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

The Confederacy: Who Was Jefferson Davis?
3 March 2025Only one person has ever held the title of President of the Confederate States of America. In this episode, we're going to find out more about him...
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The Servants' Revenge: Arsenic & a Poisoned Pint of Beer
3 March 2025Why did two servants living in Plymouth, England, poison their whole household in 1675? How did they sneak arsenic into the food? And what on...
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Samurai vs Guns: The Battle of Nagashino
3 March 2025Assassin's Creed Shadows transports players to a formative period in Japanese history - the Sengoku era, when warlords vied for control of Japan,...
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Shakespeare's Daughter, Judith
3 March 2025The brief life of William Shakespeare's son Hamnet is now quite well known, thanks to Maggie O'Farrell's novel, but Hamnet also had a twin sister...
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THE LEADERS: Hitler
3 March 2025Could Germany have won the war if not for Hitler's hubris? Dan is joined by Professor Phillips O'Brien to explore Hitler's biggest decisions...
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Elektra: Revenge in Ancient Greece
2 March 2025Few figures in Greek mythology embody vengeance like Elektra, daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. Betrayal, grief, and justice shaped her...
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The Viking Great Army in Britain
28 February 2025How did a Viking army transform the very fabric of a nation?
In 865, the Viking Great Army landed in East Anglia. For the next 15 years, it...
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Sex Life of Michelangelo
28 February 2025Michelangelo made religion sexy.
That may not have been his initial aim, of course, but the way he portrayed the human form, and...
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Why Do Humans Wage War?
28 February 2025Why, despite knowing the devastation it causes, do humans insist on starting wars? Countless battles have littered the pages of our shared human...
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THE LEADERS - Mini Series Coming 3rd March
27 February 2025Why do we, as humans, allow such individuals to hold such power over us? And at what cost? Our world is shaped by choices—some calculated, some...
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President Harry Truman: From Farm to Oval Office and the Atom Bomb
27 February 2025The end of the Second World War. The start of the Cold War. The dropping of the Atomic Bomb and the growth of the Civil Rights movement. When FDR...
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Samurai or Shinobi: Who Really Ruled Medieval Japan?
27 February 2025Chasing Shadows 2. Politics
Assassin's Creed Shadows gives players the chance to experience history as two icons of medieval Japan: samurai...
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The Persian Wars: Xerxes, Thermopylae and Salamis
27 February 2025In 486 BC, King Xerxes ascended the Persian throne, inheriting its vast and glittering world empire. But his ambition didn’t stop there - he...
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The Great Siege of Malta
27 February 2025What happens when a small island faces the might of the Ottoman Empire?
In 1565, Malta was the setting for a brutal clash between the forces...
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The Curse of King Tutankhamun's Tomb
26 February 2025Untimely deaths followed the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter. Coincidence or ancient curse? When the tomb of King Tutankhamun was...
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Mary, Queen of Scots
26 February 2025This is the story of the incredible rise and fall of Mary, Queen of Scots. She was queen of Scotland, she was queen of France, and she could have...
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Is the Renaissance a Myth?
25 February 2025Dr. Eleanor Janega reveals the darker side of the Renaissance with Dr. Ada Palmer, challenging the notion that it was a golden age, exposing it as...
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Sex & Scandal in 1920s Soho
25 February 2025When and why did Soho become a hedonistic hotspot, the home of sex, drugs and music?
Kate is Betwixt the Sheets with Dan Snow to talk about...
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Jamestown: Decline & Fall?
24 February 2025In 1699, Virginia’s government and capital moved from Jamestown to Middle Plantation, renaming it Williamsburg.
But why did they abandon...
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Final Days of Thomas Cromwell
24 February 2025From ruthless schemer to pragmatic hero - who is the real Thomas Cromwell? And how did he meet his end? Today Anthony Delaney tells Maddy Pelling...
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How to Run a Stuart Household
24 February 2025Professor Suzannah Lipscomb delves into the world of Stuart-era recipe books, in which medicine, cookery and women's roles combine in fascinating...
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