Afua Hirsch and Peter Frankopan tell the wild stories of some of the most extraordinary men and women ever to have lived – and ask whether they have the rep they deserve. Should Nina Simone’s role in the civil rights movement be more celebrated than it is? When you find out what Picasso got up to in his studio, can you still admire his art? Was Napoleon a hero or a tyrant - or both? (And, while we’re at it, was he even short?) Legacy is the show that looks at big lives from the persp...
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Episode List

Gary Lineker | The Polictics Of The World Cup | 1

Jul 7th, 2026 2:00 AM

hould football and politics ever really be kept apart? What happens when the host nation is at war with one of the teams competing in its own tournament? And when FIFA hands its brand-new peace prize to Donald Trump, has the beautiful game lost the plot completely? Gary Lineker sits down with Legacy for the first of three conversations on the World Cup, drawing on forty years inside the game to explain why politics has never once stayed off the pitch.Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fm[0:00] Gary Lineker and forty years at the heart of the World Cup[5:35] A history of politics gatecrashing every World Cup since Mussolini[8:23] Inside the Kremlin: Gary on meeting - and refusing to meet - Putin[14:23] Afua's own US visa troubles, and whether Gary's could be next[15:46] The White House note nobody expected[20:45] Would Gary refuse Trump the way he refused Putin?[23:33] Trump in a football kit: Gary picks his positionStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.comJoin Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

World Cup | The World of Dictators | 4

Jul 2nd, 2026 2:00 AM

What happens when a World Cup final is played a few hundred metres from a torture centre? How does a newly independent nation humiliate the champions of Europe — and still get knocked out by a fix in plain sight? And when a boy from the slums of Buenos Aires beat England with his fist, was it the cruellest cheat in football — or perfect revenge? Afua and Peter follow the World Cup through its darkest decade — Argentina's generals roaring at finals while prisoners vanish next door, Algeria's reckoning with Europe, and a kid called Maradona turning a single match into a settling of old scores.Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fm[0:00] A torture centre, a stadium, and the cheers that drowned out the screams[4:20] The general who seized power two years before kick-off[6:12] The final played within earshot of the 'death flights'[13:50] An African side wins a World Cup match for the very first time[15:40] Argentina need six goals against Peru — and somehow get them[17:38] The Dutch players who refused to shake a dictator's hand[20:35] Algeria stun West Germany, then watch Europe close ranks[29:29] The Hand of God, and a goal that settled an old scoreStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.comJoin Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

World Cup | The World Cup and the New World Order | 3

Jun 30th, 2026 2:00 AM

What turns a football team into a country's most powerful weapon? How does a game invented to entertain end up laundering the reputations of dictators? And when seventy years of European control collapsed in a single afternoon's vote — who took the game, and what did they want with it? From the sunlit genius of Brazil in 1970 to a backroom ballot in Frankfurt, Peter and Afua track the moment football slips out of European hands — and everyone, from newly free nations to military juntas, lunges to grab it.Join Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fm[0:00] The greatest team ever to play — and the regime that basked in them[3:56] Apartheid South Africa digs in while the rest of the world breaks free[8:34] The Brazilian swimmer who saw what Europe refused to[13:30] Mexico 1970: sunshine, colour TV, and football reborn as carnival[15:30] England's captain, accused of nicking a bracelet in Bogotá[18:38] Pelé becomes the most famous man alive — for a government that tortures[22:17] Zaire arrive, the leopard-print rebellion begins[30:52] One vote in Frankfurt ends seventy years of European ruleStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.comJoin Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

World Cup | Post Colonial World | 2

Jun 25th, 2026 2:00 AM

What happens when the nations that invented football start losing their grip on it? How does a team representing a country that doesn't officially exist end up touring the world and unnerving an empire? And why did thirty-one African nations refuse to play at all?Afua and Peter follow football into the age of decolonisation — Algeria's phantom side, Nkrumah's Black Stars, a seventeen-year-old in tears in Stockholm — as the colonised stop asking permission and take the game for themselves.[0:00] 1950: the empires are gone, but nobody's told the World Cup[6:55] Bandung — half the planet decides to stop being spectators[9:27] Algeria's ghost team: the national side that didn't officially exist[12:46] Nkrumah, the Black Star, and building a nation out of nothing[17:48] South Korea lose 9–0 — and it still counts as a triumph[19:51] A teenager weeps on his teammates' shoulders and reorders the game[26:37] Thirty-one nations walk out of the World Cup at once[29:33] Eusébio: the man winning for the empire that denied his ownJoin Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.comJoin Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

World Cup | Origins In Empire | 1

Jun 23rd, 2026 2:00 AM

How did a game scribbled into rules by Victorian schoolboys end up watched by four billion people? Why do the countries that were colonised take such fierce joy in beating the ones that colonised them? And by the time Mussolini was watching from the stands, was the World Cup ever really just about football?Peter and Afua follow football out along the empire's trade routes — from a London rulebook in 1863 to the first World Cups, where conquest, nationhood and fascism were already stitched into the world's game.[0:00] Twenty-two players, a ball, ninety minutes — and something far older underneath[7:52] Afua on cheering full Ghana against the country that once ruled it[17:19] The game nobody owns: how 1863 and a single rulebook started everything[20:19] Two footballs, a rulebook, and the Scotsman's son who infected Brazil[22:06] The British invent the game — so why do the French end up running it?[25:22] One final, two nations, and a fight over whose ball to even use[27:42] Mussolini works out exactly what football is for[37:28] 1938: empires line up on the pitch, and almost none bring their coloniesJoin Legacy Plus for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas:Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.comJoin Legacy+ for bonus episodes, early access, Q&A's, fewer adverts and more.legacy.supportingcast.fmStay connected with Legacy:Instagram: @originallegacypodcastTikTok: @legacy_productionsExplore more from Peter and Afua — essays, sources, and ideas: Substack: peterfrankopan.substack.com | afuahirsch.substack.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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