Episode 15: A Golden Age of Espionage
Plots and conspiracies abounded in the the late 16th and early-mid 17th centuries. And with them came the evolution of a newly-professionalised culture of subterfuge and spying. Paul and Miranda explo...
3 Jul 202442min
Episode 14: The Man Who Inspired 'Shōgun'
Historian Giles Milton joins Miranda and Paul to talk about the life and times of William Adams, an English navigator who was part of a Dutch expedition to the Spice Islands. Adrift in the Pacific, th...
19 Jun 202442min
Episode 12: What Did the Stuarts Do For Us?
For better or for worse, the Stuart dynasty dominated the 17th-century English political landscape - with inevitable consequences for Scotland, Ireland and wider parts of a nascent empire. History's v...
15 Mai 202433min
Episode 11: The Luck of the Habsburgs
From humble roots in Switzerland and Swabia, the Habsburg dynasty endured for 900 years, its survival due in part to genetic good fortune. As historian Martyn Rady tells Paul and Miranda, the Habsburg...
24 Apr 202444min
Episode 10: Shooting the Century
The 17th century has rarely been as popular with film and TV dramatists as 'sexier' periods such as the Tudors, the Romans and the Second World War. But recently, 17th-century stories and characters h...
27 Mar 202440min
Episode 9: Dynastic Change in China
Great storytelling meets historical rigour in the podcast that brings the 17th century vividly to life. China at the start of the 17th century was wealthy, strong and well-governed – the Ming dynasty...
6 Mar 202447min
Episode 8: Painting a Nation
Miranda and Paul are joined by art critic and author Laura Cumming, whose acclaimed book 'Thunderclap: A Memoir of Art and Life and Sudden Death' explores painting in the 17th-century Dutch Republic. ...
14 Feb 202445min
