The Wa tribe, an indigenous tribe residing in the mountainous Burma China borderlands, has long had a reputation as a people not to be trifled with. And yes, they were actually headhunters, well into the 20th century. Known as powerful warriors who weren't keen on outsiders telling them what to do, they were able to carve out their own autonomous state in My ... Show More
Mar 3
El Mencho Dead! And Mexico Explodes
We told you his life story in our 2022 episode, and now we're back with the sequel. El Mencho rose from poverty to build the CJNG into Mexico’s most violent and influential cartel, trafficking fent, meth and coke across the hemisphere. After years on the run with a huge U.S. boun ... Show More
1h 12m
Feb 17
The First Gangster Kingpin of New York
Monk Eastman ruled the depraved streets of turn-of-the-century Manhattan with fists and absolutely zero regard for human life, commanding an army of 1,200 thugs who terrorized the Lower East Side. At the height of his power, he was pulling cash from every racket you could think o ... Show More
1h 3m
Jun 2023
Behind the Bamboo Curtain | CIA
When two CIA officers were captured in an ambush on Chinese territory, it seemed as though their story was over. In fact, their ordeal had only just begun. Two decades later, their fates still hung in the balance between the power-players of Beijing and Washington.
Professor John ... Show More
50m 20s
Aug 2023
Episode 348: The truth behind the world of money laundering, drugs and international narco-terrorism
An intrepid Irish American cop joins the dots between Hezbollah, Syrian Dictator Bashar Al Assad’s brutal war, and some of Europe’s biggest drug lords.It sounds the plot from an episode of Homelands but it’s all true and forms the incredible geo political story that plays out on ... Show More
47m 37s
Aug 2020
“Prince Prosperous” Pt. 1: Khun Sa
By the early 1950s, the teenaged Khun Sa was already a militia leader in war-torn northeast Burma (present-day Myanmar). Over the next decade, his power as a warlord only increased. When the Burmese government came to him with an offer of allyship, he set himself up to become the ... Show More
39m 45s
Jul 2020
Mao Zedong Part 1: Peasant’s Son, Communist Rebel
In the centre of China’s capital city, Beijing, lies a corpse that no one dares remove. It’s been 44 years since Mao Zedong’s body was laid to rest in the grandiose Chairman Mao Memorial Hall. He may be gone but he is not forgotten. To some, he’s the father of modern China. To ma ... Show More
42m 43s
Apr 2009
Yuma Totani, “The Tokyo War Crimes Trials: The Pursuit of Justice in the Wake of World War II” (Harvard UP, 2008)
Most everyone has heard of the Nuremberg Trials. Popular books have been written about them. Hollywood made movies about them. Some of us can even name a few of the convicted (Hermann Goering, Albert Speer, etc.). But fewer of us know about what might be called “Nuremberg East,” ... Show More
1h 5m