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
43:44
Chairman Mao
24 July 2023Leader 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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28:55
Nazi's Most Wanted: Assassin Hannie Schaft
23 July 2023Known among the Nazis as "the girl with the red hair," Hannie Schaft was a resistance fighter so deadly that Adolf Hitler personally ordered her...
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47:54
Stonehenge
23 July 2023Stonehenge. The most iconic prehistoric monument in the world. And yet its story is still so enigmatic.
In this episode, host Tristan Hughes...
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34:18
Chewing Gum: From the Aztecs to Avocados
23 July 2023Spearmint, peppermint, double-bubble. You may think that chewing gum is a modern invention, when in fact we've been chewing the stuff since the...
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47:17
Scottish Kings' Sex Lives
21 July 2023One thing royal families strive for is the common touch. Whilst some have struggled with it, King James IV and V in the 15th and 16th centuries...
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34:36
Lost Vikings of Greenland
21 July 2023Is there a lost colony of Vikings somewhere in Greenland, shut off from the rest of the world? For hundreds of years, that question has taxed...
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29:51
Oppenheimer
21 July 2023Often referred to as the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer's work in the field of theoretical physics changed the world as we knew...
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50:50
Mormons & The Founding of Salt Lake City
20 July 2023The Church of the Latter Day Saints is one shrouded in mystery, whispers of polygamy and is often synonymous with Salt Lake City. But where did...
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37:12
Ivan the Terrible
20 July 2023The name Ivan the Terrible is synonymous with brutality and ruthlessness. While Western scholars insist that the first crowned Tsar of all Russia...
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51:46
Homo Naledi: The First Burials?
20 July 2023Uncovered a decade ago in the Rising Star Cave system in South Africa, Homo Naledi's discovery has impacted paleoanthropology in ways nobody could...
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33:21
Oppenheimer
19 July 2023On a summer morning in 1945, a device known simply as 'Gadget' was detonated. An enormous explosion tore a crater into the New Mexico desert,...
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44:59
Karaoke: The History
19 July 2023When you think about it, the Karaoke machine is a simple invention. Basically two existing inventions, the tape deck and the microphone, were...
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32:11
Black Boxes: Recording Airplanes' Final Moments
18 July 2023They can survive in lava for half an hour and accelerations of 3,400 Gs. Their beacons can be detected 20,000 feet beneath the waves. Most...
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37:34
Wars of the Roses: Jack Cade's Rebellion Explained
18 July 2023It’s one of the most dramatic stories you might never have heard. Featuring a seaborne assassination, a vengeful manhunt and London Bridge in...
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44:38
Althea Gibson: The Wimbledon Champion Who Beat The Odds
18 July 2023The world of tennis in the 1940s wasn't made for someone of Althea Gibson's background.
She was the descendent of slaves, and grew up in...
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26:40
Prigozhin: The Fate of Russian ‘Favourites’
17 July 2023Russian history is defined by the rise and fall of favourites. Peter the Great had Menshikov, and Nicholas II had Rasputin. It's part of the...
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25:39
A History of American Childhood
17 July 2023School, play and much less work: the idealised childhood is a very separate part of life. But how did it come to be so? And why is this perhaps...
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29:55
WW2: Top 5 Strangest Weapons
17 July 2023They say war can be one of the biggest drivers of innovation. Inventions like radar, computers and penicillin, all developed during the Second...
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41:52
Tudor Queens: The Power of Jewellery
17 July 2023From the mid-15th century to the mid-16th century, there were 10 Queens Consort of England, from Margaret of Anjou to Katherine Parr. For each of...
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38:19
Napoleon
16 July 2023Did Napoleon really come from nothing and conquer everything? The release of the trailer for Ridley Scott's new epic biopic film has created hot...
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47:48
Jersey: Ice Age Island
16 July 2023The largest of the Channel Islands, when you think of Jersey, it's doubtful that Neanderthals, Woolly Mammoths, and Woolly Rhinoceroses come to...
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