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
25:11
Africans in 17th Century England
28 October 2024In the 1640s, Black communities existed in London and in most of England's port cities, communities from which men would fight and die throughout...
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39:47
2. Wars of the Roses: Rise of the Tudors
28 October 2024In the second episode of our Wars of the Roses series, Edward IV secures the English throne after his victory at the bloody Battle of Towton. But...
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1:07:51
Pyrrhus: Warlord of Ancient Greece
27 October 2024It’s 279 BC. On a large plain in Southern Italy near the town of Asculum, a famous Greek warlord likened to Alexander the Great faces down the...
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37:25
18th Century Dating: From Booty Calls to 'Bundling'
25 October 2024What was life like as a single person in the 18th century? What if you became pregnant out of wedlock?
In today's episode, Kate talks to...
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39:25
Old Sarum: Stronghold of Norman England
25 October 2024Old Sarum was the earliest settlement of Salisbury in Wlitshire. While there are indications of a prehistoric settlement on the...
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49:58
1. Wars of the Roses: England Divided
24 October 2024This is the first episode in a two-part series on the brutal, three-decade-long civil war that tore England in two. Today, we explore the complex...
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51:25
The Doolittle Raid: WW2 Bombing of Japan
24 October 2024If somebody asked you to go on a dangerous mission, no other details, would you volunteer?
Well, in 1942, that's exactly what 120 crewmen of...
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49:27
Irish Origins of Halloween
24 October 2024Pumpkins, trick or treating and ghost stories are what we associate with Halloween, but what about turnips, fairies and a fortune-telling cake?...
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40:19
The Tudor World at Hampton Court
24 October 2024The oldest surviving part of Hampton Court Palace is a series of chambers and closets built in the 1520s for Henry VIII's chief advisor and Lord...
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46:09
Origins of the Inuit
24 October 2024In this instalment of The Ancients we're going north of the Arctic circle to uncover the incredible story of the Thule Inuit. Expanding out from...
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37:14
The Origins of Halloween
22 October 2024Pumpkins, trick or treating and ghost stories are what we associate with Halloween, but what about turnips, fairies and a fortune-telling cake?...
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32:35
Inside the Witch Trials: Iceland | The Men Who Burned As Witches
22 October 2024When we think of the witch trials, we often think of women being charged.
Whilst misogyny was at the heart of many of the witch trials, this...
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37:26
Castles, Kings and Courtly Life
22 October 2024All this month, Matt and Eleanor are ranging across England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland to discover the stories of our greatest...
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40:18
Execution of Lady Jane Grey
21 October 2024This Tudor's story is intense and tragic. She's known as Lady Jane Grey but we ought to change that to 'Queen Jane'. That's who she was, even...
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42:51
The Spanish Armada
21 October 2024In July 1588 the Spanish Armada set sail to conquer England. Three weeks later a fierce naval battle foiled the planned invasion. Many myths...
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38:13
Elections Explained: How FDR Won Four Times
21 October 20244,322 days. That's how long Franklin Delano Roosevelt was in office. Whilst no other US president has served more than two terms, FDR was elected...
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35:31
The Great Napoleonic Escape
20 October 2024Lieutenant Charles Hare was a young British naval officer who made an extraordinarily elaborate escape from a French prisoner-of-war camp during...
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46:36
Ptolemy I: The First Greek Pharaoh
20 October 2024In the aftermath of Alexander the Great’s death his former generals carved out their own kingdoms in the chaos that was the Wars of the...
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35:43
Castles and the Conquest of Ireland
18 October 2024Ireland has been known as the land of saints and scholars and once was the farthest reach of the known world. But it's also home to one of the...
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38:37
The Hunt for the Endurance Shipwreck
17 October 2024In 2022 Dan was part of the international expedition that went in search of Shackleton's lost shipwreck Endurance in the Weddell Sea in...
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30:17
The Battle of Bull Run
17 October 2024On July 21, 1861, Confederate and Union forces met for the first time in full-scale battle at Bull Run Creek, near Manassas, Virginia. By the end...
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