logo
episode-header-image
May 2025
18m 7s

Hotter than the Dickens

Sam Kean, Bleav
About this episode

When Charles Dickens published Bleak House in 1852, he included a scene where one character spontaneously combusts. 🔥 🔥 🔥 Readers loved it, but one of Dickens’s good friends—a former scientist—blasted Dickens for his scientific ignorance. It ignited one of the strangest controversies in literary history.


Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Up next
Oct 6
The Nobel Disease
Winning a Nobel Prize is a good thing—mostly. But surprisingly often, Nobel laureates go kooky and start promoting bizarre things like homeopathy, ESP, AIDS denialism, and worse. Psychologists are starting to understand why... Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.ads ... Show More
18 m
Jun 2025
Dinner with King Tut audiobook preview
A preview of my brand new book, Dinner with King Tut! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising. 
27m 47s
May 2025
Why Doctors and Scientists Embraced the Nazis
Nazism was a society-wide catastrophe for Germany, but some professions deserve more blame than others. In particular, there was a surprisingly large percentage of doctors and engineers among the Nazis. Sociologists and historians have now worked out why. Hosted by Simplecast, an ... Show More
21m 19s
Recommended Episodes
Jul 17
Mein Kampf: Hitler's dark vision for the future
Published 100 years ago in 1925, Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf was one of the most consequential books of the 20th century. It laid out Hitler's political ideology and future aspirations, as well as making the Nazi leader a lot of money. In more recent times, Mein Kampf has continued ... Show More
26m 55s
Jun 2025
Inside the Nazis’ Supernatural Obsession | A Conversation with Historian Eric Kurlander
June 4, 1941. Reinhard Heydrich transmits a message to all regional governors in the Third Reich: prepare for “action against occult teachings.” Heydrich is carrying out the orders of Adolf Hitler, who is furious at his Deputy Führer, Rudolf Hess. Inspired by a horoscope reading, ... Show More
41m 4s
Sep 2
Part One: How Heinrich Himmler Went From Nerdy Boy To Master of the SS
Robert sits down with Prop to discuss the early life of Heinrich Himmler, the man who built the SS into Hitler's engine of genocide. (6 part series) LIVE SHOW ALERT: We are doing a new Behind the Bastards Live show! In the Alberta Rose Theatre, Portland, September 25th at 8pm! Al ... Show More
1h 10m
May 2025
The Einstein murders
In the summer of 1944, as the German forces were retreating in northern Italy, a small group of soldiers made a detour to a remote villa in search of Albert Einstein's cousin. Robert Einstein posed no threat to the Nazi regime, but nonetheless they were determined to hunt him dow ... Show More
39m 2s
Aug 10
72. Destroying the Nazi Nuclear Program: Bombing Norway (Ep 1)
What was the most dangerous mission of World War II? How did a small team of Norwegian skiers stop the Nazis from building a nuclear bomb? And, what exactly is heavy water, and why was it so important to the Nazis? Operation Gunnerside was a high-stakes, real-life mission to sabo ... Show More
45m 10s
Apr 2025
Part Two: Alfred Hugenberg: The Elon Musk of Weimar Germany
World War 1 has begun, and Robert walks Amanda through how Alfred Hugenberg bought up the German media to make the case the the war should go on for ever, and then how he backed the Nazi party and ushered Hitler into power when that didn't go well for some reason. Sources: The Pa ... Show More
1h 19m
Sep 2024
How WWII Started
On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Two days later, France and the United Kingdom declared war on the Third Reich. This was the beginning of what would become perhaps the most devastating clash in human history. By the end of the war, tens of millions of people h ... Show More
1h 2m
Jan 2025
The big questions of the Holocaust
How did the Nazis’ poisonous antisemitic rhetoric eventually culminate in the systematic mass-murder of millions? Speaking to Rachel Dinning back in 2023, historian Laurence Rees charts the course of the Holocaust – from its origins to its devastating conclusion. Holocaust Memori ... Show More
47m 23s
Jun 2025
The Hitler Diaries with Adrian Daub
What happens when you’re just a little too good at forging the diaries of Adolf Hitler? And why did so many people want to read them? In 1983, the West German news magazine Stern bought sixty volumes of forged journals and held a press conference to announce their publication. Th ... Show More
1h 24m
Nov 2024
How Stalin won WW2
In June 1944 Allied armies landed in force in northern France, and the liberation of western Europe began. But, the battle that really sealed Hitler's fate was taking place in the east, as the Red Army prepared an almighty assault against the war-weary Wehrmacht. Speaking to Rob ... Show More
40m 7s
Listen to millions of songs and podcasts on Anghami