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

56:23

Jamestown: Surviving The Fort

20 February 2025

What was it like to live in the fort at Jamestown? Who was in charge? What provisions were there? And why is this considered to be the birthplace...

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40:08

Giordano Bruno: Mystic, Heretic, Spy

20 February 2025

Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake 425 years ago this month. His crime? Radical thinking which clashed with the ideas of the Roman Catholic...

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39:26

Glencoe Massacre: Haunted Highlands

20 February 2025

(Part 2/2) On the 13 February 1692, Scottish government troops slaughtered between 30-40 members of Clan MacDonald in their home in Glencoe, in...

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58:21

The Persian Wars: Darius, Athens and the Battle of Marathon

20 February 2025

490 BC. On the plains of Marathon, Athens faced down a mighty army of the Persian Empire - the superpower of the time It was an underdog clash...

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36:34

What Was Life Like As A Samurai And Shinobi In Medieval Japan?

20 February 2025

Chasing Shadows 1. Culture

Assassin's Creed Shadows gives players the chance to experience history as two icons of medieval Japan:...

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44:02

Josef Mengele

19 February 2025

The Nazi doctor who committed heinous experiments on prisoners of Auschwitz was harboured by a network of Nazi supporters in Argentina after the...

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46:09

The Dark History of BMI & Fatphobia

18 February 2025

Dark ideas and stigma around different body sizes really took hold in the Enlightenment.

Very unenlightened, if you ask us.

This...

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44:21

Supernatural Medieval Ireland

18 February 2025

In early Medieval Ireland, supernatural beings moved in and out of our world, unseen. These were the residents of the Otherworld – the...

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40:28

Did Vikings Reach the US?

17 February 2025

What is a Viking? Did they really make it to the United States? And if so, how far did they get?

Don speaks to Martyn Whittock about the...

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53:19

German Peasants' War

17 February 2025

The German Peasants' War - which happened exactly 500 years ago - saw peasants across Germany, Switzerland and Austria rise up against oppressive...

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41:32

Hattori Hanzo: The Demon Samurai

17 February 2025

In the world of Assassin's Creed Shadows, the legendary Hattori Hanzo embodies both samurai and shinobi warriors, and earned himself the nicknam...

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42:02

Peasants' Revolt: Murder in the Tower of London

17 February 2025

(2/2) A boy King, a rebel army, and the first ever execution at Tower Hill. Maddy Pelling tells Anthony Delaney the days in the summer of 1381...

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44:59

Why Isn't Canada the 51st State?

17 February 2025

Dan explains how Canada has resisted many American attempts at annexation since the Revolution in 1775. From the tariff tensions of 1911 to...

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53:57

The Last Neanderthals

16 February 2025

For hundreds of thousands of years Neanderthals have roamed the lands of what is today Europe and western Asia. But how did they survive, and what...

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41:12

The Destruction of Charlemagne's Legacy

14 February 2025

What happens when one of the greatest empires in history begins to unravel? Matt Lewis explores the turbulent era of the Carolingian Empire's rise...

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49:31

Inside the Magdalene Laundries

14 February 2025

Societies all throughout history have tried to control female sexuality.

Ireland's Magdalene Laundries and Mother and Baby Homes are two...

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52:23

The Bombing of Dresden

14 February 2025

As the Second World War neared its bloody climax, Allied bombers unleashed a devastating firestorm on Dresden. In just two days the historic city...

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42:40

Frederick Douglass: Civil War to Statesman

13 February 2025

How did Frederick Douglass, born into enslavement, rise to become one of the most influential orators, writers, and publishers of his time. By the...

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51:15

The Scythians

13 February 2025

Known as the barbarians of the north, the Scythians were expert horsemen that roamed the great steppe of Eurasia more than 2,000 years ago. But...

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33:56

Versailles: Science & Splendour

13 February 2025

The opulent halls of 17th and 18th-century Versailles were not just filled with dazzlingly dressed courtiers and royal intrigue. They also...

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35:15

Glencoe Massacre: Hell in the Scottish Highlands

13 February 2025

On the 13 February 1692, Scottish government troops slaughtered between 30-40 members of Clan MacDonald in their home in Glencoe, in the Scottish...

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