A surveillance camera photo of Patty during the bank robbery (Keystone/Consolidated News Pictures/Getty Images)

If William Hearst and Hearst Castle weren’t enough Hearst for you, then Monday’s podcast must have rocked your world just a little bit: the kidnapping of Patty Hearst. Take one rich heiress and mix with one vaguely Marxist, militant organization and you get one heck of a story.

Patty Hearst, the granddaughter of William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped from her apartment in Berkeley on Feb. 4, 1974. Her kidnappers were from a group called the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA). Their motto was “Death to the fascist insect that preys upon the life of the people.” The Hearsts? Definitely fascists — to the SLA.

Patty was a kidnap victim, but before long, she was renouncing her family as pigs and joining the SLA in armed robbery before spending some time in prison. Nowadays, she spends her time breeding French bulldogs. Want the rest of the story? Listen to the podcast. (Jane wrote a cool post about the SLA in May.)

Wednesday’s podcast concerned an entirely dissimilar topic: Wallis Simpson, better known as the Duchess of Windsor, and the abdication crisis.

The story of Wallis and Edward VIII captured the public’s imagination, as a great love between a royal and a commoner is bound to. Adding to the excitement was that Simpson was married, and had another ex-husband to boot (the horrors!).

Perhaps more surprising was that Edward gave up his womanizing for her. The American press (the British press wasn’t allowed) reported with a sense of wonder that she wasn’t even young or especially beautiful or even very nice to Edward, but he seemed to enjoy being domineered.

Their love affair was complicated because it caused a constitutional crisis that ended with Edward abdicating the throne. You might have the same question Wallis did: “How can a woman be a whole empire to a man?”

Learn more about their life together in the podcast — and get ready for an upcoming podcast on their ties to the Nazi party.