Explore every episode of the podcast Legacy
| Title | Pub. Date | Duration | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Inbox: Yesteryear | Waking Up in 1855 | Book Club | 10 Sep 2026 | 00:23:21 | |
What happens to a trad wife influencer when she wakes up in 1855 and has to actually do it? Why were film producers bidding on this novel four years before it was finished? And when a story about white homesteaders in pre-Civil War America contains no Black people at all, what is it quietly telling you? Peter asks Afua what she read over the summer and gets a debut novel, a four-year-old email she'd forgotten about, and a criticism that has nothing to do with the plot. Caro Claire Burke's Yesteryear drops a trad wife influencer — sourdough starter, eight children, millions of followers — into an actual 1855 homestead and makes her live there. Afua raced through it and gives it full marks for the idea. Her objection sits somewhere else entirely, and it's the kind of absence you can't unsee once someone points at it. Along the way: why publishers post books to your house forever once you've written one, why Peter keeps being asked to read 550 pages in ten days, and how a novel now gets optioned for film before it has been written. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:26] The one thing Afua only lets herself read in summer [3:13] Books arrive forever once you're published, and the etiquette nobody explains [8:42] The novel Afua found sitting in her own inbox, four years early [12:47] Sourdough, eight children, and a fantasy of the American past [18:03] Peter on class and labour, and why Burke chose 1855 [20:28] Afua's real objection, and it isn't the plot [21:13] The Legacy Book Club verdict, in three separate scores Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 9/11: 25 Years On | The Forever War | 2 | 08 Sep 2026 | 00:43:45 | |
Content warning: this episode describes the aftermath of 11 September 2001, including torture and civilian deaths. How does a country go from the sympathy of the entire world to invading a nation that had nothing to do with the attack? What does a blank cheque from the UN Security Council actually buy? And if torture only counts as torture when the pain is equivalent to organ failure, what exactly is everything below that line? Peter Frankopan follows the response from NATO's Article 5 to the caves of Tora Bora, while Afua Hirsch — then a trainee human rights barrister — describes what the war on terror did to British law. Within twenty-four hours, NATO invokes Article 5 for the first and only time in its history. Within three days, Congress passes a sixty-word resolution with a single vote against it; it has since been used to justify American military operations in more than twenty countries. Afghanistan is meant to be narrow and quick, and for five weeks it looks like it. Then bin Laden walks over the mountains into Pakistan, Washington's attention swings to a country with no connection to the attacks, and Colin Powell goes to the United Nations holding a small glass vial. Ten years later he is found living a mile from Pakistan's military academy — and by then the war no longer needs him. Part two of three, twenty-five years on. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] The scorecard: two invasions, $8 trillion, 900,000 dead, and the Taliban back in Kabul [3:56] Nous sommes tous américains — Le Monde, the Brandenburg Gate, and candles in Tehran [5:39] Article 5, invoked once in NATO's history, to defend America from nineteen men [12:37] Five weeks to Kabul — then a cave complex at Tora Bora, and bin Laden walks away [18:53] "These are facts. They're not statements." Colin Powell at the United Nations [26:32] Afua's first day as a pupil barrister, and a man accused of training the hijackers [33:19] The torture memos: pain that only counts if it's equivalent to organ failure [41:50] A compound in Abbottabad, a mile from Pakistan's military academy Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Inbox: Genghis Khan and the Empire We Got Wrong | Marie Favereau | 03 Sep 2026 | 00:41:31 | |
Who taught you that the Mongols only destroyed things? What if the empire that sacked Baghdad also invented blue and white porcelain, elected its leaders, and let the Khan's first wife decide on war? And why do the Mongols still have a worse reputation than any other empire in history — including the ones that lasted longer and killed more? In this Legacy Inbox episode, Peter is joined by Marie Favereau, one of the world's leading historians of the Mongol Empire, whose work has done more than anyone's to dismantle the story of a bloodthirsty wave that destroyed everything in front of it. A small group of nomads from what is now Mongolia — probably fewer than a million people — reached Central Europe within sixty years. They did it partly by fighting in winter, when everyone else went home, and by bringing their families and their herds with them so they never had to depend on the villages they passed through. Then they stopped conquering and started building: cities, workshops, tax systems, religious debates at court, and a trade network running from Korea to the Mediterranean. Marie Favereau is co-curator of Genghis Khan: How the Mongols Changed the World, at the Royal Armouries in Leeds until 1 November — almost 250 objects out of Mongolia, most of which have never left the country before. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] Peter introduces Marie Favereau, and the 248 objects that have just landed in Leeds [5:48] Ridden, eaten, milked, worn — why everything starts with the horse [9:47] Khans are elected, can be deposed, and the senior wife decides on trade, diplomacy and war [13:22] "If you just build your empire on the family, you have a dead-born empire" [16:44] Blue and white porcelain turns out to be a Mongol invention [36:12] Why the Mongols get a worse press than any empire that came after them Genghis Khan: How the Mongols Changed the World runs at the Royal Armouries Museum, Leeds, until 1 November 2026. Adults £9, concessions £7, under-16s free. Co-curated by Marie Favereau and Natasha Bennett. royalarmouries.org/leeds/whats-on/genghis-khan Marie Favereau's book The Horde: How the Mongols Changed the World is published by Harvard University Press. Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 9/11: 25 Years On | The World That Made 9/11 | 1 | 01 Sep 2026 | 00:38:07 | |
Content warning: this episode describes the events of 11 September 2001 in detail. What if the deadliest terror attack in history began with an American chequebook? What if the men who carried it out had once been armed, trained and celebrated by the West as freedom fighters? And what if the whole thing was set in motion more than twenty years earlier, on Christmas Eve? Afua Hirsch and Peter Frankopan begin the story of 9/11 two decades before it happened, in the mountains of Afghanistan. July 1979: Jimmy Carter signs off half a million dollars of covert aid to Afghan rebels, and a CIA programme called Operation Cyclone begins. By 1987 it is running at $630 million a year, matched dollar for dollar by Saudi Arabia. Among the thousands who answer the call to fight the Soviets is the softly spoken son of a Saudi construction billionaire. Twenty-two years later, nineteen men walk through airport security in Boston, Washington and Newark carrying box cutters that nobody had thought to ban. This is the first of three episodes marking twenty-five years since 9/11 — where al-Qaeda came from, what happened on the day, and the moment almost the entire world stood with America. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] The story doesn't start in New York — it starts in the mountains of Afghanistan [2:17] Christmas Eve 1979, and Soviet transport planes land at Kabul airport [4:04] Operation Cyclone: Carter, Brzezinski, and a plan to build Moscow its own Vietnam [7:48] Romanticised as freedom fighters — and the Saudi billionaire's son who answers the call [12:01] Afua puts it to Peter directly: did the CIA fund bin Laden? [16:38] The Soviets leave, the West loses interest, and bin Laden names his new organisation [23:32] A cloudless blue Tuesday, and a primary election in New York [29:39] Two and a half hours, nineteen men, and the deadliest terror attack in history Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Inbox: Lindsey Graham and the Price of a Seat at the Table | 27 Aug 2026 | 00:25:14 | |
How does a man go from calling Donald Trump a kook and a jackass to becoming his closest ally in the Senate? What do you give up to keep a seat at the table, and what do you actually get for it? And when the obituaries settle on calling you a pilot fish, has anything you did survived you? Lindsey Graham flew home from Kyiv on a Friday and was dead by Saturday evening, aged 71 — Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch on a career built almost entirely on proximity to other people's power. He was orphaned in his early twenties and raised his younger sister. He was the first in his family to go to university, served in the Air Force, and reached the Senate in 2002 by taking Strom Thurmond's seat. For a decade he was the Republican who legislated with Democrats: the Gang of Eight immigration bill, one third of the three amigos alongside John McCain and Joe Lieberman. Then he called Trump a race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot and said the party would be destroyed and would deserve it. Then McCain died. A year to the day before January 6th, the Republican strategist Steve Schmidt gave Rolling Stone the line that has followed Graham ever since: he is a pilot fish, the small fish that swims beside the shark and takes on its colouring. Peter and Afua on whether that is the whole story, and on what a seat at the table is worth. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] A flight home from Kyiv, a cardiac arrest on Capitol Hill, and a death nobody saw coming [6:14] A restaurant, a pool hall, two funerals, and a younger sister to raise [9:13] The three amigos, and the decade Graham spent legislating with Democrats [11:42] A kook, a jackass, and a party that would be destroyed and would deserve it [12:46] "McCain died" — the two-word answer to how everything changed [17:24] The pilot fish, the shark, and what a seat at the table actually costs Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Modern Travel | The Full Package | 5 | 25 Aug 2026 | 00:42:55 | |
Who decided that the thing stopping people travelling was not money, but choice? What happens to a country when the holiday is designed so that the visitor never has to leave the compound? And of every hundred dollars you spend at an all-inclusive, how much do you think actually stays there? Gerard Blitz opened his first holiday village on a Majorcan beach in 1950 on the theory that what people wanted was not adventure but the removal of every decision — Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch follow that idea all the way to the gated resorts of the present. The all-inclusive is now worth close to a hundred billion dollars a year. In the Dominican Republic it accounts for more than seventy per cent of hotel rooms and helps generate over forty per cent of GDP. And of every hundred dollars a guest spends, roughly five stays in the local economy. The rest is repatriated to foreign operators, international airlines and global supply chains, along with the food flown in so that nobody has to eat anything unfamiliar. In water-stressed places, guests can use ten times what a local resident uses in a day. In Jamaica there is now a movement against the privatisation of beaches that local people can no longer reach. Afua has just come back from an Arawak village in the Guyanese Amazon where all-inclusive means something entirely different. Peter, who has enjoyed rather more package holidays than he lets on, is not convinced the answer is to take them away from people. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] Sun lounger wars at dawn, and the buffet as a way of life [7:58] Gerard Blitz, a Belgian on a Majorcan beach, and the founding of Club Med [14:59] A hundred billion dollars a year, and the country where all-inclusives are seventy per cent of the rooms [16:39] Five dollars in every hundred — where the rest of your money actually goes [17:54] Ten times the water a local resident uses in a day [26:47] The beaches in Jamaica that Jamaicans can no longer reach [31:07] Plantations sold as celebratory places, and what the industry assumes you cannot handle [34:14] Afua in the Amazon: an all-inclusive of a completely different kind Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Inbox: Zhu Rongji and the Price of Modern China | 20 Aug 2026 | 00:25:11 | |
Why does a kettle cost less than ten pounds? What kind of official refuses to send the army against protesters in one decade, then puts thirty million people out of work in the next? And when the man who built modern China spent his last twenty years saying nothing at all, what was he saying? Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch disagree, at length and on the record, about whether the architect of the modern cheap economy was brave or simply ruthless. Zhu Rongji died in Beijing in August, aged 97. Outside China his name means very little. Inside China, and inside every container ship leaving Ningbo, it means a great deal. He trained as an electrical engineer, was expelled from the Communist Party for speaking approvingly of economic reform in Hungary and Yugoslavia, spent five years doing manual labour during the Cultural Revolution, and came back to run Shanghai. In 1989 he refused to send the army against the city's protesters and went on television to talk them down instead. Then, as premier, he dismantled the iron rice bowl and cost somewhere between thirty and forty million people their jobs. Peter thinks that took nerve. Afua thinks ruthless and callous are the better words. Neither quite talks the other round. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] Three deaths in eight weeks, in Havana, Washington and Beijing — and why the deputy often tells you more [4:30] Zhu Rongji, dead at 97, and why a kettle costs less than ten pounds [6:08] Expelled from the Party, then five years of manual labour [8:38] Shanghai, 1989: the man who would not send in the army [11:47] Grasping the large, letting go of the small — and the end of the iron rice bowl [17:00] Brave or callous? Peter and Afua fail to agree Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Modern Travel | The Age of the Skies | 4 | 18 Aug 2026 | 00:40:25 | |
When did flying stop being the most glamorous thing a person could possibly do? What kind of industry fixes its own prices by law, and then competes on how much champagne it can pour? And what happened to the man who broke it? Sir Freddie Laker swept floors at an aircraft factory, worked out that the entire airline business was upside down, and got taken apart for it — Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch on the man whose bankruptcy made your budget flight possible. For most of the twentieth century the airlines ran a legal cartel. IATA fixed the fares, so a London to New York ticket cost the same on Pan Am, TWA or BA, and the only thing left to compete on was luxury: forty inches of legroom, professional chefs, sterling silver, a side of beef carved in the aisle. It was magnificent, and roughly eighty-five per cent of people never got on a plane. Then Laker put a transatlantic seat on sale for fifty-nine pounds and let people queue on the pavement outside Victoria for it. The industry drove him under inside five years, then adopted everything he had done. What is left is a world where five billion people fly each year, three per cent of them internationally, and the seat in front of you gets a little closer every season. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] Peter hates airports, Afua loves them, and the words "you're a Terminal Five girl" [5:19] The legal cartel — how IATA fixed every fare and left nothing to compete on but champagne [6:39] Forty inches of legroom, a chef, and a side of beef carved at your seat [8:13] Nail polish, posture, and the finishing-school standards applied to an air hostess [11:36] Freddie Laker, the Canterbury boy who swept factory floors and broke the cartel [13:23] Fifty-nine pounds to New York, and people sleeping on the pavement outside Victoria [21:57] Four per cent of climate change, and the cities buckling under weekend visitors [30:57] Why business class keeps improving while your seat keeps getting thinner Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Inbox: Hecuba, Exile and Coming Home | Arwa Omaren | 13 Aug 2026 | 00:39:59 | |
What happens to a person when the country they were born in decides they were never really from there? What does a play about the women of a sacked city, written 2,400 years ago, have to say to an actress walking out of Syria on foot? And how do you stand on a stage in Edinburgh and make an audience laugh about the worst thing that ever happened to you? At the Edinburgh Fringe, Peter Frankopan meets Arwa Omaren, whose one-woman show sets her own escape from Syria inside the story of Hecuba, Queen of Troy — along with William Stirling and Charlotte Eagar, who have spent a decade staging Euripides with refugees. Arwa Omaren found out she was a refugee at twelve, in a playground fight in Damascus. She graduated top of her class from Syria's leading drama school in 2011, signed a television contract, and then the war took all of it. She walked for five weeks through the mountains of Kurdistan. Britain granted her asylum, then she was evicted, and she slept on the street with her dog. Hecuba: Why Am I In Your Country? is what she made of it. Euripides wrote the first play about refugees in 415 BC, the year after Athens massacred the people of Melos. Twenty-four centuries later it is still the play that fits. Hecuba: Why Am I In Your Country? runs at the Gilded Balloon Teviot, Edinburgh Fringe, until 31 August: edfringe.com More on the Trojan Women Project: trojanwomenproject.org Peter has written about the play at peterfrankopan.substack.com Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] Peter at the Fringe, and a performance he could not stop thinking about [3:23] Oxfam, 2013, and the Greek tragedy that turned out to be about refugees [9:50] Who Hecuba is, and why a queen reduced to nothing is the right story for now [16:18] A playground fight in Damascus, and the day Arwa found out she was a refugee [17:24] Five weeks walking, and the paperwork that told her she belonged nowhere [33:13] Jacko: the dog she left behind in Syria, and the charity that brought him back Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Modern Travel | Rise Of The Seaside | 3 | 11 Aug 2026 | 00:43:38 | |
Who decided that the sea — cold, dangerous and full of smugglers — was somewhere you went for fun? What kind of doctor prescribes plunging into the Channel naked in the dead of winter, and then drinking it? And how did the towns Britain built to enjoy itself end up among the most deprived places in the country? The holiday — the whole idea that ordinary people are owed one — starts with a Brighton doctor, a shed on wheels and an Act of Parliament, and Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch follow it from there to the boarded-up promenades of the present. Dr Richard Russell published a book in the 1750s arguing that seawater cured everything from scrofula to melancholy, and that you ought to drink it by the pint, with milk or port to take the edge off. The elites followed him to a fishing village called Brighthelmstone, the Prince Regent built a pleasure palace there, and once the railways arrived the whole thing belonged to everybody. Then cheap flights took it away again. What the Victorians left behind is a coastline of magnificent architecture standing in some of the poorest wards in England — and, lately, the first signs of something coming back. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] From the Grand Tour to the stick of rock — the moment travel stopped belonging to the rich [8:52] Before the deckchairs: smugglers, pirates and a coastline you kept well away from [9:51] Dr Richard Russell, the eighteenth-century wellness influencer who told Britain to drink the sea [13:17] Peter jumps into the Antarctic in his swimming trunks, shamed into it by a woman in her eighties [17:57] The steam train, the Bank Holidays Act, and the week the mills shut down [20:53] The bathing machine: a shed, a horse, and a strong local person to dunk you [29:54] Clacton, Jaywick, and what happened to the towns Britain built to enjoy itself [35:09] Margate, Dreamland, and whether hipsters can fix a structural problem Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Inbox: Why Dictators Love the World Cup | Feat. Karim Zidan | 06 Aug 2026 | 00:38:32 | |
Why does every dictator, sooner or later, want to host the World Cup? What did a military junta that never wanted the tournament discover once the goals started going in? And when a hundred thousand people are dancing in the street, who is that actually working for? Peter Frankopan sits down with investigative journalist Karim Zidan, who has spent a decade tracking how autocrats turn football into propaganda — and who found his own way into the story as a teenager being dragged out of a stand by Egyptian riot police. Mussolini wrote the blueprint in 1934 and nobody has much improved on it since: host the tournament, invest in the team, let the collective joy do the rest. Videla's junta inherited a World Cup it didn't want and got away with it. Putin raised the pension age while Russia were in the quarter-finals. Qatar ended a Gulf blockade without conceding a thing. Zidan's argument isn't that you should stop watching. It's that escapism and willful ignorance are not the same thing — and that the people buying your club are not your friends. Karim Zidan's podcast series Power Plays, presented by the Human Rights Foundation, is at powerplays.xyz. His newsletter is at sportspolitika.news. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] Why the world's game keeps ending up in the hands of people who don't much like the world [4:14] Cairo, 2007: a teenager in the Ultras section watches the police move in [8:36] Mussolini's blueprint, and why he preferred boxing to football [15:33] Argentina 1978: the junta that inherited a World Cup it never wanted [26:19] "A monstrous, cancerous, corrupt patronage system" — Zidan on FIFA [35:24] A message for Newcastle fans, and everyone else who welcomed the money in Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Modern Travel | The Other Grand Tour | 2 | 04 Aug 2026 | 00:43:50 | |
What happened when the people written out of the Grand Tour wrote their own account of it? What did an eighteenth-century Bengali diplomat see in London that made him call the British a conceited race? And how did a man from Bihar end up as shampooing surgeon to the King of England? Afua Hirsch and Peter Frankopan follow the travellers the Grand Tour left out — enslaved servants, Black abolitionists, Indian intellectuals — and find them looking back at Europe with a colder eye than Europe ever turned on them. Frederick Douglass and Sarah Parker Remond met in Rome in 1868, two free Black Americans taking in the ruins of one slave society while campaigning against a living one. Mirza Abu Talib Khan toured Britain and reported home that its true religion was money. I'tesamuddin filled a notebook with the wonders of Europe and the conceit of its inhabitants. And Sake Dean Mahomed opened a vapour bath in Brighton and gave English the word shampoo. The Grand Tour was never only white men learning Latin — it was the moment the world started looking back. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] The Grand Tour you think you know — powdered wigs, Roman ruins, enough marble to fill a museum [3:01] The servants who weren't servants: enslaved Africans on the road to Italy and France [4:29] Frederick Douglass, viral superstar, meets Sarah Parker Remond in Rome [8:36] Ira Aldridge plays Shakespeare to the aristocrats who came for the ruins [13:40] Bihar to Brighton — and the word that came with him [17:54] Europe judged: spiritually hollow, morally compromised, excessively fond of luxury [25:24] The Maharajas whose Cartier and Rolls Royce orders kept European luxury solvent [36:24] What actually killed the Grand Tour, and whether Magaluf is its heir Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Inbox: The Secret Global History of Bruges | 30 Jul 2026 | 00:31:49 | |
What's a garnet mined in Sri Lanka two and a half thousand years ago doing in a silver hairpin dug up near Bruges? Why are the Duke of Burgundy and the conqueror of Constantinople staring each other down for the first time in history? And, how did most of Belgium forget that its own counts once sat on the throne of Constantinople? Afua turns interviewer as Peter opens the doors on Bigger Picture, the exhibition he has spent four years building to reframe Bruges as one of the great connected cities of the medieval world. It's the opening show at BRUSK, Bruges' vast new exhibition hall — 250 objects from 90 lenders, among them a Memling released from Turin, a Vatican portrait of Alexios I Komnenos that has never been lent before, and Gentile Bellini's Mehmed II brought face to face with Philip the Good. Along the way: a very Belgian silence, a wall of Bruce Springsteen memoirs, the price of medieval pepper — and Peter greeting visitors as a hologram. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] Afua opens the Legacy inbox on Peter's four-year secret project [3:04] A very Belgian silence, a coffee break, and the job is Peter's [9:13] Asked to pick one object, Peter picks three [12:20] Philip the Good meets Mehmed the Conqueror, five centuries late [16:14] How the counts of Flanders ended up emperors of Constantinople [27:42] Hologram Peter, and how to see the show before 8 September Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Modern Travel | The Original Gap Year | 1 | 28 Jul 2026 | 00:38:50 | |
What actually turned a teenage aristocrat into a "finished" gentleman in the 1700s? Why did one incredibly long, incredibly expensive holiday end up inventing the whole idea of "the West"? And why can you still trace a straight line from that holiday to Frankenstein, the contents of half of Britain's country houses, and this year's tenth anniversary of the Brexit vote? Send a nineteen-year-old aristocrat to Europe for three years with a credit line and a chaperone paid to keep him out of trouble, and what comes home is part fashion victim, part looter, part accidental philosopher — the invention of modern Western identity, Frankenstein, and a culture war about "the Continent" that's still running. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] Peter admits his own anti-aging anxieties before Afua reveals what the new series is really about [3:34] Meet "The Original Gap Year" — and the ex-priest travel blogger who coined the term [13:51] The bear leader — the 18th-century minder whose entire job was damage control [15:51] The macaronis — home from Italy in silk and powder, mocked as "un-British" [21:19] Standing where Gibbon stood — how one ruin becomes an entire theory of civilisation [24:56] A wrecked holiday, a volcano, and a ghost story that becomes Frankenstein [25:37] Ten years since the Brexit vote — and the Grand Tour's fingerprints are still on it [31:09] Where Chatsworth's marble busts actually came from Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Legacy Inbox: The Gold Britain Still Won't Return | 23 Jul 2026 | 00:28:29 | |
What does it take to get a room of ex-military festival-goers in rural Wiltshire to agree Britain should return its stolen gold? And why does an obsolete Victorian law still make it a criminal offence for the British Museum to give any of it back? Afua Hirsch just spent a week testing both — with a Buckingham Palace thought experiment, a courtroom-style cross-examination, and a verdict on two centuries of looted treasure that even British Museum members found hard to argue with. Afua brings Peter inside two sold-out tents at the Chalke Valley History Festival — one on the Ashanti gold Britain still won't return, the other on the German peasants written out of history. Welcome to Legacy Inbox, a new lighter-touch addition to the feed. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] Afua's back from Chalke Valley, sold-out crowds and all [4:10] Barnaby Phillips and a sequel to Loot bring Ashanti gold into the tent [12:05] A sacked palace, a stolen throne, and a case Afua calls open and shut [18:55] Her answer to "it's illegal to give it back": test it in court [21:52] The 2024 loan Britain calls generosity — and Ghana calls something else [24:00] A blacked-out England XI, and what it says about the British Museum [25:38] Why a tent full of skeptics left more hopeful than they arrived Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| World Cup | Migration and the New Asia | 7 | 21 Jul 2026 | 00:40:15 | |
What does it mean when the sons of empire become the heroes of the nation that once ruled them? Four years later, what happens when one of those same colonies turns round and beats France on the biggest stage there is? And could two World Cups, played four years and one continent apart, actually tell you where the world's centre of gravity was heading next? Peter and Afua trace France '98 and the first World Cup ever held in Asia, from Zidane's headed goals to Senegal's shock win over the champions, to ask what football reveals about migration, empire and a shifting world order. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] A million people on the Champs-Élysées, and a face that didn't fit the old postcard of France [2:56] The Republic's beautiful idea, and the empire it was built on [6:06] Zidane, Thuram, Vieira — the team Le Pen said wasn't really French [9:53] Ronaldo's mystery fit, hours before the final [15:05] Iran and the USA, white flowers, and a photograph that stopped the world [23:14] The World Cup leaves the Atlantic world for the first time in 72 years [27:26] South Korea's run to the semi-finals, and the making of a soft-power superpower [34:20] Senegal 1, France 0 — what it meant to beat the empire Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| World Cup | Big Business | 6 | 15 Jul 2026 | 00:33:51 | |
How does a country where football is a minority sport end up hosting — and cashing in on — the biggest World Cup in history? What happens when FIFA stops behaving like a sporting federation and starts behaving like a multinational? And when the tournament generates $14 billion in a single World Cup, who's actually footing the bill? Twelve global sponsors, three and a half million fans through the turnstiles, and a World Cup final so dull it needed penalties to save it — Peter and Afua follow the money to USA '94. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] A World Cup arrives in a country that doesn't even like football [3:56] João Havelange and the birth of FIFA's global sponsorship machine [9:54] Nigeria and Saudi Arabia arrive to rewrite the football map [19:24] The post-communist world gets its own flag on the pitch for the first time [20:49] Hristo Stoichkov and Gheorghe Hagi become the stars of the tournament [23:37] Andrés Escobar's own goal, and a tragedy nobody saw coming [25:47] Brazil finally get the ending football's most-loved nation deserved [27:00] Why an African team winning the World Cup would change everything Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| World Cup | The End of the Cold War | 5 | 14 Jul 2026 | 00:34:17 | |
How does a country only three decades free of colonial rule end up humiliating the reigning world champions in the opening match? What happens when the last World Cup of the Cold War arrives just months after the Berlin Wall comes down? And can football ever really just be a game, when Roger Milla is dancing at a corner flag while an old world order quietly falls apart around him? Cameroon stun the reigning champions, Gazza cries in the semi-final, and Nessun Dorma becomes the unlikely soundtrack to the end of an era — Peter and Afua go back to Italia '90. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] Maradona, a fading empire, and a World Cup arriving as Europe's map redraws itself [8:11] Cameroon walk out against the champions — and nobody gives them a hope in hell [9:15] Roger Milla, at 38, becomes the tournament's most unlikely superstar [17:04] Gary Lineker breaks Cameroonian hearts in the game of the tournament [24:18] Gazza cries, and England fall for their most fragile genius [26:40] Maradona, past his best, and the tragedy of peaking too soon [31:29] Why football still fails the geniuses it creates Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Gary Lineker | Nation, Identity and the Beautiful Game | 2 | 09 Jul 2026 | 00:25:06 | |
What does it mean to cheer for the country that once colonised yours? Forty years on from the Hand of God, does one match still define how a nation sees itself? And when Ghana play England, who exactly is Afua Hirsch supposed to be supporting? Gary Lineker returns to relive 1986 — the Golden Boot, Maradona, and a quarter-final played four years after the Falklands War — before the conversation turns to something far more personal: identity, belonging, and what it means to wear a nation's shirt. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:54] Part two: Gary Lineker on nation, identity and the beautiful game [4:05] Forty years since the Golden Boot - and the Hand of God [6:56] The most famous goal in World Cup history, minutes after the worst [9:02] Afua wears her Ghana strip - and picks a side [9:32] What it means when the coloniser plays the colonised [16:05] Why England's diversity is now part of its story [20:00] Racism, FIFA and the women's game - coming on Legacy Plus Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Gary Lineker | The Polictics Of The World Cup | 1 | 07 Jul 2026 | 00:27:37 | |
hould football and politics ever really be kept apart? What happens when the host nation is at war with one of the teams competing in its own tournament? And when FIFA hands its brand-new peace prize to Donald Trump, has the beautiful game lost the plot completely? Gary Lineker sits down with Legacy for the first of three conversations on the World Cup, drawing on forty years inside the game to explain why politics has never once stayed off the pitch. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] Gary Lineker and forty years at the heart of the World Cup [5:35] A history of politics gatecrashing every World Cup since Mussolini [8:23] Inside the Kremlin: Gary on meeting - and refusing to meet - Putin [14:23] Afua's own US visa troubles, and whether Gary's could be next [15:46] The White House note nobody expected [20:45] Would Gary refuse Trump the way he refused Putin? [23:33] Trump in a football kit: Gary picks his position Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| World Cup | The World of Dictators | 4 | 02 Jul 2026 | 00:37:46 | |
What happens when a World Cup final is played a few hundred metres from a torture centre? How does a newly independent nation humiliate the champions of Europe — and still get knocked out by a fix in plain sight? And when a boy from the slums of Buenos Aires beat England with his fist, was it the cruellest cheat in football — or perfect revenge? Afua and Peter follow the World Cup through its darkest decade — Argentina's generals roaring at finals while prisoners vanish next door, Algeria's reckoning with Europe, and a kid called Maradona turning a single match into a settling of old scores. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] A torture centre, a stadium, and the cheers that drowned out the screams [4:20] The general who seized power two years before kick-off [6:12] The final played within earshot of the 'death flights' [13:50] An African side wins a World Cup match for the very first time [15:40] Argentina need six goals against Peru — and somehow get them [17:38] The Dutch players who refused to shake a dictator's hand [20:35] Algeria stun West Germany, then watch Europe close ranks [29:29] The Hand of God, and a goal that settled an old score Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| World Cup | The World Cup and the New World Order | 3 | 30 Jun 2026 | 00:34:34 | |
What turns a football team into a country's most powerful weapon? How does a game invented to entertain end up laundering the reputations of dictators? And when seventy years of European control collapsed in a single afternoon's vote — who took the game, and what did they want with it? From the sunlit genius of Brazil in 1970 to a backroom ballot in Frankfurt, Peter and Afua track the moment football slips out of European hands — and everyone, from newly free nations to military juntas, lunges to grab it. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm [0:00] The greatest team ever to play — and the regime that basked in them [3:56] Apartheid South Africa digs in while the rest of the world breaks free [8:34] The Brazilian swimmer who saw what Europe refused to [13:30] Mexico 1970: sunshine, colour TV, and football reborn as carnival [15:30] England's captain, accused of nicking a bracelet in Bogotá [18:38] Pelé becomes the most famous man alive — for a government that tortures [22:17] Zaire arrive, the leopard-print rebellion begins [30:52] One vote in Frankfurt ends seventy years of European rule Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| World Cup | Post Colonial World | 2 | 25 Jun 2026 | 00:41:29 | |
What happens when the nations that invented football start losing their grip on it? How does a team representing a country that doesn't officially exist end up touring the world and unnerving an empire? And why did thirty-one African nations refuse to play at all? Afua and Peter follow football into the age of decolonisation — Algeria's phantom side, Nkrumah's Black Stars, a seventeen-year-old in tears in Stockholm — as the colonised stop asking permission and take the game for themselves. [0:00] 1950: the empires are gone, but nobody's told the World Cup [6:55] Bandung — half the planet decides to stop being spectators [9:27] Algeria's ghost team: the national side that didn't officially exist [12:46] Nkrumah, the Black Star, and building a nation out of nothing [17:48] South Korea lose 9–0 — and it still counts as a triumph [19:51] A teenager weeps on his teammates' shoulders and reorders the game [26:37] Thirty-one nations walk out of the World Cup at once [29:33] Eusébio: the man winning for the empire that denied his own Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| World Cup | Origins In Empire | 1 | 23 Jun 2026 | 00:44:45 | |
How did a game scribbled into rules by Victorian schoolboys end up watched by four billion people? Why do the countries that were colonised take such fierce joy in beating the ones that colonised them? And by the time Mussolini was watching from the stands, was the World Cup ever really just about football? Peter and Afua follow football out along the empire's trade routes — from a London rulebook in 1863 to the first World Cups, where conquest, nationhood and fascism were already stitched into the world's game. [0:00] Twenty-two players, a ball, ninety minutes — and something far older underneath [7:52] Afua on cheering full Ghana against the country that once ruled it [17:19] The game nobody owns: how 1863 and a single rulebook started everything [20:19] Two footballs, a rulebook, and the Scotsman's son who infected Brazil [22:06] The British invent the game — so why do the French end up running it? [25:22] One final, two nations, and a fight over whose ball to even use [27:42] Mussolini works out exactly what football is for [37:28] 1938: empires line up on the pitch, and almost none bring their colonies Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 1776 | America 250: What the Culture Says | 2 | 18 Jun 2026 | 00:36:51 | |
What does a country sing about when it can't agree on its own founding? Why has Hollywood, which will film literally anything, never made a great movie about 1776? And when both the Black Lives Matter marchers and the January 6th rioters claim to be the true heirs of the Declaration of Independence, who actually owns the revolution? From Hamilton's founding hustlers to Beyoncé's cowboys to a White House captioning a royal portrait "two kings," Peter and Afua track the Declaration through the culture that keeps remixing it — and a country that still can't agree on what it says. [0:00] Two riots, one document, and everyone insisting they're the real sons of liberty [3:10] How a hip-hop musical about a slaveholding revolution became the biggest thing on Broadway [7:49] The friend Afua had to physically stop from walking out of Hamilton [12:27] An empty thousand-seat cinema, and the one Melania line worth hearing [16:00] The first American cowboys came from West Africa — and Beyoncé knows it [19:14] Why Hollywood will green-light anything except 1776 [23:36] The protest movement that refuses to say Trump's name [32:13] The day the White House posted a photo and called it "two kings" Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 1776 | The Legacy For Our Culture | 1 | 16 Jun 2026 | 00:40:40 | |
Why did African Americans spend a century celebrating the Fifth of July instead of the Fourth? Why did a sitting US president personally try to end a journalist's career over one newspaper series? And two hundred and fifty years on, why can't America agree on what its founding document actually means? A 250-year-old promise of equality collides with slavery, revolution and a modern-day tenure battle as Afua and Peter close out their Declaration of Independence series. [1:28] Fifty-six men sign in Philadelphia — many of them slave owners writing "all men are created equal" [8:07] Lafayette's regret: "I would never have drawn my sword..." [11:42] Why a Virginia senator can't stomach Bolívar's revolution [15:20] Why Black Americans spent a century celebrating the Fifth of July instead [17:27] Frederick Douglass asks the question that still stings: "What to the slave is the Fourth of July?" [18:53] The project that says America was really founded in 1619 [28:55] A sitting president personally tries to take the story down [30:54] She wins a Pulitzer. Her university refuses her tenure anyway. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 1776 | The Women Washington Could Never Catch | 2 | 11 Jun 2026 | 00:36:32 | |
Who really built American freedom — and why does the answer make so many people so uncomfortable? What happens when an enslaved woman takes the Declaration of Independence more seriously than the man who wrote it? And, when the President of the United States turns the full machinery of government against one young Black woman — why can't he catch her? Belinda Sutton petitioned a court for fifty years of unpaid wages and won. Ona Judge walked out of the President's house while George Washington ate his dinner, and spent the rest of her life free. The founding story you were taught left both of them out entirely. [0:00] The founding myth and its glaring blind spot [3:00] Belinda Sutton — kidnapped at 12, enslaved for 50 years, and why she still fought back [7:50] The petition that became one of the earliest demands for reparations in American history [12:00] John Hancock signs off — and why the estate still refuses to pay [17:00] How Belinda's story spread and why Ta-Nehisi Coates and Harvard both came calling [19:30] Ona Judge — Washington's secret system for keeping his household enslaved in Pennsylvania [24:00] The night she walked out while the President ate dinner [27:30] Washington weaponises the federal government to hunt her down [31:00] She negotiates with the President — and he blinks first [34:00] "I am free" — Ona Judge's answer, fifty years later, says everything Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| 1776 | The Founding Mothers | 1 | 09 Jun 2026 | 00:34:06 | |
The Declaration of Independence said all men are created equal. But what did that mean to the women who heard those words and knew they were being lied to? Who were the women the founding fathers never mentioned — and what did they do about it? And, if America was founded on the idea of freedom, why did it take another century — and a civil war — to even begin to make good on that promise? Afua and Peter turn the founding of America upside down, telling the story of 1776 through the women the Declaration forgot: a teenage poet who became the first Black woman in history to publish a book of poetry in English, and an enslaved woman who walked into a lawyer's office and used the Constitution to abolish slavery in Massachusetts. (0:00) The Declaration of Independence is about to turn 250 — but whose freedom was it really for? (1:43) Legacy Plus — bonus episodes, early access, and fewer ads 2:00 Why enslaved Americans didn't wait to be freed — they were already fighting (5:36) Lord Dunmore's proclamation and the moment thousands of Black men chose their side (7:48) Phillis Wheatley: kidnapped at seven, named after the slave ship that took her (9:59) From chalk letters on a wall to mastering Greek — the making of a prodigy (12:09) The court case where she had to prove she wrote her own poems (14:23) Sent to London as pro-slavery propaganda — and why it spectacularly backfired (16:12) Published in London, ignored in Boston: the first Black woman to publish poetry in English (17:23) The poem she sent to George Washington — and why he actually wrote back (18:47) They met in Cambridge in 1776: the Virginia enslaver and the young woman he couldn't ignore (20:04) How post-revolutionary America still wouldn't publish her — and how she built a subscription model 250 years before Substack (21:50) She reached Washington, Jefferson, Thomas Paine — and died at 30 in a boarding house (23:34) Elizabeth Freeman: the woman who heard the Declaration read aloud and walked straight to a lawyer (25:11) "Where's my freedom?" — the most direct question anyone asked of the founding fathers (27:05) The iron-shaped scar she refused to hide — and how she weaponised it (27:41) Bett v Ashley: the case that abolished slavery in Massachusetts (31:36 She wins not just her freedom but freedom for every enslaved person in the state — then changes her name to Elizabeth Freeman Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Declaration of Independence | The Brand | 2 | 04 Jun 2026 | 00:36:29 | |
Who wrote "all men are created equal" — and then went home to more than 180 enslaved people? What does a document actually mean when it excludes women, Indigenous peoples, and one in five of the very population it claims to liberate? And, was the Declaration of Independence a genuine statement of universal human rights — or the most successful rebranding exercise in political history? Peter and Afua tear apart the Declaration of Independence: who wrote it, what it actually meant, what was left out on purpose, and why its contradictions still define America 250 years on. (0:00) "All men are created equal" — by men who didn't believe it (9:00) Britain vs the colonies: mistrust, miscalculation, and the slide into war (14:00) Lexington, Concord, and the shot heard around the world (19:00) Lord Dunmore's offer: freedom to the enslaved — and the colonists' outrage (24:00) Thomas Paine's Common Sense and the power of simple ideas (30:00) John Hancock signs big and invents a new word for "signature" (35:00) After independence: debt, fragility, and the problems victory didn't solve (42:00) How the revolution accidentally redirected the British Empire Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Declaration of Independence | Follow The Money | 1 | 02 Jun 2026 | 00:40:11 | |
What if the Boston Tea Party had less to do with liberty and more to do with a smuggler protecting his profit margins? What if hurricanes tearing through the Caribbean helped light the fuse of revolution? And, what if the men who gave birth to America were not visionary idealists but wealthy merchants who had simply run out of patience with British trade restrictions? Peter and Afua pull back the curtain on the financial machinery behind American independence — the Caribbean slave economy, the smuggling networks, the Bengal famine, and the merchants who dressed their self-interest in the language of liberty. (0:00) It wasn't about democracy. It was about who controlled the money (2:00) Britain's debt doubles after the Seven Years' War — and someone has to pay for it (7:50) The colonists were richer, taller, and paid less tax than anyone in Britain (11:50) Tea, empire, and why the whole system was built on piracy (13:30) The Boston Tea Party: orderly political theatre and a £10,000 act of destruction (17:35) The Boston Massacre and the propaganda machine that turned it into a rallying cry (20:30) The Caribbean cash machine — and how hurricanes made colonial merchants very rich (27:20) John Hancock: celebrated patriot, and according to British customs officials, the head of a massive smuggling operation (30:00) The first Continental Congress: protecting constitutional rights — and profit margins (34:00) The Bengal famine, 10 million dead, and why it became a weapon against British imperialism (38:00) Neither side wanted war — and that's exactly how they stumbled into one Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Founding Fathers | Saints and Sinners | 4 | 28 May 2026 | 00:42:04 | |
Was Alexander Hamilton the real architect of American capitalism — or just the most self-destructive genius in the room? What does it mean that the man who shaped the nation's finances spent his career surrounded by an economy built on enslaved labour he understood firsthand? And, if the founding fathers were so brilliant, why is America still fighting about what they actually built? Peter and Afua peel back the marble on two of the most mythologised men in history: Hamilton, the penniless Caribbean immigrant who survived a hurricane, built the American financial machine, and then blew up his own career with a 95-page confession; and Washington, the slave-owning Virginia planter who became the face of liberty — and knew exactly when to put the power down. 0:00 Hamilton, Washington, and the show that won't let the founders off the hook 1:48 The Caribbean origins of Alexander Hamilton — and what Nevis reveals about colonial violence 5:30 How working at the epicentre of the Atlantic slave economy shaped Hamilton's political thinking 9:10 The outsider who doubled down: Hamilton's ambition, his tongue, and why people feared him 11:36 The Reynolds affair — confessing adultery to defeat a corruption charge 15:50 What Hamilton brought to the revolution that none of the others could 20:10 George Washington: the Virginia planter who had to learn how to be a gentleman 24:00 How marrying Martha Custis transformed Washington's wealth and status overnight 26:40 The land grab Britain tried to block — and why it radicalized Washington 30:30 The fragile coalition: Franklin's joke, the hanging rope, and what really held them together 35:00 Washington's genius was knowing what not to do — and when to walk away 38:40 The American dream was built on free labour — and the dishonesty that disguised it Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Founding Fathers | The Original Brexit | 3 | 26 May 2026 | 00:40:18 | |
Who was the boring lawyer who quietly built the machine that made America work? Was John Adams so relentlessly right that even his allies couldn't stand him? And, how did the man who wrote the most beautiful words on human equality spend decades owning the woman who bore his children? Peter and Afua tear into the contradictions of 1776 — the forgotten architect, the honest man nobody liked, and the wordsmith whose legacy history has never quite known what to do with. 0:00 The original Brexit: what 1776 really was 6:00 John Jay — the unsung hero who built the legal framework of a nation 11:00 The Federalist Papers and the Roman Republic obsession 14:00 Jay's reluctant revolution: the man who wanted reconciliation 16:00 Enter Thomas Jefferson: plantation privilege and the Declaration of Independence 18:30 Jefferson at his desk — and the enslaved people outside the window 21:00 Martha, Sally Hemings, and the relationship history tried to bury 25:00 John Adams: the honest man too competent for his own good 31:00 Rome's collapse, checks and balances, and why they feared what they were building 36:00 Jefferson gave the revolution its language, Jay its structure, Adams its urgency Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| The Founding Fathers | The O.G.'s | 2 | 21 May 2026 | 00:34:55 | |
What turned America's most famous British loyalist into its most dangerous revolutionary? What does a public humiliation in a Whitehall chamber have to do with the Declaration of Independence? And, if the man who designed the American constitution believed men were angels, would he have bothered? Peter and Afua trace how a candle-maker's son who pulled lightning from the sky and a sickly scholar obsessed with the fall of Rome built the architecture of the most powerful republic in history. 0:00 Franklin: the 18th century's global multimedia superstar 6:10 Poor Richard's Almanac and the art of building a platform from scratch 9:45 From kite and key to the Royal Society — Franklin's lightning moment 13:20 A proud Briton in London: the comfortable life that couldn't last 16:00 The Hutchinson letters, a Whitehall ambush, and an hour of public savaging 18:30 The moment Franklin stopped thinking of himself as British 21:00 Enter James Madison: the smallest man in public life and the biggest thinker 24:30 Two thousand years of history as a laboratory of political failure 28:00 Taxation without representation, the Intolerable Acts, and the radicalisation of Madison 31:30 'If men were angels, no government would be necessary' Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Founding Fathers | The invention of the United States | 1 | 19 May 2026 | 00:34:58 | |
How did a collection of desperate survivors, religious outcasts, and petty criminals become the architects of the world's most powerful nation? What does it mean to build a society on the language of liberty when that society is entirely dependent on enslaved labour? And are Americans still reckoning with a founding story that was never quite what it seemed? Peter and Afua go back to the very beginning — from the disaster of Roanoke and the brutal early years at Jamestown, to the transatlantic slave economy that quietly powered the rise of New York, Boston, and Philadelphia. 00:00 Introduction — what America actually means 03:00 Roanoke and Jamestown — England's catastrophic first attempts 08:00 The colonial economy — slavery, sugar, and the triangle trade 14:00 New York's hidden history — one in five New Yorkers were enslaved 19:00 The contradiction at America's heart — liberty built on unfreedom 25:00 Who were the Founding Fathers — and who was left out? 32:00 Preview — Franklin and Madison up next Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Rasputin | How Rumour Broke an Empire | Feat. Sir Antony Beevor | 14 May 2026 | 00:39:10 | |
How does a Siberian peasant mystic end up controlling the most powerful empire in Europe? Could the rumours that destroyed a dynasty have been entirely false — and did they matter anyway? And, without Rasputin, would there have been no Lenin — and would the 20th century have looked completely different? Peter sits down with Sir Antony Beevor — bestselling author of Stalingrad, Berlin, and D-Day — to dig into his new book on one of history's most mythologised figures: Grigori Rasputin, the Siberian wanderer who charmed the Tsarina, antagonised everyone else, and whose murder was so catastrophically bungled it reads like black farce. 0:00 From Siberia to the Imperial court — how a peasant mystic reached the centre of power 5:30 Holy fools, wandering pilgrims, and why Russia was always fertile ground for figures like Rasputin 10:00 The voice, the eyes, and the seduction: how Rasputin actually worked on people 13:00 The Tsarina's obsession — and why Antony Beevor is certain the rumours were fake news 17:30 How Rasputin's ministerial choices set the railways on fire and sparked a revolution 24:00 Rasputin was right about the war — and then made everything worse anyway 27:30 The assassination: poisoned cakes, Yankee Doodle, and a murder plot of spectacular incompetence 32:00 Putin, Nicholas II, and why historians should be wary of historical parallels 36:00 Without Rasputin, no Lenin? The counterfactuals Antony loves but won't fully follow Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Diets | One Stomach Flu Away From My Goal Weight | 2 | 12 May 2026 | 00:42:08 | |
What did it take for human beings to start controlling what they ate — and why did "health" so quickly become a cover story for something else? How did a Venetian nobleman's wine-heavy calorie restriction become a blueprint for the modern diet industry? And, when tobacco companies, Hollywood, and the beauty industry all decided women's body anxiety was a market opportunity — who, exactly, was the diet really for? Peter and Afua trace the history of the human body as a commercial battleground: from the first diet books in 1558, through the birth of the calorie and the explosion of Weight Watchers, to the heroin chic 90s and the disordered eating it left behind. 0:00 The Venetian nobleman who invented calorie restriction — and still drank 14oz of wine a day 7:30 George Cheyne: 32 stone, no meat, no alcohol, and a bestselling book in 1740 14:00 Empire, refrigeration, and why cheap food created the first diet industry 21:30 The discovery of the calorie — the invention Afua still resents 25:30 Freud's nephew, cigarettes, and the moment thinness became a product to sell 31:00 Weight Watchers, zero-fat yoghurt, and the 80s: cottage cheese as cultural trauma 36:30 The 90s: heroin chic, cellulite alerts, and the era that hospitalised a generation 40:00 Keto, Atkins, and the diet that keeps reinventing itself Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A;'s, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Diets | Three Eggs and a Bottle of Wine | 1 | 07 May 2026 | 00:35:16 | |
What did Vogue actually recommend women eat in 1977 — and why did it make one food writer cry in the bathroom? How did the Greeks turn a six-pack into a moral argument? And, has the human obsession with controlling what we eat ever really been about health at all? Peter and Afua trace the long, strange history of dieting — from ancient Greek athletics and Roman feast-and-purge excess, to medieval starvation saints who turned self-denial into a radical act of female agency. 0:00 Vogue’s 1977 Wine and Egg Diet — and what happened when someone actually tried it 6:30 The diet industry’s dirty secret: it was never about nutrition 9:00 Peter on fasting, cranky emails, and what not eating teaches you about your relationship with food 14:30 Ancient Greece: when abs were a moral statement, not just an aesthetic one 19:30 The manosphere’s Spartan fantasy — and what the Greeks would actually make of it 23:00 Rome: the inventors of binge and purge culture 24:30 When Christianity enters the chat — and fasting becomes holy 26:00 Catherine of Siena: the medieval starvation saint who used hunger as protest 30:00 Anorexia mirabilis — holy anorexia, and why Peter is wary of projecting modern diagnoses onto the past 32:00 Why medieval peasants weren’t dieting — they were just trying to stay alive Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A’s, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Mystics | Aleister Crowley: The Wickedest Man In The World | 3 | 05 May 2026 | 00:50:41 | |
What happens when you raise a child telling him he's the Beast — and he decides to prove you right? Could a man who genuinely repelled everyone around him have quietly shaped the culture we live in today? And, is the world of sex, drugs, and rock and roll actually the legacy of a repressed Victorian occultist with a god complex? Peter and Afua descend into the dark, theatrical, and genuinely troubling life of Aleister Crowley: English occultist, self-declared Great Beast 666, and the man who may have done more than anyone to wire transgression, desire, and spiritual hunger into the DNA of modern culture. 0:00 The wickedest man in the world — and why he owned it 6:00 The Exclusive Brethren: the suffocating sect that made Crowley inevitable 10:00 Cambridge, cigars, and erotic poetry: the beast is unleashed 15:00 Golden Dawn and the occult underground of Victorian London 20:00 Mountaineering, meditation, and the spiritual pick-and-mix 24:00 Cairo, 666, and the Book of the Law 26:00 Rose Kelly: the woman without whom none of it happens 33:00 The Abbey of Thelema and a scandal that shocks even the tabloids 38:00 How Crowley became the Beatles' and Led Zeppelin's spirit animal 42:00 Jack Parsons: the rocket scientist who performed Crowley rituals by night 44:00 Was Crowley a feminist? (Afua has thoughts) 48:00 The stain that runs through modern culture straight back to him Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Watch Legacy on YouTube and Spotify video. Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Mystics | Helena Blavatsky's Karma | 2 | 30 Apr 2026 | 00:54:23 | |
Who invented the spiritual vocabulary of the modern world — karma, reincarnation, yoga studios, the idea that you can be "spiritual but not religious"? What if the hidden masters living in remote Tibetan mountains who inspired her weren't real — but the New Age movement they sparked absolutely was? And can you change the course of Western spirituality forever while being accused of fraud, plagiarism, and dropping fake letters through the ceiling? Peter and Afua explore the extraordinary life of Helena Blavatsky: Russian aristocrat, globe-trotting mystic, chain-smoking occultist and the most polarising spiritual figure of the 19th century — whose Theosophical Society gave us yoga mats, abstraction in art, and the modern wellness industry, all while she battled accusations of being one of history's greatest frauds. 0:00 Introduction: The Woman Who Invented New Age Spirituality 4:15 Russian Aristocrat: Growing Up Between Two Worlds 9:40 The Lost Years: Tibet, Egypt, and the Mysterious Mahatmas 16:20 Arriving in New York: Spiritualism, Grief, and the Telegraph 23:10 Meeting Henry Steel Olcott: The Partnership That Changed Everything 28:35 Isis Unveiled: 1,200 Pages That Sold Out in 10 Days 35:50 Moving to India: Strategic Genius or Cultural Appropriation? 41:20 The Mahatma Letters: Messages from the Ceiling 47:05 The Coulomb Scandal and the Hodgson Report 53:30 Vindication? The 1986 Harrison Report 58:10 The Secret Doctrine and Her Uncomfortable Nazi Legacy 1:03:45 Blavatsky's New Age Legacy: From Mondrian to Matcha Lattes 1:09:20 Final Verdict: Genius, Fraud, or Both? Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&As, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Mystics | Nostradamus: The Arophecary | 1 | 28 Apr 2026 | 00:47:32 | |
Nostradamus has predicted every major disaster in history — or so the internet would have you believe. Peter and Afua get behind the myth to meet the real man: a plague-era apothecary, rejected by the medical establishment, whose greatest invention wasn't prophecy — it was selling certainty to an anxious world. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| The Age Of Cargo | The TEU | 3 | 23 Apr 2026 | 00:36:01 | |
Malcolm McLean was a frustrated truck driver who thought there had to be a better way. The metal box he invented now carries 90% of the world's traded goods — and quietly runs the global economy. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| The Age Of Cargo | Globalisation and the Oceans | 2 | 21 Apr 2026 | 00:38:07 | |
From colliers carrying coal out of Newcastle to Marshall Plan grain crossing the Atlantic, Peter and Afua trace how the movement of goods by sea built the modern world. This is the story of bulk cargo — and why the ships that carried it changed everything. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| The Age Of Cargo | The Cargo Ship | 1 | 16 Apr 2026 | 00:43:30 | |
The cargo ship didn't just move goods — it moved civilisations. Peter and Afua trace 2,000 years of maritime trade, from Roman grain ships and spice routes to the Hanseatic League, the sugar plantations of Madeira, and the brutal economics of the triangular trade. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Facelifts | The Gory Truth Behind the Celebrity Glow | 2 | 14 Apr 2026 | 00:38:24 | |
Afua and Peter explore the "undetectable" world of deep plane facelifts, examining why celebrities are finally trading surgical secrecy for viral transparency. They dissect the astronomical costs of modern "tweakments" and the rising pressure to match AI-generated perfection as surgery recipients get younger than ever before. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Facelifts | From Jericho to Kardashian | 1 | 09 Apr 2026 | 00:28:10 | |
Peter and Afua delve into the surprising 9,000-year history of facial modification, spanning from ancient trephining rituals in Jericho to the "eerily impressive" modern results seen on Kris Jenner. They analyze how surgical techniques have evolved through a symbiotic relationship between wartime reconstruction and a global, often problematic, pursuit of Eurocentric beauty norms. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Global Impact Of Economic Shocks | The Reconfiguration of the World of 1973 | 4 | 07 Apr 2026 | 00:42:37 | |
From the formation of OPEC to the Yom Kippur War, Peter and Afua trace how oil-producing nations finally seized control of their most powerful weapon — and how the shock of 1973 sent the entire global economy into freefall, from petrol queues in Europe to coups in Africa. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Global Impact Of Economic Shocks | 1973 - Oil and the 20th Century | 3 | 02 Apr 2026 | 00:47:47 | |
From the geology of the Gulf to the CIA-backed coup that toppled Iran's elected prime minister, Peter and Afua trace how oil became the defining force of the 20th century — and why the West's century-long obsession with Iranian oil still shapes the crisis unfolding in 2026. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Global Impact of Economic Shocks | The Cataclysm of Suez | 2 | 31 Mar 2026 | 00:55:26 | |
In this second installment of their series on economic shocks, Peter and Afua dissect the 1956 Suez Crisis, where Gamal Abdel Nasser's bold nationalization of the canal stripped the British Empire of its remaining credibility. They reveal the clandestine "Protocol of Sèvres" conspiracy and explain how a furious President Eisenhower leveraged the International Monetary Fund to bring a bankrupt Britain to its knees. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Global Impact of Economic Shocks | 1915 and the Dardanelles | 1 | 26 Mar 2026 | 00:52:11 | |
Afua and Peter examine the brutal 1915 closure of the Dardanelles, revealing how a single geographic choke point strangled the Russian economy and paved the way for the Bolshevik Revolution. Drawing haunting parallels to modern conflicts in the Strait of Hormuz, they explore how Winston Churchill’s over-ambitious naval gambles led to a devastating legacy of human and financial loss. Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||
| Great Environmental Shocks in History | How An Earthquake Splintered The World | 4 | 24 Mar 2026 | 00:45:27 | |
Afua and Peter examine the terrifying 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, revealing how a massive geological rupture in Japan unexpectedly triggered a radical energy revolution in Germany and shifted the scales of European geopolitics. From the heroic struggle of the "Fukushima 50" to the strategic vulnerabilities exposed by a reliance on Russian gas, they explore the sobering reality that even our most advanced engineering remains at the mercy of the Earth's shifting plates Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more. legacy.supportingcast.fm Stay connected with Legacy: Instagram: @originallegacypodcast TikTok: @legacy_productions Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information. | |||