The Real Network Blind History

Blind History

Blind History is a crash course in getting to know history’s greatest men and women - and by great we don’t always mean good.

Hosted by Gareth Cliff and Anthony Mederer, this series will tell you what the history books sometimes leave out - the sordid stories, the less well-known details, some of the stuff they didn’t teach you at school.

Each person will help you put a piece of the puzzle in place, and bring history to life.
Weekly English South Africa History · Education
98 Episodes
64 – 84

Bonus episode: Plagues & Pandemics

History isn’t just stories from the past, it’s also about things that humanity has been through that might be more relevant now than ever. Take great plagues for example: Humankind has faced some truly horrible diseases and pandemics in the past... and as awful as coronavirus is, it’s not nearly…
13 Apr 2020 21 min

Emperor Augustus

Perhaps no other single human has had such a lasting and powerful effect on the idea of civilisation. For his long reign, Augustus mostly wanted to be called ‘First Citizen’, but in effect he was one of the most powerful men to ever walk the Earth. He instituted a period…
7 Apr 2020 18 min

The Wives of King Henry VIII

Anyone who has ever heard of King Henry VIII knows he had many wives. Some even know their names. Their individual stories are complex, beautiful, sad, poignant and remarkable. In an age where women are finally being given their due, these six Queens deserve to be known for more than…
31 Mar 2020 17 min

Idi Amin

There are some names that send a shudder through the air. Some names that have changed whole countries. Names that hang like a dark cloud over history. Idi Amin is such a name. The whole of East Africa - even the world - is still flabbergasted that as recently as…
23 Mar 2020 14 min

The Great Greek Philosophers

Socrates, Aristotle and Plato are the fathers of Western (if not world) philosophy. Despite us knowing so little about their lives, they have an enduring influence on every aspect of our thinking and understanding. The university, the academy, the school... these things all come from the three great philosophers -…
16 Mar 2020 21 min

The Bad Emperors

We end season two of Blind History in Ancient Rome... the place that gave us Hadrian, Augustus, Trajan and Marcus Aurelius. But this time we investigate the bad emperors - the ones who murdered, ruined, destroyed and perverted the greatest empire of antiquity. Caligula, Nero, Commodus and Elagabalus were some…
9 Dec 2019 24 min

The Kims

Who is the most powerful Kim in the world? No, it isn’t Kim Kardashian - it’s a small Korean man with a bad haircut. He also has his finger on the button of a dangerous nuclear arsenal and the command of the third largest standing army on earth. Kim Jong-Un…
3 Dec 2019 20 min

The Duke of Wellington

Napoleon’s great adversary, a man of impeccable military credentials, and one of the finest examples of the great British soldier that tends to sound more like myth than fact, Arthur Wellesley was also just a man. He had mistresses, a sense of humour, and an inspirational style of leadership that…
25 Nov 2019 18 min

Attila the Hun

Born on the steppes and raised on horseback, young Attila was to lead a small tribe of barbarians to prominence, but not before he had been to Rome, threatened Constantinople, and fought and won many battles. His name is synonymous with raping, pillaging and destruction, but in reality Europe east…
18 Nov 2019 14 min

Albert Einstein

The image of a brilliant scientist is one inextricably linked to the picture of Albert Einstein. His unkempt hair, shabby jackets and the twinkle of genius in his eye - but the story of Einstein isn’t so one-dimensional. His relationships, his politics and the story of what happened to his…
11 Nov 2019 18 min

Abraham Lincoln

Stovepipe hats, four score-and-twenty speeches, and a bullet in the back of his head is what some people know about Abraham Lincoln. In fact this was the President who modernised the American economy, preserved the union and abolished slavery. Not bad for a life cut short by an assassin’s bullet.
4 Nov 2019 15 min

Bonus episode: Gareth interviews Anthony

Anthony Mederer from Taylor Blinds & Shutters is in studio on The Gareth Cliff Show – find out how the podcast Blind History came about, where his love of history began, and the process he and Gareth go through to come up with such riveting episodes.
1 Nov 2019 27 min

The Kray Twins

Criminals can be great criminals. They can influence history, change cities and become the story themselves. Robin Hood, Al Capone, Bonnie & Clyde... they all ended up the stuff of legend. So would it be with the Krays, two London brothers who ended up owning the city and bending it to their…
28 Oct 2019 19 min

Napoleon Bonaparte

From artillery officer in the revolutionary army to Emperor of the French, Napoleon’s life is one of the great success stories of humanity. But it all ended in lonely exile on an island in the Atlantic, ignominy and possibly poison. The tremendous life of Napoleon’s rise and fall in Blind…
22 Oct 2019 21 min

Pixley ka Isaka Seme

The man who encouraged black farmers to buy land in the early 1900s, became one of the first black lawyers in South Africa, and attended Columbia and Oxford Universities before founding the ANC, has almost been forgotten to history, but part of the reason Blind History is here is to…
15 Oct 2019 18 min

Queen Victoria

A tiny little Queen with enormous power - reputed to have had no sense of humour. That’s how most people know Queen Victoria, but in fact she was a progressive, sensitive and quite strident woman in an age where those things were mostly frowned upon. Let’s see if you’re amused…
7 Oct 2019 16 min

Saladin

Saladin was the greatest Muslim warrior of the Middle Ages, and a man who recaptured Jerusalem from the Christians. He was also full of contradictions - honourable, yet cruel; warrior, yet peacemaker. Find out about this mysterious and powerful character in our latest episode of Blind History... proudly brought to…
30 Sep 2019 11 min

Vlad the Impaler

Dracula is a fictional character... a satanic creature that drinks the blood of its victims. Bram Stoker made that creature up, but the real-life inspiration of Vlad Dracul is much more sinister - a cruel, sadistic monster that put thousands of people to death in the most unimaginably vicious ways…
16 Sep 2019 12 min

Martin Luther King, Jr

The great leader of the US Civil Rights Movement. An iconic figure who was both deeply spiritual and practical. A pacifist, orator, family man and preacher. There are few who would say he lived long enough to achieve all his bold ambitions, but he lived long enough to make an…
9 Sep 2019 14 min

Bonus episode: Why History?

In this bonus teaser for season two, Gareth Cliff and Anthony Mederer talk about why they love history, and how they choose their subjects for the podcast. Season two of Blind History is coming soon!
27 Aug 2019 3 min
64 – 84