Title: Empire The Story of a World Conquering Podcast

In the final day, of the mega literature festivalthe JLF 2023, William Dalrymple, one of the best-selling book authors and Anita Anand in conversation with Bee Rowlatt discussed the idea behind the Empire: The Story of a World Conquering podcast including the rise of The East India Company, exploring how a small corporation with only a handful of employees came to rule India. The session began with the birth of the Company in Tudor England and culminates with Robert Clive and the Battle of Plassey. The Empire podcast started in August, went straight to no.1 and now has more than 1 million downloads every month. Characterised by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand’s easy camaraderie and contrasting personas, the podcast looks at how empires rise, why they fall and how they have shaped the world around us today. In discussion with Bee Rowlatt, Dalrymple and Anand discuss why people everywhere are suddenly so interested in the business of the Empire.

During the session, they further talked about the editorial process and the research behind it. Anand noted that the former part of the podcast is William’s and the latter is Anand’s.

On the occasion, William Dalrymple said, “About a third of a million!” He said about the number of listeners for each episode of his Empire podcast, which recently concluded season one. The 18-episode series was voted No. 1 on the Apple 2023.