Welcome back to the home of the oxymoron. Evil genius. He asked the newspaper to print his obituary early so he'd enjoy it. That's like hiding at your own funeral. Yeah, a big, great gig. I'm Russell Kane. Join me to weigh in on whether the biggest players in history are more evil or genius. Becoming that rich, I'd say that is some level of genius. It also helps that it's a long time ago, right?

It's like the podcast version of telling your kids the ice cream van plays music

when it's out of ice cream.

Listen to Evil Genius on BBC Sounds.

I'm Matthew Sweet.

Thank you for downloading this podcast from Prom's Extra.

This is the BBC. Thank you for downloading this podcast from Prom's Extra. This is the BBC.

In 1843, Karl Marx wrote that religion was the opium of the people.

He was wrong. In 1843, opium was the opium of the people.

Before the 1916 defence of the Realm Act created what we now term the possession laws,

psychoactive poppy juice thrummed through the veins of Britain.

It was the active ingredient in Mother Bailey's quietening syrup,

the opium-laced calpoll at the Victorian age. It was on Mrs. Beaton's

list of kitchen essentials, along with carbolic soap and mushroom ketchup. In certain parts of England,

you only had to snap a penny on the counter to get a twist of opium at the chemist. No questions

asked. And of course, it had been putting writers into

altered states since the 18th century. Just as you couldn't have had Woodstock without LSD,

you couldn't have had the Lakeland poets without opium. Well, here on my divan are two writers

who have imbibed this literature and can tell us about the dreams it's inspired.

There are Daisy Hay, New Generation Thinker and Romantic Scholar,

and Richard Davenport Hines,

the prolific cultural historian and biographer who wrote The Pursuit of Oblivion,

...