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
38:07
Carausius: The Pirate King
8 December 2022With ancient Rome often being viewed as a mighty, impenetrable empire - it seems unlikely that one man, let alone a pirate, could ever bring this...
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45:47
Mary, Queen of Scots: The Material Evidence
8 December 2022Mary, Queen of Scots wore red at her execution as a symbol of Catholic martyrdom. It was the climax of a life throughout which Mary used...
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55:06
Zeus: King of the Gods
8 December 2022Zeus, the chief deity in Greek mythology, is the Olympian god of sky and thunder and is king of all other gods and men.
His tale is one of...
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28:22
Chickens
7 December 2022Why did the chicken cross the road? What came first, the chicken or the egg? Who invented the chicken anyway?
We answer at least one of...
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27:28
SAS Rogue Heroes: Paddy Mayne with Ben Macintyre
7 December 2022Lieutenant-Colonel 'Paddy' Mayne is a legendary figure in the history of the British Special Forces. Valiant but volatile, confident yet...
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40:30
Cult of St. Swithun
6 December 2022According to tradition, if it rains on Saint Swithun's bridge in Winchester on St. Swithun’s day — 15 July — it will continue for 40...
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34:12
Banned History
6 December 2022How much did Britain and its allies know about the Holocaust? Could the Bengal Famine of 1943 have been helped? And was Elizabeth I really the...
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33:43
The Rise of China
6 December 2022How has China become the economic superpower that it is today? The decades since the death of Chairman Mao Zedong have seen an unprecedented...
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40:04
Start of the Space Race
5 December 2022Space historian Jay Gallentine tells Don how World War 2 weapons paved the way for space rockets, igniting a space race between the USA and the...
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45:03
Making Babies in the 17th Century
5 December 2022Making babies was a mysterious process for people in early modern England. Their ideas about conception, pregnancy and childbirth tell us much...
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35:25
1st Parachute Regiment of WW2 with Mark Urban
5 December 20222022 marks 80 years since the Red Devils first remarkable campaign in North Africa. In Britain, they were known as the parachute regiment,...
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26:23
Sportswashing and the Nazi Olympics
5 December 2022With the 2022 FIFA World Cup well underway, the phenomenon of sportswashing is once again in everybody's minds. Autocracies and democracies alike...
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52:53
Bethlehem
4 December 2022Most famously known as the birth place of Jesus, Bethlehem has been immortalised in texts, carols, and imagery across history. But prior to the...
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33:41
LEGO
4 December 2022Who invented LEGO, the world's favourite toy? To find out we have to head to a Danish fishing village where a family of toy makers live. A family...
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32:40
Jews in Medieval England
3 December 2022Medieval England’s relationship with the Jewish community was complex and, at times, brutally violent and cruel. In 1290, the entire population...
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48:51
Sex Myths
2 December 2022Why were the ovaries once seen as inverted testes? What words might you use if you were trying to describe a condition 'down there' to your...
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37:07
Origins of the CIA
2 December 20222022 marks the 75th anniversary of the Central Intelligence Agency, more colloquially known as the CIA. While viewed today as one of the most...
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49:46
Life in Tudor England
2 December 2022What was life really like in Tudor England? This was a society where monarchy was under strain, the church was in crisis and contending with war,...
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25:56
Capturing Lincoln’s Assassin
1 December 2022On shooting President Abraham Lincoln, John Wilkes Booth fled Ford’s Theatre in Washington, DC on horseback, eventually heading south. But...
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54:24
Uruk: The First Cities
1 December 2022A Mesopotamian metropolis that thrived for millennia, Uruk is even claimed by some to have been the first true city in history.
Located in...
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37:57
Huygens: Europe’s Greatest Scientist
1 December 2022Christiaan Huygens was the greatest scientist working in the vital period between Galileo and Newton, as the scientific revolution gathered pace....
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