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
Cheddar Man: Science and the Skeleton
28 February 2021Cheddar Man is the oldest almost complete skeleton of a Homo sapien ever found in Britain and, for this fantastic episode, Tristan spoke to the...
Listen NowLockdown Learning: The 19th Century Medical Revolution
26 February 2021The 19th century saw the world in the grip of the industrial revolution, a firepower revolution on the battlefield and a communications revolution...
Listen NowDaughters of Yalta
26 February 2021In February 1945, the ‘Big Three’ met for arguably the most important and controversial of the conferences of the Second World War. At the Yalta...
Listen NowThe Doolittle Raid
25 February 2021Today, we're talking about one of the great stories of American military history; The Doolittle Raid. In 1942 after the humiliation assault on Pearl...
Listen NowPetra: Rise of the Nabataeans
25 February 2021The assumption had once been that they were nomads until the Romans came. But more recent archaeological work in modern day Jordan is dispelling...
Listen NowAnti-government Violence in America
24 February 2021Leah Sottile joins me today to talk all about domestic terrorism and anti-government groups in the USA. In particular, we talk about the armed...
Listen NowBattle of Britain: Why The RAF Won
24 February 2021In 15 September 1940, the Luftwaffe made a gigantic aerial assault on London in the belief that the Royal Air Force was down to its last few...
Listen NowRemembering the Alamo with W. F. Strong
23 February 2021In this episode taken from our archive, I headed out to Texas in 2016 to discuss the Battle of the Alamo and what its legacy means for modern Texas....
Listen NowJohn of Gaunt: THE Royal Ancestor
22 February 2021Helen Carr joins me today to discuss John of Gaunt: son of Edward III, younger brother to the Black Prince, uncle of Richard II and father of Henry...
Listen NowScapa Flow's Sunken German Battle Fleet
22 February 2021At the end of World War One, the Allies seized the German fleet and held it at Scapa Flow, in Orkney, until the terms of the Treaty of Versailles...
Listen NowIn Conversation with David Baddiel
21 February 2021In this episode taken from our archive, David Baddiel talks to Dan about the Second World War, Trump's Mussolini-isms, and why Jim Callaghan makes...
Listen NowLugdunum: The Biggest Battle in Roman History?
21 February 2021In 197 AD, the armies of Septimius Severus and Clodius Albinus met at Lugdunum, on the site of present day Lyon. If we believe the numbers given in...
Listen NowBrexit History Showdown with Robert Tombs
20 February 2021Five years after the announcement of the Brexit referendum I am joined on the podcast by Robert Tombs, author of The Sovereign Isle: Britain In and...
Listen NowVikings: River Kings
19 February 2021Today, I am joined by Cat Jarman bio-archaeologist and author of a new book all about how the Vikings spread east, often utilising the rivers of...
Listen NowWilliam Stephenson: Declaring War on the Nazis
19 February 2021Henry Hemming talks to Dan Snow about the life of William Stephenson, a British operative who worked hard to pressure Roosevelt into declaring war on...
Listen NowFrostquake
18 February 2021In the winter of 1962-63, the UK experienced a different kind of lockdown as freezing temperatures and ten weeks of snow kept people trapped at home...
Listen NowPalmyra: Pearl of the Desert
18 February 2021Palmyra features in headlines today as a casualty of IS destruction, but during its heyday it was a monumental city set on an oasis in the Syrian...
Listen NowBesieging Masada
17 February 2021Dramatically placed on a plateau with drops of 400m to the east and 90m to the west, Masada translates from Hebrew as fortress. It became just...
Listen NowWar Widows of WW2
17 February 2021After the Second World War, societies across the world struggled under a mass of social and political change. This disjointed period serves as the...
Listen NowLove Lives: From Cinderella to Frozen
16 February 2021We cover all the big topics on the podcast including weapons of mass destruction, climate change, great power rivalry and the struggle for...
Listen NowHitler and Stalin
15 February 2021I am joined by Laurence Rees, the best selling author, who has met more people that had direct contact with both Hitler and Stalin than any other...
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