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
54:25
How WWI Started
30 June 2024110 years ago today, the heir to the Austro-Hungarian Empire was struck down by an assassin's bullet. His death triggered one of the most...
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41:39
What Caused the American Revolution?
30 June 2024What took the US from the Boston Tea Party to Lexington and Concord? Where was the turning point for the creation of the republic?
Mary Beth...
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37:24
Public Executions: A Day At London's Hanging Tree
30 June 2024Would you have gone? Would you have drunk with the condemned? Paid your way into their prison the night before? Public executions in London were...
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1:01:26
Temple Mount
29 June 2024Temple Mount is one of the most sacred places in Jerusalem. A rocky outcrop that has become important for Islam, Judaism and Christianity and the...
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45:12
Origins of the Patriarchy
28 June 2024Whose idea was the patriarchy? How long has it been a part of our lives? And how do we even define it?
For something that's so prevalent in...
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51:21
1217: The year that forged England
28 June 2024Two years after King John had agreed to the terms of Magna Carta, he reneged on his word, plunging England into war. The rebellious barons...
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26:21
President Benjamin Harrison: The President with a Petting Zoo
27 June 2024Why is the 23rd President of the United States, Benjamin Harrison, remembered as a 'Human Iceberg'? Why did it seem as though he was predestined...
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44:03
Origins of the Silk Road
26 June 2024The Silk Road was a pivotal ancient exchange network that connected the grassy steppes of Asia and the Middle East with the Western world. The...
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59:15
The Biblical Kingdom of Israel
26 June 2024The story of the ancient kingdom of Israel is a central part of the Old Testament. Famous for its kings like Saul, David and Solomon, the kingdom...
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46:30
Women Pirates of the Caribbean
26 June 2024Anne Bonny and Mary Read were pirates who sailed the Caribbean in the early 18th century. For both of them, piracy offered a chance at a freedom...
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48:14
Spooky Origins of the Ouija Board
26 June 2024Do you dare try? The Ouija board was invented in 1890. It was an idea lifted from Spiritualist devices for communicating with the dead. Find out...
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28:27
Magna Carta in America
25 June 2024What does a document written in 1215 in England have to do with the United States? Surprisingly a lot actually! The Magna Carta is thought to have...
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31:01
Incest in Ancient Egypt
25 June 2024From recent research we know that the great boy king Tutankhamun was a result of incest.
How did it effect him? And was incest in Ancient...
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25:35
The Real Moriarty with Ben Macintyre
24 June 2024Adam Worth was the quintessential criminal mastermind. He faked his own death, robbed banks in the US, stole diamonds in South Africa and amassed...
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25:57
The Rosetta Stone
24 June 2024In 1798, the young French General Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt. After successfully taking Alexandria, he ordered the reconstruction of a fort...
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42:38
The First Battle of the Civil War: Fort Sumter
24 June 2024A 34-hour bombardment, one (accidental) death, and the start of the bloodiest war the United States has ever seen.
The Battle of Fort...
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43:21
Six Wives: Katherine Howard
24 June 2024Six wives - six lives that we think we know everything about. But beyond their mostly doomed marriages to Henry VIII and, in most cases,...
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41:41
Ghost of Marie Antoinette
24 June 2024What if a leisurely visit to the Palace of Versailles transported you back to the court of Marie Antoinette — would you believe it or question...
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27:22
John the Baptist
23 June 2024Not long after the turn of the first millennium, a Jewish prophet emerged from a period of desert solitude in the Jordan River valley. He wore...
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52:27
Heracles
23 June 2024Tristan Hughes continues the Greek Gods and Goddesses series with today’s deity; the most popular mythical hero of them all: Heracles, or...
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27:55
London's Oldest Parish Church: Great St. Barts
21 June 2024Once connected to a busy and thriving hospital, Great St Bart's Church in Smithfield is not only a survivor of the Great Fire of London, but also...
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