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

26:08

Walter Raleigh's Quest for El Dorado

2 May 2022

Sir Walter Raleigh remains one of the enduring names from the Elizabethan era. He was a true Renaissance man - a statesman, soldier, writer,...

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30:47

Was WW2 Stalin’s War?

2 May 2022

Stalin, the 'Man of Steel' and supreme ruler of the Soviet Union for a quarter of a century, is readily associated with his ruthless regime inside...

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44:59

Falklands40: The Sinking of the Belgrano

1 May 2022

On this day 40 years ago the HMS Conqueror, a British nuclear submarine, propelled silently through the South Atlantic stalking the Argentinian...

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34:20

Robots

1 May 2022

Many of us became familiar with robots through science fiction — R2D2, C3PO, Rosie from the Jetsons, Marvin the Paranoid Android. In comparison,...

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58:56

The Christian Destruction of the Classical World

1 May 2022

The rise of Christianity in the first few centuries AD is one of the most significant stories in world history. But it’s also an incredibly...

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33:44

Falklands40: The Black Buck Raids

30 April 2022

The Falkland Islands lie 8000 miles from Britain making the Falklands War a particularly tricky one to fight; it required some seriously...

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36:10

Medieval Masters of Invention

30 April 2022

In today’s Gone Medieval podcast, Matt Lewis joins Dallas Campbell - host of our sister podcast Patented: History of Inventions - to explore...

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32:49

Stalin's Secret Operation: The Katyn Massacre

29 April 2022

As the reality of atrocities in Ukraine continues to be uncovered, we look back at a massacre of Polish officers in the Second World War, the...

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44:35

Shoes

29 April 2022

I’m something that you wear, I always come in twos, I get put on your feet. I’m not socks, I am … SHOES.

Humans have been protecting...

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28:01

Theodore Roosevelt

28 April 2022

Theodore Roosevelt Jr. (October 27, 1858 - January 6, 1919), was an American politician, conservationist and writer. After the assassination of...

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38:08

Suleyman the Magnificent

28 April 2022

The Ottoman Sultan Suleyman I - known as "Suleyman the Magnificent" in the West - was the most feared and powerful man of the sixteenth century....

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44:54

Superfood Myths with Kate Quilton

28 April 2022

Kale, Cod-liver oil, Goji-berries, Chia seeds...the list of so-called superfoods continues to grow. But how healthy are these wonder ingredients,...

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35:49

An Ancient Guide to Healthy Living

28 April 2022

Poetry, parables, and produce - how did someone live a healthy life in the ancient Greco-Roman world? Tristan is joined by author Mark Usher to...

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24:18

War in Space

27 April 2022

On November 15 2021 Russia tested an anti-satellite weapon, shattering one of their own satellites into over a thousand pieces. This space debris...

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27:12

John Simpson: Six Decades of Warzones

27 April 2022

Over six decades John Simpson has been on the frontline of reporting bringing news from some of the most dangerous places on the planet to the...

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26:02

Wheeled Suitcase

27 April 2022

We put man on the moon before we invented the wheeled suitcase. 

Why did it take so long? 

Find out in todays episode with...

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28:47

Gossip, Scandal and High Society

26 April 2022

Throughout the first half of the twentieth century, Henry ‘Chips’ Channon documented British high society in eye-watering detail. His diaries...

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20:52

The Dynasty that Transformed Southern India

26 April 2022

Histories of India usually concern themselves with events and invasions in the subcontinent’s North, while the rest of India’s rich story is...

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57:50

Boob Jobs

26 April 2022

Who had the very first boob job? Why were women injecting liquid paraffin into their chests? And, how has the procedure developed over...

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32:28

Great Scientists We've Forgotten to Remember

25 April 2022

We are told that modern science was invented in Europe, the product of great minds like Nicolaus Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and...

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28:00

Discovering Hampton Court

25 April 2022

Many of the private and public dramas in the life of Henry VIII took place at Hampton Court Palace. Begun in 1514 for Cardinal Wolsey, Hampton...

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