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The Secret World of Roald Dahl

The Irregulars

The Secret World of Roald Dahl

iHeartPodcasts

History, Documentary, Society & Culture

4.61.7K Ratings

🗓️ 19 January 2026

⏱️ 37 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Before Roald Dahl becomes the world's most popular children's author, he's a 26-year-old British spy in wartime Washington, seducing congresswomen, mixing martinis for FDR, and gathering secrets for Churchill.

 

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Transcript

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0:00.0

This is an IHeart podcast.

0:02.6

Guaranteed Human.

0:06.4

When I mentioned the name Rolled Doll to you, what do you think of?

0:09.4

Definitely, you need the BFG.

0:11.1

That was a classic.

0:12.6

Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and I think there was a series of the great glass elevator.

0:17.1

Love those.

0:17.8

When you picture doll in your mind, what does he look like?

0:22.3

Well, he's definitely older gentleman, I would say 70-ish, kind of big guy, not fat, certainly not that, he doesn't

0:28.8

like fat people, but like, you know, a tall man, big cardigan sweater, a beard, sitting in a big

0:34.9

kind of comfy reading chair, kind of like masterpiece theater style.

0:39.4

When I mentioned the name Roald Dahl, what do you think of?

0:42.5

So I think of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Matilda, James and the Giant Peach, and that he was, I think, an anti-Semite.

0:55.3

Dad, what do you know about Roald Dahl?

0:57.8

Almost nothing.

0:59.4

I think I know how to stall his name, but if you ask me what he did,

1:03.0

I don't think I could tell you anything about it.

1:06.5

Did you know that Dahl was a spy for British intelligence?

1:09.2

No way. I did not know that. That's wild.

1:11.8

He worked for M.I.S.

1:13.1

Very surprising. I'm very curious. Was this before he wrote his stories?

1:17.2

It must have been.

...

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