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
40:34
The Invention of Heterosexuality
8 December 2023Sexuality is a funny thing. It's a social construct just as much as, say, virginity is.
We use words like heterosexuality and homosexuality...
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41:20
Vikings in Medieval Baghdad
7 December 2023In the ninth century, the Vikings earned a fearsome reputation by wreaking chaos on the coasts of western Europe. But what is perhaps less well...
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52:16
Demeter with Natalie Haynes
7 December 2023Demeter is the Goddess of the Harvest and Agriculture in Ancient Greek mythology.
Mother of Persephone, and daughter of Kronos and Rhea,...
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44:01
The Tudors' Portrait Artist: Holbein
7 December 2023How we visualise the Tudors largely comes from their portraits painted by Hans Holbein the Younger. Between 1526 and 1543, he captured the...
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32:55
The Ghost of Anne Boleyn
7 December 2023We talk the ghost of Anne Boleyn, Queen of England before Henry VIII chopped off her head, with the marvellous Tracy Borman.
Where can Anne...
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36:04
Mother Shipton: Tudor Prophetess of England's Doom
7 December 2023Did a Tudor prophetess correctly predict the English Civil War, the Crimean War, the sinking of the Titanic, World War One and the end of days?...
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37:05
President John Tyler: The 'Accidental' President
6 December 2023He may have been the tenth President, but John Tyler - 'His Accidency' - was a pioneer in many ways.
Tyler was the first Vice President to...
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41:32
A Guide to Ancient Egypt
6 December 2023Egypt was a vast kingdom of the ancient world. Its rulers were considered gods and wielded tremendous power and wealth. Egyptian scholars,...
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24:12
Medieval Baghdad
5 December 2023Today we find ourselves in 9th-century Baghdad, the beating heart of the Islamic Abbasid Caliphate. This was a vast empire that stretched from...
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45:08
The Rise & Fall of Political Parties
4 December 2023The two party division of the US political system is as evident as ever as we warm up to the 2024 elections. But where does this state of affairs...
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46:37
Hellfire Club: Sex, Scandal & Satanism in Georgian England
4 December 2023Sex, Satanism and Scandal surrounded the Hellfire Club that operated out of a network of caves in the country estate of 18th century aristocrat...
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34:17
JFK Special 4. | How Jackie O Defined An Era
4 December 2023If the Kennedy's were America's first royal family, then Jackie was its queen.
She was a style icon who, alongside her husband and president...
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32:51
3 Ways to Die in Early Modern Europe
4 December 2023Life in the 16th and 17th centuries was brutal - the development of warfare technology made conflicts catastrophic for civilians as well as...
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42:13
Medieval Origins of Santa Claus: St. Nicholas
4 December 2023In many parts of Europe, before Christmas comes, you have first to celebrate one of the medieval period's favourite saints - Saint Nicholas of...
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33:45
What Really Happened to the Princes in the Tower?
4 December 2023For over 500 years, the mysterious disappearance of two English princes has perplexed the world. Historians have long assumed that Edward V and...
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54:15
Origins of Sparta
2 December 2023Considered one of Athens' biggest rivals, and known for their bloodthirsty and brutal nature - there's a reason the Spartans have been...
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59:33
AIDS Epidemic: Life & Death On The Frontline
1 December 2023How do we understand something as huge as a global epidemic?
Similarly to Covid, the AIDS epidemic, which was most destructive in the 1980s...
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42:51
Operation Downfall: What if the Allies Invaded Japan?
30 November 2023How would the Allied forces have forced the surrender of Japan had they not dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki?
Operation Downfall...
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44:18
Montaigne: Philosopher of the French Renaissance
30 November 2023Centuries before Proust's Remembrance of Things Past took us on a tour of memory and James Joyce played with stream of consciousness, a 16th...
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35:47
The Fall of Constantinople
30 November 2023May 1453 saw Constantinople under siege - the culmination of an age long struggle between Christianity and Islam for control of the Eastern...
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29:08
The Roman Secret Service
30 November 2023When you think of spies, images of suave men in suits sipping martinis tend to come to mind - not, well, the Romans. But espionage has been used...
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