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
How Parliament Came to Westminster
5 July 2024Parliament is perhaps the single most significant institution in the United Kingdom. Like anything worthwhile, it's a medieval creation. But why...
Listen NowWhat is Populism? From the Farmers' Alliance to Trump
4 July 2024In the long unanswered question of whether the established elite truly support the concerns of ordinary people, a supposed hero arises:...
Listen NowDomina: Women Who Shaped Rome
4 July 2024The crisis of the Roman Republic is a period littered with iconic male power players. Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Pompey, Brutus and the Gracchi...
Listen NowUltimate Tudor Spy-Master: Robert Cecil
4 July 2024Robert Cecil, statesman and spymaster, stood at the heart of the Tudor and then Stuart state, a vital figure in managing the succession from...
Listen NowReal Life Crime in Victorian London
4 July 2024"You've got to pick a pocket or two" says Fagan to Oliver Twist about the foggy streets of Victorian London where poverty and oppression abounded....
Listen NowA Short History of Pirates
3 July 2024Swashbuckling, murder and robbery on the high seas! We're bringing back the fan-favourite episode on Dr Rebecca Simon's 'Pirate Queens: The Lives...
Listen NowThe Inside Story of the Brexit Referendum
2 July 2024On the eve of the 2024 General Election, we're joined by Tim Shipman, chief political commentator at The Sunday Times, to hear about how things...
Listen NowSex & Scandal in UK Politics
2 July 2024With the UK election a mere few days away (at time of release), what better time to look back at some of the biggest scandals in our political...
Listen NowThe Rise of Thomas Becket
2 July 2024"Who will rid me of this troublesome priest?!"
These words supposedly uttered by a King over 800 years ago set in motion a chain of gruesome...
Listen NowHow did Brexit Happen? A History
1 July 2024On the eve of the 2024 General Election, we're tackling one of the UK's most divisive topics; Brexit.
The 2016 referendum on EU membership...
Listen NowSix Wives: Kateryn Parr
1 July 2024Six wives - six lives that we think we know everything about. But beyond their mostly doomed marriages to Henry VIII and, in most cases, tragic...
Listen NowHow 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...
Listen NowWhat 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...
Listen NowPublic 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...
Listen NowTemple 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...
Listen NowOrigins 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...
Listen Now1217: 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...
Listen NowPresident 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...
Listen NowOrigins 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...
Listen NowThe 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...
Listen NowWomen 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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