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

27:47

30 Years since the Kurdish Uprising

6 April 2021

In the aftermath of the First Gulf War, groups rose up against Saddam Hussein's regime in a bid to win independence from Baghdad with devastating...

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22:35

Will This Be the New Roaring 20s?

5 April 2021

Our impressions of the Roaring 20s are a time of economic growth, social change and in some cases wild debauchery, but were the Roaring 20s really a...

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36:15

WW1 & WW2's Biggest Conspiracies

5 April 2021

Truth, rumour, conspiracy? Gill Bennett OBE had the job of sorting fact from fiction as chief historian of the Foreign Office from 1995-2005, and...

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50:16

300 years of British Prime Ministers: Part 1

4 April 2021

We're heading back to the Eighteenth century as 300 years ago Sir Robert Walpole became the first prime minister. In this first episode of our Prime...

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1:04:13

Jewish Burial at the Time of Jesus

4 April 2021

According to the Gospels, Jesus died and was removed from the cross on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath (Friday afternoon), before his body was...

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32:43

Violence Against Women in Victorian London

3 April 2021

In the 1880s and 1890s Whitechapel, in London, become notorious for its violence especially towards women but what lessons can be drawn from this...

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27:04

The Truth About Easter

2 April 2021

In one of the most popular episodes from our archive, Dan is joined by Francesca Stavrakopoulou to discuss the history and myths that surround...

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41:15

British Seapower in the 1900s

2 April 2021

During the changes and troubles of the 20th century, officials in Britain faced a huge question: how could they maintain imperial power? Dr Louis...

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21:14

Hitler's Atlantic Wall

1 April 2021

The Atlantic Wall is one of the biggest construction projects in history a line of formidable defences stretching from the Pyrenees to the Norwegian...

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1:00:18

The Xiongnu: History's First Nomadic Empire?

1 April 2021

Between the 3rd century BC and the 1st century AD, the Xiongnu inhabited the area surrounding Mongolia. They influenced the later Hun Empire, and had...

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23:23

Music and Humans

31 March 2021

Today we take music for granted but humans have a unique relationship with the musical form which reaches back far into our ancient past. In this...

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34:05

Battle of Britain 'What Ifs'

31 March 2021

Dr. Jamie Wood and Professor Niall Mackay at the University of York are mathematicians who love history. They released a paper which sent the rest of...

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32:13

Operation Jubilee: A Pinch Raid at Dieppe?

30 March 2021

On 19 August 1942, a six thousand strong combined Allied landing force took part in a raid on Dieppe, Northern France. Sixty-seven percent of...

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24:03

The Man Who Dropped the First Bomb on Iraq

29 March 2021

30 years ago Maj. Gen. Greg "the beast" Feest dropped a bomb from his F-117 stealth bomber destroying an Iraqi command bunker which began the air war...

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54:53

GCHQ: A History

29 March 2021

In this episode of Warfare we hear about what was happening behind the closed doors of GCHQ during the 20th century, from somebody who has been given...

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33:05

Boudica: Britain's Warrior Queen

28 March 2021

This episode from our sibling podcast The Ancients is all about that hero of British folklore; Boudica. Her leadership of the Iceni in an uprising...

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47:27

Music in Ancient Greece

28 March 2021

Without recordings, and with notation and instruments long forgotten, how can we possibly know what music soundtracked Ancient Greek life? James...

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17:46

Icelandic Volcanoes and Us

27 March 2021

This explosive episode is all about the effects of Icelandic volcanoes on us all. In 1783 a massive eruption of Lakagígar volcano nearly forced the...

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51:25

Origins of Nuclear Power

26 March 2021

The existence of nuclear weapons holds their owners in a position of mutually assured destruction with one another, but how did it come to be this...

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28:01

The Suez Canal

26 March 2021

The creation of the Suez Canal was the culmination of a dream stretching back to the pharaohs of connecting the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, but why...

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24:26

Greek War of Independence

25 March 2021

200 years ago the banner was raised which marked the beginning of the Greek War of Independence that would lead to their freedom from the Ottoman...

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