Mata Hari

Evil Genius with Russell Kane

BBC

Comedy, History

4.2 • 2.7K Ratings

🗓️ 7 January 2026

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Mata Hari’s life was full of reinventions, deception and drama. But was she a smart woman, making the best of a sticky situation? Or was she a traitorous enchantress who manipulated her way to the top? Daliso Chaponda, Maisie Adam and Jack Skipper are forced to vote: evil or genius.

Additional material: Eve Delaney and Christina Riggs Researcher: Christina Riggs Sound Editor: Kate Mac Production Coordinator: Liz Tuohy Executive Producer: Paul Smith

The producer was Sasha Bobak. Evil Genius with Russell Kane is a BBC Studios Audio Production for BBC Sounds.

Transcript

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0:00.0	BBC Sounds, Music, Radio, Podcasts.
0:07.6	Police, drop your weapon!
0:09.9	In 2025, we were here for the investigators, gangster.
0:14.1	They were stealing money from wealthy institutions.
0:17.5	Debt was fair game.
0:18.9	Murder, they wrote.
0:19.9	He was a preacher, a good guy.
0:21.4	But now he's dead.
0:23.1	It has all the marks of a sort of like a proper horror film.
0:26.3	And fame under fire.
0:27.8	He is no longer afforded the right of a regular citizen.
0:31.4	He is guilty until proven innocent.
0:32.9	Get the best of 2025 with podcasts on BBC Sounds.
0:38.7	Warning. This episode contains strong language.
0:45.4	Genius. Genius.
0:48.8	Hello and welcome to evil genius. I'm a walking stick in a bush. Oh sorry. I asked
0:53.9	chat GPT to rewrite an old
0:55.9	intro and it rewrote my name. And this is Evil Genius, the podcast where we tear people off
1:02.9	their pedestals and peer into their skeleton-filled closets where we drag people out the depths of
1:07.9	cancellation and see if they can reputationaly turn over a new leaf.
1:12.9	Today we're diving headfirst into a tale of espionage, eroticism and expert reinvention.
1:18.6	Was she a misunderstood exotic dancer caught in the gears of war or a double crossing double
	...

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