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
38:51
Pieter Bruegel the Elder: Renaissance Painter
27 March 2023During a time of increasing religious and political conflict, Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s paintings portrayed work and pleasure, rituals and...
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26:50
How to Prepare for Nuclear War
26 March 2023With Putin's war in Ukraine raging on, the threat of a nuclear conflict feels as real as ever. But since the Iron Curtain fell, our understanding...
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33:55
Roman Beast Hunts
26 March 2023This episode contains graphic descriptions of violence and cruelty against animals.
The Romans were - and still are - infamous for the...
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34:21
Ouija Board
26 March 2023The Ouija Board was patented in 1890. But in did not appear out of thin air. It was only one in a long, long line of devices attempting to pierce...
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33:29
The Real Dick Whittington
25 March 2023Dick Whittington - who died 600 years ago this month - is a familiar name to generations of pantomime goers. But Richard Whittington’s real life...
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50:10
Sordid Soho
24 March 2023From the Chevalier de Saint-Georges to the Merry Monarch to Madame Jojo and Madame Trenti, the district of Soho in London has played host to many...
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21:33
WW2: What Happened at Yalta?
24 March 2023In early 1945, with an inevitable defeat of Nazi Germany on the horizon, the Allied leaders of the United States, Britain and Russia came together...
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47:01
Cooking for Churchill: Georgina Landemare
24 March 2023Clear soup, Irish stew and steamed puddings - this was the war work of Georgina Landemare, the Churchills' longest-serving cook.
Throughout...
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40:39
A History of America in 5 Foods
23 March 2023You are what you eat - and so is America. Various foods have played their part in the country’s history. Anna Zeide, author of US History in 15...
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42:08
Sardinia: Mysteries of the Bronze Age
23 March 2023Shrouded in mystery, the Nuragic culture was an enigmatic Bronze Age Civilisation that lived on the Mediterranean island of Sardinia. With their...
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43:20
17th Century Revolutionary England
23 March 2023In the 17th Century, people experienced major social and economic problems that intertwined with religious disagreements and political debates....
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24:39
The Great Storm of 1703
23 March 2023A Stuart time capsule has emerged from beneath the sand after 320 years. In early December 1703, barometers across South-Eastern England plunged...
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35:00
The Electric Chair
22 March 2023In 1890, the Governor of New York called for a new method of capital punishment. A more modern, efficient, scientific method was being sought....
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48:45
Islam vs Christendom
22 March 2023As two of humanity's great religions, Islam and Christianity have shaped much of the world's history. Empires across the globe have risen and...
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51:22
How Norse Myths Shape The Way We Think
21 March 2023Thanks to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, the legends of Thor, Odin and Asgard are familiar to millions today. Yet the histories of these myths are...
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47:14
Lord Byron: Incest, Adultery & Daddy Issues
21 March 2023How debaucherous do you have to be to be remembered as the original bad boy? How mad, bad and dangerous to know was Lord Byron? And how much of it...
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27:17
A Short History of Bank Collapses
21 March 2023Looking back at the past few weeks, it seems like banks are collapsing left, right and centre; but what exactly does this mean for us? Are these...
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31:59
Iroquois Confederacy
20 March 2023At its height the Iroquois Confederacy (or Haudenosaunee) - a union of the Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, Cayuga, and Seneca nations - controlled lands...
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35:55
Who Painted Anne Dudley? A Tudor Mystery
20 March 2023For centuries, the name of an accomplished and popular portrait painter in the court of Elizabeth I has remained unknown. The renowned art...
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42:12
Saddam Hussein's Rise & Fall
20 March 2023Perhaps one of the best-known modern dictators, Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq for nearly 30 years before eventually being overthrown in 2003 by the US...
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19:13
Soviet "Bone Music"
20 March 2023While rifling through a stall at a flea market in Leningrad- now St Petersburg- composer and music producer Stephen Coates came across something...
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