History Podcasts | History Hit

 

 

History Hit 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

39:43

The Hundred Years War

19 October 2023

For the last several decades, Jonathan, Lord Sumption - former senior judge and medieval historian - has been crafting a monumental, five-volume...

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34:37

The Tudors Told Through Numbers

19 October 2023

There are countless ways to understand and analyse the Tudors but a new book takes a unique look at the dynasty through its statistics. And...

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31:06

How to Survive the Ice Age

19 October 2023

When you think of the 'Ice Age', tales of saber-toothed predators and hulking megafauna probably come to mind - but what else do we know about...

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41:46

Banshees: Ireland's Harbinger of Death

19 October 2023

Today Siobhán McSweeney (Derry Girls) joins Anthony Delaney and Maddy Pelling for the story of the Banshee. In Irish folklore the Banshee heralds...

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28:46

Spectrophilia: The Ghost Fetish

17 October 2023

If you happen to be a Spectrophiliac, then October must be a particularly exciting time for you.

What is a spectrophiliac? Well, it's a...

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33:21

Battle of the Alamo

16 October 2023

A 13 day siege. 90 minutes of fighting. An almost 200 year legacy and the most popular tourist site in the state of Texas.

The 1836 Battle...

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39:39

HMS Terror: Cursed Arctic Expedition

16 October 2023

Was ever a ship more aptly named? In 1845, HMS Terror (and its forgettably named sister ship HMS Erebus) set off from Victorian Britain. Their...

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41:21

Burke & Hare: Scotland’s Most Notorious Serial Killers

16 October 2023

They’re the most famous grave-robbers in the world…except they never actually robbed any graves. Discover the true story of Burke and Hare’s...

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37:22

Goriest Murders in Ancient Rome

16 October 2023

This episode is a bloody delight: from flesh-eating fish and humiliating deaths inside sacks, to a deadly re-enactment of the Icarus myth. For a...

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31:00

The Origins of Halloween

16 October 2023

From its prehistoric origins until today, Halloween has always had the Shiver of Terror running through it. First as a pagan festival of...

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41:41

Shakespeare's son Hamnet with Maggie O'Farrell

16 October 2023

When it comes to Shakespeare's biography and his inner life, there's a certain lack of evidence. But what if Shakespeare actually signposted us to...

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37:23

The Murders That Shocked Georgian London

16 October 2023

Laundress-turned-murderess, Sarah Malcolm horrified Georgian London in 1733 when she was found guilty of killing three women she worked for while...

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38:29

Eleanor of Aquitaine: Debunking the Myths

16 October 2023

On this special edition of Gone Medieval, Dr. Eleanor Janega pays a visit to our sister podcast Betwixt the Sheets to be the guest of its...

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55:48

Hades: King of the Underworld

15 October 2023

This episode contains references to death and sexual assault.

Hades is King of the the dead and the Underworld in Ancient Greek...

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40:34

The Black Death: the Rise of Women, Witches & the Peasant’s Revolt

13 October 2023

There’s not much good to come out of a plague, especially a bubonic plague in the 14th century. A pandemic which definitely didn't involve zoom...

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4:17

Welcome to After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal

13 October 2023

Introducing After Dark: Myths, Misdeeds & the Paranormal, the podcast that takes you to the shadiest corners of the past, unpicking history’s...

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41:00

President John Quincy Adams

12 October 2023

John Quincy Adams didn't just share a name with his father. He also followed in his footsteps to take the Presidency, and then lose it after one...

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37:43

Ötzi the Iceman

12 October 2023

Ötzi, otherwise known as the Iceman, is a renowned glacial mummy uncovered in 1991 in the Tyrolean Alps between Italy and Austria. Found by...

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31:22

Theoderic the Great

12 October 2023

In the year 493, the leader of a vast confederation of Gothic warriors personally cut down Odoacer, the man famous for deposing the last Roman...

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40:11

William the Silent, Father of the Netherlands

12 October 2023

What encouraged a young man who had spent most of his formative years being raised by Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, to bite the hand that feeds...

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37:37

The WW2 Witch Trial of Hellish Nell

10 October 2023

What made a working class woman from Edinburgh become such a threat to British intelligence services during the Second World War, that they tried...

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