Legacy

What did it take for human beings to start controlling what they ate — and why did "health" so quickly become a coverstory for something else? How did a Venetian nobleman's wine-heavy calorie restriction become a blueprint for themodern diet industry? And, when tobacco companies, Hollywood, and the beauty industry all decided women's bodyanxiety was a market opportunity — who, exactly, was the diet really for?Peter and Afua trace the history of the human body as a commercial battleground: from the first diet books in 1558,through the birth of the calorie and the explosion of Weight Watchers, to the heroin chic 90s and the disordered eatingit left behind.0:00 The Venetian nobleman who invented calorie restriction — and still drank 14oz of wine a day7:30 George Cheyne: 32 stone, no meat, no alcohol, and a bestselling book in 174014:00 Empire, refrigeration, and why cheap food created the first diet industry21:30 The discovery of the calorie — the invention Afua still resents25:30 Freud's nephew, cigarettes, and the moment thinness became a product to sell31:00 Weight Watchers, zero-fat yoghurt, and the 80s: cottage cheese as cultural trauma36:30 The 90s: heroin chic, cellulite alerts, and the era that hospitalised a generation40:00 Keto, Atkins, and the diet that keeps reinventing itselfJoin Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A;'s, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

What did Vogue actually recommend women eat in 1977 — and why did it make one food writer cry in thebathroom? How did the Greeks turn a six-pack into a moral argument? And, has the human obsession withcontrolling what we eat ever really been about health at all?Peter and Afua trace the long, strange history of dieting — from ancient Greek athletics and Romanfeast-and-purge excess, to medieval starvation saints who turned self-denial into a radical act of female agency.0:00 Vogue’s 1977 Wine and Egg Diet — and what happened when someone actually tried it6:30 The diet industry’s dirty secret: it was never about nutrition9:00 Peter on fasting, cranky emails, and what not eating teaches you about your relationship with food14:30 Ancient Greece: when abs were a moral statement, not just an aesthetic one19:30 The manosphere’s Spartan fantasy — and what the Greeks would actually make of it23:00 Rome: the inventors of binge and purge culture24:30 When Christianity enters the chat — and fasting becomes holy26:00 Catherine of Siena: the medieval starvation saint who used hunger as protest30:00 Anorexia mirabilis — holy anorexia, and why Peter is wary of projecting modern diagnoses onto the past32:00 Why medieval peasants weren’t dieting — they were just trying to stay aliveJoin Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A’s, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

What happens when you raise a child telling him he's the Beast — and he decides to prove you right? Could a manwho genuinely repelled everyone around him have quietly shaped the culture we live in today? And, is the world ofsex, drugs, and rock and roll actually the legacy of a repressed Victorian occultist with a god complex?Peter and Afua descend into the dark, theatrical, and genuinely troubling life of Aleister Crowley: English occultist,self-declared Great Beast 666, and the man who may have done more than anyone to wire transgression, desire, andspiritual hunger into the DNA of modern culture.0:00 The wickedest man in the world — and why he owned it6:00 The Exclusive Brethren: the suffocating sect that made Crowley inevitable10:00 Cambridge, cigars, and erotic poetry: the beast is unleashed15:00 Golden Dawn and the occult underground of Victorian London20:00 Mountaineering, meditation, and the spiritual pick-and-mix24:00 Cairo, 666, and the Book of the Law26:00 Rose Kelly: the woman without whom none of it happens33:00 The Abbey of Thelema and a scandal that shocks even the tabloids38:00 How Crowley became the Beatles' and Led Zeppelin's spirit animal42:00 Jack Parsons: the rocket scientist who performed Crowley rituals by night44:00 Was Crowley a feminist? (Afua has thoughts)48:00 The stain that runs through modern culture straight back to himJoin Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmWatch Legacy on YouTube and Spotify video.Stay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Who invented the spiritual vocabulary of the modern world — karma, reincarnation, yoga studios, the idea that you can be "spiritual but not religious"? What if the hidden masters living in remote Tibetan mountains who inspired her weren't real — but the New Age movement they sparked absolutely was? And can you change the course of Western spirituality forever while being accused of fraud, plagiarism, and dropping fake letters through the ceiling?Peter and Afua explore the extraordinary life of Helena Blavatsky: Russian aristocrat, globe-trotting mystic, chain-smoking occultist and the most polarising spiritual figure of the 19th century — whose Theosophical Society gave us yoga mats, abstraction in art, and the modern wellness industry, all while she battled accusations of being one of history's greatest frauds.0:00 Introduction: The Woman Who Invented New Age Spirituality4:15 Russian Aristocrat: Growing Up Between Two Worlds9:40 The Lost Years: Tibet, Egypt, and the Mysterious Mahatmas16:20 Arriving in New York: Spiritualism, Grief, and the Telegraph23:10 Meeting Henry Steel Olcott: The Partnership That Changed Everything28:35 Isis Unveiled: 1,200 Pages That Sold Out in 10 Days35:50 Moving to India: Strategic Genius or Cultural Appropriation?41:20 The Mahatma Letters: Messages from the Ceiling47:05 The Coulomb Scandal and the Hodgson Report53:30 Vindication? The 1986 Harrison Report58:10 The Secret Doctrine and Her Uncomfortable Nazi Legacy1:03:45 Blavatsky's New Age Legacy: From Mondrian to Matcha Lattes1:09:20 Final Verdict: Genius, Fraud, or Both?Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&As, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Nostradamus has predicted every major disaster in history — or so the internet would have you believe. Peter and Afua get behind the myth to meet the real man: a plague-era apothecary, rejected by the medical establishment, whose greatest invention wasn't prophecy — it was selling certainty to an anxious world.Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Malcolm McLean was a frustrated truck driver who thought there had to be a better way. The metal box he invented now carries 90% of the world's traded goods — and quietly runs the global economy.Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

From colliers carrying coal out of Newcastle to Marshall Plan grain crossing the Atlantic, Peter and Afua trace how the movement of goods by sea built the modern world. This is the story of bulk cargo — and why the ships that carried it changed everything.Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

The cargo ship didn't just move goods — it moved civilisations. Peter and Afua trace 2,000 years of maritime trade, from Roman grain ships and spice routes to the Hanseatic League, the sugar plantations of Madeira, and the brutal economics of the triangular trade.Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com

Afua and Peter explore the "undetectable" world of deep plane facelifts, examining why celebrities are finally trading surgical secrecy for viral transparency. They dissect the astronomical costs of modern "tweakments" and the rising pressure to match AI-generated perfection as surgery recipients get younger than ever before.Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com