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
46:30
Women 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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48:14
Spooky Origins of the Ouija Board
26 June 2024Do you dare try? The Ouija board was invented in 1890. It was an idea lifted from Spiritualist devices for communicating with the dead. Find out...
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28:27
Magna Carta in America
25 June 2024What does a document written in 1215 in England have to do with the United States? Surprisingly a lot actually! The Magna Carta is thought to have...
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31:01
Incest in Ancient Egypt
25 June 2024From recent research we know that the great boy king Tutankhamun was a result of incest.
How did it effect him? And was incest in Ancient...
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25:35
The Real Moriarty with Ben Macintyre
24 June 2024Adam Worth was the quintessential criminal mastermind. He faked his own death, robbed banks in the US, stole diamonds in South Africa and amassed...
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25:57
The Rosetta Stone
24 June 2024In 1798, the young French General Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt. After successfully taking Alexandria, he ordered the reconstruction of a fort...
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42:38
The First Battle of the Civil War: Fort Sumter
24 June 2024A 34-hour bombardment, one (accidental) death, and the start of the bloodiest war the United States has ever seen.
The Battle of Fort...
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43:21
Six Wives: Katherine Howard
24 June 2024Six wives - six lives that we think we know everything about. But beyond their mostly doomed marriages to Henry VIII and, in most cases,...
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41:41
Ghost of Marie Antoinette
24 June 2024What if a leisurely visit to the Palace of Versailles transported you back to the court of Marie Antoinette — would you believe it or question...
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27:22
John the Baptist
23 June 2024Not long after the turn of the first millennium, a Jewish prophet emerged from a period of desert solitude in the Jordan River valley. He wore...
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52:27
Heracles
23 June 2024Tristan Hughes continues the Greek Gods and Goddesses series with today’s deity; the most popular mythical hero of them all: Heracles, or...
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27:55
London's Oldest Parish Church: Great St. Barts
21 June 2024Once connected to a busy and thriving hospital, Great St Bart's Church in Smithfield is not only a survivor of the Great Fire of London, but also...
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37:59
The Whiskey Rebellion: Tax Protest & Armed Resistance
20 June 2024This episode was first released on November 14 2022.
The Whiskey Tax, imposed in 1791, was the first federal tax on a domestic product by a...
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46:21
Sex Life of Henry VIII
20 June 2024When we think of Henry VIII we think of a big, blood thirsty tyrant.
But was there more to this caricature of a king then we give him credit...
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37:47
Legendary Woman Samurai: Hosokawa Gracia
20 June 2024Toda Mariko, or Mariko-san, one of the main characters from the new TV series Shogun - adapted from James Clavell's epic novel - is based on a...
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43:32
Last Witches of England
20 June 2024This is the dark history of the last people to be executed for witchcraft in England. In 1682, Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles and Susannah...
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47:01
The Ark of the Covenant
19 June 2024The Ark of the Covenant is one of the most famous, yet mysterious, objects mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. This special box that held the sacred 10...
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42:38
The Other D-Day: The Eastern Front
18 June 2024Historian, broadcaster and author Jonathan Dimbleby joins Dan to explain how Hitler's plans in the East went disastrously wrong.
2 weeks...
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1:12:14
Dan's History Heroes: Britain's Greatest Soldier, Part 2
18 June 2024Please note that this episode contains some explicit language.
This is the story of Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, Britain's most extraordinary...
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44:05
The REAL Bridgerton: Historians React To Season 3
18 June 2024*SPOILER ALERT: THIS EPISODE CONTAINS DETAILS OF SEASON 3 OF BRIDGERTON*
With the second part of season 3 of Bridgerton dropping on Netflix...
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34:09
Pope Joan: Sacred Scandal
18 June 2024Out of the shadowy world of the medieval church, an extraordinary legend emerged of a woman who disguised herself as a man and remarkably, rose to...
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