Today Tony is diving beneath the surface of one of history’s most enduring legends: Atlantis. Joining him are maritime archaeologist and bestselling author, David Gibbons, and the writer Damian Le Bas. A life-long fascination with the Atlantis myth has shaped both their work.

Together they explore the shifting meanings of Atlantis, from Plato’s parable to pop culture icon. They look at the political allegory of Plato’s story as a critique of imperialism, how Atlantis has been reinterpreted across history, and the metaphorical idea of Atlantis as a horizon of unknowing: both a physical and philosophical “beyond".

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson | Instagram @sirtonyrobinson

Producer: Melissa FitzGerald | X @melissafitzg

With

David Gibbins | www.davidgibbins.com/biography

Maritime archaeologist and bestselling author, David’s twelve novels have sold over three million copies and are published in 30 languages. David’s been a passionate diver since boyhood and has led many expeditions to investigate historic shipwrecks and other underwater sites around the world, including the Mediterranean, Britain and Canada.

His recent non-fiction book, ‘A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks’, represents a lifelong fascination with underwater archaeology and the place of ships and shipwrecks in world history.

Damian Le Bas | IG @damianlebas

Writer, filmmaker and visual artist. Damian’s first book ‘The Stopping Places’ won the Somerset Maugham Award, a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award, and was shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year.

In his second book ‘The Drowned Places’, Damian explores the meaning we find in sunken ruins around the world in this spellbinding love letter to diving.

Follow us:

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If you enjoy this podcast please do share it and leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

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Tony has been lucky enough to dive all over the world, he’s even dived on the Titanic with the film director James Cameron. So today on Cunningcast, Tony’s exploring underwater history with David Gibbins, maritime archaeologist and author of A History of the World in 12 Shipwrecks, and Damian Le Bas writer, filmmaker and author of The Drowned Places.

Together they explore how shipwrecks are time capsules that reveal human stories and global connections, from the Bronze Age Dover Boat to the lavish Uluburun wreck off Turkey and the sunken pirate city of Port Royal, Jamaica. Symbols of past human endeavour, shipwrecks and sunken ruins become homes to underwater life, and are constantly changing, as Damian says, they represent an ‘accidental collaboration between humans and nature’.

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson | Instagram @sirtonyrobinson

Producer: Melissa FitzGerald | X @melissafitzg

With

David Gibbins | www.davidgibbins.com/biography

Maritime archaeologist and bestselling author, David’s twelve novels so far have sold over three million copies and are published in 30 languages. A Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and a Winston Churchill Memorial Trust Fellow. David’s been a passionate diver since boyhood, and has led many expeditions to investigate historic shipwrecks and other underwater sites around the world, including the Mediterranean, Britain and Canada.

His recent non-fiction book, ‘A History of the World in Twelve Shipwrecks’, represents a lifelong fascination with underwater archaeology and the place of ships and shipwrecks in world history.

Damian Le Bas | IG @damianlebas

Writer, filmmaker and visual artist. Damian’s first book ‘The Stopping Places’ won the Somerset Maugham Award, a Royal Society of Literature Jerwood Award, and was shortlisted for the Stanford Dolman Travel Book of the Year.

In his second book ‘The Drowned Places’ Damian explores the meaning we find in sunken ruins around the world in this spellbinding love letter to diving.

Follow us:

Instagram @cunningcastpod | X @cunningcastpod | YouTube @cunningcast

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If you enjoy this podcast please do share it and leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

🎙️ Tony Robinson’s Cunningcast is back, with new episodes dropping Thursdays…

Actor, presenter and author, Sir Tony Robinson is back with another series of his hit ‘history with a twist’ podcast. Throughout the series, the ‘eternally curious’ Sir Tony combines his unique blend of wit, brains, and humour, with his passion for popular history to explore a new selection of his cunningly curated histories with a line-up of expert guests.

➕ Follow Cunningcast on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts now to hear Tony and his guests explore fantastic new topics, including:

🪨 New discoveries at STONEHENGE

🇷🇺 Who is Vladimir PUTIN and what makes him tick?

🪏Uncovering the mysteries of SUTTON HOO

⚓️ In search of SHIPWRECKS and SUNKEN CITIES

✍️ Who wrote the BIBLE?

👑 Tony’s book tie-in special on ALFRED THE GREAT

No subject is off limits... because everything has a history.

🎙️ Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson | IG @sirtonyrobinson

📻 Produced by Melissa FitzGerald I X @melissafitzg

X: @cunningcastpod

Instagram: @cunningcastpod

Youtube @Cunningcast

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we bring you a bonus episode on Vladimir Putin, digging deeper into who he really is and what makes him tick.

Tony and his expert guests Mark Galeotti and Anna Arutunyan unpick the man from the myth. They discuss how Putin is a pragmatic, cautious leader, shaped more by circumstance than by ideology, as Anna says, “he is very much driven by the needs of the moment, and this is why you'll see very different iterations of Putin throughout his rule. He was not always this quasi-imperialist that we see today.”

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson | Instagram @sirtonyrobinson

Producer: Melissa FitzGerald | X @melissafitzg

With

Mark Galiotti | X @MarkGaleotti

Honorary professor at UCL and director of the consultancy Mayak Intelligence, Mark has been studying Russia since 1988 and was banned indefinitely from it in 2022.

‘Downfall: Putin, Prigozhin, and the fight for the future of Russia’ (Ebury/Penguin, June 2024)

'We Need to Talk About Putin: How the West gets him wrong' (Penguin, 2019)

Anna Arutunyan | X @scrawnya

Russian-American writer who spent two decades as a journalist in Moscow, where she wrote for The Moscow News and other publications around the world. She served as senior Russia analyst for the International Crisis Group before leaving Russia in 2022 and is the author of five books about the country, its politics, society and its wars. She is currently associate director of Mayak Intelligence and lives in the UK.

‘Rebel Russia: Dissent and Protest from the Tsars to Navalny' (Polity Books, May 2025)

‘The Putin Mystique: Inside Russia’s Power Cult’ (Interlink Books, 2014)

Follow us:

Instagram @cunningcastpod | X @cunningcastpod | YouTube @cunningcast

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If you enjoy this podcast please do share it and leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Vladimir Putin casts a shadow over our lives, but it wasn’t always that way, there was a time when the West was in love with Putin, so what’s happened? Today Tony and his guests Mark Galeotti and Anna Arutunyan unpick the man from the myth.

They discuss how Putin was shaped by a tough childhood in Leningrad, his KGB years and formative time in East Germany, how he rose through the political ranks in the 1990s as a ‘everyone’s favourite bag-man’, until he was hand-picked to be Yeltsin’s successor.

At first President Putin restored order and wealth to a chaotic Russia, but he also built a system of fear and cronyism around him, similar to a Medieval court. They argue that once he could have been remembered as a stabiliser, instead he is now viewed as a paranoid strongman, whose need for control has dragged Russia into repression and conflict.

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson | Instagram @sirtonyrobinson

Producer: Melissa FitzGerald | X @melissafitzg

With

Mark Galiotti | X @MarkGaleotti

Honorary professor at UCL and director of the consultancy Mayak Intelligence, Mark has been studying Russia since 1988 and was banned indefinitely from it in 2022.

‘Downfall: Putin, Prigozhin, and the fight for the future of Russia’ (Ebury/Penguin, June 2024)

'We Need to Talk About Putin: How the West gets him wrong' (Penguin, 2019)

Anna Arutunyan | X @scrawnya

Russian-American writer who spent two decades as a journalist in Moscow, where she wrote for The Moscow News and other publications around the world. She served as senior Russia analyst for the International Crisis Group before leaving Russia in 2022 and is the author of five books about the country, its politics, society and its wars. She is currently associate director of Mayak Intelligence and lives in the UK.

‘Rebel Russia: Dissent and Protest from the Tsars to Navalny' (Polity Books, May 2025)

‘The Putin Mystique: Inside Russia’s Power Cult’ (Interlink Books, 2014)

Follow us:

Instagram @cunningcastpod | X @cunningcastpod | YouTube @cunningcast

-------

If you enjoy this podcast please do share it and leave us a rating or review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Today we bring you a bonus episode on Stonehenge, digging deeper into the mysteries of the world’s best-known ancient stone circle.

Tony speaks to leading archeologist Mike Parker Pearson and top geologist Jane Evans about Stonehenge’s altar stone, once thought to come from Wales, which is now believed, through zircon analysis, to have originated in northeast Scotland, linking it to wider Neolithic traditions such as Orkney’s architecture and pottery. They also discuss how dating methods have transformed our understanding of Stonehenge and how it uniquely brings together stones from extraordinary distances, perhaps as an attempt to unify Britain’s peoples.

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson | Instagram @sirtonyrobinson

With

Mike Parker Pearson

Professor of British Later Prehistory, University College London | @ucl

Jane Evans

Honorary Professor in archaeology at the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester and Honorary Research Associate at the British Geological Survey | @britgeosurvey

Producer: Melissa FitzGerald | X @melissafitzg

Follow us:

Instagram @cunningcastpod | X @cunningcastpod | YouTube @cunningcast

If you enjoyed this episode please do share it and leave us a review.

Thank you, Love Tony x

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Cunningcast is back and Tony is kicking off his new series with one of his favourite subjects, Stonehenge, where new discoveries show that once again this ancient site is throwing up new evidence. Tony has invited his old friend, leading archaeologist Mike Parker Pearson, to discuss the Altar Stone's Scottish origins and its implications for understanding the monument's significance.

Also joining the chat is top geologist Jane Evans, whose new research has revealed the fascinating story of an ancient cow's journey from Wales to Stonehenge. Through isotope analysis, Jane has uncovered insights about the Stonehenge cow's diet and origins, leading to broader implications about our ancient communities and their interactions.

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson | Instagram @sirtonyrobinson

Producer: Melissa FitzGerald

With

Mike Parker Pearson

Professor of British Later Prehistory, University College London. He specialises in British and European prehistory from the Neolithic to the Iron Age; Stonehenge and the British Neolithic; the Beaker people of Bronze Age Europe; the archaeology of the Western Isles (Outer Hebrides); the archaeology of Madagascar and the Indian Ocean; the archaeology of death and burial; public archaeology and heritage.

Parker Pearson, M. 2023. Stonehenge: a brief history. London: Bloomsbury Publishing | https://www.bloomsburycollections.com/monograph?docid=b-9781350192263

Parker Pearson, M., Bevins, R.I., Bradley, R., Ixer, R.E., Pearce, N.J.G. and Richards, C. 2024. ‘Stonehenge and its Altar Stone: the significance of distant stone sources’. Archaeology International 27: 113–37 | https://journals.uclpress.co.uk/ai/article/id/3293/

Professor Jane Evans

Geologist whose early career focused on using isotope methods for dating rocks. She later turned her expertise toward archaeology, pioneering the use of isotopes to study past human migration. Now retired, she holds honorary professorships in archaeology at the Universities of Nottingham and Leicester and is an Honorary Research Associate at the British Geological Survey. Throughout her career, Jane has used the chemical signatures preserved in human remains to reveal where people came from and how they moved across landscapes. Her work has been central to major discoveries — from uncovering stories at Stonehenge and identifying Viking remains near Weymouth, to contributing to the investigation of King Richard III.

Evans, J., Pashley, V., Wagner, D., Savickaite, K., Buckley, M., Madgwick, R. and Parker Pearson, M. In press. Sequential multi-isotope sampling through a Bos taurus tooth to assess comparative sources in strontium and lead. Journal of Archaeological Science | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440325001189

Follow us:

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Announcing the launch of Season 3 of Tony Robinson’s Cunningcast on Thursday 11th September. Follow us on social media and wherever you get your podcasts to make sure you don't miss it!

Series 3 will treat listeners to brand-new episodes covering:

· New discoveries at STONEHENGE

· Who is Vladimir PUTIN and what makes him tick?

· Uncovering the mysteries of SUTTON HOO

· In search of SHIPWRECKS and SUNKEN CITIES

· Who wrote the BIBLE?

· Tony’s book tie-in special on ALFRED THE GREAT

….And many more fantastic subjects, changing the way we see history.

X: @cunningcastpod

Instagram: @cunningcastpod

Youtube @Cunningcast

Hosted by Sir Tony Robinson

X | Instagram

Series Producer: Melissa FitzGerald X @melissafitzg

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.