319. Heist of St Nicolas: The Medieval Mafia Who Stole Santa (Part 2)
Who were the Italian sailors who stole the bones of St Nicolas from his church in Turkey in 1087? How was the mythology of St Nicolas combined with Germanic pagan stories of Odin riding a white horse ...
25 Dec 202532min
318. Heist of St Nicolas: Raiding Santa's Tomb (Part 1)
The original Santa Claus, Saint Nicolas, was a real bishop from Myra in modern-day Turkey, whose tomb there was popular with pilgrims, but 700 years after his death, a group of sailors decided to stea...
23 Dec 202532min
317. Churchill's Photographer: From Escaping Genocide to MLK
Who was Karsh and how did he become one of the most famous portrait photographers of the 20th century? How did Karsh escape from the Armenian Genocide as a child? What was the story behind some of the...
18 Dec 202548min
316. Hitler's Photographer: Nazi Secrets, Eva Braun, & Escaping Justice
Who was Heinrich Hoffman and how did he use his photography to promote Adolf Hitler and Nazism? When did Hoffman introduce Hitler to Eva Braun? What lies did he tell a Jewish journalist who interviewe...
16 Dec 202547min
315. Controversy, Colonialism, & V.S. Naipaul
Who was V.S. Naipaul and why was he so controversial? How did Naipaul alter the way in which writers and readers saw the world, and in particular how they saw Trinidad? Why did he make an enemy of Sal...
11 Dec 202544min
314. Rudyard Kipling: Villain or Visionary? (Part 3)
Should we still read Kipling today? What family tragedy did Kipling face in the later half of his life? How did he fan the flames of jingoism during and after the First World War? William is reunited...
9 Dec 202547min
313. Rudyard Kipling: Escaping India & Writing The Jungle Book (Part 2)
What inspired Kipling to write his two most famous works: The Jungle Book and Kim? Why did Kipling hate London and swiftly move to the US? How did Kipling develop such astute observational writing abo...
4 Dec 202533min
312. Rudyard Kipling: Son of Empire (Part 1)
Rudyard Kipling was one of the most evocative writers of India, yet he was a jingoist and an imperialist until his dying day. So how do we grapple with this conundrum, why was Kipling such a man of c...
2 Dec 202525min
