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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! He...
Based on 6 episodes we listened to · September 2026
Dalrymple and Anand connect wars, negotiations, archaeology, and political memory through informed conversations that keep causes and consequences in view.
Empire: World History follows power through the decisions, assumptions, and settlements that give it lasting form. William Dalrymple and Anita Anand favor extended conversations that connect military events with diplomacy, political legitimacy, and life under occupation.
Troy has nine layers. Camp David takes thirteen days. Your tidy history timeline is getting crowded.
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Short reviews from the PlayNext desk, based on the episodes we processed.
Sadat's peace initiative becomes a sharp study of Arab fracture, Egyptian power, and the cost of going it alone.
Sadat's peace initiative comes through as a regional rupture rather than a neat diplomatic breakthrough. The episode tracks his move to address the Israeli people, Arafat's anger, Hafez al-Assad's warning, and the threat from Arab countries to isolate Egypt if it kept moving…
A sharp look at how military confidence can make danger visible and still leave it unseen.
Egyptian forces crossing the Suez Canal in October 1973 gives this episode a jolt at the start, but its real interest sits with the Israeli intelligence failure that let surprise take hold.
A Ramallah conversation connects nearby missile fire, settler attacks, and Oslo's territorial divisions to the shrinking freedom to roam.
Raja Shahadeh speaks from Ramallah while Iranian missiles pass overhead and land nearby, giving the episode a sharp sense of present danger. From there, the conversation moves through violent daily settler attacks in villages around Ramallah, checkpoints, restrictions, and the…
The West Bank's occupation reshapes Palestinian identity and Israeli confidence, with consequences that reach into Lebanon and the next war.
The West Bank comes through as a place where occupation presses on public symbols and on the stories a society is allowed to tell about itself.
A sober look at Iran's succession crisis and the history behind it.
Empire pauses its Mao series to return to Iran, and the move makes sense: the Middle East war gives the episode a clear present tense. Ali Ansari sounds authoritative without overplaying it, and the discussion is at its best when it stays close to power itself, with Mojtaba…
A grounded bridge between Homer, archaeology, and Troy's long afterlife.
The Bronze Age collapse is the frame for a conversation that moves from Homer and archaeology to Troy's long afterlife. William Dalrymple and Anita Arnott guide Stephen Fry through what may lie behind the Iliad and the Odyssey, then widen the lens to geology, Victorian doubt,…
Academic Mukulika Banerjee and journalist Pragya Tiwari interview one expert each episode on India.
Anita Arnand and William Durrumpel bring back Eugene Rogan to trace Menachem Begin, Anwar Sadat, and Jimmy Carter through the Camp David peace process.
Empire: World History episode 350 covers the October 1973 Yom Kippur War, the Suez Canal crossing, and the first oil crisis.
Empire: World History speaks with Raja Shahadeh about what Palestinian life in Ramallah looks like under occupation, including missiles overhead and daily settler attacks in nearby villages.
March 21, 1968 at Al-Karameh becomes the episode's pivot point, because Yasser Arafat's fighters claim a symbolic victory after losing about 150 men to roughly 20 Israeli dead.
William Dalrymple interviews Middle East expert Ali Ansari about the historical and current crises in Iran, focusing on the three supreme leaders, internal weaknesses, economic collapse, and the impact of external conflicts.
This episode explores how Mao Zedong transformed China into an industrial power.
This episode explores the systemic collapse of Bronze Age civilizations, examining how kingdoms fell like dominoes after catastrophes.
This episode includes advertisements and a brief introduction to the Empire podcast, which explores the stories of empires and their impact on world history.
Stephen Fry joins the hosts to explore the historical reality behind Homer's Trojan War stories, examining how oral tradition preserved Bronze Age details across centuries.
This episode discusses the most dramatic imperial collapse in history, part of a series on empires.
The hosts discuss the 1979 Iranian Revolution and its parallels with current protests in Iran, interviewing experts Scott Anderson and Ramita Navai.
Empire: World History examines Muhammad Ali Jinnah's rise from a merchant's son born in Karachi in 1876 to a barrister called to the bar at 19.
Anita Anand tells William Dalrymple that her book on Sophia Duleep Singh began with a sepia magazine photo of a Punjabi woman selling the newspaper The Suffragette outside Hampton Court.