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. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
Latest episodes
Showing 20 · updated from the feed
Inbox: A Ghost Story for Palestine | Amy Abdelnoor
Content warning: this episode includes discussion of war, killing and the ongoing violence in Gaza.
Why did a cactus in an empty Palestinian village become the start of
Nov 5 39 min
Tupac Shakur | Born Into the Struggle | 1
Content warning: this episode includes violence, drug addiction and references to sexual abuse.
How did a pregnant Black Panther with no legal training defend herself ag
Nov 3 35 min
Inbox: Oranges, Sunshine and a Storm Coming | Sebastian Faulks
What were British soldiers doing in Palestine in 1945, between the oranges, the swimming and the bombs?
Why does the Christmas show in Sebastian Faulks's Jerusalem swap
Oct 29 40 min
Legacy Live: Elif Shafak | 16 November, Kings Place
Come and join us live! On Monday 16 November, Peter Frankopan and Afua Hirsch will be on stage at Kings Place in London with the wonderful Elif Shafak.
Her extraordinary
Oct 27 2 min
The Earth Transformed | The Eye of the Storm | 4
What did a run of terrible Caribbean hurricanes have to do with American independence?
How did a volcano in Indonesia help give us Frankenstein?
And, why were so many o
Oct 27 33 min
Inbox: Barbara Cartland, The Great Dictator | Matthew Sweet
How did a woman lying on a sofa with a Pekingese on her lap write 723 books?
Why did the queen of pink chiffon put shoe polish on her eyelashes?
And, if she sold around
Oct 22 43 min
The Earth Transformed | Africa and Us | 3
Why were the first cowboys in the Americas from West Africa?
What does it mean in Akan culture when a man "eats from another woman's pot"?
And, could a mosquito be the
Oct 20 37 min
Inbox: Six Men, Three Vans and a US Air Base | Iran, Putin and Oil
How do six men in three vans outside a Cotswolds air base end with America flying its bombers home?
What can 300,000 tonnes of Russian diesel actually do for American dr
Oct 15 22 min
The Earth Transformed | The World in Motion | 2
If almost every early migration out of Africa failed, how did any of us get here?
Why does an Akan word that once meant "person from beyond the cornfields" now mean a wh
Oct 13 41 min
Inbox: The Correspondent | The Power of Letter Writing | Book Club
What happens when an author gets rejected eight times, writes a ninth novel in hand-written letters, and ends up at number one on the New York Times bestseller list? Why
Oct 8 1 h 03 min
The Earth Transformed | Her Story and the Natural World | 1
Why does the ancient Greek word for bravery come from the word for man, and what did bronze spears have to do with it?
How does one of the coldest decades in 2,000 years
Oct 6 38 min
Inbox: The Invisible Machine Behind Everything | Ed Conway
Why did the cod in your fish fingers go to China and back before it reached your freezer?
What does a medieval king blocking English wool from Flanders have to do with X
Oct 1 38 min
Dolly Parton | Unproblematic White Queen | Feat. Kelechi Okafor |2
What were the taxi drivers of 1990s Accra playing on repeat?
How does a woman who swore she was "not a bit political" write a hit about being used up and spat out by the
Sep 29 32 min
Inbox: The Bayeux Tapestry and the Arrow Nobody Can Prove | Sue Brunning
Why are a million people about to queue at the British Museum for a strip of embroidered linen?
What if the most famous picture of 1066 isn't a tapestry, was probably st
Sep 24 40 min
Dolly Parton | It's Dolly Parton's World and We're Living In It | 1
Who says no to Elvis Presley — and is proved right eighteen years later?
How does a girl from a one-room cabin with no electricity work out the economics of music publis
Sep 22 31 min
Inbox: The Falklands Campaign | Milei, Trump and Oil | Book Club
Why is a war fought 44 years ago back on the front pages?
What happens when a combative president in Buenos Aires, a friend in the White House and an oil field due onlin
Sep 17 26 min
9/11: 25 Years On | The Reckoning | 3
Content warning: this episode describes torture, civilian deaths and the 2021 Kabul airport attack.
Bin Laden is dead, al-Qaeda is shattered, and there was never another
Sep 15 39 min
Inbox: Yesteryear | Waking Up in 1855 | Book Club
What happens to a trad wife influencer when she wakes up in 1855 and has to
actually do it?
Why were film producers bidding on this novel four years before it was
fini
Sep 10 23 min
9/11: 25 Years On | The Forever War | 2
Content warning: this episode describes the aftermath of 11 September 2001, including torture and civilian deaths.
How does a country go from the sympathy of the entire
Sep 8 43 min
Inbox: Genghis Khan and the Empire We Got Wrong | Marie Favereau
Who taught you that the Mongols only destroyed things?
What if the empire that sacked Baghdad also invented blue and white porcelain, elected its leaders, and let the Kh
Sep 3 41 min
Chart trend
Position in the History chart (US), last 90 days.
#1#101#200AugSepOctNov
#7
all-time peak
3
days in the top 10 since Nov 2024
Chart positions
Where Legacy ranks today in each Apple Podcasts chart (US, Nov 7, 2026).
A curated, balanced selection of Apple Podcasts reviews.
Legacy is one of the more intellectually stimulating history podcasts available, but a recent episode gave me pause.
Hirsch suggested the Founding Fathers relied too heavily on Greek and Roman traditions — implying racial bias — rather than drawing on African and Chinese political thought. This argument has two serious problems.
The first is empirical. The Founders' intellectual world was shaped by classical republicanism — Polybius, Cicero, Thucydides. Madison, Hamilton, and Jefferson read these texts in the original Latin and Greek. The Federalist Papers cite them as direct analytical frameworks. Whatever knowledge existed in 18th century America of Chinese governance or African political traditions was fragmentary and inaccessible at the level of precision required for constitutional design. You cannot build a legal architecture on sources you cannot read or verify.
The second is conceptual. Constitutional design is not a diversity exercise — it is an engineering problem. Drawing on a tradition refined and stress-tested for two millennia is not bias. It is intellectual due diligence.
The tell is the causal claim: that the Founders' choices reflected racial bias rather than the simpler explanation that they had no meaningful access to those traditions. That is a political argument dressed in historical language.
A good podcast — but history is best served straight without a modern political agenda.
Frank 435 · May 2026
I really LOVED this podcast. Yes, the retellling using modern ideas of gender and sexuality sometimes seemed a little overdone. But it was endlessly fascinating to dig into the lives and stories of individuals and to rethink who they might have been using our modern lenses. And that was Legacy’s niche. I have no idea why they’ve gone the direction of topics and ideas, which now makes Legacy like so many other history podcasts I already listen to. It’s a disappointing and confusing change in direction and I can’t think what prompted this :( . Please bring back our stories about PEOPLE.
antillaise · Apr 2026
I generally greatly appreciate this show. It delves into the most interesting aspects of the people they cover, and the hosts challenge and question each other in exciting and enlarging ways, which all good intellectual conversations should do.
But, one thing screeched like nails on a chalkboard in this episode: Afua referred to Joan of Arc’s “brand” - as if Joan were SELLING herself. It shocks me that Afua either endorses selling yourself, or confuses it with freedom, or has never considered the question at all - because all three options seem so unlike the rest of her thinking. Calling Joan non-binary also stood out in a very ugly way, as Flintstonizing the past, and I was very glad Peter refuted the point.
jenlindner · Sep 2025
Afua and Peter are wonderfully informed and engaging hosts. The content is always fascinating and binge worthy! Thank you!
Pam Chi-town · Jul 2025
The hosts of this podcast are knowledgeable and articulate. Their individual perspectives on infamous figures and their place in history is fascinating. So, my problem isn’t with them, but the format change. This show use to be unique, nuanced now it seems to be highlighting subjects found in trashy media. Diet, exercise, celebrity makeovers. Isn’t this suppose to be a history podcast? As much as I like the hosts, I won’t be listening anymore.
f$&@off · May 2026
I listened to 10 of the seasons and it had a strong start, but became more impossible to bear every season. I just found myself beholden to Afua’s opinions on historical figures for an hour which became tirelessly predictable. Her co-host struggles to bring balance to the show but she is so insistent it rarely helps the listener better understand the people they’re highlighting. Her opinions lack so much nuance regardless of the person, she literally repeats herself verbatim on entirely different seasons. Is the point to explore an impactful person’s legacy or to indict them with your 20/20 hindsight? I’m so curious what we will be judged for today that we are blind to and after listening to 10 seasons of this show I am certain that our entire contributions value will boil down to that blind spot.
ME Lacefort · Dec 2024
We strive to present a balanced view by showing a diverse range of reviews from Apple Podcasts.
Here you find the Apple Podcasts chart positions of Legacy, its latest episodes to listen to directly, and reviews from listeners. Rankings are updated daily for the United States.
