Podcast

It wasn't just a war of independence, it was a civil war, a bloodbath, and the blueprint for modern nationalism all rolled into one. The Greek Revolution of the 1820s reshaped Europe, but the real story is darker and more complicated than the heroic tales suggest. We chat with Dr. Michalis Sotiropoulos, historian of modern... <p>The post #20 Greece – Forging a Nation through Revol...

He was a hot-dog seller who became a warlord. A convicted criminal who commanded the world's most feared mercenary army, the Wagner Group. And then he did what no one had dared since the Soviet collapse: he pointed Russian tanks at Moscow and took a swing at the Kremlin. On this episode, we sit down... <p>The post #19 Russia – Prigozhin’s March on Moscow first appeared on Pu...

In the early 20th century, Mexico was a playground for a dictator, foreign corporations and a tiny elite while millions of peasants lived in desperate poverty. In this Putschcast episode, we ride into the chaos of the Mexican Revolution. Joining us is Dr Robert Weis, an expert on modern Mexico, who walks us through the... <p>The post #18 Mexico – Another Revolution devoures its Childre...

How could a city break away from its own country to try and build a radical, democratic utopia from scratch? In the middle of a war with a foreign power. In the spring of 1871, Paris did exactly that. Amidst the chaos and starvation of the Franco-Prussian War, the working class rose up to establish... <p>The post #17 France – The radical Women of the Paris Commune first appeared on Put...

What happens when a dead Pope is dug up, dressed in vestments, and put on trial by his living successor? A necrophilic coup? Yes, this story is true and Steve Guerra from The History of the Papacy podcast joins Putschcast to unpack the Cadaver Synod of 897 AD, the single most bizarre chapter in Rome's... <p>The post #16 Vatican – The Cadaver Synod first appeared on Putschcast: A r...

111 years after the Armenian Genocide, we provide context around the turbulent years that lead up to the massacres and the subsuquent fall of the Ottoman Empire.  In this episode, historian Professor Adrian Jones and political scientist Dr Tezcan Gümüş dismantle the narrative of the “Sick Man of Europe” to explore the empire's desperate gamble... <p>The post #15 Ottoman Empi...

Exactly thirty years ago, a single Russian missile strike, guided by his satellite phone, ended the life of former Soviet General turned rebel leader, Dzhokhar Dudayev. For five years, he had been in charge of a tiny speck of land in Russia's deep south called Chechnya. His fellow Caucasian mountain rebels put up a fight... <p>The post #14 Chechnya – Humiliation leads to Assassina...

Western media calls Hezbollah a terrorist group and leaves it at that. This Putschcast episode does something more: it shows how the organisation governs; terrorising its own people while supporting others. Journalist Dr Rami Aycha offers an inside look at Hassan Nasrallah – his rise, 30-year reign, and brutal death by Israeli forces. Aycha's connection... <p>The post #13 Lebanon &#8211...

John the Baptist was not just a prophet and religious firebrand; he was also a political revolutionary, according to the Bible. He took on the Roman client King Herod Antipas and called for more equality while challenging the status quo, immoral behaviour, and hypocritical religious leaders. However, what was his relationship and connection to Jesus... <p>The post #12 Galilee – Jesus&#...

The Haitian Revolution is the only successful slave revolt that birthed a free republic. Professor Nicolai von Eggers brings a crucial perspective to understanding the revolution not just as a military event, but as a profound political upheaval in the colony of Saint-Domingue, which at the time, was the world's most profitable colony. We unpack... <p>The post #11 Haiti – Successf...