The Hated and the Dead

John F. Kennedy served as President of the United States from 1961 until his assassination in November 1963. An impressive and courageous record as president demonstrates Kennedy's unmistakable personal fortitude, but his legacy has been tarnished by his lack of faithfulness to his wife Jackie, and evidence he slept with women linked to the mafia and America's enemies abroad.  My guest f...

Slobodan Milosevic served as the President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 until 2000, and as Serbian President within Yugoslavia for six years prior. While most political leaders avoid war at all cost, Milosevic managed to embroil his country in four armed conflicts. Worse still, he lost all of them. In spite of this, Milosevic stayed in power long past his sell-by date, demonstra...

Justin Trudeau has been Canada's prime minister since 2015. The son of former prime minister Pierre Trudeau, Justin has become an international icon for feminists and progressives, whilst his polished and stage-managed governing style has generated scores of critics inside Canada.  On the face of it, Trudeau might not appear as unpleasant as many of the other characters I have studied on this...

Richard Nixon served as the 37th President of the United States from 1969 until his resignation in 1974. Elected to America’s highest office in the tumultuous 1968 presidential election, Nixon’s presidency is one of the most contradictory in the country’s history. Progressive reformer or reactionary racist? Peace frog or warmonger? Fiery populist or isolated introvert? In short, you can make a cas...

Aleksandar Vucic has been President of Serbia since 2017. An illiberal democrat and a populist, Vucic has mixed intimidation of opposition media at home with an intriguing foreign policy. The latter has translated into a fascinating balancing act between the EU, Russia and China. Re-elected in a landslide in April 2022, Vucic's presidency shows few signs of ending anytime soon.  My guest for...

Imran Khan served as prime minister of Pakistan from 2018 until 2022. Removed in a controversial no confidence vote on April 10th of this year, Khan is now touring Pakistan trying to stir up support for his political career- but the all-powerful military might well have other ideas. My guest for this conversation is Declan Walsh (@declanwalsh on Twitter), Chief Africa correspondent for the New Yor...

Iain Macleod was a British Conservative politician who served as Colonial Secretary from 1959 until 1961, and Chancellor of the Exchequer for just one month in 1970, before his sudden death. Widely regarded as the cleverest Tory of his generation, questions remain as to whether he might have kept the troubled Heath government on course, had he lived.  My guest for this conversation is former Conse...

Mohammed bin Salman has been Crown Prince (heir to the throne) of Saudi Arabia since 2017.  As de facto leader of the country, he has enacted a series of liberalising social reforms that have had positive effects for Saudi women and young people. However, he has also centralised massive political power around himself, leading to many unpleasant moments, including the murder of Royal court figure t...

Tony Benn served as member of parliament for both Bristol South East and Chesterfield, in a parliamentary career that lasted from 1950 until 2001. Benn's transformation from technocrat in the 1960s to left-wing iconoclast in the 1980s is one of the most important in the history of the Labour Party.  Benn proved a major source of inspiration for Jeremy Corbyn, but has become a hate figure for...

Solomon Mujuru served as head of the Zimbabwean Defence Forces from 1981 until 1992, having been one of the most important figures in Zimbabwe's struggle for independence in the 1970s. A brilliant military leader, his fiery relationship with President Robert Mugabe has been the subject of much speculation, especially in the light of Mujuru's mysterious death in 2011. My guest for this ep...

Eamon de Valera served as Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) four times, and as Irish President between 1959 and 1973. The most significant figure in the independent country's century-long history, de Valera was a key figure in securing and moulding Irish independence for six decades. His long public life has led to a popular image of de Valera as austere, pious, and as representing the economi...

Jacob Zuma served as President of South Africa from 2009 until 2018. A hero of the anti-apartheid struggle, Zuma's time in power is remembered for corruption and self-indulgence- the rural complex he built for himself reportedly cost nearly $25 million.  My guest today is Alec Russell, former News Editor of the Financial Times, and currently the Editor of FT Weekend (@AlecuRussell on Twitter)...

In a first, my guest and I examine a group of people, rather than one single politician. Adventure Capitalists are a loosely connected group of libertarian-leaning businessmen, dedicated to creating "exit projects". These projects are private polities outside the control of the constitutions and laws of traditional nation states, meaning that the adventure capitalists become the kings (o...

Margaret Thatcher served as UK prime minister between 1979 and 1990. Arguably the most divisive British politician ever, her reputation as a beacon of controversy and dogmatism precedes her. Thatcher, however, serves as an example of a politician whose reputation is so controversial that it has become very difficult to make an objective assessment of her time in office. My guest for this conversat...

Tony Blair served as prime minister of the United Kingdom between 1997 and 2007. The first Labour prime minister in 18 years, Blair took Labour away from its left-wing roots towards a less ideological position focused on winning elections. Whilst successful in this aim (Labour won three general elections in a row), Blair is now deeply unpopular among the British public, and Labour has not won an e...

Sheikh Hasina has been the prime minister of Bangladesh since 2009. Her early credentials as a pioneer of democracy have been tainted by election fraud, and a spate of extrajudicial killings and torture. My guest for this episode was Tasneem Khalil (@tasneem on Twitter), a Bangladeshi journalist who was forced to leave his country after being imprisoned by the Bangladeshi authorities in 2007. He i...

After successful careers in bodybuilding and Hollywood, Arnold Schwarzenegger served as Governor of California from 2003 until 2011. His reputation as a moderate Republican, in a party that has moved far to the right since, makes Schwarzenegger  an interesting character to study- as does his surprisingly serious governing style. My guest for this one was Seth Masket of the University of Denver (@s...

Saunders Lewis was a Welsh writer and the founder of Welsh nationalist party Plaid Cymru. His reactionary, anti-socialist views put him at odds with the all-conquering socialist movement in the South Wales of the 1930s, and indeed with the centre-left Plaid Cymru of today. My guest for this conversation was T Robin Chapman, senior lecturer in Welsh Studies at Aberystwyth University.

Lee Kuan Yew served as prime minister of Singapore between 1959 and 1990. A  calculating control freak, Lee's rule was highly authoritarian, and left a mark on Singapore that has, so far at least, proved indelible. My guest for this was author and historian PJ Thum, founder of pro-democracy group New Naratif (@NewNaratif on Twitter). 

Dwight Eisenhower served as Supreme Allied Commander during World War II, and as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. Whilst his presidency is often ranked highly among presidential experts, other scholars have pointed out Eisenhower's mixed record on civil rights, his overthrowing of democratic governments abroad and his "tip-toeing" into Vietnam as reasons...

Hamid Karzai served as President of Afghanistan from 2001 until 2014. Karzai's presidency spanned the lion's share of the 20 year-long US-led intervention in Afghanistan. Though Karzai often frustrated American leadership, my guest today claims that the Americans made many mistakes in their dealings with Karzai. That guest would know, too; he is Ronald Neumann, who served as US Ambassado...

Eric Zemmour is a French journalist and independent candidate for the French presidency. April's presidential election looks to be a race exclusively between right-wing candidates such as Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen and Valerie Pecresse. None, however, are as right-wing as Zemmour, who looks poised to bring the already simmering tensions between the French state and French Muslims to new h...

Newt Gingrich served as Speaker of the House of Representatives in the US Congress from 1995 until 1998. In turning the Republican Party into a more organised conservative formation, many blame Gingrich for having caused the dysfunction, polarisation and ill-feeling that defines American politics today. My guest for this episode is Matthew Green of the Catholic University of America (@mattngreen o...

Michael Foot was the leader of the Labour Party from 1980 until 1983. Though he led the party to one of the worst electoral defeats in its history, he was a brilliant orator, and is still adored by many left-wing Brits today. My guest for this conversation is Neil Kinnock, the man who succeeded Foot as Labour leader in 1983. We discuss Foot's conversion to socialism, the disastrous 1983 elect...

Alfonso XIII was King of Spain from 1902 until Spain became a Republic in 1931. A hubristic and deluded leader, he presided over his country's collapse into political polarisation and Civil War. The Spain of then, with unresponsive political elites and burgeoning hard left and hard right political movements and subcultures, is chillingly similar to many Western countries today. My guest for t...