Empress Dowager Cixi of China Part 1: Coup Th...

Just in time for America’s 250th birthday, follow Dan Taberski (Hysterical, 9/12, Missing Richard Simmons) as he sets off on his most complicated quest yet: to reclaim the manifesto and write his own. Dan attempts to rescue the manifesto as a form from the sweaty clutches of cyni ...  Show more

Before Anne Boleyn, there was Mary. And her scandalous affair with King Henry VIII offers a whole new perspec:ve on “divorced, beheaded, died”. We dig into the story of the hidden Boleyn sister, including how she got caught up in a messy slut-shaming rumour that would come to def ...  Show more

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

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 

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

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the woman who, for almost fifty years, was the most powerful figure in the Chinese court. Cixi (1835-1908) started out at court as one of the Emperor's many concubines, yet was the only one who gave him a son to succeed him and who also possessed g ...  Show more