Noble Blood
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Noble Blood
Author Dana Schwartz explores the stories of some of history’s most fascinating royals: the tyrants and the tragic, the murderers and the murdered, and everyone in between. Because when you’re wearing a crown, mistakes often mean blood.
Recent Episodes
323 episodes
Lord Kitchener Wants You!
The image of Uncle Sam saying "I Want You!" is one of the most famous poster designs in the world... but it was a copycat of a British original. Their...
Frances Duff's Jamaican Inheritance
When Frances was a child, her mother went before the Assembly to petition that she be legally classified as "white." Frances would go on to become a w...
![Children of the Moon [from Very Special Episodes]](https://www.omnycontent.com/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/a9f8aaf1-b12b-40b8-85aa-b08f0126e2b6/a085a464-b94c-4561-bc79-b45e002fe744/image.jpg?t=1780456093&size=Large)
Children of the Moon [from Very Special Episodes]
Emma has never felt the sun on her skin. Born with a rare condition that makes UV light dangerous, she lives by sunscreen, meters, and moonlight. But...
The Surreal Life of Elsa Schiaparelli
Elsa Schiapparelli was the founder of a fashion house which has become known for its sometimes outrageous, always glamorous designs. But beyond fashio...
The Tudor Villainess
She has been called "the most hated woman in Tudor England." Jane Boleyn, sister-in-law to Anne, served five queens. Two of them were beheaded. How mu...
The House of Boleyn (with Tracy Borman)
Where does a woman go when a King is wooing her and won't stop? Dana speaks with Chief Historian of Historic Royal Palaces, Tracy Borman, about her ne...
![How a Dog Talks: The Surprising Redemption of Comic Sans [from Very Special Episodes]](https://www.omnycontent.com/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/a9f8aaf1-b12b-40b8-85aa-b08f0126e2b6/297179bb-01bf-4ba8-aa7f-b4720143ff1f/image.jpg?t=1782244270&size=Large)
How a Dog Talks: The Surprising Redemption of Comic Sans [from Very Special Episodes]
Comic Sans is a punchline. But the notorious font's legacy isn't one of failure, because Comic Sans succeeded in ways its critics never saw coming.
The King for a Day
In December of 1586, the King of Poland died suddenly and without an obvious successor. King was an elected position, and the noblemen bickered and tr...
Wyatt and Elizabeth in Revolt
Queen Mary I's decision to marry a foreign prince turned people against her. Some were so against her they planned an uprising to overthrow her in fav...
How to Start a Monarchy from Scratch (Part 2)
The British Monarchy were using the divisions of the Māori people against them. And so, some Māori thought that what they needed to face off against a...
![Chaotic Philanthropy: Saint Joan of the Golden Arches [from Very Special Episodes]](https://www.omnycontent.com/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/a9f8aaf1-b12b-40b8-85aa-b08f0126e2b6/bb4417c2-4f3e-40fe-bf2c-b47901147ff3/image.jpg?t=1782845461&size=Large)
Chaotic Philanthropy: Saint Joan of the Golden Arches [from Very Special Episodes]
Thanks to her McDonald’s fortune, Joan Kroc was one of the world’s wealthiest people. And she was determined to die nearly broke.
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Hosted...
How to Start a Monarchy from Scratch (Part 1)
Eventually, Te Wherowhero would become the first Māori king. But decades before that, he would face off against rival tribes, proving his leadership a...
Countess of the Demimonde
At the dawn of La Belle Epoch in Paris, a trans woman who became known as "The Countess" would journey from ballrooms to prison and back, a key figure...
![The Forbidden Star Trek Fanfiction [from Very Special Episodes]](https://www.omnycontent.com/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/a9f8aaf1-b12b-40b8-85aa-b08f0126e2b6/0387d5a2-3b0f-4eaf-a964-b46c00248cdb/image.jpg?t=1781662911&size=Large)
The Forbidden Star Trek Fanfiction [from Very Special Episodes]
In 1968, a woman wrote a romantic story about Kirk and Spock, passed it quietly among friends, and hoped it would never see the light of day. But befo...
The Chloroform Baronet (Part 2)
In 1847, James Young Simpson successfully used chloroform for the first time to help in childbirth. But the anesthetic was still controversial and dan...
The Chloroform Baronet (Part 1)
James Young Simpson, as a young surgeon, was distraught at the seemingly inescapable pain and fear that patients were suffering. He decided to try to...
Napoleon's Forgotten Wife
When Josphine failed to produce heirs, Napoleon secured a divorce and arranged for another marriage: to the 18-year-old daughter of the Emperor of Aus...
![The Other James Bond [from Very Special Episodes]](https://www.omnycontent.com/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/a9f8aaf1-b12b-40b8-85aa-b08f0126e2b6/7370c559-762d-467f-8852-b457001c1d83/image.jpg?t=1779846613&size=Large)
The Other James Bond [from Very Special Episodes]
When Ian Fleming needed a name for the secret agent at the center of his new novel, he stole one from the cover of a birdwatching book. The real James...
When the Kennedeys met the Windsors (with Caroline Hallemann)
Two families captivated the 20th century: the Kennedy clan in America, and the Windsors, the royal family of the UK. Both faced the tribulations of fa...
Kaspar Hauser Came to Town
In 1826, a young man stumbled into town with limited language and a mysterious past: he revealed that he had spent his life in isolation, in a single...
![Exit Strategy: They Vanished Into Siberia for Over 40 Years [from Very Special Episodes]](https://www.omnycontent.com/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/a9f8aaf1-b12b-40b8-85aa-b08f0126e2b6/52631e16-dca3-4c6d-9da2-b44101330387/image.jpg?t=1778017951&size=Large)
Exit Strategy: They Vanished Into Siberia for Over 40 Years [from Very Special Episodes]
In 1978, Soviet geologists flying over Siberia spotted something impossible: a family living in total isolation, untouched for decades by the modern w...
The Mind of Émilie du Châtelet (Part 2)
Part two of our episode on Émilie du Châtelet, the brilliant female mathematician and physicist who helped to redefine our understanding of how the wo...
The Mind of Émilie du Châtelet (Part 1)
History has often reduced the brilliant mathematician and physicist Émilie du Châtelet to her relationship with a famous man (Voltaire). But she was a...
The Virgin and Thomas Seymour
When the future Queen Elizabeth I was just 13 years old, she was living with Catherine Parr, who remarried after the death of Henry VIII. Catherine's...
Marilyn, Hamilton + John Wilkes Booth's Statue: NYC History Hiding in Plain Sight
This week's Very Special Episodes is a tour of New York’s secret history with a very special guest!
Greg Young of the beloved Bowery Boys podcas...
The Mad Baron in Mongolia (Part 2)
For eight months, Roman von Ungern-Sternberg took control of the capital of Mongolia, in a campaign that was less about international politics and mor...
The Mad Baron in Mongolia (Part 1)
In 1921, a Russian officer named Roman von Ungern-Sternberg invaded Mongolia, ostensibly with the goal to liberate it from Chinese forces. But he had...
![This Is Not a Drill: Hawaii's Text Message Debacle [from Very Special Episodes]](https://www.omnycontent.com/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/a9f8aaf1-b12b-40b8-85aa-b08f0126e2b6/b3180500-665b-46db-83ab-b41700e1b1fc/image.jpg?t=1774362800&size=Large)
This Is Not a Drill: Hawaii's Text Message Debacle [from Very Special Episodes]
On a quiet morning in Hawaii in 2018, cell phones lit up with a text message that felt impossible. A ballistic missile was inbound, and this was not a...
The Queen Mother Who Refused to Die
Against the odds, Idia's son, Esigie, became the leader—Oba—of the Edo people. And against even greater odds, Idia survived to help him rule.
A Medievalist of the Seven Kingdoms (with Dr. Hugh Doherty)
Dr. Hugh Doherty (University of East Anglia), the historical consultant for A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, joins the podcast to discuss 14th century...
Fortune Has Changed My Life
Born in Africa, enslaved, and brought to a foreign land, Abram Petrovich Gannibal forged an incredible path for himself, rising until he became a resp...
Politics and Murder in the Harem
Kösem Sultan was the favorite of the Sultan and the mother of a ruler. She had extraordinary power over the Ottoman Empire, but, as we've learned from...
![Movie Mystery: The 2000 Oscars Heist [from Very Special Episodes]](https://www.omnycontent.com/d/clips/e73c998e-6e60-432f-8610-ae210140c5b1/a9f8aaf1-b12b-40b8-85aa-b08f0126e2b6/189fb403-6df2-4399-a212-b409018b67f4/image.jpg?t=1773188255&size=Large)
Movie Mystery: The 2000 Oscars Heist [from Very Special Episodes]
In 2000, weeks before the Academy Awards ceremony, 55 Oscars vanished during shipment to Los Angeles. The disappearance triggered a frantic search. Th...
A Terrible Waste
When Heinrich VI, King of Germany, called a gathering of noblemen to deal with a property dispute, he couldn't have predicted how tragic—and disgustin...
Daughters of the Empress (with Veronica Buckley)
Veronica Buckley, author of the new book SEVEN SISTERS, joins us to discuss the daughters of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, who remade Europe with...
Olympic Glory for a Princess
Though Queen Elizabeth II's daughter, Princess Anne, competed in the Olympics, the first princess to do so beat her to it by more than a thousand year...
The Winter Queen
Elizabeth Stuart was the daughter of King James I and VI of England and Scotland. Her husband was offered the throne of Bohemia, and who would ever sa...
Very Special Episodes: How to Make the Olympics (Without Supernatural Athletic Ability)
Elizabeth Swaney fulfilled her childhood dream of becoming an Olympian, defying all odds. But it wasn’t supernatural athletic ability that got her the...
A Philosopher's Death
Giovanni Pico Della Mirandola was a brilliant and precocious philosopher, who caused a stir in Italy with his writings before he was even 25. But Pico...
Maria Theresa's Medical Legacy (with Matt Kaplan)
Dana is joined by the science writer for The Economist, Matt Kaplan, to discuss 18th century medical progress, the legacy of Maria Theresa, and the tr...