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
20:12
ENDURANCE22: The Man Who Filmed the Expedition
10 February 2022The extraordinary story of Shackleton's doomed Trans-Antarctic expedition has captured audiences for over 100 years. It's not just because it's a...
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38:35
Eating Insects with Dr Sarah Beynon
10 February 2022Around two billion people around the world already eat insects on a regular basis - so why do so many feel squeamish at the the thought of...
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29:20
Britain and China in the Opium Wars
9 February 2022In this episode from the History Hit archive, Dan Snow speaks to British military historian Mark Simner about the Opium Wars, events that are rarely...
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38:50
Understanding Medieval Women Through Crime
8 February 2022Justice; the principle that people receive that which they deserve. But what did this mean for women when dealing with Medieval Law? In today's...
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35:18
Travel in the Ming Dynasty
7 February 2022Around 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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1:01:04
Fall of Singapore: Britain's Worst Military Defeat?
7 February 2022In the midst of World War Two, the 7th of February marks the beginning of the week long battle between the Japanese Empire and the British over...
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1:00:28
The Origins of London
6 February 2022London is today one of the greatest cities in the world, and the story of its origins is fittingly spectacular. Founded by the Romans as Londinium...
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58:31
Alexander's Successors at War: The Spartan Adventurer
6 February 2022Tristan of The Ancients podcasts has published his first book, Alexander’s Successors at War: The Perdiccas Years. Focussing in on 323 –...
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35:28
Ely Cathedral: 700 Years Since Disaster
5 February 2022During the early hours of February 13 1322, disaster struck at the vast cathedral on the Isle of Ely in Cambridgeshire, known now as the Ship of...
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29:51
The Winter War: Lessons for Ukraine
4 February 2022Molotov Cocktails, stealth skiing, and a ruined Birthday party for Stalin? What exactly happened in the Winter War of 1939-40 between Russia and...
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41:50
ENDURANCE22: Dan Sets Sail for Antarctica!
4 February 2022The expedition has begun and Dan is here to answer your questions about all things Endurance22, the expedition to find Shackleton’s lost...
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46:57
Edward VI: The Last Boy King
3 February 2022Edward VI, son of Henry VIII, became King of England at the age of nine. All around him loomed powerful men who hoped to use him to further their...
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1:02:08
The Phoenician World
3 February 2022Imagine you are a traveller sailing to the major cities around the Mediterranean in 750 BC. You would notice a remarkable similarity in the dress,...
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57:21
Building the Eden Project with Sir Tim Smit
3 February 2022Since the Eden Project opened its doors in 2001, more than 19 million people have visited and it’s contributed more than £1.9 billion to the...
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34:22
Russia's Threat to Invade Ukraine
3 February 2022Amid Moscow’s increasing build-up of troops along the Ukrainian border and the preparation of infrastructure for a possible invasion, tensions...
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22:36
Battle of Britain: What Were the Germans Thinking?
2 February 2022Were the German Luftwaffe the mighty Goliath to Britain's David during the Battle of Britain, or were they in fact more evenly matched? And what on...
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32:33
The Troubles: How It Started
2 February 2022With Kenneth Branagh film, Belfast, hitting cinemas - we run down the historical background of the early years of the decades-long conflict in...
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31:40
The Vikings from East to West
1 February 2022To mark the US release of our very own Dr Cat Jarman’s incredible book River Kings: A New History of the Vikings from Scandinavia to the Silk...
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32:44
The Forgotten Einstein
1 February 2022John von Neumann is one of the most influential scientists to have ever lived, a man who was in his day as well-known as Einstein and considered...
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2:07
Introducing: On Jimmy's Farm
31 January 2022Join celebrity farmer, ecologist and conservationist, Jimmy Doherty, on his farm as he talks to eco-experts and well-known faces about trying to...
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51:40
Antwerp: Renaissance Europe's Dazzling Sea Port
31 January 2022Antwerp during the Renaissance was as sensational as nineteenth-century Paris or twentieth-century New York. For half the sixteenth century, it...
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