The Butcher And The Poet
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head to a rally in Budapest where Viktor Orban compares the EU to the Habsburgs, forgetting it was tsarist Russia that crushed the revolution of 1848
Jul 02, 2025•42 min
How to Invent a Country
When did countries become countries? Misha Glenny on the borders, the stories and the people of countries worldwide.
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Episodes
Hungary and Mohacs 500
McMafia author Misha Glenny and Miles Warde travel from Vienna to Budapest to find out how Hungarian hardman Viktor Orban uses history beginning with the battle of Mohacs of 1526
Jun 23, 2025•46 min
Taiwan
At the beginning of 2024 the president of the Chinese People's Republic, Xi Jinping, claimed people living on both sides of the Taiwan Straits should reunite "and share in the glory of the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation". But is Taiwan really part of China, and could this question lead to war? Misha Glenny and producer Miles Warde have been to the capital Taipei and Tainan City in the south to find out about this relationship with the Chinese mainland. "I've obviously been following the situ...
Sep 12, 2024•30 min
China: The Life and Times of Chairman Mao
The Long March, the Civil War, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution
May 24, 2024•42 min
China: imperial collapse
The end of the Qing and the troubled birth of the republic under Dr Sun Yat-sen
May 13, 2024•42 min
China - to kowtow or not to kowtow
Find out how the world's greatest civilisation found itself dragged into two opium wars
May 04, 2024•42 min
China - the first emperor
Misha Glenny and Miles Warde head east to find out what is China and where it came from?
May 03, 2024•44 min
Turkey - Ottoman or Turk
A bonus episode with Hannah Lucinda Smith, Christopher de Bellaigue and Misha Glenny
Nov 20, 2023•28 min
Turkey - A Delicate Balancing Act
Ep 3 - How the republic of Turkey emerged from the ruins of World War One
Oct 27, 2023•39 min
Turkey - The Military and Decline
EP 2 - The Invention of Turkey and slow decline of the empire from the siege of Vienna
Oct 27, 2023•31 min
Turkey - The Ottomans: East or West
Ep1 - Istanbul and Mehmet the Conqueror. Misha Glenny on the birth of the Ottoman empire
Oct 27, 2023•33 min
Russia - the sacred song of war
Ep 4 - The Invention of Russia, presented by Misha Glenny and produced by Miles Warde
Jan 09, 2023•32 min
Russia - the bear moves west
Ep 3 - The Invention of Russia and Catherine the Great, presented by Misha Glenny
Jan 09, 2023•43 min
Russia - the Empire Strikes Back
Ep 2 - The Invention of Russia and the expansion east to Siberia, west into Ukraine
Jan 09, 2023•44 min
Russia - A Tale of Two Ivans
Ep 1 The Invention of Russia ... told from a time when it was still very small
Jan 09, 2023•32 min
Return to Spain
with Sir John Eliot, plus exciting news
Jan 06, 2023•22 min
Poland - Stalin on one side, Hitler to the left
Ep 3 - Poland reborn and invaded again. Misha Glenny presents, Miles Warde holds the mic.
Apr 08, 2022•36 min
Poland - a nation without a state
EP 2 - Misha Glenny on Poland's 123 year absence from the map, produced by Miles Warde
Mar 28, 2022•30 min
Poland - Obliterated from the map
Ep 1 - how Europe's largest state was sliced and diced by Russia, Prussia and Austria.
Mar 28, 2022•32 min
The Birth of Bangladesh
Bangladesh was born in 1971.
May 17, 2021•29 min
Scandinavia - the narcissism of small differences
Ep3 Norway and fish, followed by oil
Nov 24, 2020•30 min
Scandinavia - The Viking Inheritance
The Swedish Baltic Empire ... why it's not all Abba and social democracy with the Swedes
Nov 17, 2020•33 min
Scandinavia - The Bridge
Ep 1 "Danes talk about Swedes all the time. Swedes don't talk about Danes so much."
Nov 10, 2020•36 min
Ireland - escalation!
"The thing about the border - we've lived it. It doesn't feel like history to us."
Oct 01, 2019•17 min
Ireland - plantation and conflict
Dr Joan Redmond talks to Misha Glenny about Ireland, England and the early seeds of war
Sep 19, 2019•18 min
Ireland - we used the word pagan as kids!
Fintan O'Toole talks to Misha Glenny about Catholics, Protestants, and Top of the Pops
Sep 09, 2019•25 min
The Invention of Britain #4 - so many different little corners!
Scotland, England, Ireland, Wales - why all these borders, and what do they mean?
Mar 17, 2019•34 min
The Invention of Britain #3
Insecurity - from Dover to Dublin, presented by Misha Glenny and produced by Miles Warde
Mar 10, 2019•31 min
The Invention of Britain #2
Anglocentrism .... or why Britons Never Will Be Slaves
Mar 04, 2019•31 min
The Invention of Britain #1- like quicksand for the uninitiated
What is Britain? Who are the Scots, the Welsh, the Irish, the English?
Feb 24, 2019•30 min
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