Dictators

If you enjoy the true stories told in Dictators, check out this episode from our series Kingpins: How did Manuel Noriega rise from nothing to become the drug-smuggling, secret-selling, military dictator of Panama in the 1980s? He had a great deal of help from the American CIA. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

He purged Wallachia of enemies and retained an iron grip on power in the region. But as Vlad the Impaler's power expanded, so did his violent, paranoid and psychotic behavior—until he alienated everyone around him and was violently deposed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Born between 1428-1431, Vlad the Impaler was abandoned by his father as a boy and betrayed by everyone he trusted. He channeled his resentment into an unquenchable lust for power and violence—eventually becoming the ruler of Wallachia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After uniting the Mongol tribes in 1206, Genghis Khan used his military prowess to assert dominance over the Ottoman Empire and the Chinese Jin Dynasty. By 1222, his empire spanned from the Caspian Sea to the Pacific Ocean. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

A nomad exiled from his tribe as a child, Genghis Khan used populism and meritocracy to unite the tribes of the Mongolian Steppe and become the ruler of all of Mongolia from 1206-1227 CE. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

After the death of his beloved first wife, Tsar Ivan the Terrible descended into madness and paranoia. He turned his hatred and fear against his own people dragging the empire he had built with his own hands down into poverty and despair. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Ivan Vasilyevich the Fourth was crowned Grand Prince of Muscovy at 3 years old after his father died. After a traumatic childhood of chaos and coups, Ivan would crown himself the first Tsar of Russia and go on to create the Russian Empire. The first half of his reign would have made him a legend... if the second half did not turn into a waking nightmare that would earn him the name "Ivan the Terrible." Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Once he was appointed Chancellor of Germany, Adolf Hitler was finally in the position to implement his long-awaited vision. It was a vision that plunged the entire world into war, and led to the systematic genocide of over six million Jews and countless innocent people. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

As a young man, nobody would have expected aspiring artist Adolf Hitler to become one of history's cruelest dictators. But once he realized he had a talent for politics, Hitler began a lifelong quest for absolute power...and he was willing to do anything to get it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Now in total power, Joseph Stalin went on to transform the Soviet Union into a modernized country—but at the cost of millions of lives. In order to fulfill his vision of communism, the deaths of peasants and political enemies were required. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Before he became the leader of one of the most powerful countries in the world, Joseph Stalin was an idealistic, but ruthless revolutionary. A Marxist from a young age, he devoted much of his life to overthrowing Imperial Russia. But as his star rose among the Russian socialists, so too did his list of enemies. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Il Duce’s ineffective economic policies left Italy completely unprepared for World War II, and yet he forced the country into it anyway. What followed was a defeat so embarrassing that it remains legendary for its incompetency to this day. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Italian "Il Duce" had one of the most dramatic transformations of any politician in history. An ardent socialist for the first three decades of his life, he abruptly left the party and developed his own brand of nationalist, totalitarian belief. This system would become known as fascism, and it would change the course of history. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to Parcast's newest original, DICTATORS. Every Tuesday starting January 21st, delve into the minds behind some of the world’s most infamous leaders. Hear more about the men who claimed to love their country, but were intricately responsible for killing millions of their own people. Men such as prime minister Benito Mussolini, supreme leader Kim Jong-un, and even Julius Caesar himself. Discover the governments that fell, the lives that were destroyed, and evil at its highest level in the Parcast original series, DICTATORS. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices