A Twist of History

Ballen Studios

The course of history never follows a straight line. And very often, we can pinpoint a remarkable, thrilling twist, which changes everything that follows. These are the epic stories that have shaped the world we now live in.From Ballen Studios, join us - for the most heart pounding podcast in history.

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20 episodes
Updated Sep 24, 2025

Episodes20

Newest first

Sep 24, 2025 · 43 min
The Affair of the Diamond Necklace
Marie Antoinette’s world renowned extravagance made her an icon and then an example as the Queen of France, but her beheading, and the French Revolution, may never have come to pass if not for a lavish piece of jewelry at the center of a salacious con.
Sep 17, 2025 · 39 min
The Man Who Saved the World
While The United States and The Soviet Union flirted with existential disaster on a global stage during the Cuban Missile Crisis, an unknown conflict was unfolding under the ocean on a Russian submarine equipped to trigger an all-out nuclear war.
Sep 10, 2025 · 40 min
Buying the Presidency
Money and politics have always been intertwined in America, but before the days of Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg, there was Rockerfeller, Carnegie and Morgan, titans of industry whose political power may have become absolute if they hadn’t underestimated an upstart politician by the name of Theodore “Teddy” Roosevelt.
Sep 3, 2025 · 42 min
The Tornado that Saved DC
During the War of 1812, Washington DC was in the process of being destroyed by the British Army, until they came up against an even more powerful force: Mother Nature.
Aug 27, 2025 · 45 min
The Khan Legacy
Before the Mongol Empire dominated the Asian Continent, there was no empire to speak of, only nomadic tribes in perpetual battle. That is, until a precocious teenager with a knack for strategy forged a dynasty that reshaped the entire world in his own image.
Aug 20, 2025 · 42 min
The Story of Bananas is Bananas
Peeling a banana uncovers much more than a tasty fruit, it reveals a fraught history riddled with violent coups, espionage, political assassinations and international wars.
Aug 13, 2025 · 37 min
The Star Who Invented the Future
A goal of helping to fight against the Nazis during World War II leads a Hollywood star, known as the "most beautiful woman in the world," to invent the technology which changes the world.
Aug 6, 2025 · 53 min
The Battle of Actium
The assassination of Julius Caesar left an enormous power vacuum in Rome, thrusting his successors into an epic, intercontinental battle for control of the empire that reshaped the future of the modern world.
Jul 30, 2025 · 35 min
Shotgun Science
How did modern medicine become modern? It was thanks, in part, to a renegade doctor who pushed the boundaries of experimentation - and ethics. And it all began with a bang, from the barrel of a shotgun.
Jul 23, 2025 · 40 min
A Sweet Taste of America
World War I was known as the War to End All Wars due to its scale and loss of life. At the height of the fighting, when American soldiers on the front lines longed for home, an unlikely beacon of hope arrived.
Jul 16, 2025 · 34 min
The Gunpowder Plot
In 1605, a plot to kill the King of England was underway, and the man who attempted it, along with his name, would go down in infamy.
Jul 9, 2025 · 32 min
The Titanic Question
What if a seemingly unremarkable choice could have prevented one of the most infamous disasters of all time?
Jul 2, 2025 · 39 min
The Hitler Intervention
Adolf Hitler's rise to power and the devastation that followed in his wake was hardly inevitable. In fact, if not for a single split-second decision by a woman you've probably never heard of, we might not know the name Hitler at all.
Jun 25, 2025 · 40 min
Fast Cars and Bootleggers
Mobsters, shootouts, and petal-to-the-metal police chases. This is prohibition-era America – a time when a group of adrenaline-fueled outlaws and their need for speed paved the way for a modern American pastime.
Jun 18, 2025 · 38 min
Inside The Madhouse
During the Gilded Age in New York City, the horrors of mental health care are exposed in explosive fashion, forever changing the way stories are uncovered.
Jun 11, 2025 · 41 min
How the Metric System Was Stolen
Why do Americans measure things in inches and pounds while the rest of the world uses centimeters and kilograms? The answer becomes clear when George Washington and Thomas Jefferson’s vision for the future clashes with a band of marauding pirates.
Jun 4, 2025 · 43 min
The Shakespeare Riot
New York City in the mid 1800s was run by violent gangs, corrupt politicians, and grifting opportunists who operated with no fear of punishment. It was like a powder keg ready to blow, and all it took to light the fuse, and change the future of law enforcement, was a performance of Shakespeare.
May 28, 2025 · 34 min
The Birth of Hollywood
If not for inventor Thomas Edison's iron grip over the nascent film industry, and a few defiant trailblazers, movies as we know them might have never come to be.
May 21, 2025 · 39 min
Robert E Lee's Lost Orders
The Battle of Antietam during the American Civil War remains the bloodiest day in American history. That day, and the future of the United States, could have turned out very differently, if not for a single note and three cigars.
May 21, 2025 · 31 min
How Murder Went Viral
In 1910, a brutal murder in London sparks a transatlantic manhunt and the rise of a cultural obsession.

A Twist of History

The Affair of the Diamond Necklace

The Man Who Saved the World

Buying the Presidency

The Tornado that Saved DC

The Khan Legacy

The Story of Bananas is Bananas

The Star Who Invented the Future

The Battle of Actium

Shotgun Science

A Sweet Taste of America

The Gunpowder Plot

The Titanic Question

The Hitler Intervention

Fast Cars and Bootleggers

Inside The Madhouse

How the Metric System Was Stolen

The Shakespeare Riot

The Birth of Hollywood

Robert E Lee's Lost Orders

How Murder Went Viral