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
Al Qaeda
6 October 2021Their attacks of 11 September 2001 sparked a War on Terror which echoes loudly to this day, but where did Al Qaeda come from, how did their...
Listen NowNelson's Victory at Trafalgar
6 October 2021On 21 October 1805, the British Royal Navy, commanded by Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, emerged victorious over the combined French and Spanish fleets....
Listen NowBritain and the Slave Trade
5 October 2021Between the sixteenth and nineteenth centuries, Britain was a key player in the transportation of millions of enslaved Africans to the colonies....
Listen NowEarly Medieval Burials
5 October 2021How we bury the dead has changed drastically throughout history, from grave goods to bed burials. But just how drastic are the changes in burial...
Listen NowThe Winter of Discontent
4 October 2021In the bitter winter of 1978-1979 petrol ran short, panic buying was rife, rubbish piled up in the streets and bodies went unburied as a wave of...
Listen NowLady Jane Grey
4 October 2021On a cold February morning in 1554, Lady Jane Grey was beheaded for high treason. Named as King Edward VI as his successor, Queen Jane had reigned...
Listen NowWW2: War Reporters in the Pacific Theatre
4 October 2021The Second World War was the first time that many on the home front in the United States were able to see and hear war in action. In this episode,...
Listen NowWilliam Wallace
3 October 2021William Wallace is a legendary figure in Scottish history as one of the leaders of the First War of Scottish Independence. He led the Scots to a...
Listen NowThe Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great
3 October 2021In his lifetime King Alexander III of Macedon, better known as Alexander the Great, forged one of the largest empires in ancient history. But it...
Listen NowJames Holland on The Sherwood Rangers: Legendary Tank Regiment
2 October 2021Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry was one of the best tank regiments of the Second World War and was at the speartip of the British Army from the North...
Listen NowRichard III
2 October 2021Richard III of England is one of medieval history's most controversial figures. He is known to many as a tyrant, a sleazy, greedy king who even...
Listen NowWW2: Czech Resistance
1 October 2021Though excluded from decisions on their occupation in the Munich Agreement in 1938, the citizens of the new country of Czechoslovakia were by no...
Listen NowÆthelred the Unready
30 September 2021His 38 years as king make him one of the longest-ruling monarchs in English history, and yet he is remembered as unsuccessful, naive and overly harsh...
Listen NowSir Thomas More
30 September 2021Who was Thomas More - Knight, Chancellor and Martyr? His life is paradoxical, with More regarded as both saint and persecutor, Humanist...
Listen NowThe Oldest Human Footprints in North America
30 September 2021This week our understanding of when humans first inhabited the North American continent has been turned on its head … by a set of c.22,000 year...
Listen NowBond, The Secret Service & Exporting Britain's Influence
29 September 2021James Bond is a character that has come to define a certain kind of Britishness but what, if any, role does 007 play in the real world of...
Listen NowDrones: A History
29 September 2021Although the use of drones has become well established and publicised in recent years, the history of unmanned aircraft stretches all the way back to...
Listen NowJames Bond
28 September 2021James Bond is one of the most successful films and book franchises of all time and with the arrival of a new addition to the canon it seemed the...
Listen NowMedieval Science
28 September 2021The word 'medieval' is often used to describe backward ideas and opinions, but why is this the case? The middle ages was a time of life-changing...
Listen NowThe Last Witches of England
27 September 2021In 1682 three women, Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles and Susannah Edwards, from the town of Bideford were tried and hanged as witches. They were...
Listen NowThe Gunpowder Plot: Tudor Origins
27 September 2021The Gunpowder Plot is one of the hinge events of British history - an act of terror the roots of which stretch back to the Tudor period and Henry...
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