Use BBC.com or the new BBC App to listen to BBC podcasts, Radio 4 and the World Service outside the UK.

Find out how to listen to other BBC stations

Episode details

Sounds,14 Jan 2026,27 mins,

Dictators' Kids

Real Dictators
Contains some scenes which some viewers may find upsetting.

Available for over a year

What must it be like to be the child of a brutal tyrant? Do they tend to follow in father’s footsteps, or turn their back on the family name? To find out more about the lives of dictators’ children, Noiser writer Duncan Barrett spoke to Jay Nordlinger - senior editor of the magazine National Review and author of Children of Monsters: An Inquiry into the Sons and Daughters of Dictators.

Programme Website
More episodes