History’s Greatest Fails

We’re often taught that history’s written by the winners. But we’d like to argue that, in fact, it’s the losers who end up making history. In this brand new series from Dan Jones and Elizabeth Day, History’s Greatest Fails aims to answer the simple, but complex, question: Why do losers make history? From Richard III, to Vincent Van Gough, to the purposefully forgotten female Pharaoh Hatshepsut, this series is going to help you better understand how the idea of failure changes over time, and what lessons failure has for all of us. Dan and Elizabeth are old friends, fellow history graduates, and fellow authors and podcasters. Dan Jones is host of ⁠ This Is History — A Dynasty to Die For ⁠ , a narrative podcast that charts the bloody and complex drama of England’s Plantagenet dynasty, now up to its 10th season. Elizabeth is host of ⁠ How To Fail ⁠</

History’s Greatest Fails is a history podcast hosted by Sony Music Entertainment, with 7 episodes on record and a Required Pod Score of 80. PitchCentric scores this show on Booking Probability, Listen Score, and live audience signals refreshed every 24 hours.

Sony Music Entertainment hosts History’s Greatest Fails, a history show with 7 episodes published.

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  History’s Greatest Fails

  War — History’s Ultimate Failure

  May 28, 202631 minS0

  <p>Elizabeth Day grew up in Belfast and would as a child walk past the most bombed hotel in Europe. Dan Jones recalls a Croatian widow whose husband went out for bread and never returned. </p> <p><br></p> <p>In this final episode of History’s Greatest Fails, Dan and Elizabeth name war as history's ultimate failure and reflect on the changes that follow societal collapse. </p> <p><br></p> <p>Together, they draw on conflicts that have changed the course of world history, such as the Hundred Years' War, the World Wars, the Troubles, and the breakup of Yu...

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  Episode #6

  Ear Today, Gone Tomorrow: Van Gogh’s Guide to Artistic Failure

  May 27, 202632 minS1

  <p>If you’re an artist, when would you like recognition to strike? Do you want it to be in your lifetime, only to be forgotten decades after your death? Or do you want to remain undiscovered, with your story potentially echoing for centuries after you’ve been discovered posthumously? </p> <p><br></p> <p>These are some of the thorny questions Dan and Elizabeth consider in this episode about artistic failure. Together, they trace the stories of artists whose lives don’t neatly match up with the reputations their works have gathered: French writer George Sand, and the painters Vincen...

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  Episode #4

  Why isn’t Leonardo Da Vinci remembered as an engineer?

  May 27, 202631 minS1

  <p>If you judge him by his own elaborate metrics, Leonardo da Vinci was a failure.</p> <p>Long before the Mona Lisa became shorthand for genius, Leonardo imagined himself as something else entirely: a military engineer, a designer of bridges and armoured vehicles, a master of siegecraft and architecture. </p> <p>In 1482, he wrote a breathless letter to Ludovico Sforza, Duke of Milan, itemising these talents with bravado and noting, quickly, that oh, he could paint, too. Many of his boldest designs never left the page, or arrived centuries too early to be built. By his own standards, the f...

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  Episode #3

  How, exactly, does a woman ‘slip’ out of history?

  May 27, 202639 minS1

  <p>What would you do if your life was omitted, reduced to an overlooked footnote, or filed away as an anomaly? </p> <p>In this episode, Dan and Elizabeth turn a lens on the practice of history itself, interrogating the choices and power structures that have traditionally left women out of the history books. </p> <p>They retrace the lives of three women who once stood firmly in their moment: Hatshepsut, a pharaoh who consolidated power in Ancient Egypt; Joanna Ferrour, a peasant whose voice briefly direct the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381; and Ada Lovelace, a Victorian thinker whose ideas arrived well...

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  Episode #2

  Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn are the Ross and Rachel of history

  May 27, 202635 minS1

  <p>To love is to risk heartbreak. </p> <p>And while for some, breakups result in renewal, maybe some therapy (or a few months’ spent wallowing), for the historical figures of this episode… a relationship’s end has broken many more things than hearts. </p> <p>In this episode, Dan and Elizabeth discover the lessons of history’s epic failed romances through three world-changing unions: Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn; Mark Antony and Cleopatra; and Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson. </p> <p>Each couple burned bright and fast, and with their downfall came the end to the worlds from which they came...

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