courtier of Henry VIII among her ancestors. Her comparison with a long-serving statesman and diplomat from the other side of ...
Leonard Euler
Sophie once again steps outside of her comfort zone to examine the life and myriad contributions of famed Swiss mathematician Leonard Euler. Euler not only introduced much of our modern mathematical notation but also defined the value of ...
Banastre Tarleton
Regarded as among the most skilled leaders of the British military during the American Revolution, Banastre Tarleton waged a vicious campaign against patriots in the south. Sophie has chosen a similarly controversial 20th century military leade...
Oliver Cromwell
Sophie leverages her extensive knowledge of British history in this intriguing expose on Oliver Cromwell - statesman, farmer and, ultimately, Lord Protector. Fittingly, and in typical fashion, she chooses as her modern subject a highly co...
William Wallace
Sophie's selection for this episode is Scottish freedom-fighter and inspiration for the movie Braveheart, William Wallace. The parallels of his life from youth to the Battle of Stirling Bridge and his gruesome execution are partially echo...
Charlemagne
In her most intellectually serious pairing in the series so far, Sophie tackles Charlemagne - medieval emperor, king, and leader of the Carolingian Renaissance.
Cleopatra
Queen of Egypt, lover of at least two Roman emperors and sworn enemy of a third, Cleopatra's reign was marked by intrigue, seduction, and civil wars. Sophie covers it all and teases an unexpected contemporary leader who can't quite compet...
