A Twist of History

Episode

• The Affair of the Diamond Necklace 24.09.2025 43mnt

  Marie Antoinette’s world renowned extravagance made her an icon and then an example as the Queen of France, but her beheading, and the French Revolution, may never have come to pass if not for a lavish piece of jewelry at the center of a salacious con.
• The Man Who Saved the World 17.09.2025 39mnt

  While The United States and The Soviet Union flirted with existential disaster on a global stage during the Cuban Missile Crisis, an unknown conflict was unfolding under the ocean on a Russian submarine equipped to trigger an all-out nuclear war.
• Buying the Presidency 10.09.2025 40mnt

  Money and politics have always been intertwined in America, but before the days of Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg, there was Rockerfeller, Carnegie and Morgan, titans of industry whose political power may have become absolute if they hadn’t underestimated an upstart politician by the name of Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt.
• The Tornado that Saved DC 03.09.2025 42mnt

  During the War of 1812, Washington DC was in the process of being destroyed by the British Army, until they came up against an even more powerful force: Mother Nature.
• The Khan Legacy 27.08.2025 45mnt

  Before the Mongol Empire dominated the Asian Continent, there was no empire to speak of, only nomadic tribes in perpetual battle. That is, until a precocious teenager with a knack for strategy forged a dynasty that reshaped the entire world in his own image.
• The Story of Bananas is Bananas 20.08.2025 42mnt

  Peeling a banana uncovers much more than a tasty fruit, it reveals a fraught history riddled with violent coups, espionage, political assassinations and international wars.
• The Star Who Invented the Future 13.08.2025 37mnt

  A goal of helping to fight against the Nazis during World War II leads a Hollywood star, known as the "most beautiful woman in the world," to invent the technology which changes the world.
• The Battle of Actium 06.08.2025 53mnt

  The assassination of Julius Caesar left an enormous power vacuum in Rome, thrusting his successors into an epic, intercontinental battle for control of the empire that reshaped the future of the modern world.
• Shotgun Science 30.07.2025 35mnt

  How did modern medicine become modern? It was thanks, in part, to a renegade doctor who pushed the boundaries of experimentation - and ethics. And it all began with a bang, from the barrel of a shotgun.
• A Sweet Taste of America 23.07.2025 40mnt

  World War I was known as the War to End All Wars due to its scale and loss of life. At the height of the fighting, when American soldiers on the front lines longed for home, an unlikely beacon of hope arrived.
• The Gunpowder Plot 16.07.2025 34mnt

  In 1605, a plot to kill the King of England was underway, and the man who attempted it, along with his name, would go down in infamy.
• The Titanic Question 09.07.2025 32mnt

  What if a seemingly unremarkable choice could have prevented one of the most infamous disasters of all time?
• The Hitler Intervention 02.07.2025 39mnt

  Adolf Hitler's rise to power and the devastation that followed in his wake was hardly inevitable. In fact, if not for a single split-second decision by a woman you've probably never heard of, we might not know the name Hitler at all.
• Fast Cars and Bootleggers 25.06.2025 40mnt

  Mobsters, shootouts, and petal-to-the-metal police chases. This is prohibition-era America – a time when a group of adrenaline-fueled outlaws and their need for speed paved the way for a modern American pastime.
• Inside The Madhouse 18.06.2025 38mnt

  During the Gilded Age in New York City, the horrors of mental health care are exposed in explosive fashion, forever changing the way stories are uncovered.
• How the Metric System Was Stolen 11.06.2025 41mnt

  Why do Americans measure things in inches and pounds while the rest of the world uses centimeters and kilograms? The answer becomes clear when George Washington and Thomas Jefferson’s vision for the future clashes with a band of marauding pirates.
• The Shakespeare Riot 04.06.2025 43mnt

  New York City in the mid 1800s was run by violent gangs, corrupt politicians, and grifting opportunists who operated with no fear of punishment. It was like a powder keg ready to blow, and all it took to light the fuse, and change the future of law enforcement, was a performance of Shakespeare.
• The Birth of Hollywood 28.05.2025 34mnt

  If not for inventor Thomas Edison's iron grip over the nascent film industry, and a few defiant trailblazers, movies as we know them might have never come to be.
• Robert E Lee's Lost Orders 21.05.2025 39mnt

  The Battle of Antietam during the American Civil War remains the bloodiest day in American history. That day, and the future of the United States, could have turned out very differently, if not for a single note and three cigars.
• How Murder Went Viral 21.05.2025 31mnt

   In 1910, a brutal murder in London sparks a transatlantic manhunt and the rise of a cultural obsession.