The Rest Is History

“The mutual affection and harmony between the two had reached a degree never seen between a husband and wife…” The Taj Mahal, built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his wife Mumtaz Mahal, tells the story of the imperial power and strength of the Mughal Empire, and remains to this day a symbol of perfection, refinement and romance...

One of the greatest institutions of the ancient world, the Library of Alexandria was the embodiment of ultimate learning, and a “repository of everything”. Built within the same complex as the tomb of Alexander the Great, it stood as a beacon of knowledge, boasting an unparalleled collection of scrolls and manuscripts from across the world...

“A cloud of black, acrid smoke hung over the area. It was a scene from a warzone, a battlefield - it was a scene from the end of the world…” New York in the 1970s was a city decimated by economic stagnation, unemployment and ever-rising crime rates, haemorrhaging its population to the suburbs and to the more business-friendly South. Join Tom and Dominic as they look at the 1977 power blackout, the looting of New York, and life in the real Gotham City...

"Out of the mountain of despair, a stone of hope.” Arguably the most celebrated speech of the 20th century, Martin Luther King Jr.’s address in front of the Lincoln Memorial in August 1963 was a defining moment in the American Civil Rights movement, and to this day remains a symbol of hope, equality, and social change. Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss Martin Luther King Jr., how he became involved in the Civil Rights movement, and the unfolding of the March on Washington...

Warning! This one isn’t for the faint-hearted... A naked, torch-carrying man, who would walk backwards around a funeral pyre, with his fingers covering his anus. The armed woman who worked a loom made from human body parts. 6-legged reindeers. Slaves buried alive with their owners, tapestries woven of human flesh, and rituals with horse penises...

Join Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer and Micah Richards for a new podcast bringing strong opinions on all the latest stories from the world of football. Hosted by three men who’ve been there and done it at the highest level of the game, The Rest is Football combines topical debate with outrageous tales from their careers. The essential new podcast for football fans. Listen to THE REST IS FOOTBALL, wherever you get your podcasts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

“There’s a lot of severed heads at this villa!” The great TV sensation of the summer returns on The Rest Is History, as Tom and Dominic are once again joined by Tom’s daughter Katy, to navigate an incredibly competitive field of islanders, and crown the successors to last year’s winners, Empress Theodora and Stanley Baldwin...

A woman of immense influence on medieval Christendom, Catherine of Siena was one of the first female Doctors of the Church, who married Christ in her own bedroom. Living through a time of great anxiety due to the onset of the Black Death, she healed the sick, convinced the Pope to return from exile in France, appeased riotous crowds, and even brought her own mother back from the dead...

Mount Vesuvius' eruption in the autumn of AD79 remains one of the deadliest and best-known in history. The plume of super-heated volcanic gases spewed skyward formed a cloud 21 miles high, with the volcano ultimately releasing 100,000 times the thermal energy of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Join Tom and Dominic as they piece together the disaster, destruction and death caused by the Vesuvius’s eruption...

Charles de Gaulle was a war hero in the First World War, and, having refused to accept his government’s armistice with Nazi Germany, became the voice of the French Resistance during the Second World War. But how did France’s largest uprising since the Paris Commune come to happen during his presidency? Join Tom and Dominic in the second part of our tour of Paris, as they look at de Gaulle’s role in the events of May 1968, and how he eventually overcame the protests...