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
43:00
How Indigenous Americans Discovered Europe
19 August 2024We have long been taught that modern global history began when the 'Old World' encountered the 'New', when Christopher Columbus 'discovered'...
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30:07
The Cocaine Craze in Victorian Britain
18 August 2024Many things may come to mind when you hear the word 'cocaine' - and we'd wager that the last thing on that list would be the Victorians. But as it...
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36:53
The First Cats
18 August 2024Cats! These much loved furry friends have brightened people’s lives for millenia. And it was the same in ancient times. They were pets. They...
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42:17
Sex Work in 18th Century Paris
16 August 2024Paris was a wild place in the 18th century.
It was the Age of the Enlightenment, cafe culture was exploding along with the world of ballet...
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37:34
Crusader Criminals
16 August 2024Please be aware that this episode mentions sexual violence
Amongst the countless crusaders who travelled to the Holy Land, there were...
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56:25
The Real Society of the Snow: I Survived the Andes Flight Crash
15 August 2024Warning: this episode includes descriptions of human suffering and cannibalism.
High in the remote Andes mountains, a Uruguayan rugby team...
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28:47
Kamala Harris: An Unprecedented Candidacy?
15 August 2024Cleopatra, Catherine the Great, Boudicca, Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel: what do these women have in common? They were all leaders of their...
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7:18
American History Hit: 200 Episodes On
15 August 2024Host Don Wildman has a message for listeners old and new, marking 200 episodes of American History Hit.
American History Hit first started...
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58:44
The Parthenon: Wonder of Athens
15 August 2024It is the most famous monument of ancient Greece. Its remains standing tall above modern Athens today, more than 2,000 years old. The Parthenon. A...
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42:27
Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent
15 August 2024All this month, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is taking a deep dive into the complex and controversial House of Medici, which left an indelible mark...
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44:15
Harry Houdini: the Original Ghostbuster
15 August 2024Harry Houdini was the greatest magician that ever lived. He was also the greatest ghostbuster ever, exposing countless spiritual mediums as...
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36:10
The Fall of Roman Britain
13 August 2024By 410 AD, over 450 years after Julius Caesar first landed on its shores, the Romans had formally withdrawn from Britain. Burdened by military...
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47:21
The Real Joan of Arc
13 August 2024How did a peasant girl go on to lead French armies at the age of 17? How did her visions of saving France from the English play a part in her...
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45:34
The Real Cleopatra
13 August 2024Cleopatra. One of the most famous people from history, and remembered for her beauty, power and scandalous love affairs. But how accurate is her...
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41:22
President Theodore Roosevelt
12 August 2024What kind of a nickname is Bull Moose? How progressive was Theodore Roosevelt's presidency? And how does his legacy live on?
Don is joined...
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32:39
China's First Tourists: Travel Writers in the Ming Dynasty
12 August 2024Around the same time as the Mayflower was landing at Cape Cod, on the other side of the world tourism was thriving in China, giving rise to a...
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45:17
"The Elephant Man": Joseph Merrick's True Story
12 August 2024The life of Joseph Merrick, the man they dared to call "The Elephant Man", will fill you with pain and anger. He was treated so cruelly by society...
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37:19
The Rise of Roman Britain
11 August 2024On August 26th, 55 BC, Julius Caesar and his legionaries waded ashore just north of the White Cliffs of Dover. Right there in the surf, they were...
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52:17
Mycenae: Cradle of Bronze Age Greece
11 August 2024Overlooking the Argolid Plain in the eastern Peloponnese, Mycenae was once the envy of the Mediterranean world. It rose to prominence in the late...
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33:51
The Curious History of Beds
9 August 2024Sex and beds have a long, interwoven history. Here on Betwixt we often cover sex history, but we haven’t done a deep dive into the history of...
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35:48
Antisemitism in Medieval Europe
9 August 2024Christians had a problematic relationship with Jewish populations as the Medieval period progressed. Jews were frequently persecuted, targeted...
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