252. Victorian Narcos: Selling Drugs To The Q...

Why did the communists and nationalists join forces with the USSR during the Chinese Civil War? When did the nationalists purge communists in what is known as the “White Terror”? Why did 80,000 communists walk across the country in the “Long March”, and how is this retreat refram ...  Show more

A revolutionary hero or a brutal despot? Mao Zedong has one of the most recognisable portraits on Earth. How did he rise to become the founder of the People’s Republic of China? ** Binge all six episodes of the series on Chairman Mao by joining the Empire Club today at empirepodu ...  Show more

Colombia in the mid-20th century was a place of beauty and bloodshed - where jungle mountains sheltered rebels, the cities were ruled by oligarchs, and outlaw legends became folk heroes. Into this world stepped Pablo Escobar. Charming, calm, and calculating, he would become one o ...  Show more

In the early 1980s, Pablo Escobar reinvented himself. He was no longer just the man who could smuggle tonnes of cocaine into Miami - he was the successful businessman, the philanthropist, the proud family man. To the poor, he built homes and football fields. To the powerful, he o ...  Show more

How did Oleg Gordievsky get recruited to work for MI6? What effect did living in Copenhagen have on his political views? And how did Britain nearly blow the recruitment of one of the most consequential spies in history? Listen as David and Gordon continue their series on Oleg Gor ...  Show more

Who was the Rector of Stiffkey, Harold Davidson - the "Prostitutes' Padre" - and why was he Britain’s most notorious curate? Was it his unnerving infatuation with girls that saw him put on trial and defrocked in 1932? What was the nature of the scandal surrounding the case? What ...  Show more