History Hit Podcasts

The Quaker Who Put Penn in Pennsylvania

From being locked up in the Tower of London to founding the 5th most populous state in the country, and the city at the heart of the Revolution,...

Royal Favourites: James I and George Villiers

How did a relatively humble gentleman become the most powerful man in Stuart England?

Few figures embodied the glamour and instability of...

Investigating the Nazi Massacre at Rumbula

An underground Nazi weapons factory and stash of 77-year-old Denazification files. What is it really like to discover that your grandfather was a...

Human Sacrifice In The Aztec Empire

When you think of the Aztec Empire, what do you picture? Human sacrifice?

In today's episode, Anthony is joined by Aztec expert Dr. Caroline...

The Real Armageddon

Armageddon is more than just a biblical prophecy hailing the end of days. It is a real place: Megiddo, an ancient city that for thousands of years...

Pirates in the Caribbean: How It All Began

Assassin’s Creed Black Flag Resynced recreates the beautiful islands of the Caribbean in stunning detail, and introduces players to some of the...

Battle of the Eras: Medieval vs Early Modern

What if the medieval world did not end with a bang, but with a messy argument over who gets to define history itself? Matt Lewis spars with Not...

How to Get Cancelled in Ancient Judea

What do we know about Jesus? Kate is joined for this episode by Professor of Christian Origins, Helen Bond, to find out more about the historical...

Stonewall Jackson's Last Battle: Chancellorsville

It was Robert E. Lee's greatest strategic triumph but it came at a heavy cost - the loss of his talismanic leader and friend Stonewall Jackson...

Hoaxes and Lies in the Enlightenment

How did a ghost story bring London to a standstill? Was it a haunting, a fraud, or something even more revealing about Georgian society? Why did...

How Did Japan Become A Superpower?

In the 19th century, Japan's samurai era ended, and the country transformed from a secluded feudal society into a modern industrial superpower....

Ancient China: The Warring States

How did ancient China plunge into 261 years of chaos, and how did that turmoil forge an empire?

Tristan Hughes is joined by Professor Andrew...

The Dark Mystery of Princess Caraboo

Today we are celebrating the upcoming publication of Maddy's new book 'Hoax: Truth and Lies in the Age of Enlightenment' by sharing one of the...

The Fake Princess Who Fooled Georgian England

What you'll hear in today's episode is a story that strikes to the dark heart of the British Empire.

Despite being set in the time of Jane...

Cadaver Synod: Trial of a Dead Pope

What could drive a pope to put a corpse on trial?

In 897, Rome staged one of the Middle Ages’ strangest spectacles: the Cadaver Synod,...

A Day in the Life of a Puritan

What if we told you that puritans were actually sex-crazed? Well maybe not crazed but definitely not opposed to it.

What if we told you...

The Scandalous Life of Lord Byron

WARNING: This episode includes discussion of sexual abuse and explicit language.

He appalled and titillated Regency polite society in equal...

Royal Favourites: Robert Dudley, Elizabeth I's Forbidden Love

Passion, scandal, and power collided in the tumultuous relationship between Elizabeth I and Robert Dudley. Rumours of secret trysts between them...

The Haunting of Cock Lane

Today we are celebrating the upcoming publication of Maddy's new book 'Hoax: Truth and Lies in the Age of Enlightenment' by sharing one of the...

The Prehistoric Plague

The first ever outbreak of 'plague' - Yersinia Pestis, the most feared disease in human history - was long thought to be the Plague of...

Sex Work in Colonial India

When the British Empire colonised India, how did it treat their different ideas about sex? How did they treat sex workers like the Devadasi,...