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

The Earth Transformed | Her Story and the Natural World | 1

October 6, 2026 · 39 min

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 end with around 100,000 women on trial for meddling with the…
Inbox: The Invisible Machine Behind Everything | Ed Conway

October 1, 2026 · 39 min

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 Xi Jinping's grip on rare earths? And, if China can now build cars far…
Dolly Parton | Unproblematic White Queen | Feat. Kelechi Okafor |2

September 29, 2026 · 32 min

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 system? And, what does it take for the most unmistakably white icon…
Inbox: The Bayeux Tapestry and the Arrow Nobody Can Prove | Sue Brunning

September 24, 2026 · 40 min

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 stitched in England, and treats the losing king as a hero? And, if the…
Dolly Parton | It's Dolly Parton's World and We're Living In It | 1

September 22, 2026 · 32 min

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 publishing before most of Nashville has? And, in an age that agrees on…
Inbox: The Falklands Campaign | Milei, Trump and Oil | Book Club

September 17, 2026 · 26 min

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 online in 2028 all point at the same islands? And, when 99.8% of the people…
9/11: 25 Years On | The Reckoning | 3

September 15, 2026 · 40 min

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 9/11 — so who won? What does a war cost once you count the hospitals…
Inbox: Yesteryear | Waking Up in 1855 | Book Club

September 10, 2026 · 23 min

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 finished? And when a story about white homesteaders in pre-Civil War America…