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
29:20
Escape From a Nazi Concentration Camp
7 March 2022In April 1945, weeks before the Nazi defeat, nine women made a last-ditch escape from the concentration camp at Ravensbruck. The group, who had...
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51:36
The Assassination of Julius Caesar: Explained
6 March 2022March 15th 44BC is perhaps the most notorious date in all of ancient history. On that fateful day, the Ides of March, 55-year-old Roman dictator...
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27:19
Yellowstone: The World's First National Park
6 March 2022This year is the 150th anniversary of the world's first national park of its kind, Yellowstone. Each year nearly four million people visit the...
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40:33
The Origins of Kyiv
5 March 202224th of February 2022 marked the beginning of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. This episode of Gone Medieval looks at the origins of its capital...
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32:33
Fighting For Another Country
4 March 2022In February 2022, UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss voiced her support for those individuals who wanted to travel to Ukraine to help, what she...
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46:18
Edward VI: The Last Boy King
4 March 2022Edward VI, son of Henry VIII, became king at the age of nine. All around him loomed powerful men who hoped to use him to further their own ends....
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How the Tudors Told Time
3 March 2022How time passes - or how it is understood to pass - itself has a fascinating history. For the Tudors, the uneven hours of the Medieval reckoning...
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1:05:25
The Origins of Ukraine
3 March 2022It's not often we cover current affairs on The Ancients (the clue is in the name), but in light of Putin’s claims that Ukraine was “entirely...
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40:13
Wellbeing in Nature with Jake Humphrey
3 March 2022Podcaster, presenter and bestselling author, Jake Humphrey, is On Jimmy’s Farm today.
Jake talks to Jimmy about how the natural world has...
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46:30
The Guinea Pig Club: Plastic Surgery & WW2
2 March 2022Of all the clubs in the world, perhaps the most extraordinary is the Guinea Pig Club, a group of Second World War veterans that suffered terrible...
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21:03
ENDURANCE22: Onto the Ice
2 March 2022On today's episode, Dan takes the podcast out onto the Antarctic ice to find penguins, seals and the expedition scientists conducting experiments....
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42:16
Discovering Bury St Edmunds
1 March 2022The historic cathedral town of Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk may well be familiar to listeners to Gone Medieval - perhaps from our episode 'Saint...
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24:59
The Real Peaky Blinders
1 March 2022Who were the real Peaky Blinders? Did they really exist? Carl Chinn reveals the true story of the notorious gangs that roamed Birmingham's streets...
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1:31
Welcome to Patented: History of Inventions
28 February 2022Stories of invention and innovation through history hosted by Dallas Campbell.
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48:21
Same-Sex Marriages in Renaissance Rome
28 February 2022All this month on the History Hit family of podcasts, we've been marking LGBT+ History Month. To round off the month, Professor Suzannah...
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41:57
Fighting With Pride: Lifting the Armed Forces' Gay Ban
28 February 2022By law, gay men and women were banned from serving in the British military until the year 2000. Until that year, over 250 service personnel were...
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21:39
How the Mongols Changed the World
28 February 2022After the death of Chinggis Khan, the founder and first Emperor of the Mongol Empire, the land became the largest contiguous empire in...
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32:20
Sappho: The Poet from Lesbos
27 February 2022Famous throughout antiquity, yet retold only in fragments today - who is Sappho? Her poetry inspired generations, from Catullus to Byron, so...
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22:17
An Audacious Heist at the National Gallery
27 February 2022Please note that this episode contains spoilers from the film ‘The Duke’.
Kempton Bunton was a taxi driver who stole Goya’s portrait...
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32:14
1066: What Became Of The Anglo-Saxon Children?
26 February 20221066 is a year carved into the history of western Europe. It radically transformed the cultural, political and built landscape of England in a way...
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35:55
Crisis in Ukraine: Putin & NATO
25 February 2022Ukraine has been invaded by Russia. But why? What is NATO’s purpose, and why does it bother Vladimir Putin so much? In this episode of Warfare,...
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