Episodi

  • The Yingkou freeze on November 16th stranded Doihara's emperor and wrecked Manchukuo

    The Yingkou freeze on November 16th stranded Doihara's emperor and wrecked Manchukuo
    Oct 20 2026
    A frozen harbor on Nov 16, 1931 traps a deposed emperor unless Kenji Doihara moves him-will Manchukuo survive forty-three days?

    The Yingkou freeze on November 16th stranded Doihara's emperor and wrecked Manchukuo

    In this episode, we follow the steps that turned a Japanese officer into the man who tried to build a puppet state in Manchuria. It traces Doihara’s linguistic and human intelligence work, the networks he constructed, and the race against the ice - could he move a former emperor before Yingkou froze?

    Person: Kenji Doihara
    Event: Yingkou port freeze on November 16, 1931
    Period: 1931 - the forty-three days before the ice sealed the exit
    Location: Mukden, Manchuria and the port of Yingkou
    Role: Head of the tokumu kikan and provisional mayor of Mukden

    - He spent nearly two decades learning Mandarin and regional dialects to read people across cultural lines.
    - He built an intelligence network using White Russian émigrés and women in brothels and opium dens, paid with opium.
    - After the Mukden Incident he was appointed provisional mayor of Mukden and moved to secure cooperation from Northeastern Army generals.
    - He had exactly forty-three days to move a former emperor across enemy-watched territory before the port of Yingkou froze.
    - His method relied on offering what a man wanted most and waiting to see whether the man would keep his word.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
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    21 min
  • A five‑inch‑too‑long rope cut the UN envoy's decade‑long immunity

    A five‑inch‑too‑long rope cut the UN envoy's decade‑long immunity
    Oct 19 2026
    A UN envoy in a Baghdad execution chamber faces a moment that will test power. How do you fall from that high?

    A five‑inch‑too‑long rope cut the UN envoy's decade‑long immunity

    In this episode, we follow the contradiction of a man who represented Iraq at the United Nations in Geneva while once running the intelligence service that erased a town. The story traces his rise through the Baath Party, the mechanisms of the Mukhabarat, and the trial that brings those years back into a Baghdad courtroom - but what happens next is the question.

    Person: Barzan Ibrahim al‑Hassan al‑Tikriti
    Date: January 15, 2007 / Trial start October 19, 2005
    Location: Baghdad; Geneva
    Event: Dujail operation and later trial
    Institution: United Nations Human Rights Committee

    - At 3:05 AM on January 15, 2007, a rope in a Baghdad execution chamber was five inches too long.
    - Barzan was born in Tikrit in 1951, rose through the Baath Party, and by 17 participated in the 1968 coup.
    - He ran the Mukhabarat in the 1970s-1980s, overseeing detention, torture methods including flogging with electrical cables, and executions.
    - In 1982 the Dujail operation led to the documented execution of more than 140 men and mass internments; Barzan ran the intelligence apparatus that processed detainees.
    - In 1989 he was appointed Iraq’s representative to the UN in Geneva and spent about a decade on the Human Rights Committee while family wealth and Swiss accounts tied to the al‑Tikriti network were identified.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    23 min
  • The speech in Rangpur that drove students into Al‑Badr and toppled his career

    The speech in Rangpur that drove students into Al‑Badr and toppled his career
    Oct 18 2026
    A rising Islamist student in Rangpur urges classmates to join Al-Badr-what chain of choices could topple a minister decades later?

    The speech in Rangpur that drove students into Al‑Badr and toppled his career

    In this episode, we trace the documented record of Mojaheed Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed’s rise from a teenage organizer in Faridpur to a national political figure accused of commanding wartime atrocities. We follow the decisions, speeches and organizational moves that prosecutors tied to the disappearance of Bengali intellectuals - and ask how a single call to students became central to a decades‑long legal reckoning.

    Person: Mojaheed Ahsan Mohammad Mojaheed
    Date: 17 October 1971 (Rangpur speech); 22 November 2015 (execution)
    Location: Rangpur (speech); Dhaka Central Jail (hanging)
    Organization: Islami Chhatra Sangha / Al‑Badr / Bangladesh Jamaat‑e‑Islami
    Event: 1971 abductions of professors, journalists, doctors, and artists

    - In 1968 Mojaheed, aged 20, ran the Faridpur district branch of the Islami Chhatra Sangha and proved effective at recruitment and mobilization.
    - By 1970 he led the Dhaka district branch and by August-September 1970 became Secretary of the East Pakistan Islami Chhatra Sangha.
    - The prosecution says he was elected president of the East Pakistan Islami Chhatra Sangha and assumed command of Al‑Badr in October 1971, replacing Motiur Rahman Nizami.
    - On 17 October 1971 Mojaheed delivered a speech in Rangpur urging students to join Al‑Badr; the tribunal treated that speech as documented fact.
    - In December 1971, as Pakistani forces surrendered, members of Al‑Badr moved through Dhaka and surrounding districts abducting intellectuals - a pattern the tribunal linked back to organizational commands.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    19 min
  • The Japanese report he filed that sold Chiang Kai-shek on him and cost him everything

    The Japanese report he filed that sold Chiang Kai-shek on him and cost him everything
    Oct 17 2026
    A celebrated governor returns to Taiwan after decades in Japan, handed power he once praised-and within years that praise will cost him everything.

    The Japanese report he filed that sold Chiang Kai-shek on him and cost him everything

    In this episode, we follow the life and career of Chen Yi from his upbringing in Shaoxing and training in Japan to his appointment as governor of Taiwan after Japan's surrender. The episode traces his governing philosophy, personal ties to Japan, and the decisions that set him on a collision course with history-how did a man once entrusted with an island end up before a firing squad?

    Person: Chen Yi
    Date: 18 June 1950
    Location: Machangding, outskirts of Taipei
    Event: Signing of Taiwan surrender documents on 25 October 1945
    Topic: Report praising Japanese administration of Taiwan

    - Spent ten formative years in Japanese military academies (1902-1909, 1917-1920) and married a Japanese woman, shaping his admiration for Japanese governance.
    - Filed a favorable, formal report to Chiang Kai-shek after visiting Taiwan in 1935, praising roads, railways, public health and order.
    - Governed Fujian Province as president from 1934 to 1942, implementing "Necessary State Socialism" with state monopolies and protection of corrupt subordinates.
    - Appointed governor of Taiwan in 1945, signed surrender documents with Japanese General Ando Rikichi at Taipei City Hall on 25 October 1945.
    - Stood before a firing squad at age sixty-seven on 18 June 1950 after years of killings on the island that were not listed on his charge sheet.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    23 min
  • The poem that named God on a human face toppled him from power

    The poem that named God on a human face toppled him from power
    Oct 16 2026
    A poet in Aleppo publicly claimed God lived in the human face, provoking scholars and a sultan who moved to make that claim disappear.

    The poem that named God on a human face toppled him from power

    In this episode, we follow the life and travels of Nasimi, the fourteenth-century poet who carried Hurufi teachings across cities despite repeated rejections. The episode traces his student‑teacher bond with Fazlallah Astarabadi, his bold Azerbaijani ghazals, and the decisions that led him to stay in Aleppo even as danger closed in - why did he keep walking forward knowing the risk?

    Person: Nasimi
    Teacher: Fazlallah Astarabadi
    Belief: Hurufism - letters as the architecture of the universe; God manifested in the human face
    Language/Form: Azerbaijani Turkic ghazals using Arabic and Persian prosody
    Location: Aleppo (final city where he stayed)

    - Nasimi apprenticed to Astarabadi in Tabriz, then followed him to Baku and Shirvan and was named his khalifa.
    - Astarabadi’s execution by Timurid ruler Miran Shah made Nasimi the movement’s visible successor.
    - Nasimi wrote precise Azerbaijani ghazals that literalized Hurufi ideas, naming body parts with sacred letters.
    - He traveled westward, repeatedly rejected by courts and Sufi lodges in Bursa, Ankara and elsewhere before Aleppo welcomed him.
    - In Aleppo he stayed despite visible plots and the first attempts on his life, carrying the same uncompromising message that had already cost his teacher.

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    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 min
  • The feigned madness that let him live - and finished him

    The feigned madness that let him live - and finished him
    Oct 15 2026
    A celebrated Ukrainian poet collapses on a Munich pavement after a life outrunning repression; how do you survive by pretending to be mad?

    The feigned madness that let him live - and finished him

    In this episode, we follow the life of Todos Osmachka from the Ukrainian renaissance of the 1920s through decades of exile, arrests, and performances that kept him alive. We trace the choices he made to evade a state that erased his peers and ask what it costs to live by an act of survival.

    Person: Todos Osmachka
    Date: May 16, 1895 (birth); July 6, 1961 (collapse)
    Location: Kutsivka (birth village); Munich (collapse)
    Topic: Feigned insanity, persecution of Ukrainian literary culture
    Event: Arrests, escape in transit, transfer to psychiatric hospital

    - Born in Kutsivka and educated at the Kyiv Institute of Public Education, Osmachka emerged as a leading poet of the 1920s Ukrainian literary renaissance.
    - He published Krucha (1922), Scythian Fires (1925), and Klekit (1929), the last appearing as Soviet prosecutions against Ukrainian intelligentsia intensified.
    - Denunciations labeled him an "enemy of the people" while close colleagues like Hryhoriy Kosynka and Valerian Pidmohylny disappeared under state violence.
    - After a failed illegal border crossing and an arrest bound for Sverdlovsk, Osmachka escaped in transit and returned to Podillia, where he faced new charges of espionage.
    - Facing a likely death sentence, he twice feigned madness, convincing authorities to move him from prison to psychiatric custody as a means of survival.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    23 min
  • The sentence she dictated that led her to the scaffold

    The sentence she dictated that led her to the scaffold
    Oct 14 2026
    Olympe de Gouges climbs the scaffold in Paris-had she written the sentence that condemned her, even though she could not read it herself?

    The sentence she dictated that led her to the scaffold

    In this episode, we follow the life of Marie Gouze, who became known as Olympe de Gouges, tracing how a woman who dictated everything she wrote moved from provincial origins to the salons and presses of Paris. The episode covers her plays, pamphlets, and the unfinished document that prosecutors used against her-how did the words she spoke lead her to the scaffold?

    Person: Olympe de Gouges (born Marie Gouze)
    Date: 3 November 1793 (scaffold event)
    Location: Paris
    Event: Dictated writings used as evidence in charge of attempting to restore the monarchy
    Work: Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen

    - Born Marie Gouze in Montauban on 7 May 1748 and later adopted the name Olympe de Gouges while keeping her married surname for her son.
    - Lacked formal education and was described as illiterate; she dictated roughly sixty-eight pamphlets, about forty plays, and proposals to secretaries who wrote them down.
    - Moved to Paris in 1768 with financial backing from Jacques Biétrix de Rozières and entered Enlightenment salons where she argued ideas aloud with figures like Brissot and Condorcet.
    - In 1785 her play Zamore et Mirza, written from the perspective of an enslaved person, opened and was shut down after three showings amid paid disruptions by the slave trade lobby.
    - In 1791 she published the Declaration of the Rights of Woman and of the Female Citizen-seventeen articles mirroring the men's declaration-which became central to the charges that led authorities to prosecute her.

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 min
  • The reliquaries he carried toppled a life of hiding

    The reliquaries he carried toppled a life of hiding
    Oct 13 2026
    A priest returned from Rome, caught at the border with reliquaries in his pannier-how did his life climb so high and fall so fast?

    The reliquaries he carried toppled a life of hiding

    In this episode, we follow the life of John Ingram from Staffordshire through exile, ordination, and a clandestine mission back to Britain, tracing the decisions and moments that put him in danger. We ask how a trained priest ended up seized at the border with nothing more than devotional objects to his name.

    Person: John Ingram
    Age: 29
    Event: Arrested at the Berwick border with reliquaries
    Location: Tower of London (detained)
    Legal context: 1585 statute making presence of a priest in England treason

    - Born into a Staffordshire Catholic family that publicly conformed yet privately retained faith, recorded in a family dispensation
    - Traveled to the Continent, studied at the English College at Rheims and Rome, and was ordained in 1588
    - Kidnapped by mercenaries in the Low Countries en route to seminary but escaped and completed formation in Rome
    - Lived eighteen months as a steward in Lord Lindsay’s household in Scotland, publicly managing accounts while secretly ministering
    - Captured at the border near Berwick when searchers found reliquaries in his possession and sent to the Tower for interrogation by Richard Topcliffe

    To listen to this podcast ad-free and access premium episodes, try our subscription with a 14-day free trial at obomedia.com.

    © 2026 OBOMEDIA. All rights reserved.
    This episode and its content (audio, text, and related materials) are the exclusive property of OBOMEDIA and are protected by applicable copyright laws. Reproduction, distribution, editing, or commercial use, in whole or in part, without prior written permission from OBOMEDIA is prohibited. For permissions, licensing, and business inquiries: business@obomedia.com.
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    21 min