"No army can be compared with the power of an idea whose time has come." French writer Victor Hugo understood that ideas born at a proper time produce ideas shattering the universe, ideas that are doomed to be great. But greatness can be of different nature: great and beautiful, great and ugly, great and scary. A great idea may have all these qualities, thus producing admiration, disgust, or fear. This radio program presents various great ideas.

Though the term "imperialism" is relatively new, the phenomenon itself — the conquest of weak states and their further exploitation by stronger states — is as old as the world. The history of Mesopotamia and of the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean is an uninterrupted succession of empires – Babylon, Assyria, the Achaemenid Empire founded by Cyrus, the Empire of Alexander the Great...

