Rasputin: The Siberian mystic who charmed the...

Are we entering an era when robots will finally liberate people, and particularly women, from the drudgery of housework? There is certainly a buzz around domestic robots right now and every month seems to bring us a new autonomous machine that can fold your clothes or stack your ...  Show more

One of the first recorded examples of a marriage ceremony is dated more than 4000 years ago in Mesopotamia. And it seems that through the ages, weddings have never lost their appeal. The global wedding industry is today worth billions of dollars, and it is one that keeps on growi ...  Show more

Pop culture has painted Grigori Rasputin as a power-mad mystic who rose from the dead and destroyed the Russian dynasty. But the truth about Rasputin is a lot more complex. In this two-part series, we follow the story of a peasant who dreams of rising to the top of s ...

The legend of Rasputin's death goes that he survived poisoning, being shot in the head before being thrown through a hole in the ice in the Neva River, where he finally died by drowning. But Rasputin biographer Douglas Smith, Dan's guest today, says that isn't what happened. H ...

The much-told legend of Rasputin – the giant, wild-eyed, well-hung, wandering Siberian monk who seduced the Tsarina herself – is mostly a bunch of absolute borscht. But the real story is just as wild. H&S look at the life of a peasant who infiltrated Russian nobility, embodying t ...  Show more

Born in Siberia to a peasant family, Rasputin was an incredibly charismatic, physically striking, and politically savvy figure. He was a holy man, a mystic, who found his way to the centre of Imperial Russian power. Once he met Nicholas and Alexandra, he gained a central place in ...  Show more