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
Accused of Witchcraft
30 August 2021Not all suspicions of witchcraft led to a formal accusation, and not all such accusations led to trials and execution. During the entire...
Listen NowThe Secret History of the SBS
30 August 2021The SBS was formed out of the Commandos during the Second World War to help counter Nazi domination of Europe. This small unit made up of regulars...
Listen NowTrident: Does the Nuclear Deterrent Work?
30 August 2021With the nuclear submarine TV series, Vigil, coming out last night, the UK’s leading expert on Trident, Dr Nick Ritchie from the University of...
Listen NowBritain's Economy: How We Got Here
29 August 2021The industrial revolution began in Britain and became one of the most extraordinary economic miracles in human history but the next two centuries...
Listen NowNan Madol: Venice of the Pacific
29 August 2021Nan Madol. It is one of the most awesome, enigmatic and unique ancient sites in the World, and yet most people have never heard the name. Labelled...
Listen NowMartin Luther King Jr
28 August 2021On 28 August 1963 Martin Luther King Jr delivered his 'I have a dream' speech stood in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. to an...
Listen NowWars of the Roses: Castles & Guns
28 August 2021In Britain, you’re never too far from a castle. These landmark structures are key to the history of the country, the rise and fall of great powers...
Listen NowThe Invasion of Poland in World War Two
27 August 2021In this episode from the archive, Roger Moorhouse discusses the Polish campaign of 1939 comprehensively, separating the myths from reality and...
Listen NowAl-Qaeda
27 August 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 NowHenry VIII's Break with Rome
26 August 2021King Henry VIII was deeply religious and started out as a staunch supporter of the Pope and the Roman Catholic church. But everything changed when...
Listen NowThe Shortest War in History
26 August 2021On 27 August 1896, the British Empire went to war with the Zanzibar Sultanate for approximately 38 minutes! It is the shortest war in history. It...
Listen NowThe Lost Tomb of Cleopatra
26 August 2021Among the rulers of Ancient Egypt, Cleopatra VII has long held a place in legend, her story having been told in folklore, by Shakespeare and in...
Listen NowWW2: The Great Imperial War
25 August 2021Most consider the Second World War to have been fought between 1939-1945 but, as you'll hear in this podcast, Richard Overy believes that the...
Listen NowWW2: The Doolittle Raid
25 August 2021It's one of the great stories of American military history; The Doolittle Raid. In 1942 after the humiliation assault on Pearl Harbour and determined...
Listen NowAncient Afghanistan: The Land of a Thousand Cities
24 August 2021Stretched along the north of the Hindu Kush mountain range and the south of the Oxus river, the history of the ancient region of Bactria envelops...
Listen NowHuman Sacrifice
24 August 2021Making sacrifices to the Gods is common practice in religion, even today. From symbolic to physical offerings, this is something that has happened...
Listen NowThe Rise of Marseilles: France's Oldest City
24 August 2021Today it is the second largest city in France. But Marseilles is also the country’s oldest city. Founded at the turn of the 7th century BC...
Listen NowThe Biblical Apocalypse in Münster
23 August 2021Between February 1534 and June 1535, the German city of Münster was seized and ruled over by a radical group of Protestant Christians called...
Listen NowThe Fall of the Soviet Union
23 August 2021In August 1991 there was an attempted coup in the Soviet Union as communist hard-liners sought to re-establish the dominance of Soviet rule in Russia...
Listen NowThe Cold War & the Power of Defence Spending
23 August 2021As the international community moved from World War to Cold War in the second half of the 20th century, the defence requirements of the United...
Listen NowNational Security in Trump's White House
22 August 2021H. R. McMaster is both a soldier and a scholar and has served at the highest level in government as National Security Advisor to President Trump. He...
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