Too Fun Media / The Leader Files · 16 episodes
The true stories of the greatest leaders who ever lived, from Alexander the Great and Genghis Khan to George Washington.
The Leader Files tells the true stories of the men and women who built empires, founded nations and changed the rules of power. The illustrated documentaries and hour-long podcast episodes begin in the ancient world with Hammurabi of Babylon and his famous code of laws, Cyrus the Great and the Persian Empire, Sun Tzu and The Art of War, Alexander the Great on his march from Macedon to India, Qin Shi Huang, the First Emperor of China, Augustus Caesar, the first Roman emperor, and Genghis Khan, founder of the Mongol Empire.
The series then moves into the modern world: Queen Elizabeth I and the Spanish Armada, Peter the Great and the building of St Petersburg, George Washington at Valley Forge and Yorktown, Alexander Hamilton and The Federalist, Shaka Zulu, Susan B. Anthony and her arrest for voting in 1872, Haile Selassie before the League of Nations, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the birth of Bangladesh, and Lee Kuan Yew, the founding prime minister of Singapore.
Every episode separates the historical record from legend and asks what made each leader rise, what they got wrong, and why their choices still matter today. Watch the documentaries and podcast episodes on YouTube, listen on Spotify, or visit theleaderfiles.com for a page on every leader.
King of Babylon, c. 1810-1750 BC
Inside: Letters, Laws and the Truth About "An Eye for an Eye"
Hammurabi is famous for a black stone and four words, "an eye for an eye." But he is also one of the only kings from nearly four thousand years ago whose actual mail we can still read.
Founder of the Persian Empire, c. 600-530 BC
Inside: Babylon, the Cyrus Cylinder, Croesus
He conquered more of the world than anyone before him, yet the people he conquered remembered him as "the father."
Author of The Art of War, c. 5th century BC
Inside: Did Master Sun Exist? The Palace Drill, Sima Qian, Sun Bin
He may be the most quoted general who ever lived, and nobody can prove he existed. Across this hour of The Leader Files Podcast, Mike digs into Sun Tzu, Master Sun, the legendary author of The Art of War, sorting the solid record from legend, later embellishment and internet invention.
King of Macedon, 356-323 BC
Inside: The Full Story of Alexander III of Macedon, from Bucephalas to Babylon
Alexander the Great, Alexander III of Macedon, became king at twenty, crossed into Asia, brought down the Persian Empire, and marched all the way to India before he died in Babylon at just thirty-two.
First Emperor of China, 259-210 BC
Inside: The Assassin's Map
He was born the son of a hostage prince in an enemy city, and he died as the First Emperor of China.
First Roman Emperor, 63 BC-AD 14
Inside: Octavian, Julius Caesar's Heir
He was a sickly eighteen-year-old student when he learned that Julius Caesar had been killed and had adopted him in his will. Within fifteen years he ruled the Roman world.
Founder of the Mongol Empire, c. 1162-1227
Inside: The Full Story of Temujin, Founder of the Mongol Empire
Genghis Khan, born Temujin and known in Mongolia as Chinggis Khaan, grew up abandoned on the steppe, escaped captivity with a wooden cangue locked around his neck, and went on to unite the Mongol tribes and found the Mongol Empire, the largest contiguous land empire in history.
Queen of England, 1533-1603
Inside: The Tower, Mary Queen of Scots, the Spanish Armada
She was declared illegitimate at two, questioned for treason at fifteen and locked in the Tower of London at twenty, and she went on to rule England for 44 years.
First Emperor of Russia, 1672-1725
Inside: The Grand Embassy, the Beard Tax, St Petersburg
He was the tsar of Russia, nearly two meters tall, and he went to Europe to work as a ship's carpenter under a fake name. Then he came home, cut off his nobles' beards, built a new capital in a swamp, beat the most feared army in Europe, and turned Russia into a great power, at a heavy human cost.
First President of the United States, 1732-1799
Inside: Valley Forge, Yorktown
He could have kept the army. He could have kept the presidency. Twice, George Washington handed power back, and that choice may be the most important thing any American leader has ever done.
Founding Father and first U.S. Treasury Secretary, 1755/57-1804
Inside: The Federalist, Eliza
He arrived in America as a penniless teenage orphan from the Caribbean, and within twenty years he had helped write the Constitution, explained it to the nation in The Federalist, and built the United States Treasury from nothing.
Founder of the Zulu Kingdom, c. 1787-1828
Inside: Legend vs Record, the Hair Oil Saga, King George
He never wrote a single word, yet he became one of the most famous kings in African history, and nearly everything written about him in his lifetime came from traders who wanted his ivory and his land.
Women's suffrage pioneer, 1820-1906
Inside: The 1872 Vote, Her Arrest and Trial
She voted for president in 1872, was arrested two weeks later, and told the judge who convicted her, "I shall never pay a dollar of your unjust penalty."
Emperor of Ethiopia, 1892-1975
Inside: Ras Tafari
He stood almost alone before the League of Nations and told the world's powers that if they let a small country be swallowed, they would be next. He turned out to be right.
Founding Father of Bangladesh, 1920-1975
Inside: The 7 March Speech
Only a handful of people in history can fairly be said to have talked a nation into being, and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman is one of them. In this hour-long episode of The Leader Files Podcast, Mike tells the whole story of Mujib, known as Bangabandhu, the Friend of Bengal, and as the Father of the Nation of Bangladesh.
Founding Prime Minister of Singapore, 1923-2015
Inside: Japanese Occupation, Separation from Malaysia
He wept on live television the day his island was expelled from Malaysia, and he locked up his rivals without trial.
