{"podcast":{"title":"Queens, Kings, and Dastardly Things","slug":"queens-kings-and-dastardly-things-6677838","podcast_index_feed_id":6677838,"rss_url":"https://feeds.acast.com/public/shows/6846a16db5ac093b0ca993ec","website_url":"https://dailymail.lnk.to/qkdt","image_url":"https://assets.pippa.io/shows/6846a16db5ac093b0ca993ec/1759237102013-c5ec1829-6398-47a5-a0e7-6288742d5348.jpeg","author":"Daily Mail","episode_count":107,"summary":"Expert history with a wicked twist: Queens, Kings and Dastardly Things is the podcast that goes behind palace doors and beyond the balcony smiles, to uncover the stories that the history books have politely skipped. Queens, Kings & Dastardly Things reveals the schemers, lovers, plotters and even the pets who’ve made the British monarchy the world’s longest-running reality show. Hosts, Royal biographers Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams trace how power, passion and paranoia have shaped every crown. There are queens who ruled better than their husbands, and princes who partied harder than their people. We meet saints, sinners and those hovering somewhere in between – from the man formerly known as Prince Andrew to the less-vilified Richard III. Sometimes we get reflective: how monarchy survives scandal, how image-making began long before Instagram, and why royal women have always been the best crisis managers in the room. Other times we’re just here for the gossip: who wore what, who slept where, and who accidentally started a war over breakfast. Think of it as history with its crown slightly askew. If you like your royal stories with equal parts grandeur and chaos, step in…","last_synced_at":"2026-07-12T08:18:17.582091+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/queens-kings-and-dastardly-things-6677838"},"episode":{"title":"The Last King of America - Part 2","slug":"the-last-king-of-america-part-2","published_at":"2026-01-19T00:00:00+00:00","page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/queens-kings-and-dastardly-things-6677838/the-last-king-of-america-part-2","show_page_url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/queens-kings-and-dastardly-things-6677838","url":"https://shows.acast.com/queens-kings-and-dastardly-things/episodes/the-last-king-of-america-part-2","audio_url":"https://sphinx.acast.com/p/open/s/6846a16db5ac093b0ca993ec/e/696a27cd98f7a1123eb6cf9e/media.mp3","summary":"Revolution, the American divorce, and the true history of the sandwich! Robert and Kate return to the American War of Independence as the story moves beyond declarations and slogans, and into the long, uncertain struggle of what independence actually meant. Joined by a special guest, historian, broadcaster, and Gilded Age expert Julie Montagu, Countess of Sandwich, they explore the years after 1776, when the war dragged on, loyalties fractured, and victory was anything but assured. From Yorktown and the uneasy end of the war, to the daunting task of inventing a new nation from scratch, the episode examines how America decided not to become what it had just escaped. Should George Washington be a king? What should a president look like? And how does a former colony meet its former monarch again — as an equal? The story stretches forward through fragile reconciliation, the burning of Washington in the War of 1812, and the long shadow of the Civil War, before arriving at the Gilded Age — a moment when old aristocracy and new American wealth collide, and the modern “special relationship” begins to take shape. A tale of ambition, miscalculation, reinvention, and the strange intimacy of a political divorce that never quite became a clean break. Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams Series Producer: Ben Devlin Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini  Executive Producer: Bella Soames Hosts: Robert Hardman and Professor Kate Williams Series Producer: Ben Devlin Production Manager: Vittoria Cecchini  Content Editor: Joseph Palmer Executive Producer: Bella Soames A Daily Mail production. Seriously Popular. Sign up to Palace Confidential, the FREE royals newsletter from the Mail's top experts. Delivered straight to your inbox every Thursday, it's the s…","meta_description":"Revolution, the American divorce, and the true history of the sandwich! Robert and Kate return to the American War of Independence as the story moves beyo…","key_points":[],"chapters":[],"topics":[],"duration_seconds":1716,"processing_state":"not_requested","actions":[{"name":"request_transcript","method":"POST","url":"https://stenobird.com/v1/public/podcasts/queens-kings-and-dastardly-things-6677838/episodes/the-last-king-of-america-part-2/transcription-requests","description":"Idempotently request low-priority transcript generation for this episode."},{"name":"read_markdown","method":"GET","url":"https://stenobird.com/podcast/queens-kings-and-dastardly-things-6677838/the-last-king-of-america-part-2.md","description":"Read the agent-friendly Markdown representation of this episode resource."}]}}