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
38:03
Ectoplasm: Seances & the Rise of Spiritualism
16 July 2023Communicating with the dead has a long and winding history. The rise of seances and the showmanship of paranormal activity rose to prominence in...
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38:47
Mozart's Sex Life
14 July 2023When we think of the biggest pop icons of all time, we might reach for Madonna, Elvis, or yes, even Michael Jackson.
One name that’s...
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32:41
Ukraine: War Crimes & Cluster Bombs
14 July 2023As over a year passes since the Bucha Massacre, new information and intelligence on Russian war crimes continues to emerge from the conflict. With...
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40:39
Beowulf
14 July 2023Composed towards the end of the first millennium, Beowulf is the classic Anglo-Saxon epic poem that transcends its time to shed light on...
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43:56
Helen of Troy with Natalie Haynes
13 July 2023Helen of Troy, the face that launched a thousand ships - but is there more to her than a beautiful face? Commemorated throughout history in...
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29:45
Nixon in Moscow: The Kitchen Debate
13 July 2023Richard Nixon and Nikita Khrushchev. Leading figures of the United States and the Soviet Union respectively, in a verbal debate about capitalism...
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32:45
Elizabethan Rivals: Francis Bacon & Edward Coke
13 July 2023As Queen Elizabeth I lays dying, King James VI of Scotland is waiting to accede to the throne of England. But who will thrive and who will fall...
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42:11
The Picts: Scourge of Rome
12 July 2023Emerging around the 3rd century CE and later designated official adversaries of the Roman Empire, the Picts wreaked havoc across the northern...
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31:03
Fish & Chips: The Unexpected Origins of Britain's Favourite Dish
12 July 2023Fish and Chips. About 382 million portions of the iconic national dish are consumed every year. That works out to around 6 servings per person,...
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25:50
Russia & USA: The 100-Year Cold War
11 July 2023The Cold War was defined by the antagonism between two world superpowers: the United States and the Soviet Union. They relied on proxy wars,...
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40:10
Victorian Baby Farming Killer: Amelia Dyer
11 July 2023In Victorian Britain, there was no formalised state adoption. Instead, desperate mothers paid other families to take their newborns. This tragic...
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29:54
How To Dress in the Middle Ages
11 July 2023What clothes would you have worn in the Middle Ages? What were the most fashionable hairstyles? How did your clothing denote social status? How...
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24:59
The North Pole Scandal
10 July 2023In the autumn of 1909, the American explorer Frederick Cook arrived in Copenhagen, claiming to have become the first person to reach the North...
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36:11
LSD in New York: Research, Recreation and Radicalism
10 July 2023Why should we associate LSD and its psychedelic effects with New York as much as we associate it with San Francisco? What use did the CIA think...
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37:26
Francis Drake's Discovery of West Coast America
10 July 2023In the summer of 1579, Francis Drake had to land in a ‘fair and good bay’ on the western coast of the New World when his ship - The Golden...
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43:21
War Time Origins of the NHS
10 July 20232023 marks 75 years of the National Health Service (NHS) in the UK. Often heralded as one of the greatest post-war institutions, providing free...
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38:02
Operation Mincemeat
9 July 2023The most audacious deception operation of WWII. On the 30th of April, 1943, the corpse of a 'Major Martin' washed up near the Spanish city of...
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32:50
Black Boxes: Recording Airplanes' Final Moments
9 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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37:44
Chandragupta Maurya: Hero of India
9 July 2023Evolving from an obscure ancient ruler to a contemporary national icon, Chandragupta Maurya's story is finally being told. However, despite tales...
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32:01
Medieval Eastern Europe
7 July 2023From the Baltics to the Balkans, from Prague to Kiev, Eastern Europe is more than the sum total of its annexations, invasions and independence...
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49:34
History of Breastfeeding
7 July 2023How has our relationship with breast milk changed through history? Why are there associations of shame with this most natural act, of us consuming...
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