Dwight Eisenhower served as Supreme Allied Commander during World War II, and as the 34th President of the United States from 1953 until 1961. Whilst his presidency is often ranked highly among presidential experts, other scholars have pointed out Eisenhower's mixed record on civil rights, his overthrowing of democratic governments abroad and his "tip-toeing" into Vietnam as reasons why his presidency might be deserving of greater scrutiny. My guest and I discuss all this and more; she is Julia Azari, presidential scholar, author of Delivering the People's Message, and podcaster at Politics in Question (which is great!). She tweets @julia_azari 

Hamid Karzai served as President of Afghanistan from 2001 until 2014. Karzai's presidency spanned the lion's share of the 20 year-long US-led intervention in Afghanistan. Though Karzai often frustrated American leadership, my guest today claims that the Americans made many mistakes in their dealings with Karzai. That guest would know, too; he is Ronald Neumann, who served as US Ambassador to Afghanistan from 2005 until 2007 under President George W. Bush.  He is a friend of Karzai's, and he is the now president of the American Academy of Diplomacy in Washington, D.C. (@acadofdiplomacy on Twitter).

Eric Zemmour is a French journalist and independent candidate for the French presidency. April's presidential election looks to be a race exclusively between right-wing candidates such as Emmanuel Macron, Marine Le Pen and Valerie Pecresse. None, however, are as right-wing as Zemmour, who looks poised to bring the already simmering tensions between the French state and French Muslims to new heights, regardless of whether he is elected or not. My guest for this conversation is Aurelien Mondon, lecturer in politics at the University of Bath and author of Reactionary Democracy (@aurelmondon on Twitter).

Newt Gingrich served as Speaker of the House of Representatives in the US Congress from 1995 until 1998. In turning the Republican Party into a more organised conservative formation, many blame Gingrich for having caused the dysfunction, polarisation and ill-feeling that defines American politics today. My guest for this episode is Matthew Green of the Catholic University of America (@mattngreen on Twitter). Matthew is writing a book on Gingrich, The Rise and Fall of a Party Entrepreneur, due to be published in July. 

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

Alfonso XIII was King of Spain from 1902 until Spain became a Republic in 1931. A hubristic and deluded leader, he presided over his country's collapse into political polarisation and Civil War. The Spain of then, with unresponsive political elites and burgeoning hard left and hard right political movements and subcultures, is chillingly similar to many Western countries today. My guest for this conversation was Francisco  "Paco" Romero Salvado of the University of Bristol. 

Suharto led Indonesia between 1967 and 1998. Nicknamed 'The Smiling General', Suharto was a wily and calculating military leader, but with a ferocity and ambivalence towards violence unmatched by any previous subject on the podcast; it is estimated that over one million Indonesians died in the 1965-66 killings that brought Suharto to power. That said, Suharto's development projects caused massive economic growth in his country, to the point where Indonesia was a relatively wealthy country by the 1990s. This makes his legacy highly complex. My guest for this one was Tom Pepinsky of Cornell University in New York (@TomPepinsky on Twitter) 

Rodrigo Duterte has been president of the Philippines since 2016. He is a divisive figure both domestically and internationally, having irritated the US and international human rights groups for his (very) hardline attitude towards drugs. Having announced his retirement from politics, he has also set up one of the strangest elections I've ever seen, currently being fought between Duterte's daughter, the son of former Filipino dictator Ferdinand Marcos, boxing legend Manny Pacquiao, and Duterte's vice president, Leni Robredo. Some things you just can't make up. My guest for this episode is Philippines expert and principal lecturer at the University of Portsmouth, Tom Smith (@tomtheacademic on Twitter).

Neil Kinnock served as a leader of the UK Labour Party between 1983 and 1992. The longest-serving leader of the Opposition in British history, Kinnock never served as prime minister. Whilst less divisive than many of my other subjects, Kinnock was one of the most important leaders of the 1980s, one of the most polarised decades in recent British political history; some studies actually show that British politics was more polarised then than it is now. My guest for this episode is Lord Peter Hain, former member of parliament for Neath (Labour, 1991-2005) and former colleague of Kinnock's. 

In this very short episode, I give you a quick update on the podcast, and explain a slightly unorthodox upcoming episode... enjoy!