I'm Rory Stewart and I grew up wanting to be a hero and I'm still fascinated by the ideas of heroism.

In my new series, I'm taking in the long sweep of history from Achilles to Zelensky and asking, what is a hero?

Simply doing your job, being a decent human being.

A true hero is someone who just kind of shines by their own light,

and that light is to be recognized by others.

The long history of heroism with me, Rory Stewart.

Listen on BBC Sounds.

BBC Sounds, music, radio, podcasts.

Here, Mark. Now listen, we, radio, podcasts. Here, Mark.

Now, listen, we just did a thing about weirdness.

Yes, on, as the trail.

Yes.

Well, listen, John.

And I was sitting there thinking, I haven't got anything weird.

And then you came out with the weirdest.

And then I contributed with this very weird, because it suddenly occurred to me that plucking eyelashes from your left eye if you want the home team to score and eyelashes from your right eye if you want the away team to score was a little bit weird. Really strange. But you didn't get a chance to contribute any weirdness yourself. And my guess is you've probably had some weird habits in your life.

No, my my weirdest habit is that I draw that shape in the air all the time and I don't, thank you Jamie. I don't know why I do that. Thanks Jamie. I've got no idea why. Thank you. Jamie works on the show. He did and he just brought me and think it doesn't have to be explained every time. There we go.

So yeah, I do it.

And in fact, I was just doing it just then.

And I don't know what it is.

I don't know what it is. And he just brought me and saying, it doesn't have to be explained every time. There we go. So, yeah, I do it.

And, in fact, I was just doing it just then.

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