Empress Wu Zetian rose from royal concubine to become the only female ruler in China’s 2,000 years of imperial history. Today she is seen as ruthless, tyrannical and willing to murder her own family to hold onto the throne. However this female leader has suffered from a millennium of bad propaganda. Many of the shocking and devious actions she took to claim ... Show More
Nov 18
A History of Plastic Surgery
From repairing the damage wrought by disease, injury and warfare to enhancing beauty, healers have long sought new and innovative ways to improve the looks and the lives of their patients. Let’s take a journey through the historic of plastic surgery, from it’s painful and primiti ... Show More
30m 59s
Nov 4
English & British Royals Who Lost Their Titles – Andrew Mountbattan Windsor was not the first!
On October 30th, 2025, Buckingham palace announced that King Charles III had begun a formal process to remove his brother Andrew’s style, titles, and honours. Find out what that means and learn about other royals from history who lost their titles. Join me every Tuesday when I'm ... Show More
31m 55s
Mar 2025
Real Wives of Dictators | Jiang Qing, Chairman Mao's Wife
<p>For better or (mostly) worse, Jiang Qing left her mark on the 20th century.</p><br><p>Even before she was married to Chairman Mao, Jiang was a charismatic actor, and her passion for culture helped her spearhead the Cultural Revolution as part of the Communist Party in China, l ... Show More
43 m
Sep 2024
182. The Lady Macbeth of China
Having garnered absolute power through bloody means, Empress Wu Zetian begins seeing apparitions, haunted by her violent schemes. With her husband incapacitated, the Empress at first held counsel on his behalf from behind a curtain. But she soon officially proclaimed herself a di ... Show More
51m 16s
Aug 31
#304 - Qing 39: Twilight of the Dragon
As both the Qianlong Emperor's extensive reign and the Eighteenth Century itself comes to a close, the Qing Empire faces - in spite of its outward posturing of timeless grandeur and invulnerability - an ever more uncertain future. By this time his successor, the Jiaqing Emperor, ... Show More
41m 15s
Jun 2025
[BEST OF] The Chinese Revolution: Chairman Mao, Cultural Revolution, & Communist China
ORIGINALLY RELEASED Jun 4, 2018 In this episode, Breht is joined by Yueran Zhang, a PhD candidate in Sociology at Harvard University, to discuss the Chinese Revolution and the legacy of Mao Zedong. Together, they explore the historical context of China's revolutionary transformat ... Show More
1h 2m
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
Apr 2025
The Egyptian Revolution & Nasser's Era w/ Ahmad Shokr (AR&D Ep. 7)
With this episode of Guerrilla History, we roll into our next case study in our series African Revolutions and Decolonization. Here, we turn our focus to Egypt, and particularly the 23 July Revolution in 1952 and the rise of Nasser. However, to tell this story, we turn back to th ... Show More
1h 42m