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
40:07
Inside the Foundling: London's First Orphanage (Part 2)
19 December 2024(2/2) We find out what life inside the Foundling Hospital was like as we complete the heartbreaking and heartwarming history of London's first...
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37:51
Georgian Christmas
18 December 2024Pantomimes, pleasure gardens, bare-knuckle boxing and political upheaval. Christmas in the 18th and early 19th centuries was a very different...
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44:17
How Did People Smell in Medieval Times?
17 December 2024Accessing stories from the past can be difficult, but how do we access smells from the past?
In today's episode, Kate is joined by...
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55:56
The Haunting Medieval World of M.R.James
17 December 2024The chilling ghost stories of M.R.James are as much a part of our Christmas television viewing as the King’s speech. But few realise that...
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34:43
Was the Civil War Won by Chance?
16 December 2024How did a couple's holiday save Kyoto from certain ruin? How did a landslide contribute to the Revolutionary War? Basically, how have chance...
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33:37
Pirates of the Pacific & the Spanish Empire
16 December 2024Pirates weren’t just a menace on the high seas - they were a direct threat to Spain’s empire-building ambitions in the Pacific. Professor...
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49:20
Lost Children of Georgian London (Part 1)
16 December 2024Today Anthony and Maddy look into the heartbreaking history of the Foundling Hospital, now London’s saddest museum.
Starting in the...
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40:25
The Cod Wars
16 December 2024In the long and lamentable history of human conflicts, the Cod Wars have to be among the most bizarre. And what was the catalyst for them? You...
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48:29
The Thracians
15 December 2024They were ancient masters of cavalry, creators of dazzling treasures, and the ancestors of the legendary Spartacus, but who exactly were the...
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48:13
Life and legends along the Medieval coastline
13 December 2024Matt Lewis is joined by archaeologist Ben Robinson from BBC's 'Villages by the Sea' to explore the deep historical ties along Britain's coastline,...
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37:38
Catherine Howard | Secret Lives of the Six Wives
13 December 2024Henry VIII called her his 'rose without a thorn', but the teenage Catherine Howard was to fall out of favour less than 18 months after becoming...
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34:02
The Syrian Civil War: How It Started
13 December 2024Dan is joined by the Defence Editor for The Economist, Shashank Joshi, to explore the origins of the brutal Syrian civil war that has left the...
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48:31
President Calvin Coolidge: The Roaring 20s' Quiet Leader
12 December 2024Sworn in after the death of President Harding by the light of a kerosene lamp, the 30th President of the United States led the country through 6...
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40:46
Marie Antoinette
12 December 2024In 1770, 14-year-old Archduchess Maria Antonia of Austria arrived in France to marry Louis XVI. As Marie Antoinette, she became the ultimate diva...
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39:55
Predicting Death: Strange History of the Premonitions Bureau
12 December 2024Can we see beyond the veil, glimpse the future before it arrives? John Barker, a psychiatrist with a fascination for the unexplained, thought...
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40:55
The Wise Men
12 December 2024The Three Wise Men were kings, magicians, more than three, on camels, walking across deserts and the men who tricked Herod. How can they be all...
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32:32
Henry VIII's Tudor Christmas
11 December 2024Tudor Christmas was a time for revelry and fun. Henry VIII and his court celebrated the full 12 days of Christmas in excess, with tables ladened...
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51:34
Medieval Burials
10 December 2024What can medieval burial practices reveal about societal values and beliefs? Dr. Eleanor Janega is joined by biological anthropologist Dr. Jo...
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1:00:50
History (and Future) of Dating
10 December 2024The history of lonely hearts ads might be a lot deeper than you'd expect.
For as long as people have been printing newspapers, people (read:...
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53:43
Waco: A Cult, the FBI and a Fiery Ending
9 December 202476 people died on 19th April 1993 when the compound of a religious sect, the Branch Davidians, went up in flames. It had been under siege by...
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43:09
Elizabeth I & the Sultan of Morocco
9 December 2024Elizabeth I and Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur of Morocco shared a common goal of empire building, despite their cultural, political and religious...
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