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
46:02
Ra and the Sun Gods
19 September 2024Of all the Egyptian Gods it is Ra, the God of the Sun, who is perhaps most well known in the popular imagination. He is said to have voyaged...
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40:47
Operation Market Garden
17 September 2024Operation Market Garden was an ambitious Allied airborne offensive to secure a quick victory in WWII. It failed disastrously.
The plan was...
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39:23
Cruising & Cottaging: Sex in Public Places
17 September 2024With privacy being a modern luxury, where did people in the past go to meet and hook up? Public toilets were (and can still be) a popular...
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47:12
Viking Travels
17 September 2024Vikings have long been depicted as that stereotype of the hairy, nameless warrior, leaping ashore from his longboat, ready to terrorise a hapless...
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37:16
How The World Sees The US: The Art of Diplomacy
16 September 2024How did Egypt and Israel come to an agreement at Camp David in 1979? How did the USSR come to allow the operation of NATO troops in East Germany?...
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37:11
Who was Jack the Ripper? The Prince (Suspect 1)
16 September 2024Part 1/4. By investigating the men accused of being Jack the Ripper, we uncover dark truths about Victorian society - and our own. Why were these...
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34:04
When Britain was a Republic
16 September 2024The 1650s were the only years in history when Britain was a republic. Charles I had been executed, the monarchy was abolished and the House...
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24:34
Jesse Owens
15 September 2024Jesse Owens' victories at the 1936 Berlin Olympics made him an international sports hero, and a symbol of the civil rights movement. His...
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1:22:41
The Fall of Roman Britain
15 September 2024In the early 5th century AD, after almost four centuries of iron-fisted Roman rule, the empire in Britain was beginning to fade. Franks, Saxons...
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44:41
Ancient Goddesses: Rebellion, Magic & Sexual Liberation
13 September 2024Struggling for role models in the modern world? We've got your back, looking way back to the ancient world.
Join Kate and Jasmine Elmer,...
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45:39
Henry V with Dan Jones
13 September 2024For centuries, one English monarch basked in an almost unblemished, heroic reputation. But more recently questions have been asked about some of...
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56:23
How to Survive in Viking Britain
12 September 2024Have you ever wondered what it would take to live in Viking Britain? When they arrived and settled in the British Isles, Viking settlers didn't...
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51:32
McCarthy & the Second Red Scare
12 September 2024Who was Joe McCarthy? How did this Republican Senator come to lead a nationwide campaign against communism? And how did he bring about his own...
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46:14
Origins of the Egyptian Gods
12 September 2024The legends of Ra and Hathor, of Osiris and Isis, of Anubis and Set have been passed from mouth to ear in Egypt for millennia. They were painted...
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40:32
Lost Colony of Roanoke: Mystery of England's First American Settlers
12 September 2024The colonists of Roanoke Island in the 1580's were the very first English people to try to establish a permanent settlement in America. They...
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36:25
Kateryn Parr on Film: Firebrand
12 September 2024In the last year of Henry VIII's life, his sixth wife Queen Kateryn Parr was accused of heresy and it looked as if her life could be on the...
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36:31
Sir Walter Raleigh's Search for El Dorado
10 September 2024Sir Walter Raleigh's life was a turbulent one, to say the least. The Elizabethan statesman and explorer climbed to the top rung of Queen...
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38:29
Pagan Ritual Nudity
10 September 2024Rituals are a big part of this funny human experience, aren't they?
Whether that's morning rituals like making your bed... or pagan rituals...
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40:39
Warrior Viking Women
10 September 2024One of the enduring mysteries of the Viking Age is the identity of two people buried in a spectacular blood drenched ship in southern Norway in...
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35:55
Myth of the Minotaur: Half Man Half Bull
9 September 2024The myth of the Minotaur has endured thousands of years for good reason... it's hard to forget! Today, Maddy Pelling tells Anthony Delaney the...
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36:32
How to Survive the Plague
9 September 2024A feature of outbreaks of plague between the 14th and 18th centuries was the publication of books and pamphlets, known as ‘plague tracts’,...
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