Simply fantastic. The presenters are well spoken and don’t pretend that one of them is interviewing the other. They are both experts in the history of colonialism — particularly British colonialism in India — and weave their combined knowledge between them seemingly effortlessly. I’ve just finished their first series of episodes about the colonial histories of Britain and India and thoroughly look forward to their takes on other empires.

I've heard William Dalrymple 1st time at Jaipur literature festival. Before that I read his book 'The last Mughal - Bahadursha Jafar. I love books writing by William, because they are well researched, with original reference documents from various archives and excellent writing style. I have heard most of The Empire episodes & recommended it to anyone interested in the history. I listen it on my way to work or home or when I’m doing my weekend chores. I love it and have learned so much about world history in last many months. Didn’t know anything about Ukraine famine, took over six million lives, famine in Bengal- I knew about it, but got better knowledge. Recent episodes on pirates is also awesome. I tried to buy William Dalrymple latest book The Golden Road in America. But, I can buy from Indian bookstore websites & send as holiday gifts to my friends in India. Awesome podcast, and fun to listen & knowledge enriching. One should know history to be better citizens of world 🙏

Loved this podcast but I’m giving up because of the near constant interruptions by the hosts. Surprised the guests don’t give up as well.

The Male host’s voice is pretty inconsistent because he’s probably leaning away from the mic at some points so it’s very hard to hear him. They also mumble and randomly throw out names without context as if the non-british world knows who they are. Like why would anyone know about some British military general from the 1800s without context?? Maybe this is aimed for a British audience so they don’t care to provide additional info.

Good hosts, great banter, solid history. Became unfocused after the ottomans. They still have some great episodes from time to time, but not sure it’s particularly empire focused.

I am so happy I chanced upon this show a couple of years ago, and then my brother who also was listening to this podcast reminded me of this. So many book recommendations from this show, all absolute gems (happily, some I had already read). If I had one quibble—and this is about production issues, not quality—you two quite often speak over each other in your honest-to-goodness passion for these topics and may I request you to employ a good audio engineer who can make each of you audible (Hint! Hint! “Willy” needs his audio bumped up). What a genuine delight! I am on 17 of 200 episodes as of this review, just a mere 183 more hours to go to catch up 😃.

I began really enjoying the stories. Both hosts are exceptionally charismatic, witty, funny, the self deprecating humor of the gentlemen, About his aristocratic family roots is endearing. However, it’s a decidedly leftist bypass. As I listened more and more it became clear that every story is everyone’s racist, everyone was white supremacist, everyone woke every morning trying to decide how to advance being white over breakfast. Human nature being what is it, every people and race and culture places themselves at the center of reality, and views others as distinctly inferior or at the very least less enlightened or moral. Injustice and conquest are at the heart of every cultures history and story. Slavery, violence, war and evil are not any one peoples sin, it’s shared by all , in every age. Every historical story doesn’t have to begin with white supremacy and unfold from that point. The lesson learned by the colonial era was not that Europeans are evil, but that strength, economic productivity, faith, family, security, self reliance, courage and the ability to defend and protect the culture are vital to sustain liberty and life, as strong cultures will always dominate weaker ones. So I’ll be ending my subscription. Just tell a good story. The characters and ironies, the flavors and personalities, just tell a good a story. Every story does not have to be an indictment of Westerb civilization, which we all know has sinned, but no more or less than any other, except in so far as it’s greatness has given exceptional opportunities to commit those evils. And it has also given great things to the Works. Just tell a good story. Good luck.

Some podcasts become addictive, this is one. Any lover of history needs to give it a listen to hear for yourself. As someone who has enjoyed Dalrymple’s written works and lectures, this podcast with co-host Anita Anand is a pure educational entertainment. Huge Kudos!

This is an incredible show- so great to hear such learned people talking in detail on this history. It is incredibly annoying and distracting that they interrupt each other and finish each others sentences as if they want to upstage each other. Major production flaw.

Beautifully researched and well written episodes in easily digestible chunks.

Their wide circle of interesting friends and acquaintances, and their own obvious friendship, are the heart of the show. They demonstrate a fair-mindedness in their attempts at understanding these often difficult historical topics, and this gives them real credibility with the audience.

- but please work on your "podcast voices" and then use them to speak a little more slowly. Not all your fans and listeners are English, not all speak English as a first language.

Provides great learning re story and context. Please avoid overly schematics like Settlers and Indigeneity.

Fast speaking hosts who alternate between clipping pronunciation of words and talking too fast make it difficult to understand

This show has captured my heart. It is dense with facts but manages to be filled with joy! Not a review writer as a rule…. But if one loves history then this is a must!!! World is filled with mean trolls. Kind smart and charming! This show gives one knowledge and an escape to joy!!!

Absolute love the podcast. Great chemistry and knowledgeable.

Anita and William are the best! Keep it up and soon you’ll have a season discussing YOUR OWN podcast Empire! Long live the Emperor and Empress!!

The show is very popular because of its conversational banter. The listener feels as if s/he is at a cocktail party with extremely interesting and knowledgeable guests. Anita gets criticism for interruptions etc but w/o her it would be too stuffy. The conversation between them is very enjoyable . My problem with the history is that it misses important figures such as Mohammed Mosadegh of Iran. How can you tell the story of the Iranian Revolution without him?

Excellent guests. The two different approaches to inquiry - journalistic and academic historian - mean that each host has uniques insights on any given topic, and their easy chemistry makes it engaging as well as informative. At times I wish they’d get through the banter at the top of the episode more quickly, but that’s only an occasional gripe. Now I just wish I had more time to read all the book recommendations!

Great podcast. William is a great historian and Anita also seems to know her stuff. Can be verbose at times, there are some episodes where they don’t get into the meat of the topic even at 60% of the episode’s runtime. Can be a lot better if they can cut out some of the fluff and gossipy tone

Please ask Anita to not interrupt when someone is talking. Anita’s irrelevant banter is extremely annoying.

William is a real historian, while Anita is a lay person who tends to fall back on uninformed, simplistic tropes. You can hear her desire to move on when he attempts to deliver correction or insight (for instance, in an early episode in which she attempts to cast pre-British India as a somewhat idealized, unified sort of place, which prompts William to get into the many political, cultural and economic divisions it experienced). It does get in the way at times. But still a pretty good show thus far.

Got tired of the simplistic narrative.

I wanted to like this podcast. Unfortunately, it is mostly a sort of woke activism instead of objective story telling. The podcasters have a message that they want to sell, constantly leading their listeners to conclusions. Unsubscribed.

Read: Thomas Paine and the Promise of America

As a late-comer to this series thanks to a lovely friend I just want to say how brilliant and enlightening your series has been for me. Your bright personalities and deep erudition make this series one of my all-time favorites. Many many thanks to you and your team. R Frazier Merida, Yucatan

I tried my best with this podcast and probably listened to a dozen episodes, ultimately though I find Anita Anand intolerable. If they just did the history without the poor humor and the belief that they’re brilliantly funny, I’d probably love it, but no, I can’t listen any more.

I love this podcast. I listen to it on my daily morning 5 mile walks. Anita and William’s chemistry. They have incredible and educational insights into so many historical topics. I love Anita’s voice. So elegant. I also like how William says his name when they sign off. Ha! Keep up the wonderful work.

The information is excellent, then hosts are very knowledgeable. But their inane banter and incessant giggling at their own “humor” quickly makes the podcast unlistenable. Too bad, if they just get over themselves it could be a outstanding.

Lets learn some humility, anita.

The conversational approach works most of the time (sometimes too many interruptions), but often descends into jokey nonsense. WORSE though is William’s constant pattern of starting comments in a normal tone, then dropping his voice to mumble explanations or sidebars. I’m always adjusting the volume up to get what he’s saying, then down again when both hosts speak. Can’t a professional voice coach help this author with delivery?…. It’s an AUDIO presentation! Yet I keep going back to the episodes because the concept, the subject matter, and expertise are so good!

Whoa, so bad on so many levels. It comes across as a “my truth” analysis versus an objective assessment of the facts. I tried listening to two episodes and I don’t think the hosts talked about history for more than 5 minutes. I had to turn it off when they started sharing their personal connections to the topic. Come on, I don’t care about your grandad or family, if anything it only makes me think your analysis is biased. I truly don’t know who this geared towards.

I’m only about halfway through the pod; our hosts’ chemistry and curiosity drive my engagement with the subject matter. A weekly must-listen!

Informative, entertaining, excellent Thank you!

This is one of my favorite podcasts. The hosts are fantastic. Just purchased four of William’s books. Can’t wait to get started.

I love the show but much too often I cringe at too much laughter Calm down; it is not - nor should it be - a comedy show

When you’ve got reviews calling you woke, you’re probably doing something right.

The hosts are delightful, their banter and their guests are always an added bonus. I learn so much from each podcast and tend to listen to each episode more than once in case I missed anything. My library has also expanded as I end up ordering books they suggest or those written by either of the hosts or their guests. A wonderful podcast series; one that I continue recommending to friends and strangers!

An enjoyable podcast. Always happy when there is a new episode. Excellent chemistry… it is fun to be learning history from a couple of good friends, bouncing ideas, sharing knowledge, and enjoying each other. Thank You

The volume level varies wildly between hosts and sometimes within a host. The male host has a tendency to trail off his sentences at a reduced volume and it’s incredibly irritating. Can we please tell everyone to speak at an even volume throughout so I don’t have to turn up my car stereo way up high to hear him mumble his thoughts and then get my ears blasted it when she chimes in?

Anita is intolerable. Any historical detail that would run counter to their narrative they simple yada yada it and dismiss giving a extremely distorted and disengnious telling of history. When discussing James Cook, they mention the noble savage myth but quickly move on bc that would conflict with their Empire/colonization bad, underprivleged people good. There's little nuanced which you would expect when dealing with contested/conflicted, NOT black or white historical events. hosts need to make more of an effort to look outside of their narrow worldview, however unlikely. On par with The Rest of History pods, liberal, obnixious dishonest types with little integrity. Cliffnote(y). lacks any real depth.

Specifically writing this review to say the criticism of Anita is totally unwarranted. They're both delightful hosts. Generous and engaging. Really enjoying this. Thank you!

Empire is my favorite podcast and as a lifelong history buff, each episode is a tantalizing treat. William and Anita are engaging storytellers and leave no atone untold. Please keep going and enthralling the make believe historians like me!

The journalist-historian combo works brilliantly. I’ve enjoyed learning about the human details - what did this event feel like to a slave boy, or how might the queen have felt at this moment - in the broad historical canvas. I also quite like the fallibility of the hosts, their bungling (respectively) of the pronunciation of ‘Mughal’ or ‘Toussaint’. It makes them seem less amazingly intellectual ;-) Bravo also for the unflinching look at the cruelty and dehumanising nature of the British imperial project.

Entertains and informs. I wish Anita would tone down the jolly hockysticks though

Fascinating entry into histories ~ Please do more on what happened between Tilsit and Napoleon's invasion into Russia and that relationship between Alexander and Napoleon. So (unfortunately) mirrors our times - - what happened then, and again now (?) Thank you for the show ~ Questions lead to explorations

Enthralling, Captivating…….. and I love the 2 authors and their guests. Love their good humor. One can tell they really love their work and can express themselves to eloquently. Definitely knowledgable. I do get a bit confused though with how my Podcast does not lay out all the Seasons/Episodes in correct chronicalogical Order . I have to SEE ALL and still it SKIPS….. that, I must say - is frustrating to say the least.

If you are interested in the subject and how India was civilized, this is your podcast.

Listening to the Ottoman Empire series where they talk about everything but the Ottoman Empire. All guests are English and it’s a missed opportunity to bring other academics in who can actually talk about the subject they purport to talking about. I’ve learned more about Byzantine than anything to do with Turks.

I enjoy the show but I would listen more often if the flirty giggling was vastly reduced/eliminated. It’s really distracting.