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
43:27
The Pirates' Code
21 April 2023How common was it for a pirates to walk the plank? Was there a lot of rum? And were relationships allowed on ships?
Kate is joined by...
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28:40
Russian Civil War with Antony Beevor
21 April 2023*Content Warning - This episode contains references to rape and suicide*
The Russian Civil War was a brutal episode in the rise of...
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22:44
Becoming Benjamin Franklin
20 April 2023Benjamin Franklin is considered by many to be one of the first to live the American Dream. He came from humble beginnings, Franklin was raised in...
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38:40
Bess's Hardwick Hall
20 April 2023Hardwick Hall is a triumph of Elizabethan architecture. Built in the late sixteenth century, its halls, corridors and staircases embody the...
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43:10
The First Toolmakers
20 April 2023Invention and innovation are two concepts that have propelled humankind forward for as long as people can remember - but who were the...
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43:58
Empire State Building
19 April 2023When it was completed in 1931, the Empire State Building became the tallest building in the world. While it has long been surpassed, it is still...
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40:31
Inventing Bond: Gadgets
19 April 2023Dagger shoes, Lipstick gas grenade, Razor rimmed hat, Milk bottle Grenade…Prosthetic Nipple.
We’re continuing our exploration of the...
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28:17
Britain's Maritime History
18 April 2023Is it even possible to imagine what Britain would have been without seafaring? Braving the waters beyond our harbours can be traced back eight and...
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32:20
Sutton Hoo
18 April 2023Centuries ago, an Anglo-Saxon noble was buried within a 90-foot ship in a mound at Sutton Hoo. It serves as the richest burial ever found in...
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49:05
Heirs, Affairs & Exiles: The Powderham Scandal
18 April 2023Why would a man embroil his own nephew in a sex scandal? What was it like for a Georgian man to have his affair with another man shared in the...
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28:54
The Mystery of the Frogman Lionel Crabb
17 April 2023On the night of the 19th of April, 1956, the decorated navy diver Lionel Crabb went missing. A veteran of the Second World War, Crabb had been...
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40:01
America's Top Secrets: Manhattan Project to Drone Warfare
17 April 2023Much of American history has been redacted. Since the World War 2, the number of secrets the US government has kept has grown exponentially. There...
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47:31
John Donne: England’s Greatest Love Poet
17 April 2023John Donne was a scholar of law, a sea adventurer, an MP, a priest, the Dean of St Paul's Cathedral - and perhaps the greatest love poet in the...
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38:53
Colonising Nicaragua: William Walker
17 April 2023In the mid-19th century, William Walker led a group of fellow US Expansionists to Nicaragua, in an attempt to seize the country as their own. Some...
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31:28
The Koh-i-Noor Diamond
16 April 2023The enormous Cullinan Diamond will be on display at Charles III Coronation, but the diamond that's missing - the Koh-i-Noor - is the one that...
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40:21
Telegraph
16 April 2023Get ready for the story of how the telegraph went from a long line of monks holding hands to a technology that straddled the earth. One which...
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44:58
Iron Age Scotland: Clachtoll Broch
16 April 2023Across northern Scotland, you can still see the skeletal remains of prehistoric skyscrapers known as brochs. These enigmatic drystone towers...
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34:22
Rise of the Assassins
15 April 2023This is a special episode from a series we made in collaboration with Ubisoft, the makers of Assassin's Creed.
In Assassins vs Templars,...
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37:38
Afghanistan: How the Taliban Won
14 April 2023In August 2021, Afghanistan's capital city Kabul, was captured by the Taliban. With scenes of panic, anarchy, and chaos splashed across every...
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32:43
Victorian Wardrobe Secrets
14 April 2023If someone from the future looked inside your wardrobe, what could they find out about your life? That you like going out to parties? Maybe your...
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51:59
The Moon Landing
13 April 2023July 20th, 1969. Neil Armstrong descends from Lunar Module Eagle to the Moon's surface. A momentous moment in American, and human history....
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