Behind the Bastards

Robert Evans hosts Behind the Bastards, one of the most popular history-meets-true-crime podcasts running, with over 1,100 episodes and more than 15,000 ratings (4.4 stars) on Apple Podcasts. The show profiles the worst people in history and the systems that enabled them, and Keith Raniere has gotten the treatment. Evans brings in guest experts and comedians for each episode, creating a format that mixes serious historical research with genuine humor. The Keith Raniere and NXIVM episodes are worth searching out specifically. Evans’s reporting style is thorough, pulling from court documents, news archives, and academic sources, but he delivers it all in a conversational tone with a rotating cast of guests who react in real time. Episodes run anywhere from 50 minutes to over three hours depending on the topic. The show has been running since 2018 and streams on Apple Podcasts, Netflix, and YouTube. It is not exclusively about cults, and that is actually an advantage for the NXIVM episodes, because Evans places Raniere in the broader context of manipulative leaders and power structures rather than treating him as an isolated case. If you want to understand how someone like Raniere compares to other figures who exploited people’s trust, this show draws those connections clearly. The production is solid through Cool Zone Media and iHeartPodcasts.