History Podcasts | History Hit

 

 

History Hit 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

39:31

Eels in the Middle Ages: Meals & Money

26 October 2021

The European eel is now categorised as a critically endangered species, but 1000 years ago they flourished in abundance, and were an important aspect...

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36:41

Richard III vs Henry VII

25 October 2021

We all think we know the story of Richard III and Henry VII, or do we? Richard III is often portrayed as a child-murdering usurper whose reign was...

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56:46

Witches & Puritans

25 October 2021

On a remote Massachusetts plantation in 1651, an unpopular local brickmaker was blamed for a wave of animal ailments, children dying and vanishing...

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28:45

WW2: Special Boat Service

25 October 2021

Many have heard of the SAS (Special Air Service), but what about the SBS? Britain's SBS (Special Boat Service) was the first operations unit of its...

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24:17

Sharpe is Back! Bernard Cornwell

24 October 2021

Watch out loyal servants of Napoleon, Sharpe is back! In this episode, Dan sits down with legendary author Bernard Cornwell to discuss the return of...

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48:14

Mavia: Arabia's Warrior Queen

24 October 2021

To fight against the Roman empire and then make an alliance with them took a certain courage and tenacity. In this episode we are introduced to...

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44:55

Tuskegee Airmen: A WW2 Pilot's Story

23 October 2021

The Tuskegee Airmen were the first African-American military aviators in American military history. They faced discrimination and segregation at...

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39:09

Medieval Treasures at the National Archives

23 October 2021

The National Archives can be seen as any medieval historian's candy store. It's filled with an amazing variety of materials, from the Magna Carta to...

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31:57

Drone War in Vietnam

22 October 2021

Drones are often considered among the most modern elements of warfare, and their use doesn't regularly feature in stories of the Vietnam War. But as...

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19:35

Britain's Overlooked Hero: From the Trenches to the Blitz

21 October 2021

Serving on the front lines of the First World War, the homefront of the Second World War and as a community leader throughout his life, George...

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49:21

Massacre of the Huguenots

21 October 2021

The royal wedding of Marguerite de Valois and Henri de Navarre on 18 August 1572, was designed to reconcile France’s Catholics and Protestants -...

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49:09

Ancient Kazakhstan: Gold of the Great Steppe

21 October 2021

Gold and horses! 2,500 years ago, in the area of the Great Steppe that is now Eastern Kazakhstan, an extraordinary ancient Scythian culture...

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1:07:05

The Battle of Trafalgar

20 October 2021

On 21 October 1805, A British fleet commanded by Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson met the combined might of the French and Spanish fleets off the coast of...

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38:19

How States Become Sea Powers

20 October 2021

Andrew Lambert has written a magisterial history of sea power states, and the tools and methods of control they used to exert influence. From the...

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42:58

How Brutish Were Our Ancestors?

19 October 2021

Was life for our ancient ancestors brutish and short or did they exist as noble savages free and living in harmony with nature and each other? Many...

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30:30

Vikings & Mice in the Azores

19 October 2021

The Azores, an autonomous region of Portugal in the middle of the Atlantic, was said to be discovered in 1427 by Portuguese explorer Diogo de Silves....

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30:42

How Alcohol Built the British Empire

18 October 2021

During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries as the British Empire expanded across the globe an almost ubiquitous but often underappreciated...

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44:01

Mary I's Husband: Philip II of Spain

18 October 2021

Philip II of Spain - the most powerful monarch of the early modern period - was married to Queen Mary Tudor from 1554 until her death in 1558. But...

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43:32

WW2: The Viking Commandos of Telemark

18 October 2021

On 18 October 1942, a party of Norwegian agents were dropped into Telemark, Norway, for Operation Grouse. They were part of a mission to sabotage the...

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23:41

Dresden Survivor: Remembering Victor Gregg

17 October 2021

On 12 October 2021 World War Two veteran Victor Gregg passed away peacefully in his sleep just before his 102 birthday. He was part of a unique...

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51:31

Caracalla: The Common Enemy of Mankind?

17 October 2021

Often up there in the upper echelons of most articles listing Rome's worst emperors, it's fair to say that history has not been kind to...

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