Dictators

From humble beginnings to exorbitant wealth: John D. Rockefeller had a shrewd business mind and a zeal for refining oil that transformed his Standard Oil Company into a behemoth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

An immigrant from Scotland finds immense success in America after building a steel empire. But his business ties and practices lead to a reckoning that will haunt him for the rest of his life. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Unimaginable wealth. Unchecked corruption. America is known for industrial tycoons hoarding control, manipulating the economy, and wielding more power than politicians. But this isn't new. It started in The Gilded Age. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As we look ahead to the new year, we want to take one last chance to say thank you for the year that was — and present our "Best of 2021"! Please enjoy this episode from Deathbed Confessions, one of our favorite new shows of the year. Forty-two years after Lincoln’s assassin allegedly uttered his final words, a lawyer gives a detailed deathbed confession that — if true — will rewrite American history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

On Christmas Eve nearly seventy years ago, Dorothy Martin and the Seekers stood outside in Chicago and sang carols. They were waiting for a spacecraft that would shepherd them away from Earth — and the impending apocalypse. In this Christmas Special from Cults, join us for a look into a doomsday cult awaiting deliverance. And if you like this episode, follow Cults — a Spotify Original from Parcast — for more chilling insights every week! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the final episode of our crossover special, Molly and Carter from Conspiracy Theories investigate what exactly the U.S. government knew ahead of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the hours, days and weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, Japan’s forces coordinated a vast takeover of the Pacific. Back at home, Hideki Tojo’s reign as Prime Minister oversaw brutal wartime atrocities. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the summer of 1941, as hostilities between the two nations escalated, wartime negotiations officially broke down. Combat was imminent — but where? This is the second part of our crossover special with Conspiracy Theories, another Spotify Original from Parcast, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In the 1860s, Japan’s emperor was restored and the once-isolated island nation opened to the world. Out of this period of transition came Hideki Tojo — a ruthless career militarist whose devotion to his country thrust him into power. This is the first part of our deep dive into the attack on Pearl Harbor. Come back Wednesday for the next installment, where our friends from Conspiracy Theories explore how the tensions between the U.S. and Japan reached a fever pitch as WWII broke out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In Japan, a yoga teacher named Shoko Asahara claimed he had special DNA, developed the battery-powered “Perfect Salvation System,” and directed his cult, Aum Shinrikyo, to carry out chemical attacks in Tokyo. This is the final episode in the three-part series — if you enjoyed it, search and follow Cults to hear what really happens behind the closed doors of covert societies. New episodes Tuesdays. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hosts Vanessa Richardson and Lanie Hobbs explore the story of Geshe Michael Roach and Christie McNally — the so-called king and queen of Diamond Mountain who used tantric yoga to lure hundreds to their Arizona desert retreat. This episode is a collaboration between Cults and Crimes of Passion, two Spotify Originals from Parcast. Every week, Cults analyzes the minds and movements of notorious cult leaders, and Crimes of Passion follows love stories that turn into crime stories. Search and follow to catch new episodes! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

How do quests for enlightenment get so sinister? In this three-part special from Cults, a Spotify Original from Parcast, we’re looking at three stories of yoga gurus who were loved — then loathed — for their practices. We start in Romania, charting the rise of Gregorian Bivolaru: an allegedly all-powerful mystic who remixed religions for an ever-expanding cache of followers across Europe. But the price of following him was more than devotion… If you like this episode, search and follow Cults to delve into the minds of more notorious cult leaders every Tuesday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From the creators of Real Pirates comes Real Dictators, the show that explores the hidden lives of history's tyrants. In this episode, we're in Uganda, unpicking the regime of President Idi Amin Dada. From 1971 to 1979, Amin devastated Uganda as the nation's military dictator. He sank the economy and deported an entire ethnic class. He slaughtered, by some estimates, up to half a million of his fellow citizens. All this while cultivating a persona of 'Big Daddy', the playful joker. Let's peel back the layers of the myth and explore the life of Africa's most infamous son. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For most of his life, Philippe Pétain was a soldier with no war to fight. Then, World War I sent Europe into chaos and the aging Pétain became the Hero of Verdun. But he wasted his newfound celebrity by aligning himself with Hitler. And when France was divided into two after the Nazis invaded, Pétain became the ruler of Vichy France... and actively participated in the Holocaust. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now in power, Ion Antonescu immediately saw his position challenged by the undisciplined Iron Guard. He wages war against them, while continuing to grow closer to Hitler. As the atrocities mount, the royal family decides to take matters into their own hands… for the sake of Romania’s future. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Antonescu was a career military man who defended Romania during WWI, despised the corruption of Romania’s monarch, and allied with Hitler during WWII. Today, we explore his complicated relationships with King Carol II and the fascist paramilitary group known as the Iron Guard. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now in the seat of power, Pavelić begins shifting his alliance away from Mussolini, and toward Hitler. But his actions prove he’s still nothing more than a puppet to Axis leaders. Hatred for Pavelić builds after he engineers a genocide, culminating in a brutal insurrection waged by Josip Tito and the Partisans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Radicalized as a student in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, Ante Pavelić wanted nothing more than to see Croatia become separate and independent — even if it meant embracing terrorism, and aligning himself with Benito Mussolini. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Once in power, Jozef Tiso realized he had made a Faustian bargain with Adolf Hitler. Not wanting to be a total puppet, Tiso would spend his reign pushing his relationship with the Nazis to its limit, while fighting off more extremist elements in his own government. But that didn’t stop him from adopting Nazi tactics, and sending thousands of Slovak Jews to their deaths, all in the name of placating Hitler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today, we start a new season of Dictators on lesser-known WWII dictators who allied with the Axis Powers. Up first: antisemitic Catholic priest Jozef Tiso, who spent decades fighting for Slovak autonomy after the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Little did Tiso know that in order to secure that autonomy, he’d find himself cozying up to Adolf Hitler. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After the sudden deaths of his father and brother, Anastasio “Tachito” Somoza Debayle took office in May 1967. By 1978, his regime was crumbling. An opposition group known as the Sandinistas were rallying Nicaraguans against their leader — and soon, it wasn’t just citizens denouncing Somoza. As resentment boiled over into revolution, the revolution found international allies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1934, a beloved anti-imperialist guerrilla in Nicaragua was betrayed and executed by a National Guard commander. General Anastasio Somoza García seized power, establishing his own political party and steadily cementing his rule before forming one of the few familial dynasties in Latin America. The Somoza dynasty ruled for nearly four decades in Nicaragua. This week, we trace its rise. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Efraín Ríos Montt's time as leader of Guatemala was brief, but bloody. Under his tenure, he oversaw arguably some of the most ruthless fighting of the three-decade-long civil war. He was determined to see it come to an end — even if that meant going scorched earth. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1954, the CIA overthrew the democratically elected Guatemalan president, ushering in a series of brutal military dictators and a decades-long civil war. This was the backdrop to Efraín Ríos Montt’s rise to power — an ascent that saw him determined to not only end the civil war, but transform the nation into a godly one. And yet just months into his reign, Montt would oversee the deaths of thousands. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

For thirty years, Trujillo’s corrupt regime came at the expense of the people. He hoarded funds from the treasury, and enacted a campaign of terror — first against his own citizens, then against Haitian immigrants, and finally against enemies living abroad. When he finally lost the unrelenting support of the U.S., he found himself directly in the CIA’s crosshairs. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When the U.S. occupied the Dominican Republic at the turn of the century, Rafael Trujillo saw an opportunity to advance in life. He joined the military and learned from the U.S. Marines, and when turmoil hit the small island nation, Trujillo cut a deal that brought him to power. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After an ascendant rise to the papacy, Pope Leo X began draining the massive treasury left by his predecessor. The nonstop feasting and over-the-top festivities were partly strategic, mostly indulgent, and at the root of a controversy that would produce the sale of indulgences, Luther’s 95 Theses… and Leo’s suspicious death. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Giovanni de' Medici was a shrewd strategist who became pope before the age of 40. As a cardinal, he ended the Medicis’ exile in Florence, returning the dynasty to their seat of power. As pope, he would nearly bankrupt the Vatican — and upend the Christian world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Seated atop the papal throne, Pope Julius II was determined to bring order along the Italian Peninsula by any means necessary. For years, the region had seen invasion after invasion by nascent foreign powers. Julius made it his mission to bring the surrounding states in line — even if it meant betraying former allies, and making deals with former enemies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Later nicknamed ‘The Warrior Pope,’ Giuliano della Rovere had always nurtured visions of personal glory. As a young man and newly elected cardinal, he believed he could obtain that glory on the battlefield. But he was constantly embroiled in feuds off the battlefield, too — rivalries with family members, former allies, and power-grabbing popes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now wearing the papal tiara, Pope Alexander VI was determined to root out the corruption that had plagued Rome and the Vatican. But as his papacy continued, rumors began to spread that the Spanish pope was guilty of his own corruption, murder, and incest. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Elevated into power by his uncle, Pope Calixtus III, Rodrigo Borgia became instrumental in settling affairs throughout the Papal States. As a cardinal, he orchestrated the election of popes for decades — all the while biding his time before making his own moves to become a pope himself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

By 1913, Talaat Pasha was one third of a military triumvirate and the de facto leader of the Ottoman Empire. This episode covers his alliance with Germany during WWI, the Battle of Gallipoli, and the Armenian Genocide. When the Central Powers were defeated, he fled to Germany, where he was assassinated in 1921. By 1922, the Three Pashas were all dead. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After the Fall of Constantinople, the Ottomans became the most powerful dynasty in existence. But the great empire began to decline, and in the early 20th century, a leader named Talaat and a group of radical nationalists worked to remove the ineffectual sultan and restore the Ottoman Empire’s former glory. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Early successes gave way to embarrassing defeats as Franz Joseph I was outsmarted by savvier leaders on the world stage. In 1914, when his successor was assassinated in Serbia, Franz declared war — and within weeks, the first World War had begun. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With revolution spreading, the young Franz Joseph I succeeded to the throne of the Habsburg Dynasty in 1848. The new emperor set to work crushing an insurrection in Hungary, negotiating with the King of Prussia, and ensuring his rule would be absolute. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

With the newly formed Free Congo State in his possession, Leopold II was determined to extract all the ivory and rubber he could. But in the process, his colonial agents wreaked havoc on the indigenous people, slaughtering, torturing, and enslaving Africans. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ever since he was a child, Leopold II was obsessed with bringing prestige to the nascent Kingdom of Belgium. As king, he spent decades scheming and conning European powers to fulfill his single-minded goal — and carve out his own African kingdom in the Congo. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A crash course on Marxist theory and how it evolved over the years from Marxism, Marxism-Leninism, Maoism, and Guevarism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Fearing the spread of communism in Southeast Asia, the U.S. began sending more troops to Vietnam in the 1960s. The divided country was already embroiled in political chaos and violence — and now, escalating tensions would grow into all-out conflict, claiming millions of lives. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Dreaming of an independent Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh led a guerilla army against French imperialists in the late 1940s. By 1954, his dream had come true — but it wouldn’t take long for another massive conflict to engulf the nation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Entering the 1970s, Fidel focused his attention on building the Cuban economy in the wake of Che Guevara’s failed plans and a U.S. embargo. But when the Soviet Union collapsed, all eyes turned to the tiny island, and waited with bated breath for Fidel to fall, too. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Cuba gained independence from Spain in the late 1800s, it ushered in a wave of authoritarian leaders backed by American interests. Violence and suppression were rampant, turning a young lawyer into a fiery revolutionary in the 1950s. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After seizing power in 1917, Lenin began what would be a brief, but brutal, reign. He would become one of the most influential and controversial figures of the 20th century, setting the stage for how future Soviet leaders and communist dictators alike would rule. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

When Vladimir Lenin's older brother was executed by Romanov tsars in 1887, Lenin was thrust into a world of revolutionary politics. From then on he had a single, fervid mission in life: topple the Romanov dynasty and overthrow world capitalism. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The most successful pirate in history is one few have heard of: Ching Shih, the pirate queen of the South China Sea. At her height in the early 1800s, Shih commanded nearly 80,000 pirates. She took on entire nations… and won. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Anne Bonny and Mary Read may have been the two most famous lady pirates, but they certainly weren't the only ones. History is full of women taking to the sea and ruthlessly taking what they want. Jeanne de Clisson, Sayyida al Hurra, and Grace O'Malley are three more successful women pirates, whose tales of revenge and looting are legendary. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

During the Golden Age of Piracy, two women terrorized the Caribbean alongside some of the most infamous pirates of the day. Dispelling the old sea superstitions of having women on board, Anne Bonny and Mary Read proved to be even more cutthroat than the men they sailed with. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In 1812, using his extensive network of rogues and hidden caches of supplies, Lafitte turned the tide of an entire war… then vanished a few years later. The mystery surrounding his disappearance lasted until the 1950s, when a newly discovered journal shed light on his final exploits. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

From his base in New Orleans, the “gentleman pirate” Jean Lafitte changed the young United States' entire outlook on piracy. In 1812, when war with England seemed imminent, it was New Orleans’ pirate admiral that the U.S. Army turned to for help. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices