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
44:44
The Rise of Marius: Third Founder of Rome
10 April 2022Gaius Marius (157 BC – 86 BC) was one of the first warlords of the late Roman Republic, a general and statesman who held the office of...
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33:01
The Rise of Genghis Khan
9 April 2022Genghis Khan is still considered one of the most famous and most feared warrior kings in history. But his name still divides opinion. To some, he...
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33:37
The Falklands War: Turning Points
8 April 2022As a mist set in and the sea began to swell, British and Argentine warships circled one another off the coast of the Falkland Islands. Yet hidden...
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23:20
Resisting the Third Reich
7 April 2022Across the whole of Nazi-ruled Europe, the experience of occupation was sharply varied. As a result, resistance movements during World War II...
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34:16
The Tudors in Portraits
7 April 2022Visitors to the Holburne Museum in Bath are having a close encounter with the most familiar faces in English history. A stunning exhibition,...
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36:34
The Moving Forest with Ben Rawlence
7 April 2022If you are listening to this in the UK, the spot where you are standing was almost certainly once forest.
Ben Rawlence joins Jimmy to...
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43:28
Before Rome: The Truth About Late Iron Age Britain
7 April 2022Roman connections with Britain stretch back to (at least) the mid 1st century BC. But what has archaeology revealed about the Late Iron Age...
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34:22
Recreating the Viking World in Assassin's Creed: Valhalla
6 April 2022Assassin's Creed: Valhalla has brought the Viking Age to life in stunning detail, and now the game is even being used as an educational...
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35:25
Monks: Medieval Masters of Invention
6 April 2022In medieval times it was monks who were the masters of invention. They were the most educated members of society who saw scientific and...
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43:37
Tuskegee Airmen: A WW2 Pilot's Story
6 April 2022The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American military aviators in American military history. They faced discrimination and segregation at...
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20:13
Cold War Submarine Warrior
5 April 2022Eric Thompson has had his finger literally on the nuclear button. He joined the Royal Navy submarine service in the early days of the Cold War. He...
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35:21
Rapa Nui: The Truth About Easter Island
5 April 20221,900 miles west of South America and 1,250 miles from any other population centre, Easter Island - or Rapa Nui - is world famous for its...
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24:34
The Man Who Invented Motion Pictures
4 April 2022In 1888 Louis Le Prince shot the world’s first motion picture in Leeds, England. In 1890, weeks before the public unveiling of his camera and...
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49:00
The Taj Mahal & the Emperor Who Built It
4 April 2022The Taj Mahal was commissioned 390 years ago by the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan as a mausoleum for his beloved wife Mumtaz Mahal. But what can...
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24:51
War In Space
4 April 2022On 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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25:46
The Foundations of Modern India
3 April 2022The greatest anti-imperial rebellion of the nineteenth century, The Indian Rebellion of 1857, witnessed mass violence against the British. Ninety...
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34:21
Spacesuits
3 April 2022Creating a successful spacesuit was one of the biggest challenges in man's quest to land on the moon. And, it required borrowing skills from some...
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41:34
The Symposium: How To Party Like An Ancient Greek
3 April 2022In Ancient Greece, the symposium was no ordinary after-dinner drinking party, but one in which the Hellenic men of society got together to wine,...
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39:01
Falklands40: What Started the Falklands War?
2 April 2022On April 2nd 1982 British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher declared war against Argentina over the Falkland Islands in the Southern Atlantic. To...
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47:44
Henry III: England's Longest Reigning King
2 April 2022In 1216, at the adolescent age of nine, Henry became King Henry III of England. With his father, King John passing, right amid the First Barons’...
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36:23
The Falklands War: Why Was There A Conflict?
1 April 2022April 2022 marks 40 years since the beginning of the Falklands War - but how and why did these small islands in the South Atlantic become the...
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