History Podcasts | History Hit

 

 

History Hit podcasts

The History Hit network gives you access to a growing range of podcasts presented by and featuring historians at the forefront of research and debate.

Scroll down to listen to the most recent episodes from our network.

Dan Snow’s History Hit explores the deep history behind today’s headlines – giving you the context to understand what is going on today. Everything has a history, every challenge made easier by understanding its nature, its genesis. In a world of fast opinions, we put historians into the debate, women and men who bring real knowledge built over careers spent researching.

The Ancients, hosted by historian Tristan Hughes, is dedicated to discussing our distant past. Historians and archaeologists join Tristan to discuss specific themes from antiquity, from Neolithic Britain to the Fall of Rome.

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb presents Not Just the Tudors. Together with expert interviewees, she covers the sweeping range of the early modern period: everything from the Aztecs to witches, Velázquez to Shakespeare, Mughal India to the Mayflower.

Gone Medieval is hosted by historians Matt Lewis and Eleanor Janega, who shine a light on one of the most fascinating yet misunderstood periods of history: the Middle Ages. In each episode, experts lead listeners beneath the skin of captivating stories to uncover new insights.

In Betwixt the Sheets join historian, Kate Lister as she unashamedly roots around the topics which seem to have been skipped in history class. Everything from landmark LGBTQ+ court cases, to political scandal, to downright bizarre medieval cures for impotence.

In American History Hit, join Don Wildman twice a week for your hit of American history, as he explores the past to help us understand the United States of today. We’ll hear how codebreakers uncovered secret Japanese plans for the Battle of Midway, visit Chief Powhatan as he prepares for war with the British, see Walt Disney accuse his former colleagues of being communists, and uncover the dark history that lies beneath Central Park.

After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal joined History Hit’s award-winning podcast network in October 2023, hosted by actor, writer and historian Anthony Delaney and writer, broadcaster, historian Maddy Pelling. Together, the duo unpick history’s spookiest, strangest and most sinister stories – from the disappearance of HMS Terror to the origins of Halloween.

War historian and broadcaster James Rogers hosts our Warfare podcast, which opens up fascinating new perspectives on how conflict has shaped and changed our world. James teams up with fellow historians, veterans, and experts to reveal astonishing new histories of inspirational leadership, breakthrough technologies, and era defining battles.

Patented, hosted by Dallas Campbell, dives into stories of flukey discoveries, erased individuals and murky marketing ploys with the help of experts, scientists and historians.

Click on any of the listings below to listen to the most recent episodes from our network.

All Podcasts

43:06

The Normans in Italy: From Pilgrims to Conquerors

6 August 2024

Say Norman Conquests; think 1066 and William the Conqueror. But the massive success of the English conquest often overshadows the several other...

Listen Now
47:23

Hellfire Club: Scandal & Satanism in Georgian England

5 August 2024

Sex, Satanism and Scandal surrounded the Hellfire Club that operated out of a network of caves in the country estate of 18th century aristocrat...

Listen Now
50:58

Origins of Political Campaigns: Publicity Stunts & Fake News

5 August 2024

How do our politicians use the media? Throughout the 2024 election we have seen a boom in the use of social media and cable news, so how far back...

Listen Now
58:17

Innocent or Axe Murderer? Lizzie Borden

5 August 2024

It's one of the most infamous trials in American history, Lizzie Borden's story is breathtaking even today. In 1893 she was accused of using an...

Listen Now
33:36

Magellan: The First Man to Sail the World

5 August 2024

Just over 500 years ago, a small band of sailors completed the first ever circumnavigation of the globe, launched by Ferdinand Magellan. From...

Listen Now
53:04

The Battle of Hastings

4 August 2024

On 14 October 1066, the armies of William, the Duke of Normandy, and the Anglo-Saxon King Harold Godwinson clashed near Hastings in one of the...

Listen Now
32:03

Origins of the Olympics

4 August 2024

The Olympics. It’s the most famous sporting event in the world, and the 33rd Olympiad is taking place in Paris right now. But how did it all...

Listen Now
32:07

How Nudes Changed Britain

2 August 2024

Why were nudes so significant in Victorian England? What role did painting them play in wider social change at that time? And why didn't men think...

Listen Now
43:08

Richard III's Mother: Cecily

2 August 2024

Cecily Neville was the matriarch of the House of York, the mother of two kings of England and an ancestor of every monarch since Henry VIII. Born...

Listen Now
30:40

American Operators on WW1's Front Line

1 August 2024

When the First World War ended at 11am on 11 November, 1918, how did army command relay the ceasefire to their troops? In fact, before radios and...

Listen Now
52:52

New York Morgue's Dark Secrets

1 August 2024

The unclaimed dead of New York City's streets and rivers were once brought to the notorious New York Morgue. It's a history that has never been...

Listen Now
49:07

Hestia: Goddess of Hearth & Home

1 August 2024

As both the eldest and youngest child of the great titan Kronos, and the Greek goddess of hearth and home, Hestia was incredibly important in...

Listen Now
46:02

Henry VII: Rise of the Medieval Tudors

1 August 2024

Henry VII was descended from some of the greatest Welsh princes. When word spread that he had a chance of taking the English throne, Welsh...

Listen Now
36:58

The Warsaw Uprising

31 July 2024

80 years ago, the Polish resistance rose up against their German occupiers and tried to seize back control of their capital city. For two months a...

Listen Now
59:51

The Boy Who Hid in the Woods: How I Survived the Holocaust

30 July 2024

Warning: this episode contains descriptions of violence.

Maxwell Smart was just a boy when the Nazis came for him and his family. Within...

Listen Now
39:00

The Dark History of Bearded Ladies & the Victorian Freak Show

30 July 2024

What would it have really been like to visit a Victorian freak show? Were "freak performers" exploited, or empowered in a world that would likely...

Listen Now
43:38

Rollo: The First Norman

30 July 2024

Rollo was a Viking leader who became the first ruler of Normandy in the early 10th century. His descendants, the Normans, later conquered England...

Listen Now
38:21

A History of Cheating at the Olympics

29 July 2024

Dan is joined by the QI Elves James Harkin and Anna Ptaszynski to talk about cheating in sports as the 2024 Olympics get underway. Why do we do it...

Listen Now
39:23

The Third Presidential Assassination: McKinley

29 July 2024

On 6th September, 1901, President William McKinley attended a public reception at the Pan American Exposition, a 6-month-long World’s Fair, in...

Listen Now
43:17

The Final Days of Marie Antoinette

29 July 2024

How did Marie Antoinette, last Queen of France, spend her final days before the guillotine took her head? Did she ever really stand a chance?...

Listen Now
32:45

Vivaldi’s Greatest Protegé

29 July 2024

In early 18th century Venice, the Ospedale della Pietà took in abandoned baby girls through a tiny gap in the wall.  In addition to ensuring...

Listen Now