History Podcasts | History Hit

 

 

History Hit 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

41:52

Do Mermaids Exist? Historical Sightings & Myths

25 February 2024

Did you know Benjamin Franklin began his career reporting mermaid sightings? Or that there's a mermaid on every cup of Starbucks...

Listen Now
28:53

Roman Special Forces

25 February 2024

The Romans were renowned for their military prowess and skill. Their legions successfully conquered vast swathes of the Mediterranean world, led...

Listen Now
41:27

Abraham Lincoln

25 February 2024

Abraham Lincoln began his life in a log cabin in Kentucky, the son of poor pioneers. He would end it as President of the United States, having...

Listen Now
32:02

How to Cook Like a Medieval Chef

23 February 2024

Preparing, serving and sharing food has always played a critical role in human history. But what did people in the Middle Ages like to eat and...

Listen Now
40:40

D.B. Cooper & the 70s Hijacking Craze

22 February 2024

On 23 June 1972, a man boarded American Airlines Flight 119 in St Louis. He sat most of the way to Tulsa before donning a wig and a pair of gloves...

Listen Now
54:33

Origins of Carthage

22 February 2024

Famed as one of Rome’s fiercest enemies, the city of Carthage was one of the jewels of the ancient Mediterranean world. Situated on the coast of...

Listen Now
41:48

Ghosts & Guardian Angels

22 February 2024

In Elizabethan and Stuart England, ghosts weren't supposed to exist. Protestant preachers and writers had banished them - but people continued to...

Listen Now
39:05

The Earliest Evidence of Ghosts

22 February 2024

The earliest evidence of human belief in ghosts comes from 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. Who were these first ghosts? What was the underworld...

Listen Now
35:58

The Sex Life of William 'Braveheart' Wallace

22 February 2024

If you've seen the film Braveheart, you might have certain expectations about the real history of William Wallace.

Separating fact from...

Listen Now
36:11

Britain's Secret Expedition to Antarctica

21 February 2024

In 1943, just as the Second World War was raging across the globe, the British government launched a top-secret mission to the Antarctic....

Listen Now
44:08

The Real History of Sex Dolls

20 February 2024

The origins of the modern sex doll are shrouded in myth.

Some say they came from crafty sailors in the 18th century, a long way from home...

Listen Now
39:01

Sweyn Forkbeard: First Viking King of England

20 February 2024

Sweyn Forkbeard was the first Viking King of England, however you'd be forgiven for potentially forgetting who he was given he was only King for...

Listen Now
34:20

Harold Godwinson: The Last Anglo-Saxon King

20 February 2024

Dr Eleanor Janega and Matt Lewis uncover the stories of the protagonists and events that led up to the Battle of Hastings. There’s Harold...

Listen Now
37:23

Tulsa Massacre: Violence, Resilience & Rebirth

19 February 2024

The city of Tulsa is perhaps best known in history books for the events of 1921. In 36 hours, hundreds of residents of the Greenwood district were...

Listen Now
34:18

The Rise and Fall of Britain's Islands

19 February 2024

How did Britain's islands become woven into our collective cultural psyche? Traversing Irish poetry, Renaissance drama and Restoration utopias,...

Listen Now
20:26

Greek Myths: The Furies

19 February 2024

The gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece have been written about for thousands of years. From their home atop Mount Olympus, they reigned over the...

Listen Now
38:37

The Real Hannibal Lecter

18 February 2024

At the tender age of 23, Thomas Harris, author of The Silence of the Lambs, was sent to interview a convicted murderer inside a Mexican prison....

Listen Now
25:03

The Last Gay Men Executed in Britain

18 February 2024

Why was Georgian Britain's penal code so bloodthirsty when it came to homosexuality? Was Britain unusually cruel in this regard? And does this...

Listen Now
32:58

Ice Age Britain: Finding the First Homo sapiens

17 February 2024

Roughly 40,000 years ago, Ice Age Britain was undergoing a transformation. 

The first modern humans, Homo sapiens, were arriving and...

Listen Now
41:08

Sex Work in the Middle Ages

16 February 2024

Medieval England was not subtle.

Take sex work, for example. You knew exactly where to go, because the streets were labelled accordingly....

Listen Now
26:33

President James Buchanan: The Worst President Ever?

15 February 2024

From 1857 to 1861, James Buchanan held the office of President of the United States. It was a pivotal moment in the history of America, a bitterly...

Listen Now