Noble Blood

When Puyi was a child, he became Emperor of China. But when China became a republic, he and his court remained in the Forbidden Kingdom, a tiny world of ritual with no power, Dana is joined by historian Paul French to discuss his new book.

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Double, double, toil and trouble... Almost everyone has heard of Macbeth, in the context of Shakespeare's famous play. But Macbeth was also a real king, and Shakespeare wrote about him for a very specific reason.

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Plenty of Harry Potter fans love Severus Snape. A few truly worshipped him. In the early 2000s, these fans found each other online and came to believe Harry’s least favorite professor was real. A god in an alternate universe that bled into our own. Nothing in the world could shake their devotion to Snape.

Until their sisterhood imploded.

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Listen to Dana Schwartz on Very Special Episodes every Wednesday wherever you get your podcasts.

Special thanks to our guest Dr. Zoe Alderton, author of Snapewives’ and ‘Snapeism’: A Fiction-Based Religion Within the Harry Potter Fandom.

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Hi, Noble Blood listeners! We're excited to share with you a sneak peek at iHeartPodcasts' latest release, Midnight Radio!

Midnight Radio: Starring five-time Academy Award®-nominee Ethan Hawke as “The Radio Man,” MIDNIGHT RADIO is a new, fantastical horror podcast. Told in real-time through the lens of a cult-favorite late-night AM radio show, the series follows a host (played by Ethan) whose eerie, conspiracy-themed call-in program takes a chilling turn. One night, he receives a call from a man claiming to be part of a secret U.S. space mission lost to history—just the first thread in a sprawling web of government cover-ups, interdimensional breaches, and psychological warfare.

As the broadcast unfolds, strange signals hidden in the radio static reveal themselves. With each episode building on the last, one question grows more urgent—who, or what, is really on the other end of the line? And what do they want?

Created and co-written by Scott Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill and produced by Under The Influence Productions (founded by Ethan Hawke and his wife, Ryan Hawke), Crooked Highway and Mickey Schiff in collaboration with iHeartPodcasts.

Listen to Midnight Radio on the iHeartRadio App or wherever you get your podcasts!

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When the childless King Henry III's brother died, the heir to the throne became a cousin from the Bourbon dynasty. There was only one problem: he wasn't Catholic.

Support Noble Blood:
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How does a queen show her power through her clothing? In her book DRESSING THE QUEEN, historian Kate Strasdin traces two hundred years of the most important garments that a royal can wear.

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When she was still a child, Margaret Tudor, sister of the future King Henry VIII, was married to the King of Scotland. But it wouldn't be until her husband's death that Margaret would face the greatest challenges of her life during her regency.

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During Henry VIII's reign, his dynasty was looking shaky: he had only one son, and if Henry died before his heir came of age, the country would be in danger of a civil war. Worse, there were still heirs to the York family in England, possibly plotting against him...

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In 1077, the King of Germany and future Holy Roman Emperor Henry IV walked barefoot in the snow and waited three days outside of Canossa Castle. He had been excommunicated by the Pope and was hoping to appeal to the Pope's sense of forgiveness. But the Pope was only at Canossa Castle himself because he was being hosted by Matilda of Tuscany, a fascinating figure at the heart of one of the most famous religious episodes in history.

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In the reign of Henry VIII, religion in England became a minefield of confusing and shifting doctrine. Anne Askew, the daughter of a well-connected courtier, preached her interpretation of the Bible. Her punishment was more a matter of politics than of doctrine.

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In the new film Uprising, a ploughman played by Andrew Garfield joins in the 1381 Peasants' Revolt against Richard II of England. Historian Dan Jones served as the medieval consultant on the film, and joins us to discuss the movie, and his upcoming book, CASTLES.

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Leopoldina married into the royal family of Portugal, which meant moving to Brazil with her husband. But civil war was bubbling on both sides of the Atlantic, and while her husband was out of town and Leopoldina was serving as Princess Regent, she would be faced with making a fateful decision that would define the future of her country.

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The image of Uncle Sam saying "I Want You!" is one of the most famous poster designs in the world... but it was a copycat of a British original. Their version didn't feature a fictional mascot, but a very real, very living man.

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When Frances was a child, her mother went before the Assembly to petition that she be legally classified as "white." Frances would go on to become a wealthy heiress, and marry into the British aristocracy, but the cost would be engaging with the very system of slavery and discrimination that subjugated her mother and generations of mixed-race people after her.

Support Noble Blood:
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Elsa Schiapparelli was the founder of a fashion house which has become known for its sometimes outrageous, always glamorous designs. But beyond fashion, her transatlantic life would involve a conman and an FBI investigation as she tried to use her inflfuential and famous friends to bolster her success through the second World War.

Support Noble Blood:
—ORDER 'THE ARCANE ARTS'
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She has been called "the most hated woman in Tudor England." Jane Boleyn, sister-in-law to Anne, served five queens. Two of them were beheaded. How much was her fault?

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Where does a woman go when a King is wooing her and won't stop? Dana speaks with Chief Historian of Historic Royal Palaces, Tracy Borman, about her newest historical fiction novel, THE HOUSE OF BOLEYN.

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In December of 1586, the King of Poland died suddenly and without an obvious successor. King was an elected position, and the noblemen bickered and tried to advance their own agendas, to no avail. It was a complete standsill. They needed an unbiased third party to be a temporary king. It's a romantic story of a non-royal ascending to a temporary throne, but is it true?

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Queen Mary I's decision to marry a foreign prince turned people against her. Some were so against her they planned an uprising to overthrow her in favor of her half-sister, Elizabeth. But how much did Elizabeth know? And when she was imprisoned in the Tower of London, how much evidence of her treason would be uncovered?

Support Noble Blood:
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The British Monarchy were using the divisions of the Māori people against them. And so, some Māori thought that what they needed to face off against a monarch.... was a monarch of their own.

Support Noble Blood:
—ORDER 'THE ARCANE ARTS'
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— Order Dana's book, 'Anatomy: A Love Story' and its sequel 'Immortality: A Love Story'

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