Kösem Sultan, part 1

This week we're joined by our friend Bash from Historical Homos to tell one of the most unbelievable stories we've ever covered. Meet the Chevalier d'Éon: an 18th-century French noble who somehow managed to be a spy, soldier, diplomat, bestselling author, blackmailer of the King ...  Show more

This week, Katy and Nathan take a break from queens and head into the world of UFO cults. In 1950s Chicago, housewife Dorothy Martin began receiving messages through automatic writing from beings she believed lived on the planet Clarion. With the help of a small group called the ...  Show more

Ottoman Sultans kept a harem of hundreds of enslaved concubines to bear their children. But from 1533 to 1656 a handful of remarkable women bent the harem system to their wills and exercised extraordinary political influence and power. This period is known as the The Sultanate of ...  Show more

Ottoman Sultans kept a harem of hundreds of enslaved concubines to bear their children. But from 1533 to 1656 a handful of remarkable women bent the harem system to their wills and exercised extraordinary political influence and power. This period is known as the The Sultanate of ...  Show more

Ottoman Sultans kept a harem of hundreds of enslaved concubines to bear their children. But from 1533 to 1656 a handful of remarkable women bent the harem system to their wills and exercised extraordinary political influence and power. This period is known as the The Sultanate of ...  Show more

This is the third in our three-part series on the most powerful women in the Middle Ages. To wrap things up we will explore the lives of two female rulers — one very famous, the other almost unknown. They are Elizabeth I of Tudor and Ottoman Queen Mother Kösem Sultan.

Eliz ...  Show more