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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

What does Trotsky’s murder reveal about Stalin’s determination to destroy his rivals? Join Anita, William and Giles Milton, author of The Stalin Affair, for Episode 3 of our Stalin series. Link to the full episode in replies👇

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

In August 1940, Ramón Mercader entered Trotsky’s study in Mexico. Trotsky believed he was a friend. Mercader was working for Stalin’s secret police. He struck Trotsky with an ice axe. Trotsky died the next day. Exile had offered no escape.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Trotsky continued to attack Stalin’s rule from abroad. His revolutionary reputation made him a symbol of opposition to Stalin, even after he had lost power. For anyone who believed Stalin had betrayed the revolution, an alternative voice remained.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

Trotsky had helped lead the Bolshevik Revolution and built the Red Army. But after Lenin’s death, he lost the struggle for power to Stalin. Expelled from the Soviet Union, he eventually found refuge in Mexico. Why wasn’t exile enough?

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 21/09/2026

🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 Stalin: Killing Trotsky (Ep 3) Why did Stalin want Trotsky dead, even in exile thousands of miles away? Anita Anand and William Dalrymple join Giles Milton to explore one of history’s most infamous political murders. 🧵

Episode artwork: Anita Anand and William Dalrymple flank a black-and-white portrait of Leon Trotsky. Text reads “THE KILLING OF TROTSKY”.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Episode 1 not enough for you? Become an Empire member and watch the entire Stalin series now. From his childhood in Georgia to his rise to power, discover the story behind the dictator. Become a member now👇 empirepoduk.com/club

empirepoduk.com

Join the Club | Empire Podcast UK

Join the Empire Podcast Club for exclusive content, member benefits and more from the Empire Podcast team.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

But how did a revolutionary from Georgia work his way into Lenin’s inner circle? Watch the first episode to find out...

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Revolution needed money, and Stalin helped raise it through bank robberies and raids on cash shipments. Operating in Georgia’s criminal underground, he helped fund the Bolsheviks, turning banditry into a weapon against the Tsarist state.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Stalin entered the seminary in Tiflis to train as a priest. But alongside his religious studies, he secretly read Marx and became drawn to revolution. By the time he left in 1899, his ambitions had turned from serving the Church to overthrowing the established order.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

Stalin grew up in Gori, Georgia, the son of a cobbler who drank heavily and violently beat him. Poverty and abuse marked his early years. But his mother had plans for him...the priesthood.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 14/09/2026

🚨NEW SERIES🚨 STALIN: FROM POET-PRIEST TO DICTATOR How did a boy training to be a priest become one of the most ruthless dictators in world history? Our new Empire series begins in Georgia, with the childhood of Joseph Stalin. 🧵👇

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 11/09/2026

We have some wonderful news to share... We’ve surpassed 100 million downloads! Thank you to everyone who tunes in. You’ve made this incredible milestone possible, and we appreciate you more than you can possibly imagine. Here's to the next 100 million... 👀

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

William Dalrymple's most incredible historical parallel to date...😅

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

In August 1998, al-Qaeda bombed the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. How did the Clinton-Lewinsky scandal complicate America’s response?

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

A declaration of war. A network of extremists. Who were the other signatories behind bin Laden’s infamous 1998 fatwa, and what brought them together? Peter Bergen helps unpack the people and ideas behind it.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 07/09/2026

What was it like to sit opposite Osama bin Laden? In 1997, Peter Bergen produced a television interview with Osama Bin Laden. Now he joins William and Anita to revisit that encounter in Part 5 of Empire’s Road to 9/11. A THREAD 🧵

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

So, did the CIA really help create al-Qaeda? And how did Azzam turn jihad into a global franchise? Watch Episode 2 with William Dalrymple and Jason Burke now. Link to the full episode 👇 empirepoduk.com

empirepoduk.com

World History Podcast on Empires & Colonialism | Empire

Listen to the Empire podcast with William Dalrymple and Anita Anand. Explore colonial history, revolutions and global power through storytelling.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Then, in 1988, a small office meeting formalised a new organisation. Names were recorded. Roles were assigned. A structure was established. Al-Qaeda was born not on the battlefield, but through bureaucracy.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Azzam’s Services Bureau became a hub for foreign fighters travelling to Afghanistan. It connected donors, preachers and recruits across the world, creating a model for global jihad that would survive the Soviet withdrawal.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Behind bin Laden stood Abdullah Azzam, the radical Palestinian scholar who helped transform jihad from a local struggle into an international movement. He recruited volunteers, raised money and built a network stretching across borders.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

The US funnelled billions into the Afghan resistance through Pakistan. Bin Laden was also in Afghanistan. But did the CIA ever fund him directly? The answer challenges one of the most persistent myths about the origins of al-Qaeda.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 27/08/2026

Did the CIA really fund Osama bin Laden during the Soviet-Afghan War? And how did one bureaucratic office meeting help create al-Qaeda? @DalrympleWill and Jason Burke uncover the unlikely origins of the world’s most notorious terrorist network. 🧵

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

In Episode 1 of this new series, @DalrympleWill is joined by Jason Burke, author of Al-Qaeda: The True Story of Radical Islam and The Revolutionists, to trace the origins of radical Islamism and the road to 9/11. Watch now 👇 empirepoduk.com

empirepoduk.com

World History Podcast on Empires & Colonialism | Empire

Listen to the Empire podcast with William Dalrymple and Anita Anand. Explore colonial history, revolutions and global power through storytelling.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

Among those shaped by this repression was Ayman al-Zawahiri. Arrested as a teenager and later tortured in prison, he emerged as a hardened militant. His ideas would eventually merge with Osama bin Laden’s ambitions to transform jihad into a global war.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The movement’s most influential thinker was Sayyid Qutb. He argued that the modern world had fallen into a state of pre-Islamic ignorance and that a revolutionary vanguard was needed to restore true Islamic rule. His execution in 1966 turned him into a martyr.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

In the 1960s, Egypt’s President Nasser launched a fierce crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood. Inside his prisons, torture and humiliation convinced some Islamists that the Egyptian state itself had become an enemy of Islam.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 24/08/2026

The road to 9/11 began decades before al-Qaeda. It was shaped by revolution, repression and the brutal treatment of Islamist prisoners in Egypt. But how did imprisonment turn radical ideas into a global ideology? 🧵

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 18/08/2026

The Irish of the dark ages were renowned for their wisdom and learning... 🇨🇮

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Is St Colomba the original source of the Loch Ness Monster..? 🤔

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

And the stereotypes? Horned helmets are a myth. But the Vikings really were formidable warriors, skilled sailors and prolific traders.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

The Vikings did not remain outsiders. They farmed, traded and intermarried with local communities. Their influence survives in British place names, language and culture. The raiders did not simply attack Britain. They became part of it.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

Why Britain? Its wealthy, poorly defended monasteries offered tempting targets. But the Vikings were driven by more than plunder. They came in search of wealth, power and land, exploiting Britain’s political divisions before establishing settlements of their own.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 17/08/2026

THE VIKINGS INVADE BRITAIN ⚔️ They arrived as raiders, but became settlers. Why did the Vikings cross the North Sea? What happened to the gold stolen from churches? And were they really the horned barbarians of legend?

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

At Rhynie the Picts built a huge city. Excavations uncovered fortified enclosures, elite metalworking, Mediterranean wine amphorae, French glass and a Pictish cemetery. Rhynie was no isolated backwater. It was a wealthy royal centre connected to a world far beyond Scotland.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Crescents. Serpents. Mirrors. The mysterious “Pictish beast”, all carved into stone. These symbols appear repeatedly, often in pairs. Were they names, family lines, ranks or an entire lost language? Their meaning remains undeciphered.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

Their name probably came from the Latin picti, meaning “painted people”. But there is no evidence they called themselves Picts. Over time, the peoples beyond Rome’s northern frontier formed powerful kingdoms of their own.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 13/08/2026

The Picts. For centuries, they ruled large parts of Scotland, resisted Rome and covered the landscape with mysterious carved stones. But why do we know so little about them?

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

How did an enslaved Romano-Briton become Ireland’s patron saint? And why were Irish Christians considered among Rome’s greatest scholars? Join @willdalrymple.bsky.social, @anitaanand.bsky.social and Dáibhí Ó Cróinín to uncover the truth behind Saint Patrick. 🎧 Listen now. Link below.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Yet the faith Patrick helped spread had an extraordinary afterlife. Irish monasteries became centres of Latin learning, scripture and scholarship. Irish Christians arriving in Rome developed a reputation as some of the most learned people in Christendom.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

The most famous stories came centuries later. Ireland had no snakes for Patrick to banish. The shamrock story appeared more than a thousand years after his death. Christianity had also reached Ireland before him. The legend has almost swallowed the man.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

This was no gentle figure from a stained-glass window. Patrick’s own writings reveal a defiant missionary who challenged powerful men and condemned the murder and enslavement of Irish Christians. He was a survivor, an outsider and, in his own way, a rebel.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Patrick first came to Ireland in chains. Born in Roman Britain, he was kidnapped at 16, carried across the Irish Sea and enslaved for six years. After escaping home, he made an extraordinary decision: he returned.

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Empire: World History @empirepoduk.bsky.social · 10/08/2026

Every Saint Patrick’s Day, the world turns green for Ireland’s patron saint. But Patrick was not Irish, did not drive out snakes and may never have touched a shamrock. So who was the real Saint Patrick? 🧵

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