History 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
49:18
History of the Countryside with Matthew Kelly
26 May 2022The 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 2022Pietro 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 2022Greece 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 2022Before 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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31:18
Moscow 1941: Hitler's Nemesis with Jonathan Dimbleby
25 May 2022While the Allies reeled from the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour and Hitler's declaration of war on the United States, a ferocious battle was...
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33:25
The Telescope
25 May 2022The telescope marked, arguably, the first invention to truly transform a human sense. For the first time it allowed our eyes to observe the...
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31:38
Our Obsession with Nostalgia
24 May 2022Longing to go back to the 'good old days' is nothing new. For hundreds of years, the British have mourned the loss of older national identities...
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50:51
Vasectomy
24 May 2022What 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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32:01
Trade After the Roman Empire
24 May 2022Rivers, Silk roads and camels - how did international trade adapt and survive beyond the Roman Empire into the middle ages? In today's episode Cat...
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24:59
How Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt Divided Berlin
23 May 2022Berlin’s fate was sealed at the 1945 Yalta Conference: the city, along with the rest of Germany, was to be carved up between the victorious...
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36:05
Religious Exiles in Early Modern Europe
23 May 2022Facing persecution in Elizabethan England, some Catholics chose exile over conformity. Some even cast their lot with foreign monarchs rather than...
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37:29
Killer Robots: AI at War
23 May 2022What if we could take people completely out of the equation when planning military strikes? ‘Lethal autonomous weapons systems’ use...
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32:57
Putin's Rise to Power
22 May 2022Catherine Belton joins Dan on the podcast to discuss the remarkable story of Vladimir Putin's rise to power. After working from 2007-2013 as the...
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52:48
Iron Age Wales: Before the Romans
22 May 2022The residents of Britain during the Iron Age are often collectively called 'Celts'. However, both before and during the Roman occupation, this...
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31:13
UFOs
22 May 2022Is it a bird? Is it a plane? A UFO maybe? Or is it some reflective Lichen? Where does the idea of an Unidentified Flying Object come from and are...
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32:25
The Wars of the Roses: Endings
21 May 2022All things must end. This final special episode on the Wars of the Roses deals with a series of endings and considers what finding a date for the...
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29:41
Benediction: Recreating Siegfried Sassoon
20 May 2022Siegfried Sassoon is one of the most famous poets of the 20th century. But he is also famous as a soldier, decorated for his bravery on the...
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40:21
Medicine & Misogyny
20 May 2022Using leeches to suck the blood from patients, mercury pills, and removing limbs with NO anaesthetic - healthcare throughout history hasn’t...
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20:54
Medieval Myths and Legends
19 May 2022Various legends, characters and myths are associated with the medieval period. The British Isles is filled with prehistoric monuments - from...
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51:35
Homer
19 May 2022The Iliad and the Odyssey are two of the world’s most famous poems. But who was their author, Homer, and how have his name and poems survived so...
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43:42
Nature's Lessons in Happiness with Charlie Corbett
19 May 2022How can nature help us deal with grief? In today's day and age, it can feel like we're detached from the natural world around us - but how do we...
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