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

43:39

Farming with Tom Pemberton

2 June 2022

What happens when a traditional family farm gets passed down to a born YouTuber? Tom Pemberton.

 

For six generations, the...

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51:24

Vasectomy

1 June 2022

What do you think of when you think of birth control? Is it condoms, IUDs, the pill? What about vasectomies?

From monkey testicles to...

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35:21

Coffee

1 June 2022

A cup of coffee was once a luxury. Now it is quick, cheap and widely available — a daily essential for many. How did this happen?

Today on...

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26:54

The Unlikely Fate of the Wright Brothers

1 June 2022

On a winter day in 1903, in the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the Wright Brothers changed history when they took the world's first engine-powered...

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46:15

Platinum Jubilee: Britain’s Greatest Queens

31 May 2022

Queen Elizabeth II is the longest-reigning monarch in British history and one of the longest-reigning in the world. To mark the Queen's Platinum...

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46:37

Burials with Alice Roberts

31 May 2022

What do human remains - and the objects buried with them - tell us about people’s lives in Britain in the first millennium, what they thought...

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35:07

Corsets

31 May 2022

Have you ever been told you’re bringing women’s rights back one-hundred years because of what you’re wearing?

The guest on Betwixt the...

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30:19

Tulsa: The Attack on Black Wall Street

30 May 2022

From May 31 to June 1, 1921, a white mob attacked residents, homes and businesses in the predominantly Black ‘Greenwood District’ of Tulsa,...

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36:58

Isabella & Ferdinand's Granada

30 May 2022

From the early Middle Ages to the present day, travellers have been bewitched by the peerless beauty of Granada. From 1230 until 1492, it was...

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26:00

USA at War: Who Funds it?

30 May 2022

The US invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan marked the beginning of the longest wars in US history - but how were they funded for upwards of two...

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39:30

Falklands40: Battle of Goose Green

29 May 2022

Please note that this episode contains descriptions of combat and some explicit language.

At the Battle of Goose Green the Second Battalion...

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29:31

Saint Brigid: Turning Bathwater into Beer

29 May 2022

Saint Patrick is a household name, celebrated around the globe every March. But what do we know about another of Ireland’s patron saints,...

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34:58

Tattoos

29 May 2022

“As ancient as time, as modern as tomorrow.’

Why have tattoos been reinvented in so many cultures - and with so many different meanings...

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44:06

The Wars of the Roses: Rise of the Beauforts

28 May 2022

As part of our Wars of the Roses special month, there’s one family that demands more attention than they usually get: The...

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38:41

The Assassination of Reinhard Heydrich

27 May 2022

He was nicknamed ‘the man with the iron heart’ by Hitler, and was tipped to be his successor. But on the 27th May 1942, Reinhard Heydrich was...

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44:46

Death, Dissection & Grave Robbing

27 May 2022

Genital warts fashioned into necklaces, teeth harvested from the battlefield and blood vessels eternalised in wax: these are some of the things...

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31:11

SAS Founder: Warrior or Phoney?

26 May 2022

David Stirling was an aristocrat, innovator and special forces legend that earned him the nickname 'The Phantom Major'. His formation of the...

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49:18

History of the Countryside with Matthew Kelly

26 May 2022

The English Countryside. An ever changing environment, or a static, preserved landscape in the service of humanity since the dawn of...

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39:31

The Man Who Broke Michelangelo's Nose

26 May 2022

Pietro Torrigiano is credited with introducing Renaissance art to England in the early years of the 16th century and designed the tomb of Henry...

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53:07

Greeks vs Romans: Empires at War

26 May 2022

Greece and Rome, they are the heavyweights of ancient history. But what happened when they came face to face with one another? Tristan is once...

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25:38

The Treadmill

25 May 2022

Before they found their way into gyms, treadmills had a much darker history. In the 19th Century, they could most commonly be found in...

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