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Published by History's Greatest Idiots
A weekly comedy history podcast covering the socio-political disasters, bad decisions, and failures that shaped the modern world. Every week, Lev asks the question nobody in the history books thought to ask: how did things get this bad, and who let it happen? From the housing crisis and the decline in living standards over the last decade, to the history of outrage and why politicians never know when to leave, this is history told with the bluntness it deserves. New episodes every week.
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While headlines about economic collapse, environmental destruction, and the end of humanity are grabbing attention around the world, a much more immediate issue is set to stop AI in its tracks. Aspects of the development of the AI industry are so misaligned that they can't possible be put right in their current form. And the speed with which they are pulling away from each other should be one of the biggest news stories in the world right now (but, as usual, nobody seems to be paying attention to the infrastructure). This is how Lev Myskin and Ben Markwart discovered 'The AI Three Clock Differential', what it means for the future of the only issue that all sides of the political spectrum agree on, and why it essentially spells the end of the AI boom before any financial bubbles or world-ending cataclysms could really take hold. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
Every generation gets its own strongman politician. Every generation gets to watch them fail. Here's why Strongman Politics never works. From Julius Caesar and Mussolini meeting their demise in the Roman Senate and the gates of a lakeside house respectively, to Berlusconi losing power three times and still dying a senator, Bolsonaro's 27-year prison sentence for an attempted coup, and Nigel Farage being filmed on hidden camera discussing how to funnel foreign money into Reform UK , this is the complete(ish) history of strongman politics, why it keeps happening, and why it always eventually collapses. Plus: the psychology of why people keep falling for it, and what's behind it. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
A dancing marquess who blew through approximately £70 million in today's money in six years, and a miner's grandson who took cash from a Harrods billionaire to ask questions in Parliament. Wales has produced some characters. This Greatest Hits special revisits Henry Paget, the 5th Marquess of Anglesey (the Dancing Marquess who converted his family chapel into a theatre, spent everything he had being magnificently, defiantly himself, and died broke and tubercular in Monte Carlo at 29), and Neil Hamilton (born in a Gwent pit village, grandson of coal miners, who became a Conservative minister and had to resign after The Guardian accused him of taking £2,000 per parliamentary question from Mohamed Al-Fayed). https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
Andy Warhol said there was nothing behind the surface. The CIA, Valerie Solanas, and John Lennon all disagreed. Born in a two-room shack in Pittsburgh to Slovakian immigrants, Andy Warhol became the most famous and influential artist of the twentieth century. He invented Pop Art, redefined celebrity, predicted social media before the internet existed, and coined the phrase "fifteen minutes of fame" before anyone knew what to do with it. From Campbell's Soup Cans and the Factory to managing the Velvet Underground and founding Interview magazine, this is the complete story of the man behind the wig. We also cover the CIA's covert use of American art as a Cold War weapon, the 1968 shooting that changed him permanently, his complex relationship with the AIDS crisis, and why John Lennon once refused to open a hotel door because Warhol was on the other side of it with a camera. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
Every generation finds something new to bet everything on. Then they act surprised when it stops working. From Dutch tulip mania and England's South Sea Bubble to Spain's silver empire, the Amazon rubber barons, Nauru mining its entire island into a moonscape for fossilised bird poo, Iceland's banks collapsing within a week in 2008, and the $725 billion being spent on AI infrastructure against $12 billion in consumer revenue, this is the complete(ish) history of economic bubbles and the remarkable human capacity to learn absolutely nothing from any of them. Plus: what you can actually do to make yourself as economically invulnerable as possible before the next one arrives. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
A man who sleep-walked America into the Civil War, a president whose administration was so corrupt his own Attorney General went to prison, and the commander-in-chief who escalated Vietnam while privately admitting it was unwinnable. History's Greatest Idiots is taking a well-earned break, and leaving you with three of the worst presidents America ever produced to keep you company. This 3.5-hour Greatest Hits special revisits James Buchanan (ranked the worst president in US history by multiple scholarly surveys), Warren G. Harding (Teapot Dome, corruption, and a cabinet that made his predecessors look competent), and LBJ (the Vietnam War, the Gulf of Tonkin deception, and the presidency that broke the Democratic Party for a generation). https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
The platforms that were supposed to connect us have spent twenty years getting progressively worse at it. Something has to give. From X (Twitter) losing half its advertising revenue since Elon Musk's takeover, to Facebook becoming irrelevant to anyone under 35, TikTok being sold to a Trump donor, and governments across the world finally moving to regulate social media, this is the complete picture of where social media stands in 2026. We also look at what's coming next: Myspace's surprise revival, Haven Social's ethical creator-first platform, and why Bluesky, Mastodon, and the Fediverse might matter more than anyone in the business world wants to admit. Plus: an interview with William Lavelle, founder of Haven Social, and a two-path prediction for where social media lands by 2031. Haven Social: https://www.havensocial.org Haven's Kickstarter: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/havensocial/haven-a-social-platform-stopping-surveillance-and-ai-theft https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
A futurist who designed the car-dependent world we're all trapped in, an economist who deregulated Wall Street and helped cause the 2008 crash, and the CEO of Spotify who pays artists $0.003 per stream. Meet the people who built our dystopia. This five-hour vacation special revisits Norman Bel Geddes (the industrial designer whose 1939 World's Fair vision of highways and suburbs became reality), Larry Summers (Treasury Secretary, Harvard president, and architect of the financial deregulation that broke the global economy), and Daniel Ek (the man who convinced the music industry to give away its product for almost nothing). Perfect long-form listening for a long journey or falling asleep to. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
Alexander the Great conquered the known world. Rock Hudson was Hollywood's perfect leading man. The manosphere would have disowned both of them. From Alexander's relationship with Hephaestion and Rock Hudson's closeted double life, to the Tate brothers' arrest in Miami and the alt-right pipeline connecting the manosphere to Christian nationalism, this is the brief history of masculinity, and why the men held up as its greatest examples never actually fit into the narrow definition of it. We also look at why Pedro Pascal is the internet's most beloved man, what Alain de Botton's work on warmth versus coolness tells us about what men actually need, and why the mental health statistics suggest the manosphere's answer to male suffering is making everything considerably worse. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
Leaders have been starting wars to distract from scandals since ancient Rome. The only thing that's changed is the technology. From Juvenal's bread and circuses and Napoleon III's catastrophic Franco-Prussian gamble, to the USS Maine, Thatcher and the Falklands, Clinton's "Wag the Dog" moment in 1998, and Trump striking Iran four days after impeachment, this is the complete history of leaders who've used military conflict to make their domestic problems disappear. We look at when it worked (Thatcher, who didn't start it but absolutely made the most of it), when it backfired spectacularly (Napoleon III, who ended the war in a Prussian prison cell), and why the most recent attempt produced lower approval ratings and higher petrol prices instead of the expected bounce. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
Mitch McConnell has been in hospital for three weeks. His office hasn't said why. This has happened before. Many times. From ancient Rome and Churchill's secret stroke in 1953, to Biden's very public deterioration on live television in 2024, this is the complete history of politicians who refused to leave, and the systems that helped them hide it. We also look at Robert Byrd, the West Virginia senator who went from a terrible person to civil rights advocate across a fifty-year career, and whether a very long political career can ever actually be justified. Plus: the case for younger leadership, from Zohran Mamdani freezing rents in New York at 34 to Jacinda Ardern passing gun reform in ten days at 37. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
The job market is broken. Here are all the things that broke it. From the post-Covid wage squeeze and AI replacing entry-level workers to the white collar recession nobody officially declared, LinkedIn's 11,000 applications per minute, and the applicant tracking systems quietly binning your CV before a human ever reads it, this is the complete history of why nobody can find a job. We cover graduate unemployment, youth unemployment hitting its highest level since 2015, ghost jobs, the Great Resignation, and which sectors are actually hiring right now. Plus: free retraining schemes that come with job interviews, and what the future of work might look like once the dust settles. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
Due to the extreme heat the UK is currently experiencing (topping out at around 102 degrees Fahrenheit during the day, 90 degrees at night, and 95% humidity), the lack of air-conditioning, my house being built to retain heat, and my pre-existing health condition (Crohn's Disease), I have decided to create a special compilation episode this week. I will be back to my normal schedule next week with an episode focusing on why it feels like nobody can get a job (cheerful, I know). Until then, enjoy this special compilation episode, ideal for people who want to put a slightly longer episode on in the background while they drift off to sleep. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
FIFA has been corrupt since before colour television. And the World Cup is proof. From the ISL bribery scandal and Sepp Blatter's seven arrested executives to Qatar's migrant worker nightmare and Gianni Infantino's increasingly bizarre relationship with Donald Trump, this is the complete history of football's governing body and the corruption that has defined it for over a century. We cover the Havelange years, the 2015 FBI raids, the Saudi Arabia 2034 decision, and why Infantino's cosy friendship with the world's most consistently unpopular president keeps getting stranger. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
Your chocolate bar got smaller. Your streaming service started showing adverts. Your phone slowly turned itself into something worse. There's a word for this now. This episode traces the history of Enshittification, from medieval bakers shaving weight off loaves to Toblerone quietly widening the gaps between its peaks in 2016, and the Kraft Heinz boss who told the world to get used to paying more for food just as the cost of living crisis began to bite. We then dig into how Big Tech does the same thing with software instead of food: Google search results getting worse, Windows 11's unwanted extras, Netflix reversing its own promises on password sharing, and what Apple really does with its pricing. Finally, the companies bucking the trend entirely, including the $4.99 rotisserie chicken that Costco refuses to stop subsidising, and the supermarket that took an 86% profit hit rather than raise its prices. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
Trust in institutions is at a historic low. Turns out there are about sixty years of very good reasons for that. From Watergate and Thatcher decimating mining communities, through the cash for questions scandals of the 1990s, Iran-Contra, the fabricated case for the Iraq War, and a British Post Office scandal that ruined the lives of hundreds of people, this is a brief history of how governments, politicians, businesses, and institutions systematically destroyed the trust of the people they were supposed to serve. We also look at why not all distrust is the same, what manufactured distrust is, and give you examples of people and places that have worked to earn your trust. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
Rents in Rome were unaffordable in 164 BCE. We've had 2,000 years to fix the housing crisis. Here's why we haven't. From ancient Roman insulae and the Great Fire of London to Hoovervilles, Margaret Thatcher's Right to Buy scheme, the 2008 financial crash, and BlackRock, this is the complete history of the housing crisis. We cover the Welsh second homes scandal, Barcelona's tourist backlash, why the richest generation in history can't afford to buy, and the solutions that actually work, including Vienna's social housing model, community land trusts, and the Renters' Rights Act 2025. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
Your outrage is worth a fortune. Just not to you. From a 3,800-year-old complaint tablet in ancient Mesopotamia to cancel culture, Tommy Robinson and Donald Trump, this is the full history of outrage: who manufactures it, who profits from it, and who is laughing all the way to the bank. We cover Roman emperors, the medieval pillory, the tabloid press, Jon Ronson's "So You've Been Publicly Shamed," the small boats panic (with the actual statistics), and why the richest 1% own more wealth than the bottom 95% of humanity, partly because they're very good at keeping you looking the other way. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
The internet was built by scientists who wanted to share research. Then surveillance capitalism, social media and Big Tech got involved, and ruined it. From Tim Berners-Lee and the World Wide Web to Cambridge Analytica, Elon Musk buying Twitter, and AI rewriting the rules all over again, this is the full history of the internet: how it began, how it was hijacked, and how to take some of it back. We cover ARPANET, Google's monopoly, Wikipedia, YouTube, the data harvesting scandal that exposed 87 million Facebook users, and the platforms actually paying creators fairly, including Bandcamp, Substack, and Ko-fi. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
Uber, Amazon, Deliveroo. Strip away the apps and the branding and you're left with a system of exploitation as old as civilisation itself. From ancient civilisations exploiting their populations and medieval serfdom to zero-hours contracts and unpaid internships, this episode traces the full history of work designed to extract everything from you while giving back as little as possible. We cover the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the matchgirls who walked out of a factory in 1888 and won, and the thinkers from Paul Lafargue to Tom Hodgkinson who argued the whole system was a con. Plus: the four-day work week, worker cooperatives, and why doing less has repeatedly been proven to produce more. https://www.patreon.com/HistorysGreatestIdiots https://www.instagram.com/historysgreatestidiots https://buymeacoffee.com/historysgreatestidiots Artist: Sarah Chey https://www.fiverr.com/sarahchey
Ranking source
Apple Podcasts rankings via the Mato Topic Intelligence Platform.
Observed September 7, 2026. Cached outside the daily freshness window; the positions keep the date they were taken on.
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