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
54:33
Britain After the Ice Age: Star Carr
24 March 2024Over 13,000 years ago, Britain emerged from the ravages of the Ice Age as a changed land. Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who had adapted to cold...
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55:45
The Real Shogun: The English Navigator Who Became a Samurai
24 March 2024In the year 1600, a bedraggled English sailor and his sick and dying crewmates anchored off the coast of Kyushu, Japan. His name was William...
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49:29
King Henry II
22 March 2024One of the pivotal figures in Medieval history, King Henry II centralised royal power, instituted legal reforms and established common...
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56:27
Did the Cold War Ever End?
21 March 2024Would the Cold War have happened if the nuclear bomb was never created? How did Gorbachev, Reagan and Thatcher reduce tensions between the East...
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38:44
Abraham Lincoln's Sex Life
21 March 2024Abraham Lincoln is often thought of as the most loved president in America's history, but how much do we know about his personal...
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46:18
England's Worst Witch Trial: Pendle Witches
21 March 2024Inside the heavy walls of Lancaster Castle, the darkest & deadliest of English witch trials played out in 1612 - the Pendle Witch Trials. By the...
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46:35
Tudor Ladies-in-Waiting
21 March 2024For every Tudor Queen, their ladies-in-waiting were their confidantes, chaperones and intimate witnesses to their lives. These women were high...
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55:19
Great Wall of China
20 March 2024It's one of the most iconic structures in the world: The Great Wall of China.
But is it just one wall? And who built it and why? Today,...
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22:16
Atlantis
20 March 2024The fictional island of Atlantis has intrigued and eluded us for millennia. First mentioned in the works of Plato, it's a story that captures our...
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42:36
The Power of Medieval Icons
19 March 2024In the Middle Ages, how did art - particularly Christian icons - serve to connect humanity with heavenly realms? How did such images spread...
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48:56
The Celebrity Sex Worker of Ancient Greece
19 March 2024This is the story of one of the most notorious women of the Ancient world.
Phrynne was a sex worker in the 4th century BC who came from an...
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51:34
Persia: Rise of the Sasanians
19 March 2024The Sasanians are renowned as one of Rome's most feared enemies. Founded in third-century Persia by an Iranian noble called Ardashir, their...
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47:01
Irish in America: Poverty to Power
18 March 2024At least 23 of the Presidents of the United States can have their ancestry traced back to Ireland.
So why did this diaspora come to America?...
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37:25
Diary of a Tudor Gentlewoman
18 March 2024Diaries written by gentlewomen in the mid-16th century are hard to find. Yet, they lived through an age of upheaval as old ways were effaced in...
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22:46
The History of the RNLI
18 March 2024In the tempestuous waters of the 18th century, a revolutionary idea emerged from the depths of despair and necessity: the lifeboat. Born from the...
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46:42
St Patrick: Pirates, Snakes and Goatees
17 March 2024He wasn't Irish. He didn't wear green. There were no snakes. So who was the real St Patrick? How did his myth grow? And how did he invent the...
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49:15
Warfare in Ancient Greece
17 March 2024How did warfare work in Ancient Greece? The weapons and armour of the Greek hoplite are legendary, as are the warrior cultures of city-states like...
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47:42
Artemis: Goddess of the Hunt
16 March 2024Artemis is best known as the goddess of the Hunt. But she is far more than just the famed huntress of Greek mythology - she is the patron of the...
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36:04
Peasants' Revolt
15 March 2024The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was a public rebellion that sent revolutionary ripples across the entire medieval world. In a new video series...
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48:50
Viking Sexuality
15 March 2024The Vikings have a fair claim to being the most overly-eroticised group of people in history. It's fair to say this is somewhat...
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42:36
Lincoln: Love, Loss & Legacy
14 March 2024President and Commander-in-Chief at a major turning point in American History? Victim of a violent and public assassination? How do you remember...
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