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
39:00
2. Machu Picchu: The Rise of the Inca Empire
5 March 2024Part 2/4. At their most powerful, the Inca had the largest empire in the world. Lasting just one century from the mid-15th century, it stretched...
Listen Now
38:06
Adventures of a Mughal Princess
4 March 2024In the British Library, there is a manuscript copy of the memoir of Princess Gulbadan, the only surviving female-authored memoir from the Mughal...
Listen Now
42:45
Machu Picchu: The 'Lost City'
4 March 2024Part 1/4. Dan takes the podcast to the Peruvian Andes as he follows in the footsteps of intrepid American explorer Hiram Bingham who revealed...
Listen Now
37:31
The Last Ship of the Atlantic Slave Trade
3 March 2024In July 1860, half a century after the importation of captive slaves was banned under federal law, a ship docked in Alabama carrying around 110...
Listen Now
45:25
The First Alien Abduction
3 March 2024In 1961 Betty and Barney Hill became the first people ever to be abducted by aliens. Their story of being taken and examined by extraterrestrials...
Listen Now
34:08
Zenobia: Queen of Palmyra
2 March 2024Zenobia, queen of the glittering city state of Palmyra, was a titan of the third century Near-East. By defeating the Persian Sassanid Empire in...
Listen Now
26:48
Medieval Ireland: Death & Politics
1 March 2024Court records of naked, murderous monks, tavern brawls, robberies gone wrong, tragic accidents and criminal gangs reveal how the English in...
Listen Now
56:48
History of Sex Work in America
1 March 2024Despite lawmakers best efforts, sex work has been around for since record began...and will certainly go back even further.
We often explore...
Listen Now
54:58
Lincoln the President
29 February 2024When it comes to US Presidents, it’s not easy to agree on much these days. But one thing that has remained consistent is the man widely...
Listen Now
40:54
The Paris Morgue's Dark Story
29 February 2024Citizens of Paris in the 19th century could stroll down to the Morgue to try to identify the unknown dead or to gawp at celebrity murder victims....
Listen Now
29:48
Origins of Fairy Tales
29 February 2024Fairy tales exist everywhere and in every time. Through centuries of oral tradition and the invention of print and later advances in...
Listen Now
40:12
The Silver Pharaohs
28 February 2024The Silver Pharaohs refers to a lesser-known set of ancient Egyptian rulers of the 21st Dynasty, named for the abundant silver discovered in their...
Listen Now
29:13
History of Gulags
28 February 2024On the 16th of February, 2024, the Russian Federal Penitentiary Service announced that opposition leader Alexei Navalny had died. He had been...
Listen Now
4:16
American History Tellers
27 February 2024The Cold War, Prohibition, the Gold Rush, the Space Race. Every part of your life - the words you speak, the ideas you share - can be traced to...
Listen Now
33:17
The Real Braveheart
27 February 2024This episode contains strong language, graphic scenes of torture and sexual content
The chances are, when we think of William...
Listen Now
41:28
Who Really Was Boudica?
27 February 2024She's the warrior queen who took on the mighty Roman Empire, but who really was Boudica?
Separating facts from the myths we've read can be...
Listen Now
36:24
How to Survive in Tudor England
27 February 2024Life in Tudor England was risky. In addition to the outbreaks of plague, the threat of poverty and the dangers of childbirth, there were...
Listen Now
36:47
Science vs. Witchcraft: The Kepler Trial
26 February 2024Astronomer Johannes Kepler was an important and admired figure in the scientific revolution of the early 17th century. But when his widowed mother...
Listen Now
33:56
Atatürk: Fall of the Ottoman Empire
26 February 2024On the 19th of May, 1919, an Ottoman general stepped ashore at the Black Sea port city of Samsun. This marked the beginning of the Turkish War of...
Listen Now
54:08
The Truth about the American Dream: The Baldwin-Buckley Debate
25 February 2024On February 18th, 1965, the University of Cambridge hosted one of the most legendary debates in history. Author James Baldwin and conservative...
Listen Now
41:52
Do Mermaids Exist? Historical Sightings & Myths
25 February 2024Did you know Benjamin Franklin began his career reporting mermaid sightings? Or that there's a mermaid on every cup of Starbucks...
Listen Now