The most played episodes among Podcast App listeners.

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   Number 1: Simon Sebag Montefiore on the making of the modern Middle East

   Historian Simon Sebag Montefiore traces 125 years of war, revolution, upheaval and revival in the Middle East. From the final days of the Ottoman Empire to to the current Iran-US conflict, Simon's new book The Cauldron examines the forces, characters and calamities that have shaped the region.Guest: Simon Sebag Montefiore, writer and historianProducer: Ali Benton

   August 26, 2026·55min
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   Number 2: Unmasking the Cambridge Five spies

   The Cambridge Five have gone down in history as the most notorious spies of the 20th century. For seventeen years, Guy Burgess, Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, Donald Maclean and John Cairncross got away with leaking top-secret British intelligence to the Soviet Union with disastrous consequences. Now a new book, drawing on recently declassified files, debunks some enduring myths about them.Guest: Antonia Senior, author of Stalin's Apostles: The Cambridge Five and the Making of the Soviet Empire Producer: Julie Street

   August 19, 2026·27min
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   Number 3: The secret dinners behind Cold War journalism

   Before 24-hour news, Washington’s most powerful journalists got their scoops over dinner — with generals, senators and senior officials. These invitation-only gatherings created a privileged pipeline between the press and the people running America’s Cold War. Guest: Kathryn McGarr, Associate Professor at the UW-Madison School of Journalism and Mass Communication, Madison, Wisconsin. Producer: Ali Benton

   September 10, 2026·25min
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   Number 4: Rivers are Europe's lifeblood. Now they're dying

   Europe is a land of legendary rivers. For centuries, they've fed cities, transported great armies and powered modern industry. But this summer, after a series of exceptional heatwaves, the Rhine, Danube, Loire and Po have all shrunk to record lows. Ben Coates, author of a 2019 book about the Rhine, discusses what the drying up of Europe’s rivers means for the continent and its future.Guest: Ben Coates, journalist and columnist based in the Netherlands. Ben is the author of The Rhine: following Europe's greatest river from Amsterdam to the Alps His article about Europe's dying rivers is hereProducers: Ann Arnold and Julie Street

   September 09, 2026·24min
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   Number 5: Gerontocracy - how the dominance of the old is holding America back

   The wealth and power of American elders was epitomised in the US 2024 election, with Joe Biden vs Donald Trump. But elder power spreads beyond political leadership, and is preventing the US from becoming as forward thinking and economically successful as it could be, our guest argues.Guest: Samuel Moyn, the Kent Professor of Law and History at Yale University. Author of 'Gerontocracy in America: how the old are hoarding power and wealth, and what to do about it' (Macmillan, 2026) Producer: Ann Arnold

   August 27, 2026·26min
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