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
53:20
Zeus
31 December 2023Zeus, the chief deity in Greek mythology, is the Olympian god of sky and thunder, and is king of all other gods and men.
His tale is one of...
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45:16
The Slave Revolt That Created A Country
29 December 2023Haiti was under French colonial rule in 1791 when the revolution began, resulting in the largest and most successful slave revolt in modern...
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41:00
Prohibition
28 December 2023On 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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45:26
The Black Medici Prince of Florence
28 December 2023In the cut-throat world of Renaissance Florence, Alessandro - the illegitimate son of a Duke and a mixed-race servant - attempts to reassert the...
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37:12
Blood Countess of Hungary: Sixteenth Century Serial Killer
28 December 2023The inspiration behind countless gothic novels, Countess Elizabeth Báthory is said to be one of the most prolific serial killers of all time,...
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46:53
Joan of Arc
28 December 2023Joan of Arc is a name that’s instantly recognisable to most people. A controversial figure in her own day, she has remained so ever since,...
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50:23
The Assassination of Julius Caesar
27 December 2023March 15th 44BC is perhaps the most notorious date in all of ancient history. On that fateful day, the Ides of March, 55-year-old Roman dictator...
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39:37
England & Portugal: The Oldest Alliance in the World
27 December 2023If you’re enjoying a glass of port during the festive period, you have the world’s oldest treaty to thank.
Winston Churchill once...
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45:47
Bonnie Prince Charlie
27 December 2023In August, 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie led a rebellion that brought the Jacobite cause closer to seizing the throne than any other. He had landed...
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36:53
The Book That Changed Sex Forever
26 December 2023There had been sex manuals for hundreds of years, but by the 20th century they were quite underground. That is, until the Joy of Sex was released...
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40:30
The Kennedy Curse
25 December 2023What was it about the Kennedys that attracted so much tragedy, that many believed them to be cursed?
From plane disasters in World War 2, to...
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40:20
The Rise of Christianity
25 December 2023In the fourth century AD, the Christian faith exploded out of Palestine, overwhelming the paganism of Rome, converting the Emperor Constantine in...
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27:44
Christmas Day Strangler: the murder of Gwen Ellen Jones
25 December 2023On Christmas Day 1909, Gwen Ellen Jones was murdered by William Murphy in the Welsh town of Holyhead. Anthony and Maddy tell the story with an...
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1:05:09
Rise of Hannibal
23 December 2023He was one of the greatest enemies the Romans ever faced. An excellent general and a larger-than-life figure, he led an army across the alps and...
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28:58
Pythagoras' Utopia
23 December 2023What comes to your mind when you think of Pythagoras, the ancient Greek polymath? Some might think of the Pythagorean theorem, a foundational...
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22:02
The Festive Fetish: Santaphilia
22 December 2023They say he comes once a year... ahem.
Santa is back! To a lot of people that's no bad thing at all, and we're not just talking about the...
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58:53
Sex & Sparta
21 December 2023This episode contains graphic references to sex, infant mortality, and sexual assault.
While Spartans are often thought of for their...
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54:11
Tudor Ghosts and Angels
21 December 2023To this day, the presence of angels is synonymous with the Christmas story and the momentous events associated with the Nativity. For the...
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37:24
What Food Did Medieval People Eat?
21 December 2023In times of plenty, we stuff ourselves. When the food runs out, we're basically stuffed. How did people in medieval Britain share the riches...
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34:41
Georgian Christmas
21 December 2023Pantomimes, pleasure gardens, bare-knuckle boxing and political upheaval. Christmas in the 18th and early 19th centuries was a very different...
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31:00
President James K. Polk: Lies, Warmongering & the Myth of Success
20 December 2023Is this the only president to have achieved all of their campaign promises? James K. Polk, the 11th Commander-in-Chief successfully led the nation...
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