Hello and Happy New Year, happy 2026, all you wonderful lot.

This is the first week of the year and well, is it same old, same old?

Is it more of the same or have we embarked on something new?

Time will tell but there's political shocks all over the place.

Venezuela, Taiwan, who knows what's coming. Next, this is primarily a history thread. On this channel,

we try to look back at how the ancestors did things, see if their mistakes are our mistakes,

if their solutions could be our solutions, or just to get reminded about the way whatever

goes around comes around. Knowledge is power.

And talking of the powerful, in this week's episode, it's a look at what people who ruled the

world in the 17th century were up to. And think about it in the context of today's globalists

and wonder if it's not just the same trips being pulled in a digital world rather than an analogue world.

But before we get stuck into all the poison of it, it's the politics of what had become the largest empire in the world.

We'll get to that.

Let me tell you how to support the podcast.

Go to patreon.com, find me by name, Neil Oliver, and sign up. It costs a bit of money.

It's about the price of a cup of coffee every month, but it keeps the wheels on the wagon here.

As a member, you get exclusive access to a Q&A question and answer session at a film every week, which is pretty up-closed and personal. You get early access to a Q&A question and answer session at a film every week, which is

pretty up close and personal. You get early access to everything we do. All the history, all the

competitions, all the monologues and rants, all the interviews, no adverts, lots of history.

The links in the notes below, down there, traditional to point down there, isn't it?

Or on my website, nealover.com.

We also get invaluable support from our sponsors, gold, bullion partners.

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