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
48:24
Who are the Houthis?
7 February 2024As Houthi missile attacks on shipping in the Red Sea continue, we turn to the past to answer the all-important questions - who are the Houthis,...
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49:41
The REAL Charles Dickens with Miriam Margolyes
5 February 2024Joining us today is writer, actor and all-round Charles Dickens superfan Miriam Margolyes.
You might be familiar with Dickens' hugely...
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27:40
Supernatural Beings in Early Modern Britain
5 February 2024In the early modern period, it was patently clear to everyone that supernatural beings, foremost among them the devil, were at work in the world,...
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41:16
How Everyday People Built Medieval Japan
5 February 2024When it comes to Japan in the Middle Ages, we think mostly of stories of the Shogun, samurai and ninjas. But for a society dominated by the...
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31:10
The City of Alexandria
5 February 2024This is the story of a city that laid the foundations for our modern world. Sitting at the intersection of East and West, Alexandria has been home...
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34:54
Origins of the Civil War
4 February 2024The war between the Union and the Confederacy is a major turning point in the history of the United States. But why did it happen?
From...
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40:18
The Epic of Gilgamesh: Rise of Enkidu
4 February 2024The Epic of Gilgamesh is one of the oldest surviving works of storytelling from history. Written in ancient Mesopotamia over three thousand years...
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53:29
The Fairy Hoax That Fooled the World
4 February 2024In 1920 Sir Arthur Conan Doyle published a story more explosive than any adventure of Sherlock Holmes. He claimed that photographic evidence had...
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31:56
WWII: The Allied Invasion of Italy
4 February 2024By the summer of 1943, there were Allied boots on Axis soil. Sicily had been taken, and fascism's grip on Italy was beginning to loosen. But...
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39:28
President Franklin Pierce: Tragedies & Trade-Offs
1 February 2024We're creeping closer and closer to the Civil War in our chronology of presidents, and this episode's focus did little to delay the division of...
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39:20
Neanderthal Sex
1 February 2024What comes to mind when you think of a neanderthal?
Probably a hunched, hairy, grunting version of a man who’s shuffling around his...
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42:54
Tudor Conquest of Ireland
1 February 2024Henry VIII was termed "by the Grace of God, King of England, France and Ireland.” Ireland was England’s oldest colony. But what...
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37:33
Geoffrey Chaucer: Father of English Literature
1 February 2024Geoffrey Chaucer is perhaps medieval England’s most famous writer and poet. Now a new exhibition at the Bodleian Library in Oxford is setting...
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40:48
The First Dogs
1 February 2024For millennia dogs have been undoubtedly man’s best friend. But when did humans first start keeping dogs as pets? The fascinating story of...
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1:06:52
The American Ripper
1 February 2024Who was the American Ripper? How many people died at his hands? What on earth is a 'murder castle'? Anthony and Maddy head down a rabbit hole on...
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42:06
Prohibition
1 February 2024On 17 January 1920, the 18th Amendment came into effect in the United States. It made the manufacture, sale and transportation of 'intoxicating...
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31:52
The 7 Wonders of the Ancient World
31 January 2024People have always looked to the wonders of the ancient world for awe and inspiration. In the Ancient era, people embarked on dangerous...
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38:35
First Polynesians
30 January 2024In small wooden canoes and with just the stars for navigation, how did the first Polynesians conquer the largest ocean on earth? For centuries...
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32:41
The Apache Wars
29 January 2024What were the Apache Wars? How did they begin? And how did the end of the Mexican-American War impact the indigenous people of that...
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45:58
Sex in Ancient Rome
29 January 2024How sexually depraved were the Romans?
Whilst they were a civlised, stoic and innovative bunch, they were also a promiscuous bunch with very...
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31:57
The Black Death
29 January 2024By the time the Black Death subsided, between 75 and 200 million people in Afro-Eurasia were dead, entire towns and cities had collapsed, and the...
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