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

The Lost Tomb of Cleopatra
26 August 2021Among the rulers of Ancient Egypt, Cleopatra VII has long held a place in legend, her story having been told in folklore, by Shakespeare and in...
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WW2: The Great Imperial War
25 August 2021Most consider the Second World War to have been fought between 1939-1945 but, as you'll hear in this podcast, Richard Overy believes that the...
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WW2: The Doolittle Raid
25 August 2021It's one of the great stories of American military history; The Doolittle Raid. In 1942 after the humiliation assault on Pearl Harbour and determined...
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Ancient Afghanistan: The Land of a Thousand Cities
24 August 2021Stretched along the north of the Hindu Kush mountain range and the south of the Oxus river, the history of the ancient region of Bactria envelops...
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The Rise of Marseilles: France's Oldest City
24 August 2021Today it is the second largest city in France. But Marseilles is also the country’s oldest city. Founded at the turn of the 7th century BC...
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Human Sacrifice
24 August 2021Making sacrifices to the Gods is common practice in religion, even today. From symbolic to physical offerings, this is something that has happened...
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The Biblical Apocalypse in Münster
23 August 2021Between February 1534 and June 1535, the German city of Münster was seized and ruled over by a radical group of Protestant Christians called...
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The Fall of the Soviet Union
23 August 2021In August 1991 there was an attempted coup in the Soviet Union as communist hard-liners sought to re-establish the dominance of Soviet rule in Russia...
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The Cold War & the Power of Defence Spending
23 August 2021As the international community moved from World War to Cold War in the second half of the 20th century, the defence requirements of the United...
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National Security in Trump's White House
22 August 2021H. R. McMaster is both a soldier and a scholar and has served at the highest level in government as National Security Advisor to President Trump. He...
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The Rise of Hannibal
22 August 2021He was one of the greatest enemies the Romans ever faced. An excellent general and a larger-than-life figure, he led an army across the alps and...
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The Witches of Lorraine
21 August 2021Between 1570 and 1630, there was intense persecution and thousands of executions of suspected witches in Lorraine, a small duchy on the borders of...
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King Arthur
21 August 2021King Arthur of Camelot, we've all heard stories about him, but who exactly was he? In this episode of Gone Medieval, Matt is joined by Senior...
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80th Anniversary of the First Arctic Convoy
20 August 2021As the Soviet Union reeled from the shock of the German invasion in 1941 it asked for aid from Britain and its allies and the arctic convoys was a...
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The Jacobite Risings
20 August 2021On 19 August 1745, the Jacobites engaged in the final of their five uprisings, stretching back to 1689. In this episode, Kelsey Ellington examines...
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Beauty Ideals in the 16th Century
19 August 2021What was the 16th century ideal of beauty for women? Fat or thin? Blonde or brunette? Pale or tanned? How did women keep clean? Did they...
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What Went Wrong in Afghanistan?
19 August 2021History is vital for contextualising current events but as Professor Paul Miller argues in today's episode of the podcast it cannot tell us all we...
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Colchester: From Bronze Age to Boudica
19 August 2021It is the one possible case of urbanisation in Britain prior to the arrival of the Romans, and that is just the start of the story of Colchester. In...
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Afghanistan: History Repeating Itself?
18 August 2021The collapse of the Afghan army and government and takeover by the Taliban has evoked many historical comparisons, but how valid are they? To find...
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Critiquing the War in Afghanistan with Mike Martin
18 August 2021In 2014, Dr Mike Martin famously critiqued the Ministry of Defence with a book based on a series of conversations Martin had with the Afghan locals,...
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The Rise of Oliver Cromwell
17 August 2021Oliver Cromwell is the only English commoner to become head of state and is one of the most remarkable and controversial figures in history....
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