How to Become a Tyrant
Ruling with an iron fist requires an aspiring dictator to know the playbook for absolute power, as history's despots prove in this sardonic docuseries.
Genre: Documentary, Biography, History
Cast:Peter Dinklage , Bruce Bueno de Mesquita , Waller Newell , Ruth Ben-Ghiat , Fathali Moghaddam , Andrew Sullivan , Asha Rangappa , Alastair Smith , Madeleine Albright , Benjamin Radd , Mariam Mufti , Milton Allimadi , Paul Fischer , Jonathan Brent , Jodi Beggs , Suki Kim , Wendy Lower , Maria Konnikova
S1.E1 ∙ Seize Power
Interested in becoming a tyrant? There are rules, and the playbook for a rise to dictatorship starts with one of history's most brutal: Adolf Hitler.
S1.E2 ∙ Crush Your Rivals
You've secured your place at the top, but maintaining power means watching your back. Nobody did that better or more ruthlessly than Saddam Hussein.
S1.E3 ∙ Reign Through Terror
When keeping your population under control, is it better to be loved or feared? Idi Amin certainly thought he knew the right answer to that question.
S1.E4 ∙ Control the Truth
Through public relations spin, revisionist history and censorship. Soviet autocrat Joseph Stalin found a certain flexibility with the truth useful.
S1.E5 ∙ Create a New Society
Free speech? Right to assembly? Rebel-turned-dictator Muammar Gaddafi realized that civil liberties had to go when reshaping society. But he got soft.
S1.E6 ∙ Rule Forever
Seizing power is hard, but keeping it is harder. In North Korea, the Kim dynasty unlocked the secret to ruling forever: They declared themselves gods.
