In the Shadow of the Great

Double, double, toil and trouble... Almost everyone has heard of Macbeth, in the context of Shakespeare's famous play. But Macbeth was also a real king, and Shakespeare wrote about him for a very specific reason. Support Noble Blood:—ORDER 'THE ARCANE ARTS'— Bonus episodes, stick ...  Show more

Plenty of Harry Potter fans love Severus Snape. A few truly worshipped him. In the early 2000s, these fans found each other online and came to believe Harry’s least favorite professor was real. A god in an alternate universe that bled into our own. Nothing in the world could shak ...  Show more

Peter the Great was a feared leader but also an intellectual. Learn about Peter the Great and Peter the Great's love of academia and collectibles in this podcast from HowStuffWorks.com!

Afraid his mother, Catherine the Great, would have him assassinated, Russian Emperor Paul I built a fortress to protect himself. But after a shocking betrayal, death entered the castle… and with it, spectral soldiers, swirling fog, and a blue-eyed man with a grimace. Learn more a ...  Show more

Why was the early life of Peter the Great - Tsar and autocrat of all the Russias, who endures to this day as an iconic symbol of Russian might - drenched in blood and violence? What amalgamation of court politics and family feuding saw him catapulted to the role of Tsar against a ...  Show more