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

40:19

How Brutish were our Ancestors?

27 August 2023

Was life for our ancient ancestors brutish and short or did they exist as noble savages, free and living in harmony with nature and each other?...

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53:42

Maya Sacrifice & Warfare

27 August 2023

With a history stretching back thousands of years, it’s about time that the Ancients started looking at the extraordinary Maya civilisation in...

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38:05

Marie Curie

27 August 2023

In a leaky shed in Paris, Marie Curie turned two tons of pitchblende (aka special rocks) into a single test tube of radium chloride - its green...

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36:18

Henry I of England

25 August 2023

The fourth son of William the Conqueror, King Henry I, is remembered as a harsh but effective ruler. He skilfully manipulated the barons in...

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43:04

How Fear Shaped History

25 August 2023

What scares you? Some of humankind’s most common fears and phobias include fear of heights, flying, spiders, snakes, injections, germs, public...

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43:38

WW2: Life in Tanks

25 August 2023

What was it actually like to operate a tank during the Second World War?

In this episode, we explore the iron belly of tank warfare through...

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28:12

Prehistoric North America

24 August 2023

What could the prehistoric artists of North America have in common with the graffiti artists of today? Picked into the rocks of southwestern...

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33:27

Girls on Stage and Page in the Elizabethan Age

24 August 2023

Contrary to the idea that the early modern stage was male-dominated, girls actually played an active part in religious dramas, civic pageants,...

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39:51

Homo floresiensis: Early Human ‘Hobbit’

24 August 2023

An extinct species of archaic human, Homo floresiensis has been discovered solely in one, very specific location - the Indonesian island of...

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49:56

WWII Britain: The Home Guard's Silent Assassins

23 August 2023

WWII Britain's Home Guard wasn't a bumbling dad's army but in fact included factions of highly trained silent killers and spies hiding out in...

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48:58

Nanotechnology

23 August 2023

Nanotechnology may seem like something from a sci-fi movie plot, but it’s a very real thing and has likely affected many areas of your life,...

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43:13

Chairman Mao

22 August 2023

Leader of the Chinese Communist Party from 1949 until his death in 1976, Chairman Mao reshaped the nation's course of history, founding the...

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43:12

How The North Turned Christian

22 August 2023

Christianity's inroads into the pagan north of England began with the marriage of Æthelburh of Kent to King Edwin of Northumbria. A...

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44:50

Gay Identity in Nazi Germany

22 August 2023

Berlin in the early 1930s was a place of incredible liberation for its queer community. 

There were over 100 gay clubs, and Magnus...

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37:41

Elizabeth I's War with Ireland

21 August 2023

Queen Elizabeth I, Gloriana, victor over the Spanish and patron of the arts ushered in a Golden Age for England. But she was also Queen of...

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31:52

Pocahontas: The True Story

21 August 2023

Despite her's being a household name, how much do we really know about Pocahontas? Where did she come from? How old was she? And what was her real...

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26:22

Battle of Kursk with James Holland

21 August 2023

This year marks 80 years since one of the more ferocious clashes of the Second World War: the Battle of Kursk. With a combined 8,000 tanks between...

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41:42

Stealing the Crown Jewels with Al Murray

21 August 2023

In 1671, an Anglo-Irish officer, the self-styled Colonel Blood attempted to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. The thwarted...

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28:54

The Ancient Greek Computer: The Antikythera Mechanism

20 August 2023

In the recent Indiana Jones: The Dial of Destiny movie, the Antikythera Mechanism is used for time travel but in reality it was actually more of a...

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50:01

Wernher Von Braun: Nazi Father of Rocket Science

20 August 2023

Wernher von Braun launched America's space programme, and took Apollo 11 to the moon. He was also a Nazi member who served in the SS, and...

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37:16

Sex Work in Pompeii

20 August 2023

This episode contains some strong language references to sexual content.

Pompeii is shrouded in myths and legends about it's vibrant, after...

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