About this podcast
Real Dictators is the award-winning podcast that explores the hidden lives of history's tyrants. Hosted by Paul McGann, with contributions from eyewitnesses and expert historians.
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Episodes
The newest 50 of 165 episodes
- Rafael Trujillo Part 3: The Goat is Dead · 1 h 1 min · Season 6 Episode 143As the Cold War hots up in the Caribbean, Trujillo finally meets his match - in a young, charismatic revolutionary named Fidel Castro. Resistance solidifies within the Dominican…
- Rafael Trujillo Part 2: Poacher Turned Gamekeeper · 55 min · Season 6 Episode 142After an apocalyptic natural disaster Trujillo makes his own mark on the Dominican landscape. Erecting monuments to himself that leave little to the imagination and renaming…
- Rafael Trujillo Part 1: Scourge of the Dominican Republic · 52 min · Season 6 Episode 141Rafael Trujillo held the Dominican Republic in his grip for 31 long years, from 1930 to 1961. He ruled with extraordinary brutality and a colossal ego. Yet riding the currents of…
- Augustus Part 3: Birth of a Dynasty · 1 h 5 min · Season 6 Episode 140With his enemies vanquished Octavian returns to a hero’s welcome. Consolidating personal rule over Rome’s vast dominions, he begins dismantling the old republic. The Senate…
- Augustus Part 2: Caesar’s Revenge · 1 h 2 min · Season 6 Episode 139Alongside Mark Antony, Octavian hunts down Great-Uncle Julius’s assassins. But Antony will soon go rogue, beguiled - just like Caesar - by Queen Cleopatra of Egypt. Octavian will…
- Augustus Part 1: Rome’s First Emperor · 59 min · Season 6 Episode 138On the Ides of March 44BC, Julius Caesar is murdered in the Senate. With Rome’s long-time dictator deposed, the would-be inheritors of his estate and offices begin jostling for…
- Tito Part 5: The Sun King · 1 h 0 min · Season 6 Episode 137Tito becomes an international celebrity, with a jet-set lifestyle to match his status. His hybrid ‘coca-cola socialism’ sees Yugoslavia booming. But the good times have been…
- Tito Part 4: The Marshal Versus Stalin · 1 h 2 min · Season 6 Episode 136In the war’s aftermath Tito exacts his bloody revenge. Manoeuvring the king out of the picture, Yugoslavia is swiftly consolidated under communist rule. A clash with the US risks…
- Tito Part 3: The Partisan in the Mountains · 1 h 7 min · Season 6 Episode 135When the Nazis invade Yugoslavia Tito takes to the mountains. Winston Churchill dispatches a crack team of paratroopers, led by a man rumoured to inspire the character of James…
- Tito Part 2: The Man of Disguises · 1 h 1 min · Season 6 Episode 134An assassination in Marseilles plunges the Balkans into turmoil. The Europe-wide battles of Black versus Red make their way onto the streets of Yugoslavia. Pegged as a…
- Tito Part 1: The Young Gun · 58 min · Season 6 Episode 133Josip Broz was the wartime resistance leader who became Tito, the strongman ruler of Yugoslavia. He defeated both Hitler and Mussolini. He stared down Stalin. He consolidated…
- Introducing: Founding Fathers: An American Dream - Episode 1 · 1 h 0 min · Season 6This is a preview of a brand-new show from the Noiser Podcast Network. Hosted by Clarke Peters (The Wire, The Boroughs), 'Founding Fathers: An American Dream' tells the epic…
- Introducing: Real Vikings - Episode 1 · 55 min · Season 6This is a preview of a brand-new show from the Noiser podcast network. Hosted by Iain Glen (Game of Thrones, Silo), Real Vikings takes you on a deep dive into the Viking age…
- Jean-Bédel Bokassa Part 3: A Coronation for the Ages · 1 h 3 min · Season 6 Episode 132The new emperor of the Central African Republic is introduced to the world in a totally surreal manner - with white horses from Belgium, finery from France and songs from a…
- Jean-Bédel Bokassa Part 2: The Power Grab, the Châteaux and the Missing Daughter · 58 min · Season 6 Episode 131A new year brings new beginnings in the Central African Republic. President Bokassa attempts to modernise. But at the same time, the mass incarcerations and torture ramp up and…
- Jean-Bédel Bokassa Part 1: The Butcher of Bangui · 1 h 1 min · Season 6 Episode 130The former soldier in the French army who seized power in his African homeland. The leader of the Central African Republic who proclaimed himself emperor. The emperor who ruled…
- Introducing: Charles Dickens Ghost Stories - A Christmas Carol · 49 min · Season 6This is a preview of a brand-new audiobook from the Noiser Podcast Network. Join Sir David Suchet as he reads a selection of Charles Dickens’s most chilling short works, brought…
- Fidel Castro Part 10: Emergency on an Airplane · 58 min · Season 6 Episode 129The end arrives. Embarrassed at a baseball game, the Maximum Leader responds with arrests and intimidation. We hear first-hand testimony from a Cuban on the receiving end of the…
- Fidel Castro Part 9: Down With Fidel! · 57 min · Season 6 Episode 128After a tragedy in the Florida Straits, a dramatic tug of war takes place between Castro and America - all centred on a five-year-old boy. A new leader in the Soviet Union comes…
- Fidel Castro Part 8: Miami Vice · 55 min · Season 6 Episode 127When a bomb goes off on a south Florida street, it bears all the hallmarks of a Cuban expert. Castroland is going international. As exiles flock to Miami, Fidel sets off on a…
- Fidel Castro Part 7: Che Guevara in the Jungle · 57 min · Season 6 Episode 126Castro sets out to create a breed of “new people” - turning Cuba into an island of mini-Fidels. A particular dairy cow becomes a national treasure and hot dog vendors are…
- Fidel Castro Part 6: The Cuban Missile Crisis · 56 min · Season 6 Episode 125The first man in space arrives in Cuba for a special visit. A passenger liner from the Soviet Union docks in Havana. But it’s not carrying tourists. Out in the countryside a…
- Fidel Castro Part 5: The Bay of Pigs · 57 min · Season 6 Episode 124A man who was right there tells us the tale of one of history’s most notorious military failures. Castro’s former lover is given a handful of poison capsules and dispatched to…
- Fidel Castro Part 4: Havana’s TV Star · 58 min · Season 6 Episode 123Castro goes on a victory parade, eventually arriving in Havana on top of a tank. Vengeance is wrought on the old dictator’s supporters, as the new leader moves into the Hilton…
- Fidel Castro Part 3: The Mountain Guerrillas · 55 min · Season 6 Episode 122While Batista tries to convince the world that Castro is dead, Fidel regroups in the mountains. The world’s press descends on Cuba, hoping to meet this elusive rebel, and Fidel…
- Fidel Castro Part 2: Shipwrecked in the Swamps · 59 min · Season 6 Episode 121Castro wrestles with Marxism and begins another affair. Attempting to reignite the revolution, he swims naked across the US border. At a get-together in Mexico City, he strikes…
- Fidel Castro Part 1: Rise of ‘The Crazy One’ · 1 h 6 min · Season 6 Episode 120Fidel Castro - a revolutionary turned strongman dictator, beloved by his supporters and loathed by his enemies. The bête noire of the United States who pushed the world to the…
- Introducing: Titanic: Ship of Dreams - Episode 1 · 52 min · Season 5This is a taster episode of a brand-new podcast from the Noiser podcast network. Join host Paul McGann as he explores life and death on the most famous ship in history. You’ll…
- Benito Mussolini Part 7: Break for the Border… · 1 h 4 min · Season 5 Episode 119As Italy switches sides, Hitler hatches a plan to rescue his pal. But with the Axis collapsing on all fronts, Mussolini makes for Switzerland - stowed away and in disguise. For…
- Benito Mussolini Part 6: The Road to Perdition · 1 h 1 min · Season 5 Episode 118It all starts to go horribly wrong… After the disastrous invasion of Greece, Mussolini sends troops to Russia. Benito’s Blitz prompts bemusement in Britain. An Italian assassin…
- Benito Mussolini Part 5: The Pact of Steel · 57 min · Season 5 Episode 117At the Munich Conference, Mussolini postures as a peacemaker. With Hitler in the ascendancy, the Rome-Berlin Axis is upgraded to a military alliance. High on fascist adrenaline…
- Benito Mussolini Part 4: A Fine Bromance · 1 h 0 min · Season 5 Episode 116Il Duce uses propaganda to become a folk hero - part saint, part Father Christmas. He bans journalists from mentioning his birthday or the fact he’s a grandfather - to promote an…
- Benito Mussolini Part 3: Murder in Broad Daylight · 1 h 2 min · Season 5 Episode 115World leaders line up to hail the new Italian strongman. But the fascists are already silencing dissenting voices. An epochal discovery in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings unleashes a…
- Benito Mussolini Part 2: The March on Rome · 1 h 4 min · Season 5 Episode 114Wounded at the Front, Mussolini’s war ends early. A playboy aristocrat forms his own private army, offering inspiration to Il Duce. As Italian workers go on strike, Mussolini’s…
- Introducing: Sherlock Holmes Short Stories · 30 min · Season 5A brand-new release from the Noiser Network. Join Hugh Bonneville on a thrilling journey through Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s most celebrated Holmes mysteries - read in their…
- Benito Mussolini Part 1: Italy’s Fascist Godfather · 1 h 2 min · Season 5 Episode 113We begin at the end… in 1945, with a pile of bodies dumped in Milan then strung up for all to see. Among them, the most powerful man in Italy. One of the most significant figures…
- General Videla Part 4: Dictator in the Courtroom · 53 min · Season 5 Episode 112The Falklands War casts a long shadow over Argentina as the junta teeters on the verge of collapse. The country slowly returns to democracy. But that isn’t the end of Videla’s…
- General Videla Part 3: God, Football, the Falklands · 58 min · Season 5 Episode 111The 1978 FIFA World Cup rolls into Argentina. A surreal fortnight ensues. Fans flock to revamped stadia, while just metres away prisoners cower - hidden in secret torture…
- General Videla Part 2: Mr Clean’s Dirty War · 59 min · Season 5 Episode 110Videla’s dirty war begins. ‘Subversives’ are rooted out, with torture centres established across the land - including one known as the ‘Argentine Auschwitz’. Education, music…
- General Videla Part 1: The Skinny One and the Witch · 1 h 2 min · Season 5 Episode 109Argentina. The story of a gaunt, hawkish man who earned the nickname “the Hitler of the Pampa”. A man whose awkward bearing belied his capacity for cruelty. A dictator who…
- BONUS: Dictators’ Books · 26 min · Season 5Almost every dictator, at one time or another, has put pen to paper. Some have wrestled with ideas, with philosophy. Many have merely vented - spewing their diatribes onto the…
- Pinochet Part 3: Searching for the Disappeared · 50 min · Season 5 Episode 108Pinochet consolidates control, creating a terrifying new secret police force. The dictator’s war on communism extends abroad, as Chile joins Operation Condor. But how long can…
- Pinochet Part 2: The Caravan of Death · 40 min · Season 5 Episode 107September 11th, 1973. The touchpaper is lit. President Allende realises he’s been double-crossed. Pinochet keeps his cards close to his chest. A loyal naval admiral finds his…
- Pinochet Part 1: An Arrest in London · 48 min · Season 5 Episode 106We travel to South America. In September 1973, Augusto Pinochet seizes power in Chile following a coup d’état. The aim is to topple the country’s socialist president. And it…
- Introducing: D-Day: The Tide Turns - Episode 1 · 53 min · Season 5This is a taster episode of a brand-new podcast from the Noiser network. Host Paul McGann follows the real people involved in the D-Day landings. It’s 1944 and Europe is in the…
- Oliver Cromwell Part 4: The Conquest of Ireland · 1 h 7 min · Season 5 Episode 105In the final part of the Cromwell story, outrage at the King’s execution leads Ironsides to wage war on Scotland and, notoriously, Ireland. Insurgencies over, he’ll become Lord…
- Oliver Cromwell Part 3: To Kill a King… · 58 min · Season 5 Episode 104With the King in captivity, both sides seek a settlement. But when Charles escapes, all trust is broken. For Cromwell there is only one course of action - a solution that will…
- Oliver Cromwell Part 2: Civil War Across the Realms · 58 min · Season 5 Episode 103England is plunged into conflict. Oliver Cromwell, an obscure politician, soon proves himself an outstanding military commander. King Charles, meanwhile, unveils his own star…
- Oliver Cromwell Part 1: The Rise of Ironsides · 1 h 3 min · Season 5 Episode 102Say “Oliver Cromwell” today and certain things come to mind. He won the English Civil War and prompted the execution of Charles I. He purged the realm with such zeal that he even…
- Introducing: The Curious History of Your Home - Baths · 34 min · Season 5A brand-new podcast from the Noiser network. Join domestic historian Ruth Goodman as she explores the remarkable, often epic, tales behind everyday objects. This taster episode…
