216. Seeds of British India: England’s First Ambassador to the Mughal Court| Listen on Anghami

Nov 20

309. Tintin, Nazis, & Soviets

How did the young journalist with the quiff haircut and his companion Snowy The Dog feature in Nazi propaganda in the 1940s? What was the origin story of Hergé, the Belgian illustrator who created The Adventures of Tintin? How did an unlikely friendship transform Hergé’s life and ... Show More

45m 37s

Nov 18

308. Asterix and Obelix, Babar The Elephant, & Colonial Cartoons

How did a story made up by a mother for her sick children turn into Babar The Elephant? Why did two immigrants to France create such a patriotically French cartoon in Asterix and Obelix? How should we feel about racist depictions of people of colour in beloved children’s cartoons ... Show More

47m 27s

Nov 13

307. Austen vs Brontë: Unmasking Slavery Heiresses

What is the true history behind the “madwoman in the attic” in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre? How was Jane Austen’s aunt deeply connected to slavery in Barbados? Who were the British heiresses who married Caribbean plantation owners and inherited vast wealth made through chattel s ... Show More

41m 51s

Jul 2025

The East India Company

Over 400 years ago, a bold commercial venture was established to allow an ambitious group of English merchants to send ships halfway around the world in search of spices, skills, and profit. It was known as The East India Company. Over the next 250 years, the Company grew into on ... Show More

56m 36s

Oct 2023

Arunima Datta, "Waiting on Empire: A History of Indian Travelling Ayahs in Britain" (Oxford UP, 2023)

The expansion of the British Empire facilitated movement across the globe for both the colonizers and the colonized. Waiting on Empire: A History of Indian Travelling Ayahs in Britain (OUP, 2023) focuses on a largely forgotten group in this story of movement and migration: South ... Show More

1h 12m

Apr 2025

Suleyman the Magnificent's bid for world domination

Henry VIII lorded it over England. Francis I dominated France. Charles V was the main man in central Europe. Yet arguably none was as powerful as Ottoman sultan Suleyman the Magnificent – a true heavyweight of the 16th century. Speaking to Spencer Mizen, author Christopher de Bel ... Show More

35m 35s

Feb 2025

20. Death on the Thames: An Assassin in London (Ep 1)

How do you get away with murder in the heart of London? And which weapon would you choose to avoid arousing suspicion? Georgi Markov was a Bulgarian dissident writer wanted by the Eastern Bloc for spreading anti-regime messaging across Western Europe. He'd fled to London and beg ... Show More

41m 33s

Sep 28

33. Prince Albert’s Dying Wish: Stopping An American-British War (Ep 2)

Why did Britain and America nearly go to war over the capture of two Confederate officers from a British Ship? What did President Lincoln’s Emergency War Cabinet respond to Britain’s threatening ultimatum? How did Prince Albert keep the peace with the last letter he ever sent? Jo ... Show More

33m 22s

Sep 21

The Victorians, Part 1 of 2

Over the course of Queen Victoria’s reign, Britain transformed into the world's foremost industrial and imperial power. The Victorians built railways that spanned continents, invented life-changing technologies, and expanded a vast realm that stretched from the Caribbean to India ... Show More

55m 35s

Sep 6

The Mughal empire: everything you wanted to know

The Mughal empire was one of the most powerful and influential dynasties in South Asian history, blending together a mix of cultural traditions to create a legacy of dazzling architecture, innovative governance, and turbulent politics. Speaking to Emily Briffett, historian Nandin ... Show More

49m 50s

Sep 2024

490. Hundred Years' War: England Triumphant (Part 4)

St Crispin’s day, 1415: Henry V stands victorious, after a tremendous defeat of the French forces at the Battle of Agincourt. He is just about to make a historic speech which will be retold by Shakespeare nearly two centuries later. There are mounds of bodies, too many dead for t ... Show More

55m 6s

Sep 28

The Victorians, Part 2 of 2

The Victorian era transformed Britain into the world’s foremost industrial and imperial power. The rise of factories saw the expansion of sprawling cities, inhabited by a working class trapped in grinding poverty. But while the ever-growing ranks of impoverished residents were do ... Show More

55m 45s

Jul 2019

Rachel B. Herrmann, "No Useless Mouth: Waging War and Fighting Hunger in the American Revolution" (Cornell UP, 2019)

When the British explored the Atlantic coast of America in the 1580s, their relations with indigenous peoples were structured by food. The newcomers, unable to sustain themselves through agriculture, relied on the local Algonquian people for resources. This led to tension, and th ... Show More

43m 28s

216. Seeds of British India: England’s F...