When we’re talking about historical battles, too often one important part of these battles is left unmentioned. Who is this unsung hero? We’ll let Richard III speak for us (via Shakespeare): “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!” On Monday’s podcast, we highlighted some of history’s greatest battle horses.

One of my favorites was El Cid‘s horse, Babieca. El Cid had ordered his men, should he die in battle, to dress his body in armor and have him ride out on his horse. You can imagine the Moors’ surprise when the dead body of El Cid rose again.

Another gem was Hernando Cortez‘s El Morzillo. The black Spanish Barb stallion was Cortez’s pride and joy, and when the horse was injured, the conquistador left him behind with the Indians near Lake Peten with instructions to take good care of El Morzillo. And so they treated the horse like a god, feeding him flowers, fruits and chicken. The poor horse starved to death.

Want to hear about the horses of Napoleon, the Duke of Wellington and Robert E. Lee? Listen to the podcast and learn.

Wednesday’s podcast answered the question, “Who was Black Moses?” No, not Harriet Tubman — Marcus Garvey.

By 1919, Garvey had a following of 2 million people, black people who tired of being denied their rights and subjected to violence just because of their race. Unlike Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois, Garvey didn’t preach assimilation. Instead, he wanted to unite the African Diaspora and associate it with “armies, navies and men of big affairs.”

To do so, he founded a group with a very long name: the Universal Negro Improvement and Conservation Association and African Communities League, usually called the UNIA. He started an Afrocentric newspaper, the Negro Factories Corporation and several black-run businesses. But his most famous misadventure was the Black Star Line — followed by the Liberia program.

Miss that bit of history? Listen to the podcast and discover the life of Marcus Garvey.