The Blood Sacrifice of the Tang Emperor

In December of 1586, the King of Poland died suddenly and without an obvious successor. King was an elected position, and the noblemen bickered and tried to advance their own agendas, to no avail. It was a complete standsill. They needed an unbiased third party to be a temporary ...  Show more

Queen Mary I's decision to marry a foreign prince turned people against her. Some were so against her they planned an uprising to overthrow her in favor of her half-sister, Elizabeth. But how much did Elizabeth know? And when she was imprisoned in the Tower of London, how much ev ...  Show more

The story of a Chinese concubine who rose to power from behind a curtain of yellow silk. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices 

The history of China, as told through 20 lives. This time: The Female Emperor. 

Highlighting some of the amazing achievements and highlights of the Tang Dynasty, and considering its eventual decline and fall. 

April 27, 1856. In Beijing’s Forbidden City, one of the emperor’s consorts, a woman named Cixi, has given birth to a son – the emperor’s first heir. This landmark event is met with mass celebration. But in just five years time, the emperor will be dead and Cixi will be planning a ...  Show more