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
40:50
Real History of the Illuminati
18 July 2024There really was a secret society called the Illuminati that aimed to create a New World Order. This is true story of the Illuminati and how they...
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33:34
The Royal Marines
17 July 2024Members of this elite unit - formed in 1664 under Charles II - were present at the American Revolution, the Battle of Trafalgar, the Crimean War,...
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39:17
US Presidents Who Were Almost Assassinated
16 July 2024Lincoln, FDR, Reagan, Clinton, Bush and now Trump. All have been targets of assassination attempts while in or running for office. Dan is joined...
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40:27
Gaslighting to Woke: Origins of Modern Buzzwords
16 July 2024What does it mean to be 'woke'? What did the bluesman Leadbelly mean when he coined the phrase? And what does a story set in Victorian London have...
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1:03:12
The Murder of Thomas Becket
16 July 2024Today on Gone Medieval we arrive at one of the most consequential events in English history; the murder of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas...
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36:28
The Rise of Presidential Power
15 July 2024Right from independence, a question has hovered over the government of the United States. How much power should the President have? Not too much,...
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37:14
The Death of Henry VIII
15 July 2024On 28 January 1547, King Henry VIII died at the age of 55. Just hours before his passing, his last will and testament had been read, stamped,...
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37:42
The Greatest Tea Race of the Victorian Age
14 July 20242/4. With towering masts and billowing sails, the Cutty Sark and the Thermopylae raced neck and neck through relentless waves to be the first to...
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47:32
Roman Roads
14 July 2024Do all roads lead to Rome? We find out in today's episode all about one of the Roman Empire's greatest legacies - it's web-like network of roads...
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48:10
Royal Murder: 1810 Death in St James's Palace
14 July 2024In 1810 a valet called Joseph Sellis was found dead in St James's Palace. All eyes turned to his master the Duke of Cumberland, fifth son of...
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33:07
The Cutty Sark
13 July 20241/4. Join Dan for the first episode in a mini-series telling four stories of ships that have shaped Britain and its maritime history, from the...
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36:54
Surprising History of Redheads: From Prehistoric Gingers to Ed Sheeran
12 July 2024Boudica. Elizabeth I. Ed Sheeran. The history of the redhead goes back thousands of years, and it fluctuates from prejudice in medieval Europe, to...
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45:51
Henry II & Thomas Becket: A Doomed Friendship
12 July 2024It's 1163; Thomas Becket has cast off the shackles of his working class roots to become King Henry II's right-hand man. He is appointed to the...
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38:14
President Grover Cleveland: Panic in the Second Term
11 July 2024What caused the economic panic of 1893? In this episode we are delving into the event that made Grover Cleveland's second term so different from...
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1:02:28
Birth of the Iron Age
11 July 2024It’s the end of the 12th century BC, and a once remarkable Near eastern world lay in ruin. Drought, warfare, famine, earthquakes, plague - all...
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57:26
Tutankhamun's Curse
11 July 2024Untimely deaths followed the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter. Coincidence or ancient curse? When the tomb of King Tutankhamun was...
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26:24
The First Japanese Visitor to Elizabethan England
11 July 2024In November 1588, a 21-year-old Japanese man called Christopher met Queen Elizabeth I. On the way, he had already become the first recorded...
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42:17
Britain's Secret Atomic Tests in Australia
10 July 2024During the 1950s, in the remote expanses of Australia's outback, the British government conducted a series of clandestine nuclear tests. These...
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44:38
Was Scott's Antarctic Expedition Sabotaged?
9 July 2024In the winter of 1911, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his party set out into the frozen heart of Antarctica. Battling blizzards and treacherous...
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37:13
Pope vs. Emperor: An 11th Century Crisis
9 July 2024When you think of drama in the medieval period the appointment of bishops would not naturally come to mind. But the Investiture Controversy is...
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40:16
Queer London & The Post-War Moral Panic
9 July 2024In the wake of the Second World War, a moral panic swept through Britain around a rise in homosexuality.
London was the heart of this scare...
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