Empire

Goalhanger
  • 5.0 (3)
  • HISTORY
  • UPDATED TWICE WEEKLY
Empire
THE EMPIRE CLUB

Bonus episodes, early access and ad-free listening

US$6.00/mo or US$60.00/yr after trial

The rise and fall of empires, rulers, and the events that shaped world history. Join William Dalrymple and Anita Anand as they uncover the forces behind civilisations, imperial wars, revolutions, ancient battles, and the rulers who built and lost empires. From empires and conquest to warlords and colonisation, history is shaped by power struggles, military campaigns, and territorial expansion.

  1. 14 APR • SUBSCRIBER EARLY ACCESS

    Ireland Transformed: From Banning Condoms to Exporting Viagra

    How did Ireland go from a farming economy to the home of Big Tech and Big Pharma in Europe in a few decades? Why were women imprisoned in “Magdalene Laundries” in Ireland until 1996? How did Irish society grapple with abuse within the Catholic Church? To conclude our series on Ireland & Empire, Anita and William are joined by the brilliant Fintan O’Toole, author of We Don’t Know Ourselves, to reflect on how Irish society has transformed since the 1950s, and how the country’s colonial past informs its future. _____________ Empire UK Live Tour: The podcast is going on a UK tour! William and Anita will be live on stage in Glasgow, Birmingham, York and Bristol, discussing how the British Empire continues to shape our everyday lives. Tickets are on sale NOW, to buy yours head to empirepoduk.com. 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, and a weekly newsletter! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk Blue Sky: @empirepoduk X: @empirepoduk goalhanger.com Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Senior Producer: Callum Hill

    51 min

  2. 16 HR AGO

    Inside The Good Friday Agreement with Alastair Campbell

    What ended The Troubles? Why was 1998 the right moment for a peace treaty? Which issues caused the most heated debate? What was the food like in the negotiating room? Exactly 27 years on since the Good Friday Agreement was signed, what does its future look like? Listen as William and Anita are joined by Alastair Campbell, the lead strategist for Tony Blair’s New Labour government at the time, to discuss what it was really like to negotiate peace in Northern Ireland in 1998.  _____________ Empire UK Live Tour: The podcast is going on a UK tour! William and Anita will be live on stage in Glasgow, Birmingham, York and Bristol, discussing how the British Empire continues to shape our everyday lives. Tickets are on sale NOW, to buy yours head to empirepoduk.com. 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, and a weekly newsletter! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk  Blue Sky: @empirepoduk  X: @empirepoduk goalhanger.com Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Senior Producer: Callum Hill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    57 min

  3. 2 DAYS AGO

    The Troubles: IRA Secrets Exposed (Ep 4)

    Who was responsible for the murder of Jean McConville? Which IRA secrets were revealed in the Belfast Project tapes? How did Gerry Adams move into politics and become a key figure in the signing of the Good Friday Agreement? Listen as Anita and William are joined for the final time by Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing, to discuss how the families of the Disappeared searched for their loved ones after the ceasefire in the 1990s, and Patrick’s discovery of who killed Jean McConville in 1972.  _____________ Empire UK Live Tour: The podcast is going on a UK tour! William and Anita will be live on stage in Glasgow, Birmingham, York and Bristol, discussing how the British Empire continues to shape our everyday lives. Tickets are on sale NOW, to buy yours head to empirepoduk.com. 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, and a weekly newsletter! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk  Blue Sky: @empirepoduk  X: @empirepoduk goalhanger.com Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Senior Producer: Callum Hill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    49 min

  4. 3 DAYS AGO • SUBSCRIBERS ONLY

    Ireland’s Greatest Poet: Love, Sex, & Politics (Part 2)

    In this bonus episode, William and Anita are joined once again by Roy Foster to discuss the later life of Ireland’s most famous poet, W. B. Yeats. How does Yeats’ life illuminate Ireland’s early 20th century history? Who was Yeats’ first love? What was the World League For Sexual Reform? And how did W. B. Yeats become involved in Irish nationalism? "That is no country for old men. The young, In one another's arms, birds in the trees" _____________ Empire UK Live Tour: The podcast is going on a UK tour! William and Anita will be live on stage in Glasgow, Birmingham, York and Bristol, discussing how the British Empire continues to shape our everyday lives. Tickets are on sale NOW, to buy yours head to empirepoduk.com. 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, and a weekly newsletter! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk Blue Sky: @empirepoduk X: @empirepoduk goalhanger.com Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Senior Producer: Callum Hill

    29 min

  5. 2 APR

    The Troubles: London Bombings, Hunger Strikes, & The Graveside Grenade (Ep 3)

    Who organised the bombing of The Old Bailey in Central London? Why was Jean McConville abducted in December 1972? Why did the British government choose not to intervene when hunger strikers like Bobby Sands refused food in 1981? How was the graveside grenade incident linked to the first seed of peace that would one day end The Troubles? In the third of four episodes, William and Anita are joined once again by Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing, to discuss Bloody Friday, the infamous IRA bombings in London in 1973, and the hunger strike that changed the trajectory of The Troubles toward a battle for the ballot.  _____________ Empire UK Live Tour: The podcast is going on a UK tour! William and Anita will be live on stage in Glasgow, Birmingham, York and Bristol, discussing how the British Empire continues to shape our everyday lives. Tickets are on sale NOW, to buy yours head to empirepoduk.com. 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, and a weekly newsletter! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk  Blue Sky: @empirepoduk  X: @empirepoduk goalhanger.com Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Senior Producer: Callum Hill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    56 min

  6. 31 MAR

    The Troubles: Bloody Sunday & The British Army in Belfast (Ep 2)

    What was the British Army’s policy of “Internment” in Northern Ireland, and how did it drive membership for the Provisional IRA? Who was General Kitson? How did the Price sisters go from peaceful protestors to IRA frontline soldiers? What happened on Bloody Sunday? In the second of four episodes, Anita and William are joined once again by Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing, to discuss early IRA bombing campaigns in Belfast, and how the British Army in Northern Ireland employed methods used against other anti-colonial struggles across the British Empire.   _____________ Empire UK Live Tour: The podcast is going on a UK tour! William and Anita will be live on stage in Glasgow, Birmingham, York and Bristol, discussing how the British Empire continues to shape our everyday lives. Tickets are on sale NOW, to buy yours head to empirepoduk.com. 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, and a weekly newsletter! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk  Blue Sky: @empirepoduk  X: @empirepoduk goalhanger.com Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Senior Producer: Callum Hill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    41 min

  7. 27 MAR

    The Troubles: War in the Streets of Northern Ireland (Ep 1)

    What were The Troubles and why did they lead to 30 years of violence and division in Northern Ireland? How were Irish Catholics inspired by the American Civil Rights movement in 1969? Why did the British government deploy troops on the streets of Belfast? In the first of four episodes, Anita and William are joined by Patrick Radden Keefe, author of Say Nothing, to discuss the beginning of The Troubles, and to introduce three key characters: Ian Paisley, Gerry Adams, and Dolours Price.  _____________ Empire UK Live Tour: The podcast is going on a UK tour! William and Anita will be live on stage in Glasgow, Birmingham, York and Bristol, discussing how the British Empire continues to shape our everyday lives. Tickets are on sale NOW, to buy yours head to empirepoduk.com. 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, and a weekly newsletter! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk  Blue Sky: @empirepoduk  X: @empirepoduk goalhanger.com Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Senior Producer: Callum Hill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    45 min

  8. 25 MAR

    Ireland’s Fight For Freedom: The Irish Civil War (Ep 3)

    In the aftermath of the Irish War of Independence in 1921, Michael Collins is sent to London to meet Winston Churchill, David Lloyd George and other British officials to negotiate a treaty.  After weeks of travelling back and forth across the Irish Sea, Collins and his fellow Sinn Féin negotiators return with a deal. Ireland would become a Free State, but it would remain in the British Empire, and the Irish must swear an oath of allegiance to the King. Eamonn De Valera, the president of the republic, refuses to accept. De Valera and Collins, who were on the same side, are suddenly enemies. A rift tears through the republicans, splitting them into pro-Treaty and anti-Treaty forces. Families are divided, and soldiers who once fought together are on opposite sides. As the Irish tricolour replaces the Union Jack above Dublin castle, war breaks out between the two factions. Will Collins and De Valera survive their third war on home soil? Listen as William and Anita are joined once again by Diarmaid Ferriter, author of A Nation Not A Rabble, to discuss how the Anglo-Irish Treaty descended into civil war.  _____________ Empire UK Live Tour: The podcast is going on a UK tour! William and Anita will be live on stage in Glasgow, Birmingham, York and Bristol, discussing how the British Empire continues to shape our everyday lives. Tickets are on sale NOW, to buy yours head to empirepoduk.com. 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, and a weekly newsletter! Head to empirepoduk.com to sign up. Email: empire@goalhanger.com Instagram: @empirepoduk  Blue Sky: @empirepoduk  X: @empirepoduk goalhanger.com Assistant Producer: Becki Hills Producer: Anouska Lewis Senior Producer: Callum Hill Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    1h 4m
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    Hosts & Guests

    Ratings & Reviews

    5
    out of 5
    3 Ratings

    About

    The rise and fall of empires, rulers, and the events that shaped world history. Join William Dalrymple and Anita Anand as they uncover the forces behind civilisations, imperial wars, revolutions, ancient battles, and the rulers who built and lost empires. From empires and conquest to warlords and colonisation, history is shaped by power struggles, military campaigns, and territorial expansion.

    Information

    • Creator
      Goalhanger
    • Years Active
      2022 - 2025
    • Episodes
      288
    • Provider
      Goalhanger Podcasts

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