The History Podcast

BBC Radio 4

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For a century, Harry Houdini has been safely filed away in the public imagination as a nostalgic variety act: a man in monochrome film escaping handcuffs, water tanks, and straightjackets.

This series smashes that myth.

Hosted by “psychological illusionist” Derren Brown, How Houdini Made Magic reframes a penniless immigrant refugee named Erik Weisz as a prophetic, hyper-modern visionary. Long before the birth of Silicon Valley, modern political spin rooms, or algorithmic social media, Houdini cracked the code of modern fame. He didn't just escape physical boxes; he manipulated suspense, pioneered viral guerrilla marketing, employed the legal system to protect his brand, and mastered the dark arts of post-truth media. He created magic in far more ways than you think.

Against a backdrop of vaudeville and societal revolution, Derren explores the lesser-known identities of a magician who continues to inspire him and countless other magicians: Houdini as an advertising guru, a new media innovator, a sceptic… a spy?

We’ll come to realise that today’s world actually closely mirrors the ‘sepia-tinted’ world Houdini operated in: a time of rapid industrialisation, intense social change, massive wealth inequality, widespread social activism, global conflict, cultural revolutions, and immense technological advancement. We are living in an attention economy running on the exact behavioural hacks, artificial friction, and narrative illusions engineered by Harry Houdini over a century ago.

• No. of episodes: 131
• Latest episode: 2026-10-12
• History

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