Along the lines of other history podcasts, such as Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History, here we have the very popular Behind the Bastards.

American journalist and anarchist author Robert Evans is behind this one. He used be the editor of the very popular carcked.com, now this is his main shindig.

It’s a great podcast, hosted by Evans and with many special guests. Episodes explores particular bastards, ranging from billionaires such as Jeff Bezos to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard. If discovering true crime stuff and things is your cup of tea, this one makes for splendid (if disturbing) listening.

Exploring a World of Horrible Losers in Behind the Bastards

The first episode we listened to was the above, part 1 of 2 examining Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ strange world of hyper-ritual, data analysis, and egomania.

Depending on your particular ideology, Bezos is one of two things:

1. The hallmark of what capitalism can achieve and proof one man can change the course of human history for the better
2. An egomaniac notorious for treating his underpaid staff like subhuman shit whilst raking in an unfathomable amount of money in one of the greatest displays of avarice

On point two (which, to your eternal surprise, you’ll find we’re leaning towards) this podcast does explore how poorly Amazon treats its staff. It’s very saddening, disturbing listening.

But the Bezos’ strange backstory displays why he treats his workforce like expendable robots.

He left a well paying job to hang everything on the possible success of Amazon (which he wanted to call Relentless, but was dissuaded by everyone who knew him). In 1995 he convinced his parents to shell out $200,000+ to help keep the company afloat, which we’ve seen his supporters portray as proof of his persuasive entrepreneurship abilities. Rather than, you know, being overprivileged.

Anyway, that episode is a classic example of the Behind the Bastards approach.

High levels of investigative journalism and research, followed by exploring an individual’s background and then laying forth what they’ve been up to.

As with the ever-excellent You’re Wrong About podcast, what we’ve discovered with Behind the Bastards is just how horrible some of these men are. Ego crazy, maniacal, abusive—the path of history is, sadly, littered with the destructive behaviour of blokes thinking wealth and power mean anything worthwhile.

Some episodes are fascinating. One of the best we’ve heard is about the German author Karl May (1842-1912). Wildly popular and successful, one of his admirers was a certain Adolf Hitler.

May’s works were kind of the 19th century equivalent of Harry Potter and the like.

In Mein Kampf (1925), Hitler noted May’s works were overwhelming for him as a young boy. Infatuated with the books it affected his school grades and, once into political power, he had the works sent to his soldiers as mandatory reading.

Karl May was a Christian with strong humanitarian leanings, he preached for pacifism. It’s typically odd, then, that Hitler ignored all that stuff and bent reality to suit his deranged agenda (doesn’t feel at all familiar right now, eh?).

Another episode we liked was the history of American masculinity grifters (applicable to many Western countries now, frankly).

This alarming trend of hypermasculinity is on the rise, fuelled by individuals such as Andrew Tate who are determined to connive vulnerable men out of their money. All under the strange premise that they can “bag a babe” despite a wealth of unattractive personality defects.

Behind the Bastards: Doom and Gloom or Swoon and Fume?

Our verdict? We like this podcast a lot! It’s certainly American in its delivery, which our American readers will probably wonder what we mean by that. It’s not a criticism, more it’s just very energetic and freeform in its delivery. Not very British at all!

It can be quite long-winded at times, we suppose, as episodes are long.

The ad breaks (which the show’s hosts self-referentially mock) also drag on for a very long time. But, hey ho, there’s the skip button and you can blast through those.

Those minor issues aside, here you get very detailed insights into the lives of very unpleasant people. If that’s the type of mood you’re in then these history lessons, alongside journalistic analysis, are fascinating. Helped along with lashings of dark, offbeat humour.

However, cheerful the show most certainly is not. These are dark themes being explored and if you’re in the mood for something upbeat, perhaps steer clear.

But if you want to discover more about what makes the world of horrible bastards tick, this is the podcast for you.