The walls close in on Hideki Tojo. The General turned Prime Minister takes hands-on control of the military, with catastrophic consequences. Emperor Hirohito pulls the plug. With Tojo forced out of office and on the run from the Allies in Tokyo, the end of World War Two arrives. But its final chapter will change the world forever more. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for Apple and Android users. Click the Noiser+ banner on Ap...
Dec 07, 2020•42 min•Ep 17•Transcript available on Metacast Japan attacks Pearl Harbor. The Pacific War is underway. In Tokyo, Prime Minister Tojo moves to take every significant government job for himself. Japanese troops sweep through the Malay Peninsula. Thousands of Allied soldiers are interned in prisoner of war camps, in conditions that beggar belief. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for Apple and Android users. Click the Noiser+ banner on Apple or go to noiser.com/subscriptions ...
Nov 30, 2020•38 min•Ep 16•Transcript available on Metacast Major General Hideki Tojo takes command of the secret police - the Kempeitai. The Imperial Japanese Army invades China and terrorises the civilian population. Kempeitai operatives set up a secret lab where they carry out horrific medical and weapons experiments. This is only the beginning. Before long, Prime Minister Tojo will ready the nation for war with the United States. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for Apple and Andro...
Nov 22, 2020•42 min•Ep 15•Transcript available on Metacast General Hideki Tojo led Japan into World War Two and oversaw some of the most horrific war crimes in recorded history. Tojo did not hold absolute power, but he more than earns his place at this table. Ruling under a compliant Emperor, Tojo gathered power to himself. He was the minister who outgrew his master, the bureaucrat whose relentless work ethic took him to the apex of government. Hideki Tojo is born in 1884. Japan is an emerging world power. As a young military officer, the man they call ...
Nov 16, 2020•35 min•Ep 14•Transcript available on Metacast François Duvalier puts the finishing touches to his terrifying cult of personality. The President for Life declares himself an immaterial being - a spirit that will hover over Haiti even after his body dies. Thoughts turn to succession. His son - "Baby Doc" - waits in the wings. Our contributors reflect on the legacy of Papa Doc - a name that will forever haunt the nightmares of Haitians. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for A...
Sep 09, 2020•33 min•Ep 13•Transcript available on Metacast Haitian dictator “Papa Doc” Duvalier crushes an attempted coup without mercy. Spooked by this near miss, Duvalier forms his own private militia called the Tonton Macoute. They take their name from a terrifying bogeyman of Haitian mythology. As the horrors of the regime become impossible to ignore, President Kennedy decides to lay down a marker. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available for Apple and Android users. Click the Noiser+ ban...
Sep 02, 2020•41 min•Ep 12•Transcript available on Metacast Just a few hundred miles south of Florida, across the Caribbean Sea, lies Haiti. From 1957 to 1971, this tropical island nation was ruled by a would-be demigod. François Duvalier - better known as “Papa Doc” - wielded the twin powers of state violence and voodoo. Real Dictators takes you behind the scenes of Papa Doc’s maniacal regime. His victims and adversaries tell the story of the medical doctor who became the butcher of his people. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access t...
Aug 26, 2020•51 min•Ep 11•Transcript available on Metacast Mao’s ‘Cultural Revolution’ sets out to purge the minds of an entire population. Meanwhile, the Supreme Leader himself leads a life of debauchery and excess - as his former doctor remembers. The Chairman seems invincible. But as his health deteriorates, his legacy is anything but assured. Eyewitnesses to his brutality reflect on what Mao means to China today, more than 40 years after his death. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new episodes, join Noiser+. Now available...
Aug 11, 2020•48 min•Ep 10•Transcript available on Metacast Mao Zedong's Communists come down from the mountains to do battle with the Nationalists. After clinching victory, Mao is greeted by many as a hero. But life under the new Chairman is about to get a whole lot worse. Installed as Supreme Leader, Mao sets about revolutionising the way his people live, work, and even think. His ‘Great Leap Forward’ is intended to be an economic masterplan. Instead, it will drive people across China to the wildest extremes of human behaviour. For ad-free listening, e...
Aug 04, 2020•52 min•Ep 9•Transcript available on Metacast In the centre of China’s capital city, Beijing, lies a corpse that no one dares remove. It’s been 44 years since Mao Zedong’s body was laid to rest in the grandiose Chairman Mao Memorial Hall. He may be gone but he is not forgotten. To some, he’s the father of modern China. To many others, he’s a sadistic thug - a man willing to sacrifice millions of lives in pursuit of power. Mao Zedong is born in Hunan Province in 1893. Growing up on his father’s farm, he consumes books and ideas. His rise to ...
Jul 28, 2020•43 min•Ep 8•Transcript available on Metacast Stalin’s regime hits the rocks when Adolf Hitler launches Operation Barbarossa and invades Russia. Nazi tanks plough towards Moscow in a devastating advance. Stalin’s legacy is forged in this fight to the death. In his final years, the strongman succumbs to cardiac problems. His tools for progress have been famine, slavery and execution. Yet to this day, some of his countrymen and women lionise him as the man who turned Russia into a superpower. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early...
Jul 14, 2020•50 min•Ep 7•Transcript available on Metacast With the First World War underway, Stalin’s journey to dictatorship grinds into gear. After the War, Russia is turned upside down. Stalin thrives in the chaos, masterminding a string of elaborate takedowns of his rivals. Rising to party leader, he visits a ruthless purge on his enemies. But Stalin’s brutality does not go unchallenged. The peasants revolt, while a showdown with his own wife at a dinner party has tragic consequences. For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early access to new...
Jul 08, 2020•54 min•Ep 6•Transcript available on Metacast Joseph Stalin - the “man of steel” - was the party secretary who plotted a route to absolute power, becoming head of the Eastern Bloc and chief nemesis of the United States. But how did a man from the Georgian frontier of the Russian Empire do it? In 1917, the 300-year-old Romanov Dynasty collapses. The communist Bolsheviks storm the Winter Palace and seize power. From this band of revolutionaries, a future bloody dictator - a man with an extraordinary backstory - begins to emerge... For ad-free...
Jul 01, 2020•53 min•Ep 5•Transcript available on Metacast Installed as dictator, Kim Jong-il builds an all-powerful state that dominates the lives and minds of its people. North Korea is wracked by famine. The people adapt to survive - we hear from one man who flouted the rules and paid a horrific price. Lurid rumours emerge about how the ‘Dear Leader’ spends his leisure time. And Kim Jong-il begins work on an arsenal of nuclear weapons that will spook the world and pave the way for his own son’s ascent to power. For ad-free listening, exclusive conten...
Jun 24, 2020•53 min•Ep 4•Transcript available on Metacast Kim Jong-il has risen to become propaganda chief under the rule of his father. Now, he hatches an audacious plan to turn North Korea into a filmmaking powerhouse. South Korea’s finest actress and leading director are kidnapped and find themselves on boats bound for the North. Elsewhere, Kim launches a charm offensive at the armed forces, readying the ground for his coronation. And his father dies, leaving the path to power seemingly clear... For ad-free listening, exclusive content and early acc...
Jun 15, 2020•49 min•Ep 3•Transcript available on Metacast Kim Jong-il built a rogue state with nuclear missiles trained on its enemies – all while living a life of the utmost luxury. In the first episode of Real Dictators, we piece together the early life of this tyrant and that of the country he came to rule. Kim Jong-il is born during World War Two. His father – Kim Il-sung – fights the Japanese and helps found the state of North Korea. After the War, son and nation grow up together, as Kim Jong-il begins his own rise to power. Historians trace Kim’s...
Jun 08, 2020•54 min•Ep 2•Transcript available on Metacast How does a single human being convince thousands to kill for them and millions to turn a blind eye? Real Dictators is the new podcast series hosted by Paul McGann (Dr Who, Luther, Withnail and I) that explores the hidden lives of history’s tyrants. We encounter the American-trained doctor, “Papa Doc” Duvalier, who used modern medicine to convince the people of Haiti that he was a Voodoo god. There’s Kim Jong-il, who developed nuclear warheads alongside blockbuster movies. There’s Mao Zedong – th...
Apr 11, 2020•4 min•Ep 1•Transcript available on Metacast 
