Episodes

• Season 2

• Colonel Gaddafi Part 1: Son of the Desert

  ‘Brother Leader’, ‘King of Kings’, ‘Falcon of Africa’… ‘The Most Dangerous Man in the World.’ Colonel Gaddafi was the Libyan tyrant who abused his people on an industrial scale, until he was murdered by them as they rose up against his rule. He was the revolutionary leader who freed his country from the shackles of empire only to squander its riches, turning Libya into the ultimate rogue state. To the West he was, alternately, a sponsor of global terror or a convenient ally. But where did it all begin? In the early 1940s, at the height of World War Two, a child is born in a Bedouin tented encampment in Libya’s desert west. From these humble origins, Muammar Gaddafi will go on to dominate global events for half a century. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  June 15, 2021

  40 min

• Francisco Franco Part 5: Life After the Dictator

  In 1959, Franco marks 20 years as leader of Spain. Now, he embraces capitalism and paints himself as a moderniser. The country experiences rapid economic growth and becomes a leading holiday destination. Meanwhile, the regime tries to stamp out the embers of Republicanism wherever they still burn. Later, as he suffers ill health, Franco plans his own succession. The ailing Generalissimo headhunts and trains up a dashing young heir. But it remains to be seen whether this named successor will keep to Franco’s script. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  June 8, 2021

  42 min

• Francisco Franco Part 4: Fascist Firebrand to Cold War Warrior

  The White Terror continues as Spain’s self-proclaimed strongman assumes power in Madrid. Herding his defeated enemies into concentration camps, Franco uses them to realise huge architectural projects, including the Valley of the Fallen. Declaring the start of a ‘glorious’ new era, ‘El Caudillo’ commissions a movie to tell the story of his own life. Die-hard Republican rebels continue to resist the Nationalists in the mountains. Meanwhile, in the aftermath of World War Two, Franco seeks to re-brand his regime, as he sets about winning over a brand-new ally: the United States. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  June 1, 2021

  36 min

• Francisco Franco Part 3: The Civil War and the White Terror

  When Spain erupts into civil war in July 1936, Franco finds himself marooned far away in the Canary Islands. Two men meet for lunch at an upscale London restaurant, where they finalise a daring plan to assist him. Back on Spanish soil, Franco begins the process of conquering his homeland, butchering his enemies as he goes. He is aided by two key allies: Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler. As he closes in on Madrid, the tyrant-in-waiting is already laying the groundwork for a decades-long dictatorship. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  May 25, 2021

  42 min

• Francisco Franco Part 2: The ‘Little Major’ Terrorises Africa

  In 1917, Franco is an up-and-coming army officer. He returns to northern Spain to assume command of a battalion. He starts attending Mass at 7AM every morning, as he begins a courtship with Carmen - a schoolgirl at a local convent. But before long, Franco is on the move once again. After an encounter with a charismatic army superior, Franco joins the Spanish Foreign Legion. Sent back to Africa as part of this new role, Franco manages to turn himself into a poster boy for colonial adventure - this despite his brutal treatment of the local Moroccan population. Meanwhile, separatist movements gather momentum across mainland Spain, as different regions reject the central government. The country lurches between wildly different political regimes. As Francisco Franco continues to climb the army’s ranks, Spain spirals towards civil war. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  May 18, 2021

  46 min

• Francisco Franco Part 1: Spain’s Buried Past

  Today, Spain is Europe’s holiday capital. But beyond the sun-kissed veneer lie sinister secrets. When you think of European dictators two names usually spring to mind: Hitler and Mussolini. Francisco Franco’s name is often overlooked. Today, Spain is a vibrant democracy. But in living memory - from 1939 to 1975 - General Franco ruled the nation as dictator. Despite his bloody campaigns of civilian repression, Franco held power for decades and died peacefully in his bed at the ripe old age of 82. How was he able to commit such atrocities and get away with it? The story begins in the 1890s on Spain’s Atlantic coast, where Francisco Franco is born and raised. After joining the army, the young officer is posted to north Africa, where his desperation to make his name will nearly cost him his life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  May 11, 2021

  39 min

• Adolf Hitler Part 7: The Day of Treason

  In the final part of Hitler’s Early Years, the Nazi leader completes his journey from obscurity to treason. At the age of 34, Adolf Hitler launches his very own assault on power: the Munich Putsch. The aim is to seize control of Bavaria before marching north and taking the German capital, Berlin. Hitler dispatches SA shock troops to storm locations across Munich, while he himself locks and loads a pistol and prepares to hijack a political meeting. Will the Nazis succeed in taking over Germany? Or will they fail and fade back into obscurity? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  May 4, 2021

  36 min

• Adolf Hitler Part 6: Hitler’s Secret Book

  The Nazis’ media operation goes up a gear, as they seek to turn Hitler into an iconic, national figure. In a secret autobiography, Hitler directly compares his own political rise to Jesus’s resurrection. Two crises unfold in tandem, as French and Belgian troops cross Germany’s western border while the economy goes into meltdown. Knowing they stand to profit from this turmoil, the Nazis begin plotting their very own coup d’état. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  April 27, 2021

  36 min

• Adolf Hitler Part 5: The Stormtroopers Arrive

  After observing a failed coup in Berlin, Hitler takes one vital lesson: he needs an army of his own. The Nazis create a paramilitary unit - the Sturmabteilung, or the SA. These hooligans turn Munich upside down as they take National Socialism onto the streets. Hitler begins assembling an executive team of allies and deputies, including an army insider with a stockpile of weapons, and a celebrity fighter pilot. Ernst Röhm and Hermann Göring will be pivotal figures in the Nazi Party for years to come. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  April 20, 2021

  40 min

• Adolf Hitler Part 4: The Spy Becomes the Nazi Leader

  Hitler is sent undercover by the Bavarian Army to infiltrate a band of extreme nationalists. But their message resonates deeply with the spy, and he breaks cover to join their ranks. This German Workers’ Party will soon become the Nazi Party, and this new recruit will become their leader. Under his new mentor - a playwright and morphine addict called Dietrich Eckart - Adolf Hitler is finding his voice, and his march towards leadership is grinding into gear. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  April 13, 2021

  38 min

• Adolf Hitler Part 3: From Soldier to Propaganda Agent

  Hitler gets the news he’s been dreading, as he learns that World War One has ended. The German people wrestle with the reality of defeat. Revolutions break out across the land, as the Kaiser’s regime is swept away. Discharged from hospital, Hitler returns home to Munich. While most troops are demobilised, Hitler is desperate to remain a soldier. He will do whatever it takes to keep his army job. The Allies gather in Paris to settle the tab for the Great War. Disenchanted and disillusioned, Hitler drinks in far-right conspiracy theories. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  April 6, 2021

  48 min

• Adolf Hitler Part 2: Hitler in the First World War

  In June 1914, an assassination on the streets of Sarajevo disrupts the delicate balance of power in Europe. With Archduke Franz Ferdinand dead, the First World War explodes into action. Adolf Hitler, meanwhile, relocates to Munich. After dodging the Austrian draft, he soon embraces life as a German soldier. But then, while serving in Flanders in 1918, a traumatic injury threatens to end his rise to power before it has even begun. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  March 30, 2021

  44 min

• Adolf Hitler Part 1: Birth of a Führer

  You may know something of the Hitler story. But there’s a decent chance you don’t know the half of it. We begin a deep dive into the early years of a man who became the very embodiment of evil. Peeling away Hitler’s own myths about his childhood, we explore how he emerged from obscurity to begin his political journey. The future German Führer isn’t born in Germany. He’s born next door, in Austria. Growing up in the borderlands, he clashes with his austere father but idolises his doting mother. The young Hitler abandons schoolwork and dedicates himself to the artistic life. He sets his sights on Vienna, where he hopes to make it as a painter. But then tragedy strikes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  March 24, 2021

  44 min
• Season 1

• Introducing: Real Narcos Season 2 - Félix Gallardo

  From the creators of Real Dictators comes Real Narcos, the show that takes you to the front line of the war on drugs. For Season 2, we're in Mexico. In 1985, Kiki Camarena is a US DEA agent on the trail of Félix Gallardo - the man known as the Mexican Godfather. But Camarena's kidnapping at the hands of the cartel will send shockwaves around the world. Search 'Real Narcos' in your podcast app and hit subscribe for weekly episodes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  January 26, 2021

  39 min

• General Tojo Part 4: The End of World War II

  In the final part of this story, the walls are beginning to close in on Japan’s wartime Prime Minister, General Hideki Tojo. He opts to take hands-on control of the remaining armed forces, despite minimal battlefield experience, and hatches a rogue scheme to knock the British out of the War. Staring down the barrel of defeat, Emperor Hirohito weighs up finally pulling the plug on his lead General. With Tojo forced out of office and on the run from the Allies in Tokyo, the end of World War II arrives. But its final chapter will change the world forever more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  December 7, 2020

  43 min

• General Tojo Part 3: Attack on Pearl Harbor

  Japan attacks the US naval base at Pearl Harbor in the opening salvo of the Pacific War. Caught unawares, President Franklin D. Roosevelt responds by ratcheting up America’s military capabilities at an astonishing rate. Already Prime Minister of Japan, Hideki Tojo now moves to take every significant government post for himself. As Japanese troops sweep through the Malay Peninsula, a military hospital in Singapore comes into their crosshairs. As thousands of Allied soldiers are interned in prisoner of war camps, they face conditions that beggar belief. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  November 30, 2020

  38 min

• General Tojo Part 2: Kill All, Burn All, Loot All

  We return to Japan and the story of the workaholic army officer who rose through the ranks to lead his nation into total war. Hideki Tojo restores discipline to the military following the Aizawa Incident. He is promoted to Major General and rewarded with command of the secret police - the Kempeitai. The Imperial Japanese Army invades China and embarks on a campaign to terrorise the civilian population. Kempeitai operatives set up a research lab where they carry out horrific medical and weapons experiments, seeking a decisive edge over Japan’s enemies. This is only the beginning. Before long, spurred on by Prime Minister Tojo, the nation readies itself for war with the United States. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  November 22, 2020

  42 min

• General Tojo Part 1: The Young Samurai

  General Hideki Tojo was the man who led Japan into World War 2 and oversaw some of the most horrific war crimes in recorded history. Tojo did not hold absolute power - his means of imposing his will were more nuanced than that. But he more than earns his place at this table. Ruling under a compliant Emperor, Tojo gathered power to himself. This is the story of the minister who outgrew his master, the bureaucrat whose relentless work ethic took him to the apex of Japan’s totalitarian military state. Hideki Tojo is born in 1884. Japan is an emerging power on the world stage, a nation growing in confidence and ambition. We chart Tojo’s upbringing through the 1880s and ‘90s, before the man they call “The Razor” begins his journey up the greasy pole of Japanese politics. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  November 16, 2020

  34 min

• Papa Doc Part 3: Vampire of the Caribbean

  François Duvalier has created a terrifying cult of personality around himself. Not only is he President for Life; he claims to be an immaterial being - a spirit that will hover over Haiti even after his body dies. With near-godlike status achieved, his thoughts turn to his legacy. The groundwork is laid for the President’s son, Jean-Claude, to inherit power. This young man they call “Baby Doc” sits waiting in the wings. Meanwhile, regime loyalists devise increasingly sinister and corrupt methods to line their own pockets. Our contributors reflect on the legacy of Papa Doc - a name that will forever haunt the nightmares of Haitians. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  September 9, 2020

  33 min

• Papa Doc Part 2: Haiti’s Dictator vs JFK

  Ensconced in the Presidential Palace, Haitian dictator “Papa Doc” Duvalier crushes an attempted coup without mercy. Spooked by this near miss, Duvalier forms his own private militia called the Tonton Macoute. They take their name from a terrifying bogeyman of Haitian mythology and will go on to kill as many as 60,000 Haitians. Desperate to prevent communism taking hold in the Caribbean, the United States initially helps to prop up Papa Doc’s administration. Better the devil you know… But as the horrors of the regime become unavoidably clear, President Kennedy decides the time has come to lay down a marker. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
  September 2, 2020

  41 min