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

31:05

Operation Jubilee: A Pinch Raid at Dieppe?

12 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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20:45

History of Homelessness

11 March 2021

Throughout history homelessness has been given many names vagrancy, vagabonding, tramping. Indeed, homeless people have been seen in different...

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1:12:15

Women and Power in Ancient Egypt

11 March 2021

Kara Cooney has been studying 6 of the remarkable female pharaohs of Ancient Egypt. In this episode she explains why many of them have been...

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33:00

When We Nearly Nuked the Moon

10 March 2021

Vince Houghton joins me on the podcast today to talk about some of the weirdest and craziest ideas put forward during the twentieth century. We're...

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22:38

Coventry's Blitz

10 March 2021

On the night of 14 November 1940, a Luftwaffe air raid devastated the city of Coventry. Over 500 people were killed, more than 4,300 homes...

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42:11

Michael Palin: Erebus and Terror

9 March 2021

In this archive episode, Dan Snow wrangles with a Python! He talks to comedy legend Michael Palin about his book, Erebus The Story of a Ship. The...

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32:05

On This Day She

8 March 2021

To help celebrate International Women's Day I am joined on the podcast by Tania Hershman, Ailsa Holland and Jo Bell founders of On This Day She....

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36:32

The Bletchley Girls

8 March 2021

During the Second World War, Bletchley Park was the home of a top-secret code breaking centre. Only in the 1970s did people begin to discuss what...

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31:54

Boudica: Britain's Warrior Queen

7 March 2021

Boudica has become a hero of British folklore. Her leadership of the Iceni in an uprising against the forces of the Roman Empire in around 60 AD is...

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21:22

Eddie the Eagle

7 March 2021

I am joined by an absolute legend on the podcast today; Eddie the Eagle. He became an overnight sensation during the 1988 Winter Olympics as the...

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41:06

The British Landscape: 12,000 years of history

6 March 2021

Nicholas Crane is a geographer, explorer, writer and broadcaster. He has written and presented four notable television series for BBC Two: Coast,...

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20:51

The Renaissance

5 March 2021

Today on the podcast we're going to talk all about the Renaissance. We have all heard of it as a reawakening, a rebirth of European culture but what...

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37:48

Churchill and the Iron Curtain

5 March 2021

‘From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the continent.’ These words - spoken by Winston...

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26:02

What's Going on in Myanmar?

4 March 2021

Myanmar is currently experiencing one of its worst-ever periods of violence and civil unrest as the population protests against the recent military...

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50:24

The Origins of Warfare

4 March 2021

Popular discussions of human history are punctuated with conflict, but when did warfare begin? To discuss this massive question, Professor Nam Kim...

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26:58

Cheddar Man: Science and the Skeleton

3 March 2021

Today's episode is from our brilliant sibling podcast The Ancients. Cheddar Man is the oldest almost complete skeleton of a Homo sapien ever found in...

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26:59

The Nazis Next Door

3 March 2021

As many as 10,000 members of the Nazi party and the SS are estimated to have moved to the United States after the Second World War, legally and...

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22:31

French Resistance Heroine Heading to the Oscars?

2 March 2021

Joining me on the podcast today are Alice Doyard and Anthony Giacchino to discuss their film Colette: The french resistance fighter confronting...

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23:02

Queens of Jerusalem

1 March 2021

In today's episode of the podcast, I am joined by Katherine Pangonis a historian specialising in the medieval world of the Mediterranean and Middle...

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45:40

Life of a Luftwaffe Ace: Hugo Broch

1 March 2021

During the Second World War, Luftwaffe fighter pilot Hugo Broch claimed 81 victories in 324 missions on the Eastern Front. At Chalke Valley History...

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38:01

The Gulf War: 30 Years On

28 February 2021

On this day thirty years ago a ceasefire was declared bringing ground operations in the first Gulf War to an end. An overwhelmingly powerful...

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