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
46:21
Sex Life of Henry VIII
20 June 2024When we think of Henry VIII we think of a big, blood thirsty tyrant.
But was there more to this caricature of a king then we give him credit...
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37:47
Legendary Woman Samurai: Hosokawa Gracia
20 June 2024Toda Mariko, or Mariko-san, one of the main characters from the new TV series Shogun - adapted from James Clavell's epic novel - is based on a...
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43:32
Last Witches of England
20 June 2024This is the dark history of the last people to be executed for witchcraft in England. In 1682, Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles and Susannah...
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47:01
The Ark of the Covenant
19 June 2024The Ark of the Covenant is one of the most famous, yet mysterious, objects mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. This special box that held the sacred 10...
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42:38
The Other D-Day: The Eastern Front
18 June 2024Historian, broadcaster and author Jonathan Dimbleby joins Dan to explain how Hitler's plans in the East went disastrously wrong.
2 weeks...
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1:12:14
Dan's History Heroes: Britain's Greatest Soldier, Part 2
18 June 2024Please note that this episode contains some explicit language.
This is the story of Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, Britain's most extraordinary...
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44:05
The REAL Bridgerton: Historians React To Season 3
18 June 2024*SPOILER ALERT: THIS EPISODE CONTAINS DETAILS OF SEASON 3 OF BRIDGERTON*
With the second part of season 3 of Bridgerton dropping on Netflix...
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34:09
Pope Joan: Sacred Scandal
18 June 2024Out of the shadowy world of the medieval church, an extraordinary legend emerged of a woman who disguised herself as a man and remarkably, rose to...
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46:39
Dan's History Heroes: Britain's Greatest Soldier, Part 1
17 June 2024This is the story of Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, Britain's most extraordinary soldier. The one-handed, one-eyed, walking stick-wielding war hero...
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40:53
Presidential Pardons: Mormons, Conscientious Objectors & January 6th
17 June 2024In the US Constitution, the President of the United States is granted the right to pardon those convicted of federal crimes.
But how do they...
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41:30
Six Wives: Anne of Cleves
17 June 2024Six wives - six lives that we think we know everything about. But beyond their mostly doomed marriages to Henry VIII and, in most...
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41:06
The ‘Genius’ Killer
17 June 2024The so-called 'Genius' Killer was a murderer who seemed to be both philosopher and psychopath, whose brain was one of the largest ever recorded....
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49:22
Origins of the Celts
16 June 2024The Celts are an ancient people shrouded in mystery and intrigue. In the minds of most people the word ‘Celt’ refers to the people of Iron Age...
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37:59
The Rise and Fall of the Ku Klux Klan
15 June 2024With a sinister hierarchy of "grand wizards" and "dragons," hooded Klansmen concealed their identities as they unleashed a reign of terror on...
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45:43
Tudor Lesbians
14 June 2024Throughout history, it's mostly been queer men who were persecuted under the historical sodomy laws, but the Tudor period saw a spike in women...
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38:51
Rise of the Crusader States
14 June 2024The Crusader states in the Near East were created after the First Crusade in order to keep hold of the territorial gains made by those known in...
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35:15
President Grover Cleveland: Honest to a Fault?
13 June 2024They say that honesty is the best policy, but was this the case for Grover Cleveland? He may be the only president to have served two...
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38:10
Prison Hulks: Floating Hells for Convicts
13 June 2024Convicts, illegal dissections, disease, all taking place on ships described as "Wicked Noah's Arks" where conditions were even worse than in...
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34:26
Shakespeare's Players: Burbage and Kempe
13 June 2024Among the male players who performed thousands of new plays in the Elizabethan repertory, the most famous were Richard Burbage and Will Kempe,...
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48:03
Civil War Rivals: Robert E. Lee vs Ulysses Grant
12 June 2024100 years ago, in the spring of 1864, the Overland Campaign ignited a ferocious clash between two titans of US military history: Ulysses S. Grant,...
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44:12
Moses & The Exodus
12 June 2024The story of Moses and the Exodus is one of the oldest and most well known in history. It is full of instantly recognisable episodes like the...
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