Yasuke: The First African Samurai

How long is the Great Wall of China? When was it built? Are there really skeletons buried inside it?Matt Lewis poses these questions and many more to Dr Jeremiah Jenne, co-host of the Chinese history podcast, Barbarians at the Gate. Together they recount the storied development o ...  Show more

What really happened to the French crown jewels? On the 19th October, 2025, a gang of thieves disguised as construction workers broke into the Louvre. Their target: the Gallery of Apollo, where the French Crown Jewels were on display. They made off with eight pieces of the crown ...  Show more

Japanese Daimyo Oda Nobunaga was fascinated by the mysterious, towering slave of a visiting Jesuit missionary, and soon this man, Yasuke, joined Nobunaga's court, eventually becoming a full-on samurai. Join the guys as they explore the strange life of the African-born samurai, Ya ...  Show more

Near the end of Japan's "Warring States" period a remarkable visitor arrived in the country with a group of European Jesuit missionaries. He was a soldier originally from East Africa acting as a bodyguard for the ranking Jesuit in Japan. The Japanese would come to know this man a ...  Show more

Matt Lewis presents a special episode from his podcast Echoes of History on the medieval 'Demon' Samurai.

In the world of Assassin's Creed Shadows, the legendary Hattori Hanzo embodies both samurai and shinobi warriors, and earned himself the nickname "The D ...