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
26:42
US Withdrawal from Afghanistan with Rory Stewart
13 August 2021The current withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan raises a lot of questions about the conflict. Why are they withdrawing now? Was there a better...
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45:51
Alessandro de' Medici, Black Prince of Florence
12 August 2021In the cut-throat world of Renaissance Florence, Alessandro - the illegitimate son of a Duke and a mixed-race servant - attempts to reassert the...
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53:51
Gallipoli: What Led to Britain's WW1 Disaster?
12 August 2021What does the price of wheat and global food supplies have to do with one of the greatest disasters in the history of warfare? Why was the decision...
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39:38
Pompeii’s Indian Statuette
12 August 2021Among Pompeii’s great wealth of surviving artefacts is one with a rich globe trotting history that only goes to emphasise the interconnected nature...
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25:03
England's Great Viking Battle
11 August 2021On 11 August 991 one of the most important anglo-Viking battles took place near Maldon in Essex. This clash was immortalised in one of the finest...
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37:13
The Korean War
11 August 2021Sandwiched between the Second World War and the conflict in Vietnam, the Korean War has often been termed 'The Forgotten War' in the United States....
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42:01
Royal Mistresses
10 August 2021The role of the royal mistress may, on the face of it, seem a simple position but in reality, there was a lot more to being a royal mistress than it...
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1:05:57
10 Key Roman Emperors
10 August 2021Love them or loathe them, the Roman emperors were some of the most influential figures in history. In this episode Barry Strauss, Professor of...
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25:47
The Walls That Made Wales
10 August 2021For thousands of years, the building of walls has played an essential role in shaping the world as we know it; from being used to monitor populations...
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48:47
Henry VIII: Defender of the Faith
9 August 2021Five hundred years ago in 1521, the title 'Defender of the Faith' was bestowed by Pope Leo X upon King Henry VIII for his defence of the Catholic...
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23:39
The Bombing of Nagasaki
9 August 2021The second atomic strike on the city of Nagasaki is less well known than the one a few days earlier on Hiroshima, but was it more influential in...
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27:10
The Nuclear Button & US Presidents
9 August 2021It’s a devastating weapon of mass destruction, and in the United States the power to use it belongs to one person: the President. Since the...
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1:00:30
Sisters at War: The Rise and Fall of Elagabalus
8 August 2021Often found high on the list of Rome’s worst emperors, the short reign of the teenager Elegabalus in the early 3rd century AD is filled with...
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53:21
The Ultimate Cold War Spy Story
7 August 2021A Soviet double agent at the top of his game, a deadly game of cat and mouse with the KGB and one of the most daring escapes of the Cold War from the...
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38:34
The Origins of English
7 August 2021Approximately 1.35 billion people use it, either as a first or second language, so English and the way that we speak it has a daily impact on huge...
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48:39
How To Spot a Tithe Barn
7 August 2021Taxes are now an established aspect of our lives, but scattered across Britain’s countryside are reminders of their earliest days, when farmers...
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29:20
The Birth of the Internet
6 August 2021In the last 30 years, the internet has utterly changed the world in which we live and is now as vital as electricity in our daily lives. August 6,...
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53:21
WW1 & Gallipoli: Britain's Worst Defeat
6 August 2021What does the price of wheat and global food supplies have to do with one of the greatest disasters in the history of warfare? Why was the...
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42:11
The Witches of Lorraine
5 August 2021Between 1570 and 1630, there was intense persecution and thousands of executions of suspected witches in Lorraine, a small duchy on the borders of...
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29:43
Canada Confronts Its Past
5 August 2021The discovery of hundreds of unmarked graves at former Canadian residential schools have has led to a crisis of identity for the country as it...
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30:29
The Lost Baths of Cleopatra
5 August 2021Cleopatra. Hers is one of the most famous names that endures from antiquity. The victor of a civil war. The mistress of Julius Caesar and Marc...
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