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

53:53

Witchcraft & the Nobility

18 September 2021

Witchcraft has a plethora of negative connotations attached to it. Being accused and found guilty of this in the Middle Ages could be fatal, but...

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30:34

Henry VIII's Break with Rome

17 September 2021

King Henry VIII was deeply religious and started out as a staunch supporter of the Pope and the Roman Catholic church. But everything changed when...

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23:51

Band of Brothers & Masters of the Air

17 September 2021

Twenty years after the release of the landmark series Band of Brothers, screenwriter John Orloff is back to bring us Masters of the Air with Steven...

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47:14

Clothing Tudor Queens

16 September 2021

How did Tudor Queens clothe themselves? How did female fashion change over Henry VIII's reign? Did foreign Queens influence English fashion or...

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44:56

Hunting Stolen Nazi Art

16 September 2021

As the Nazi war machine rampaged across Europe it did not just take territory and resources from its conquests but also many thousands of pieces...

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53:21

Maya Warfare and Sacrifice

16 September 2021

With a history stretching back thousands of years, it’s about time that the Ancients started looking at the extraordinary Maya civilisation in...

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1:55:55

The Battle of Britain

15 September 2021

15 September marks Battle of Britain Day when the Luftwaffe sought a final decisive final battle over the skies of Britain with the RAF. In a day of...

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34:28

Battle of Britain: Truth vs Myth

15 September 2021

In June 1940 Nazi Germany overran France and forced the British army to evacuate at Dunkirk. Severely lacking in military equipment, Britain and its...

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27:14

The Last Hanging in Cardiff Prison

14 September 2021

In September 1952 Mahmood Hussein Mattan became the last to be hanged at Cardiff Prison, but Mahmood had in fact been framed by the police and 45...

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33:07

Could Medieval Women Be Military Leaders?

14 September 2021

It's often assumed that women played a passive role in Medieval society. But did women hold more power than we know? When a richly furnished grave at...

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53:21

Islam and the Elizabethans

13 September 2021

Elizabeth I's excommunication by the Pope in 1570 marked the beginning of an extraordinary - and little talked about - English alignment with...

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24:03

Viking Legend: Ragnar Lothbrok

13 September 2021

Ragnor Lothbrook is a legendary Viking figure who straddled the line between myth and reality. His adventures and deeds appear in the Viking sagas,...

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51:53

American Resistance Leader in Nazi Berlin

13 September 2021

Her American nationality could have offered her protection from the Nazi Regime. Instead, she used it to benefit the resistance movement. Mildred...

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29:30

9/11: The Legacy

12 September 2021

The tragic events of 9/11 left thousands dead and injured and the impact of that loss is still being felt twenty years later by the families. It...

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58:42

The Origins of Civilisation

12 September 2021

The world is constantly changing, and so has the perception of civilisation, but what exactly are the origins of this concept? Helping us...

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29:48

9/11: The Fire Commissioner at Ground Zero

11 September 2021

On the morning of September 11th, 2001 terrorists flew planes into both the World Trade Centre towers in New York and the Pentagon in Washington...

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40:10

Edward III's Failed Leopard Coin

11 September 2021

The leopard coin, which is considered the last 'unsuccessful' was re-called shortly after release. But did this coinage make more of an impact than...

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45:35

The Blitz: An Alternative History

10 September 2021

Between September 1940 and May 1941, the German Luftwaffe relentlessly pounded British cities with bombs in an attempt to force the British to...

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51:57

9/11: From the 105th Floor

10 September 2021

For the majority of us, our experience of 9/11 was transmitted through a TV screen, radio, newspaper or even history book. But Joe Dittmar’s...

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47:06

Making Babies in the 17th Century

9 September 2021

Making babies was a mysterious process for people in early modern England. Their ideas about conception, pregnancy, and childbirth tell us much...

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23:57

America's Secret President

9 September 2021

In October 1919 President Woodrow Wilson suffered a massive stroke leaving him paralyzed and partially blind. In the face of this crisis of...

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