Power Corrupts

To end our first season we look at Nepotism. What’s it like to be the son or daughter of a dictator? Why did one dictator’s son go from a high-flying life playing football in Italy to being shorn like a sheep in the hands of rebels? Why did the cannibal emperor of Bangui murder a woman who claimed to be his long-lost daughter? And in the cutthroat world of politics, is nepotism necessary to survive? We’ll answer those questions across the globe from Equatorial Guinea to Uzbekistan and from Libya to the United States.

Support the show on Patreon at Patreon.com/powercorrupts

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Power Corrupts is written and narrated by Brian Klaas. The executive producer and sound editor is George McDonagh.

When revolutions happen, everything changes. In this episode, we'll look at why one revolution was launched when a rebel leader in southeast Asia started climbing trees; how Teddy Roosevelt's son led a CIA-backed coup in 1953 that contributed to the Iranian revolution; and why one East German guard had a bad day -- and forever changed history as a result.

Support the show on Patreon at Patreon.com/powercorrupts

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Power Corrupts is written and narrated by Brian Klaas. The executive producer and sound editor is George McDonagh.

When you think of heists, you probably think of masked men, bank robbers, and priceless art. But governments carry out heists, too. In this episode, we explore a billion dollar bank heist carried out by North Korean hackers; a heist carried out by a dictator who pledged to rule for a billion years (and was obsessed with mayonnaise); and a jewel heist that destroyed diplomatic relations between Saudi Arabia and Thailand for a generation.

Support the show on Patreon at Patreon.com/powercorrupts

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Power Corrupts is written and narrated by Brian Klaas. The executive producer and sound editor is George McDonagh.

The UK has a new prime minister. On his first day, Boris Johnson will handwrite four identical letters to the captains of Britain's nuclear submarines. They are one of the most closely guarded secrets of the British government. And those Letters of Last Resort will only be opened if London is wiped out by a nuclear blast. The letters must answer a straightforward but morally complex question: should the UK fire back with nuclear weapons? To deter nuclear attacks, the answer must be yes. But can we stomach that answer, given that nuclear retaliation could endanger the survival of our species? Support the show on Patreon at Patreon.com/powercorrupts

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Power Corrupts is written and narrated by Brian Klaas. The executive producer and sound editor is George McDonagh.

Pandemics are horrifying. But what if one could be unleashed deliberately? How did ancient armies from the Greeks to the Mongol hordes use germ warfare? Why did America conduct tests on unsuspecting people in New York and San Francisco? Can biological weapons be developed to only infect a single person? And why is the US government researching how to use insects as taxis for viruses?

Support the show on Patreon at Patreon.com/powercorrupts