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
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...
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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...
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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...
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28:53
Roman Special Forces
25 February 2024The Romans were renowned for their military prowess and skill. Their legions successfully conquered vast swathes of the Mediterranean world, led...
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41:27
Abraham Lincoln
25 February 2024Abraham 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...
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32:02
How to Cook Like a Medieval Chef
23 February 2024Preparing, 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...
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40:40
D.B. Cooper & the 70s Hijacking Craze
22 February 2024On 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...
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54:33
Origins of Carthage
22 February 2024Famed 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...
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41:48
Ghosts & Guardian Angels
22 February 2024In Elizabethan and Stuart England, ghosts weren't supposed to exist. Protestant preachers and writers had banished them - but people continued to...
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39:05
The Earliest Evidence of Ghosts
22 February 2024The earliest evidence of human belief in ghosts comes from 5,000 years ago in Mesopotamia. Who were these first ghosts? What was the underworld...
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35:58
The Sex Life of William 'Braveheart' Wallace
22 February 2024If you've seen the film Braveheart, you might have certain expectations about the real history of William Wallace.
Separating fact from...
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36:11
Britain's Secret Expedition to Antarctica
21 February 2024In 1943, just as the Second World War was raging across the globe, the British government launched a top-secret mission to the Antarctic....
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44:08
The Real History of Sex Dolls
20 February 2024The 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...
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39:01
Sweyn Forkbeard: First Viking King of England
20 February 2024Sweyn 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...
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34:20
Harold Godwinson: The Last Anglo-Saxon King
20 February 2024Dr Eleanor Janega and Matt Lewis uncover the stories of the protagonists and events that led up to the Battle of Hastings. There’s Harold...
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37:23
Tulsa Massacre: Violence, Resilience & Rebirth
19 February 2024The 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...
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34:18
The Rise and Fall of Britain's Islands
19 February 2024How did Britain's islands become woven into our collective cultural psyche? Traversing Irish poetry, Renaissance drama and Restoration utopias,...
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20:26
Greek Myths: The Furies
19 February 2024The gods and goddesses of Ancient Greece have been written about for thousands of years. From their home atop Mount Olympus, they reigned over the...
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38:37
The Real Hannibal Lecter
18 February 2024At 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....
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25:03
The Last Gay Men Executed in Britain
18 February 2024Why was Georgian Britain's penal code so bloodthirsty when it came to homosexuality? Was Britain unusually cruel in this regard? And does this...
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32:58
Ice Age Britain: Finding the First Homo sapiens
17 February 2024Roughly 40,000 years ago, Ice Age Britain was undergoing a transformation.
The first modern humans, Homo sapiens, were arriving and...
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