Who were Jardine and Matheson? What was life like for workers growing opium in India? How does George Orwell relate to the East India Company opium trade?
William and Anita explore how William Jardine and James Matheson accumulated immense power and wealth by becoming international drug dealers in the 1830s…
Empire Club: Become a member of the Empire Cl ... Show More
Feb 26
337. Bronze Age Apocalypse: Philistines, Israelites, & Rebuilding The Ruins (Ep 6)
How did the Phoenicians create the alphabet we still use today? Was the Bronze Age collapse comparable to the fall of Rome? What does DNA evidence tell us about the origins of the Philistines and Israelites? William is joined by Professor Eric Cline, author of 1177 B.C.: The Year ... Show More
56m 47s
Aug 2025
74. The Hunt for Pablo Escobar: Rise of a Drug Lord (Ep 1)
Colombia in the mid-20th century was a place of beauty and bloodshed - where jungle mountains sheltered rebels, the cities were ruled by oligarchs, and outlaw legends became folk heroes. Into this world stepped Pablo Escobar. Charming, calm, and calculating, he would become one o ... Show More
58m 56s
Aug 2025
75. The Hunt for Pablo Escobar: The War on Drugs (Ep 2)
In the early 1980s, Pablo Escobar reinvented himself. He was no longer just the man who could smuggle tonnes of cocaine into Miami - he was the successful businessman, the philanthropist, the proud family man. To the poor, he built homes and football fields. To the powerful, he o ... Show More
56m 9s
Aug 2025
76. The Hunt for Pablo Escobar: From Narco to Global Terrorist (Ep 3)
By the late 1980s, Pablo Escobar’s grip on the cocaine trade was unmatched. But a new threat loomed: extradition to the United States. To Escobar, it was a fate worse than death. His answer was brutal - declare open war on the Colombian state. In this episode, Gordon and David tr ... Show More
56m 47s
Nov 2025
97. Selling The World's Secrets: Why The Brits Won The Falklands War (Ep 2)
THE REST IS CLASSIFIED LIVE 2026: Buy your tickets HERE on Friday 7th November at 12pm GMT. In the latter half of the twentieth century, the CIA and its German counterpart, the BND, were listening to the encrypted messages of at least 62 countries around the world. This intellige ... Show More
51m 27s
May 2024
How the Legacy of the British Empire Still Shapes Our World, with Sathnam Sanghera
Sathnam Sanghera is a writer and author of bestselling books exploring British identity, the latest of which is Empireworld: How British Imperialism Has Shaped the Globe. It follows Empireland, which looked at how the British Empire has shaped modern Britain. Sanghera has written ... Show More
38m 11s