Legacy

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**Legacy**

Afua Hirsch and Peter Frankopan tell the wild stories of some of the most extraordinary men and women ever to have lived – and ask whether they have the rep they deserve. Should Nina Simone’s role in the civil rights movement be more celebrated than it is? When you find out what Picasso got up to in his studio, can you still admire his art? Was Napoleon a hero or a tyrant – or both? (And, while we’re at it, was he even short?) Legacy is the show that looks at big lives from the perspective of now – and doesn’t always like what it sees.

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Latest Episodes:

Diets | Three Eggs and a Bottle of Wine | 1 May 07, 2026

Show notes

What did Vogue actually recommend women eat in 1977 — and why did it make one food writer cry in the

bathroom? How did the Greeks turn a six-pack into a moral argument? And, has the human obsession with

controlling what we eat ever really been about health at all?

Peter and Afua trace the long, strange history of dieting — from ancient Greek athletics and Roman

feast-and-purge excess, to medieval starvation saints who turned self-denial into a radical act of female agency.

0:00 Vogue’s 1977 Wine and Egg Diet — and what happened when someone actually tried it

6:30 The diet industry’s dirty secret: it was never about nutrition

9:00 Peter on fasting, cranky emails, and what not eating teaches you about your relationship with food

14:30 Ancient Greece: when abs were a moral statement, not just an aesthetic one

19:30 The manosphere’s Spartan fantasy — and what the Greeks would actually make of it

23:00 Rome: the inventors of binge and purge culture

24:30 When Christianity enters the chat — and fasting becomes holy

26:00 Catherine of Siena: the medieval starvation saint who used hunger as protest

30:00 Anorexia mirabilis — holy anorexia, and why Peter is wary of projecting modern diagnoses onto the past

32:00 Why medieval peasants weren’t dieting — they were just trying to stay alive

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Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:

Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.

legacy.supportingcast.fm

Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mystics | Aleister Crowley: The Wickedest Man In The World | 3 May 05, 2026

Show notes

What happens when you raise a child telling him he's the Beast — and he decides to prove you right? Could a man

who genuinely repelled everyone around him have quietly shaped the culture we live in today? And, is the world of

sex, drugs, and rock and roll actually the legacy of a repressed Victorian occultist with a god complex?

Peter and Afua descend into the dark, theatrical, and genuinely troubling life of Aleister Crowley: English occultist,

self-declared Great Beast 666, and the man who may have done more than anyone to wire transgression, desire, and

spiritual hunger into the DNA of modern culture.

0:00 The wickedest man in the world — and why he owned it

6:00 The Exclusive Brethren: the suffocating sect that made Crowley inevitable

10:00 Cambridge, cigars, and erotic poetry: the beast is unleashed

15:00 Golden Dawn and the occult underground of Victorian London

20:00 Mountaineering, meditation, and the spiritual pick-and-mix

24:00 Cairo, 666, and the Book of the Law

26:00 Rose Kelly: the woman without whom none of it happens

33:00 The Abbey of Thelema and a scandal that shocks even the tabloids

38:00 How Crowley became the Beatles' and Led Zeppelin's spirit animal

42:00 Jack Parsons: the rocket scientist who performed Crowley rituals by night

44:00 Was Crowley a feminist? (Afua has thoughts)

48:00 The stain that runs through modern culture straight back to him

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Watch Legacy on YouTube and Spotify video.

Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:

Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.

legacy.supportingcast.fm

Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mystics | Helena Blavatsky's Karma | 2 Apr 30, 2026

Show notes

Who invented the spiritual vocabulary of the modern world — karma, reincarnation, yoga studios, the idea that you can be "spiritual but not religious"? What if the hidden masters living in remote Tibetan mountains who inspired her weren't real — but the New Age movement they sparked absolutely was? And can you change the course of Western spirituality forever while being accused of fraud, plagiarism, and dropping fake letters through the ceiling?

Peter and Afua explore the extraordinary life of Helena Blavatsky: Russian aristocrat, globe-trotting mystic, chain-smoking occultist and the most polarising spiritual figure of the 19th century — whose Theosophical Society gave us yoga mats, abstraction in art, and the modern wellness industry, all while she battled accusations of being one of history's greatest frauds.

0:00 Introduction: The Woman Who Invented New Age Spirituality

4:15 Russian Aristocrat: Growing Up Between Two Worlds

9:40 The Lost Years: Tibet, Egypt, and the Mysterious Mahatmas

16:20 Arriving in New York: Spiritualism, Grief, and the Telegraph

23:10 Meeting Henry Steel Olcott: The Partnership That Changed Everything

28:35 Isis Unveiled: 1,200 Pages That Sold Out in 10 Days

35:50 Moving to India: Strategic Genius or Cultural Appropriation?

41:20 The Mahatma Letters: Messages from the Ceiling

47:05 The Coulomb Scandal and the Hodgson Report

53:30 Vindication? The 1986 Harrison Report

58:10 The Secret Doctrine and Her Uncomfortable Nazi Legacy

1:03:45 Blavatsky's New Age Legacy: From Mondrian to Matcha Lattes

1:09:20 Final Verdict: Genius, Fraud, or Both?

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Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:

Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.

legacy.supportingcast.fm

Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mystics | Nostradamus: The Arophecary | 1 Apr 28, 2026

Show notes

Nostradamus has predicted every major disaster in history — or so the internet would have you believe. Peter and Afua get behind the myth to meet the real man: a plague-era apothecary, rejected by the medical establishment, whose greatest invention wasn't prophecy — it was selling certainty to an anxious world.

Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.

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Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.

legacy.supportingcast.fm

Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Age Of Cargo | The TEU | 3 Apr 23, 2026

Show notes

Malcolm McLean was a frustrated truck driver who thought there had to be a better way. The metal box he invented now carries 90% of the world's traded goods — and quietly runs the global economy.

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Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.

legacy.supportingcast.fm

Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Age Of Cargo | Globalisation and the Oceans | 2 Apr 21, 2026

Show notes

From colliers carrying coal out of Newcastle to Marshall Plan grain crossing the Atlantic, Peter and Afua trace how the movement of goods by sea built the modern world. This is the story of bulk cargo — and why the ships that carried it changed everything.

Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.

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Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.

legacy.supportingcast.fm

Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Age Of Cargo | The Cargo Ship | 1 Apr 16, 2026

Show notes

The cargo ship didn't just move goods — it moved civilisations. Peter and Afua trace 2,000 years of maritime trade, from Roman grain ships and spice routes to the Hanseatic League, the sugar plantations of Madeira, and the brutal economics of the triangular trade.

Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.

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Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.

legacy.supportingcast.fm

Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Facelifts | The Gory Truth Behind the Celebrity Glow | 2 Apr 14, 2026

Show notes

Afua and Peter explore the "undetectable" world of deep plane facelifts, examining why celebrities are finally trading surgical secrecy for viral transparency. They dissect the astronomical costs of modern "tweakments" and the rising pressure to match AI-generated perfection as surgery recipients get younger than ever before.

Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.

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Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.

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Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Facelifts | From Jericho to Kardashian | 1 Apr 09, 2026

Show notes

Peter and Afua delve into the surprising 9,000-year history of facial modification, spanning from ancient trephining rituals in Jericho to the "eerily impressive" modern results seen on Kris Jenner. They analyze how surgical techniques have evolved through a symbiotic relationship between wartime reconstruction and a global, often problematic, pursuit of Eurocentric beauty norms.

Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.

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Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.

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Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Global Impact Of Economic Shocks | The Reconfiguration of the World of 1973 | 4 Apr 07, 2026

Show notes

From the formation of OPEC to the Yom Kippur War, Peter and Afua trace how oil-producing nations finally seized control of their most powerful weapon — and how the shock of 1973 sent the entire global economy into freefall, from petrol queues in Europe to coups in Africa.

Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.

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Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Join Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.

legacy.supportingcast.fm

Stay connected with Legacy:

Instagram: @originallegacypodcast

TikTok: @legacy_productions

Explore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com