History's Most Insane Rulers: From Emperor Caligula to Muammar Gaddafi

History Unplugged Podcast

History Unplugged

Society & Culture, History

4.2 • 3.7K Ratings

🗓️ 10 May 2018

⏱️ 75 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Few mixtures are as toxic as absolute power and insanity that comes from megalomania or severe mental illness. When nothing stands between a leader's delusional whims and seeing them carried them out, all sorts of bizarre outcomes are possible.

Whether it is Ottoman Sultan Ibrahim I practicing archery on palace servants and sending out his advisers to find the heaviest woman in the empire for his wife or Turkmenistan President Turkmenbashi renaming the days of the week after himself and constructing an 80-foot golden statue that revolves to face the sun, crazed leaders have plagued society for millenia.

In this episode we look at mentally unbalanced rulers who made the lives of their subjects miserable. Some suffered from genetic disorders that led to schizophrenia, such as French King Charles VI, who thought he was made of glass. Others believed themselves to be God’s greatest prophet and wrote religious writings that they guaranteed to the reader would get them into heaven, even if these “prophets” were barely literate.

Whatever their background, these rulers show that dynastic politics made sure that a rightful heir always got on the throne – despite that heir's mental condition – and that power can destroy a mind worse than any mental illness.

Transcript

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0:00.0	What was it like to watch the Twin Towers collapse on 9-11?
0:03.8	How about to be sent to Auschwitz during the Holocaust?
0:06.7	Our past is a collection of stories that bring us to where we are and shape our perspectives.
0:11.2	Hi, I'm Josh Cohen, host of the Eyewitness History Podcast.
0:14.9	On my show, I interviewed guests who watched the events that shaped our world.
0:18.8	From heartbreaking war stories to hilarious memories from the SNL writers room,
0:23.0	no recollection is off limits.
0:25.2	To start listening now for free, go to pathnanpodcast.com
0:28.6	or search Eyewitness History on the podcast player of your choice.
0:55.2	Welcome to the History Unplugged Podcast.
1:02.2	The unscripted show that celebrates unsung heroes, myth busts historical lies,
1:07.2	and rediscoveres the forgotten stories that changed our world.
1:11.2	I'm your host, Scott Rank.
1:15.2	If you're the leader of a nation, does it pay to be completely crazy?
1:25.2	Does it pay to be absolutely unhinged?
1:29.2	If you're not in a democracy, if you work as a dictator or maybe a monarch in time's past,
1:34.2	the answer appears to be yes.
1:37.2	And I should note that you can't just do it at all.
1:41.2	If you're going to be unhinged, you have to go absolutely all out.
1:46.2	An eccentric autocrat can stay in power for decades in spite of,
1:51.2	or actually because of, is ostensibly insane power.
1:56.2	And I'm not just throwing this out here as a hypothetical.
	...

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