Afua Hirsch and Peter Frankopan tell the wild stories of some of the most extraordinary men and women ever to have lived – and ask whether they have the rep they deserve. Should Nina Simone’s role in the civil rights movement be more celebrated than it is? When you find out what Picasso got up to in his studio, can you still admire his art? Was Napoleon a hero or a tyrant - or both? (And, while we’re at it, was he even short?) Legacy is the show that looks at big lives from the perspective of now – and doesn’t always like what it sees.<hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
Legacy
Claim This Podcastby Original Legacy Productions
Podcast Overview
Afua Hirsch and Peter Frankopan tell the wild stories of some of the most extraordinary men and women ever to have lived – and ask whether they have the rep they deserve. Should Nina Simone’s role in the civil rights movement be more celebrated than it is? When you find out what Picasso got up to in his studio, can you still admire his art? Was Napoleon a hero or a tyrant - or both? (And, while we’re at it, was he even short?) Legacy is the show that looks at big lives from the perspective of now – and doesn’t always like what it sees.<hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
11/8/2023
1 verified contact email on file for Legacy
Pitch yourself as a guest, propose sponsorships, or reach out directly to the host.
Recent Episodes
August 6, 2026
Inbox: Why Dictators Love the World Cup | Feat. Karim Zidan
<p>Why does every dictator, sooner or later, want to host the World Cup?</p><br><p>What did a military junta that never wanted the tournament discover once the goals started going in?</p><br><p>And when a hundred thousand people are dancing in the street, who is that actually working for?</p><br><p>Peter Frankopan sits down with investigative journalist Karim Zidan, who has spent a decade tracking how autocrats turn football into propaganda — and who found his own way into the story as a teenager being dragged out of a stand by Egyptian riot police.</p><br><p>Mussolini wrote the blueprint in 1934 and nobody has much improved on it since: host the tournament, invest in the team, let the collective joy do the rest. Videla's junta inherited a World Cup it didn't want and got away with it. Putin raised the pension age while Russia were in the quarter-finals. Qatar ended a Gulf blockade without conceding a thing. Zidan's argument isn't that you should stop watching. It's that escapism and willful ignorance are not the same thing — and that the people buying your club are not your friends.</p><br><p>Karim Zidan's podcast series Power Plays, presented by the Human Rights Foundation, is at powerplays.xyz. His newsletter is at sportspolitika.news.</p><br><p>Join <strong>Legacy Plus</strong> for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.</p><p><strong>legacy.supportingcast.fm</strong></p><br><p>[0:00] Why the world's game keeps ending up in the hands of people who don't much like the world</p><p>[4:14] Cairo, 2007: a teenager in the Ultras section watches the police move in</p><p>[8:36] Mussolini's blueprint, and why he preferred boxing to football</p><p>[15:33] Argentina 1978: the junta that inherited a World Cup it never wanted</p><p>[26:19] "A monstrous, cancerous, corrupt patronage system" — Zidan on FIFA</p><p>[35:24] A message for Newcastle fans, and everyone else who welcomed the money in</p><br><p>Stay connected with Legacy:</p><p>Instagram: @originallegacypodcast</p><p>TikTok: @legacy_productions</p><br><p>Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:</p><p>Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com</p><p>Join <strong>Legacy+</strong> for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.</p><p><strong>legacy.supportingcast.fm</strong></p><br><p>Stay connected with Legacy:</p><p>Instagram: @originallegacypodcast</p><p>TikTok: @legacy_productions</p><br><p>Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
August 4, 2026
Modern Travel | The Other Grand Tour | 2
<p>What happened when the people written out of the Grand Tour wrote their own account of it?</p><br><p>What did an eighteenth-century Bengali diplomat see in London that made him call the British a conceited race?</p><br><p>And how did a man from Bihar end up as shampooing surgeon to the King of England?</p><br><p>Afua Hirsch and Peter Frankopan follow the travellers the Grand Tour left out — enslaved servants, Black abolitionists, Indian intellectuals — and find them looking back at Europe with a colder eye than Europe ever turned on them.</p><br><p>Frederick Douglass and Sarah Parker Remond met in Rome in 1868, two free Black Americans taking in the ruins of one slave society while campaigning against a living one. Mirza Abu Talib Khan toured Britain and reported home that its true religion was money. I'tesamuddin filled a notebook with the wonders of Europe and the conceit of its inhabitants. And Sake Dean Mahomed opened a vapour bath in Brighton and gave English the word shampoo. The Grand Tour was never only white men learning Latin — it was the moment the world started looking back.</p><br><p>Join <strong>Legacy Plus</strong> for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.</p><p><strong>legacy.supportingcast.fm</strong></p><br><p>[0:00] The Grand Tour you think you know — powdered wigs, Roman ruins, enough marble to fill a museum</p><p>[3:01] The servants who weren't servants: enslaved Africans on the road to Italy and France</p><p>[4:29] Frederick Douglass, viral superstar, meets Sarah Parker Remond in Rome</p><p>[8:36] Ira Aldridge plays Shakespeare to the aristocrats who came for the ruins</p><p>[13:40] Bihar to Brighton — and the word that came with him</p><p>[17:54] Europe judged: spiritually hollow, morally compromised, excessively fond of luxury</p><p>[25:24] The Maharajas whose Cartier and Rolls Royce orders kept European luxury solvent</p><p>[36:24] What actually killed the Grand Tour, and whether Magaluf is its heir</p><br><p>Stay connected with Legacy:</p><p>Instagram: @originallegacypodcast</p><p>TikTok: @legacy_productions</p><br><p>Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:</p><p>Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com</p><p>Join <strong>Legacy+</strong> for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.</p><p><strong>legacy.supportingcast.fm</strong></p><br><p>Stay connected with Legacy:</p><p>Instagram: @originallegacypodcast</p><p>TikTok: @legacy_productions</p><br><p>Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
July 30, 2026
Inbox: The Secret Global History of Bruges
<p>What's a garnet mined in Sri Lanka two and a half thousand years ago doing in a silver hairpin dug up near Bruges? Why are the Duke of Burgundy and the conqueror of Constantinople staring each other down for the first time in history? And, how did most of Belgium forget that its own counts once sat on the throne of Constantinople?</p><br><p>Afua turns interviewer as Peter opens the doors on Bigger Picture, the exhibition he has spent four years building to reframe Bruges as one of the great connected cities of the medieval world.</p><br><p>It's the opening show at BRUSK, Bruges' vast new exhibition hall — 250 objects from 90 lenders, among them a Memling released from Turin, a Vatican portrait of Alexios I Komnenos that has never been lent before, and Gentile Bellini's Mehmed II brought face to face with Philip the Good. Along the way: a very Belgian silence, a wall of Bruce Springsteen memoirs, the price of medieval pepper — and Peter greeting visitors as a hologram.</p><br><p>Join <strong>Legacy Plus</strong> for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.</p><p><strong>legacy.supportingcast.fm</strong></p><br><p>[0:00] Afua opens the Legacy inbox on Peter's four-year secret project</p><p>[3:04] A very Belgian silence, a coffee break, and the job is Peter's</p><p>[9:13] Asked to pick one object, Peter picks three</p><p>[12:20] Philip the Good meets Mehmed the Conqueror, five centuries late</p><p>[16:14] How the counts of Flanders ended up emperors of Constantinople</p><p>[27:42] Hologram Peter, and how to see the show before 8 September</p><br><p>Stay connected with Legacy:</p><p>Instagram: @originallegacypodcast</p><p>TikTok: @legacy_productions</p><br><p>Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:</p><p>Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com</p><p>Join <strong>Legacy+</strong> for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.</p><p><strong>legacy.supportingcast.fm</strong></p><br><p>Stay connected with Legacy:</p><p>Instagram: @originallegacypodcast</p><p>TikTok: @legacy_productions</p><br><p>Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com</p><hr><p style='color:grey; font-size:0.75em;'> Hosted on Acast. See <a style='color:grey;' target='_blank' rel='noopener noreferrer' href='https://acast.com/privacy'>acast.com/privacy</a> for more information.</p>
172 total episodes available
Similar Podcasts
Discover related shows you might enjoy
Deep-dive analytics for Legacy
Frequently asked questions
Have a different question and can't find the answer you're looking for? Reach out to our support team by sending us an email and we'll get back to you as soon as we can.
- What is Legacy?
- How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates daily.
- Where can I listen to this podcast?
This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
- Does this podcast accept guests?
Yes, this podcast regularly features guests.
Legal Disclaimer
Pod Engine is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or officially connected with any of the podcasts displayed on this platform. We operate independently as a podcast discovery and analytics service.
All podcast artwork, thumbnails, and content displayed on this page are the property of their respective owners and are protected by applicable copyright laws. This includes, but is not limited to, podcast cover art, episode artwork, show descriptions, episode titles, transcripts, audio snippets, and any other content originating from the podcast creators or their licensors.
We display this content under fair use principles and/or implied license for the purpose of podcast discovery, information, and commentary. We make no claim of ownership over any podcast content, artwork, or related materials shown on this platform. All trademarks, service marks, and trade names are the property of their respective owners.
While we strive to ensure all content usage is properly authorized, if you are a rights holder and believe your content is being used inappropriately or without proper authorization, please contact us immediately at hey@podengine.ai for prompt review and appropriate action, which may include content removal or proper attribution.
By accessing and using this platform, you acknowledge and agree to respect all applicable copyright laws and intellectual property rights of content owners. Any unauthorized reproduction, distribution, or commercial use of the content displayed on this platform is strictly prohibited.