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
47:27
Putin's Rise to Power
14 August 2023Serving continuously as either Prime Minister or President since 1999, Vladimir Putin's leadership of Russia has always dominated the geopolitical...
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39:42
Gladiators of Pompeii
13 August 2023This episode contains some references to graphic violence.
Gladiators are one the most enduring symbols of Ancient Rome, and Pompeii is no...
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40:35
Oppenheimer: Inventor of the Atomic Bomb
13 August 2023Robert Oppenheimer was the father of the atomic bomb - a weapon of unprecedented power, which, when dropped on Japan, would end WWII and would...
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44:04
Archimedes and the Siege of Syracuse
12 August 2023Dan tells the story of Archimedes, the ancient Greek inventor whose weapons of war protected the town of Syracuse from a Roman army. The Romans...
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34:46
Afghanistan: The Legacies of Withdrawal
11 August 2023In August 2021, after 20 years of military presence, the United States withdrew the last of their troops from Afghanistan. With chaos quickly...
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26:49
Æthelstan: First King of the English
11 August 2023The grandson of Alfred the Great, Æthelstan the Glorious was the first King of England, reigning from 924 to 939. Æthelstan inherited the...
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40:01
History of Kissing: Why do we lock lips?
11 August 2023A good old smooch. It’s something that we do on a daily basis in one form or another (if we’re lucky), and yet have you ever stopped and...
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35:32
The Pueblo Revolt
10 August 2023On August 10 1680, the Pueblo people began the most successful uprising against colonial power in North America.
For 11 days, Spanish...
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44:11
Attila the Hun: Scourge of God
10 August 2023One of the most powerful, and feared, leaders of history - Attila the Hun's legacy has persevered over centuries. His consolidation of the Hunnic...
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43:26
Treasures of Lambeth Palace
10 August 2023Books belonging to Henry VIII, Richard III, Mary I and Edward VI are among the treasures in the historic library of the Archbishops of Canterbury,...
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37:45
Surviving Hitler and Stalin
9 August 2023Lord Daniel Finkelstein recounts stories from his parents' remarkable lives. His mother Mirjam Wiener survived the Nazi concentration camps, and...
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52:36
Coca Cola: A Backyard Invention
9 August 2023Was Coca Cola originally made with Cocaine? Did Coca Cola invent Santa? Who knows the Coca Cola recipe? Dallas is joined by Bart Elmore, an...
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34:48
Genghis Khan
8 August 2023Genghis Khan roughly translates to 'Universal Ruler', a fitting name for the most famous nomadic conqueror to have ever lived. He was born as...
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41:07
Eleanor of Castile
8 August 2023Eleanor of Castile married King Edward I of England as part of a political deal to affirm English sovereignty over Gascony. But the...
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38:08
History of Make-Up
8 August 2023Most of us present ourselves with some form of cosmetic, so it’s strange that historically there’s been so much judgement around the use of...
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30:15
Attila The Hun
7 August 2023Known to the Romans as the 'Scourge of God', Attila the Hun brought chaos to the world around him. He and his armies plundered, pillaged and...
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29:39
The Magna Carta in America
7 August 2023What does a document written in 1215 in England have to do with the United States? The Magna Carta has supposedly influenced foundational...
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52:20
Seymour, Dudley & Parr Families: Forgotten Tudor Women
7 August 2023Seymour, Dudley and Parr are all well-known Tudor names. But often, behind the more famous men in those families, there were women who had a...
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46:26
Tito: President of Yugoslavia
7 August 2023A Yugoslav revolutionary leader, who served in every major conflict of his lifetime - Josip Broz Tito ruled Yugoslavia for 35 years. Successfully...
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56:25
The Great Train Robbery
6 August 2023Did the "heist of the century" really happen the way the robbers say it did? In the summer of 1963, a gang of masked robbers executed a daring...
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35:34
Pompeii: Life Before the Eruption
6 August 2023The ancient city of Pompeii is one of the greatest archaeological discoveries on earth. Frozen in time since 79 AD when Mount Vesuvius erupted,...
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