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Empire: World History
Empire: World History
Author: Goalhanger
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The rise and fall of empires and the events that shaped world history.
William Dalrymple and Anita Anand explore the intricate stories of revolutions, imperial wars, and the people who built and lost empires.
From the British Empire to the Ottomans to Ancient India, history is shaped by power struggles and territorial conquests. How does it continue to affect the world today?
Empire Club: Become a member of the Empire Club to receive early access to miniseries, ad-free listening, early access to live show tickets, bonus episodes, book discounts, our exclusive newsletter, and access to our members’ chatroom on Discord! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up.
For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.
329 Episodes
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Secret messages are being passed from city to city inside chapattis, rebellion is in the air. When Indian soldiers in the East India Company army hear that bullet cartridges are greased with pig and cow fat, they take a stand against their British generals. A mutiny begins that will soon explode into an all-out revolution… This is the Indian Uprising of 1857.
How did India’s Greatest Rebellion begin? Why did the dynamic between British and Indian soldiers start to change in the 1850s? How did the British react when the mutiny broke out?
William Dalrymple and Anita Anand launch a brand new series on the Indian Rebellion of 1857.
Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com
For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Editor: Bruno Di Castri
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
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How did Julia Margaret Cameron - Virginia Woolf's great aunt - become one of the most influential photography artists of her time? Who were the Anglo-Indian Pattle Sisters who charmed Victorian society in India and London? How did the family create a warm artistic oasis where celebrities like Tennyson and Watts loved spending time?
William is joined by art historian Emily Burns to discuss the life of his relative, the pioneering photographer, Julia Margaret Cameron.
Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com
For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Assistant Producer: Alfie Norris
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How did one woman take on the brutal colonial King Leopold II in Congo with her camera? Who was Alice Seely Harris and why should we remember her name? How did she smuggle her photographs of the horrors going on in the Congo out of the country?
Anita and William discuss the life of Alice Seely Harris, the mouse who stood up to a lion using the power of her Kodak Camera…
Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com
For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Who was Karsh and how did he become one of the most famous portrait photographers of the 20th century? How did Karsh escape from the Armenian Genocide as a child? What was the story behind some of the most famous photographs of Churchill, Einstein, Castro, Queen Elizabeth II, and Martin Luther King?
Anita and William explore the fascinating life of one of the photographers of Empire, Yousuf Karsh.
Make someone an Empire Club Member this Christmas – unlock the full Empire experience with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Just go to https://empirepod.supportingcast.fm/gifts
And of course, you can still join for yourself any time at empirepoduk.com or on apple podcasts.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Assistant Producer: Alfie Norris
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Who was Heinrich Hoffman and how did he use his photography to promote Adolf Hitler and Nazism? When did Hoffman introduce Hitler to Eva Braun? What lies did he tell a Jewish journalist who interviewed him in 1950?
Anita and William discuss the life of Hitler’s photographer as part of a series on Eyes on Empire - exploring the influential people behind the lens who captured those in power.
Make someone an Empire Club Member this Christmas – unlock the full Empire experience with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Just go to https://empirepod.supportingcast.fm/gifts
And of course, you can still join for yourself any time at empirepoduk.com or on apple podcasts.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How did Britain’s imperial game become so popular in India? Why were India’s princes the ‘nepo babies’ of cricket? How does the legacy of Partition continue to affect matches in India and Pakistan today?
Anita and William are joined once again by Tim Wigmore, author of Test Cricket: A History, as they unpack how a colonial sport grew to define a nation, mapping onto India’s historic and political tensions.
Make someone an Empire Club Member this Christmas – unlock the full Empire experience with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Just go to empirepod.supportingcast.fm/gifts
And of course, you can still join for yourself any time at empirepoduk.com
For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How is the history of cricket completely intertwined with the history of the British Empire? What was the Bodyline Controversy of the 1930s and how did it nearly kill a player? Who was Don Bradman and why is he believed to be the greatest sportsperson of all time?
Anita and William are joined by Tim Wigmore, author of Test Cricket: A History, to discuss the history of the cricket rivalry between England and Australia.
Make someone an Empire Club Member this Christmas – unlock the full Empire experience with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Just go to empirepod.supportingcast.fm/gifts
And of course, you can still join for yourself any time at empirepoduk.com
For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Who was V.S. Naipaul and why was he so controversial? How did Naipaul alter the way in which writers and readers saw the world, and in particular how they saw Trinidad? Why did he make an enemy of Salman Rushdie?
Anita and William are joined by Ben Moser to discuss the life of V.S. Naipaul.
Make someone an Empire Club Member this Christmas – unlock the full Empire experience with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Just go to https://empirepod.supportingcast.fm/gifts
And of course, you can still join for yourself any time at empirepoduk.com or on apple podcasts.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Should we still read Kipling today? What family tragedy did Kipling face in the later half of his life? How did he fan the flames of jingoism during and after the First World War?
William is reunited with Anita to discuss Rudyard Kipling’s later life and legacy and to debate whether we should revere or despise him...
Make someone an Empire Club Member this Christmas – unlock the full Empire experience with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Just go to https://empirepod.supportingcast.fm/gifts
And of course, you can still join for yourself any time at empirepoduk.com or on apple podcasts.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What inspired Kipling to write his two most famous works: The Jungle Book and Kim? Why did Kipling hate London and swiftly move to the US? How did Kipling develop such astute observational writing about Anglo-Indians in his early twenties?
William is joined once again by Andrew Lycett, author of Rudyard Kipling, to discuss his rise to fame and how although he left India, his writing became evermore obsessed with the subcontinent…
Make someone an Empire Club Member this Christmas – unlock the full Empire experience with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Just go to empirepod.supportingcast.fm/gifts
And of course, you can still join for yourself any time at empirepoduk.com or on apple podcasts.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Rudyard Kipling was one of the most evocative writers of India, yet he was a jingoist and an imperialist until his dying day. So how do we grapple with this conundrum, why was Kipling such a man of contradiction? In this episode we explore his early life.
How did he go from a spoiled child in India who spoke Hindustani with his nanny, to living in an abusive foster home in Portsmouth which he called The House of Desolation?
William is joined by Andrew Lycett, author of Rudyard Kipling, to discuss Kipling’s colourful but turbulent early life.
Make someone an Empire Club Member this Christmas – unlock the full Empire experience with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Just go to https://empirepod.supportingcast.fm/gifts
And of course, you can still join for yourself any time at empirepoduk.com or on apple podcasts.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What was the origin story of Hergé, the Belgian illustrator who created The Adventures of Tintin? How did an unlikely friendship transform Hergé’s life and lead him to draw Tintin crying in a comic strip for the first and only time?
Anita and William navigate the turbulent hot waters of Tintin’s history from anti-Soviet propaganda, to featuring authentic Chinese calligraphy, to becoming one of the most successful comic book series in the world.
Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com
For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How did a story made up by a mother for her sick children turn into Babar The Elephant? Why did two immigrants to France create such a patriotically French cartoon in Asterix and Obelix? How should we feel about racist depictions of people of colour in beloved children’s cartoons today?
Listen as William and Anita explore the controversial debates about two of the most beloved cartoons from twentieth-century France: Asterix the Gaul, and Babar The Elephant.
Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com
For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com
Email: empire@goalhanger.comInstagram: @empirepodukBlue Sky: @empirepodukX: @empirepodukProducer: Anouska LewisAssistant Producer: Alfie RoweExecutive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What is the true history behind the “madwoman in the attic” in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre? How was Jane Austen’s aunt deeply connected to slavery in Barbados? Who were the British heiresses who married Caribbean plantation owners and inherited vast wealth made through chattel slavery?
William and Anita are joined by Miranda Kauffman, author of Heiresses: Marriage, Inheritance, and Caribbean Slavery, to discuss how Austen and Brontë were connected to, and wrote about, these often-ignored slavery heiresses.
Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com
For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How did a Polish sailor become one of the greatest writers in the English language? Why were Conrad’s parents exiled to the harsh conditions of northern Russia? Should we continue to read The Heart of Darkness in spite of its outdated views?
Anita and William are joined by Maya Jasanoff, author of The Dawn Watch, to discuss the adventurous life of Joseph Conrad and how his work shaped readers' understanding of imperialism.
Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com
For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Assistant Producer: Alfie Rowe
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Why was Orwell’s wife, Eileen, written out of his story when she co-wrote Animal Farm? How did the CIA twist the novel into anti-communist propaganda? As a writer who was so ahead of his time on imperialism and totalitarianism, why did Orwell fail when it came to the patriarchy?
Anita and William are joined by Anna Funder, author of Wifedom: Mrs Orwell’s Invisible Life, to discuss the women who are missing from Orwell’s biography despite being crucial to his development as a writer.
Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com
For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
What was the inspiration behind George Orwell’s most famous works? Why did he move to the remote Scottish island of Jura to finish writing 1984? What was Orwell’s “Snitch List” which he handed over to the government after World War 2?
In Part 3 of this miniseries, Anita and William discuss Orwell’s life during WW2 and deep-dive his two most famous works…Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com
For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Why did George Orwell go to Spain to fight on the Republican side against General Franco? Who saved his life when he was shot in the throat? How did internal feuds on the leftist side of the war influence his writing and his paranoia?
In Part 2 of this miniseries, William and Anita discuss Orwell’s fight against fascism and his experiences in the Spanish Civil War 1936-1939.
Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com
For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How was George Orwell’s childhood rooted in the British Empire and the opium trade in India? Why did George Orwell become a colonial police officer in Burma? When did Orwell develop his anti-imperialist stance?
In the first part of this miniseries, Anita and William explore the early life of Eric Blair - later George Orwell - and his time in India and Burma.
Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com
For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Executive Producer: Dom Johnson
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
How did neighbouring Arab nations respond to the displacement of Palestinians in 1948? Why was the future Egyptian prime minister, General Nasser, stationed in Gaza in 1948? How did the population of Gaza double almost overnight with the influx of refugees, and what conditions did they face?
William and Anita are joined once again by Eugene Rogan, Professor of Modern Middle Eastern History at The University of Oxford, to discuss the First Arab-Israeli War in 1948.
Join the Empire Club: Unlock the full Empire experience – with bonus episodes, ad-free listening, early access to miniseries and live show tickets, exclusive book discounts, a members-only newsletter, and access to our private Discord chatroom. Sign up directly at empirepoduk.com
For more Goalhanger Podcasts, head to www.goalhanger.com.
Email: empire@goalhanger.com
Instagram: @empirepoduk
Blue Sky: @empirepoduk
X: @empirepoduk
Assistant Producer: Becki Hills
Producer: Anouska Lewis
Executive Producer: Neil Fearn
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices



Has cowhide ball leather no effect?
Naive about slavery. Most English people had no clue that savoury was happening
Thank you so much and sorry i didnt mean to be rudexxx
Why do you both emit to mention "Down and outs of Paris and London"? This autobiographical work says a lot more about Orwell's thinking is the most significant of all his works.
I am so 😊. Pity you are not covering the odd middle part. Down and out in London and Paris is my favorite personal Orwell book.
Episode 305 is particularly harrowing. How anyone can hear this and still claim the Empire was something to be proud of is beyond comprehension.
The guest speaker put William in his place regarding his ethnocentric perspective
Constantly moving off the topic.... moving on to the next podcast. Hopefully it's better
You have spent 25 minutes talking about this love story
By the way Anita you do the same thing you blame your partner for - always getting off the topic
Please get on with the current topic
It's interesting to me how infatuated they are with Zoroastrianism and think the Hebrew and Christian Bible draw from Zoroastrianism rather than the ancient stories of the Bible are more ancient
I very much enjoy these podcasts but at least half of most podcasts are taken up in the hosts personal and unrelated stories. I don't appreciate that part of it.
I wish this part of history would be broadcast to everyone in the world 😔
The series is very very interesting for me. I can't hardly put it down. But the two hosts are so knowledgeable they can't help themselves by interrupting each other and their guest to put in their tidbit of knowledge and insight. I just feel like saying, "Be quiet. Let the man speak and tell his story."
I really have the lowest regard for the historical British and how they devasted and used civilizations around the world for their own benefit. 😞
It's used in the Bible frequently. Gird up your loins they gathered up their long skirts around their waist so they can run.
Massively interesting for me. American listening from Cambodia August 2025
im nearly sure the Gibraltar 3 were flown into dublin and not belfast
I'm 30 and work in construction, and I just wanted to say how much I appreciate your podcast. You guys do an amazing job of sharing historical knowledge, which really gets me thinking about how different things used to be compared to today. After listening to your "History of India" episodes, I definitely have a new appreciation for what we have now. It really makes you realize that things were often much tougher in the past, and that helps put everyday complaints into perspective.