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

30:23

Tactical Nuclear Weapons

31 October 2022

In a scathing attack on the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared the world faces its most dangerous decade since WW2 - having...

Listen Now
27:54

Smugglers of Jamaica Inn

31 October 2022

Stories of shipwrecks, smugglers and ghosts. Built in the mid-18th century, over the years many of the Jamaica Inn's patrons have been less...

Listen Now
40:04

Ukraine's Ancient Greek City

30 October 2022

Located in modern day Ukraine, Olbia was the largest ancient Greek settlement on the coast of the Black Sea. A mix of Scythian and Greek culture,...

Listen Now
41:01

Paranormal Technology

30 October 2022

Welcome to Patented-Gone-Paranormal!! Thomas Edison tried to make a telephone that called the spirit world. One of the pioneers of radio believed...

Listen Now
51:58

Vlad the Impaler

29 October 2022

Vlad the Impaler - Vlad Dracula - is one of history’s most brutal figures, who has enjoyed a bizarre afterlife as a cult character. Although a...

Listen Now
44:49

Seances

28 October 2022

Everybody hold hands! We're going for a seance!

How long have we've been trying to talk to dead people for? And have we ever actually been...

Listen Now
38:48

Blitzkrieg: How Britain Invented, Then Ignored It

28 October 2022

Here’s a special episode of Cautionary Tales, a podcast from our friends at Pushkin Industries.

On Cautionary Tales, bestselling author...

Listen Now
28:26

A Short History of Seances

27 October 2022

From their origins in necromancy to their ritualisation in the religion of Spiritualism, seances have long been a staple in the occultist's...

Listen Now
40:48

America's Psychedelic '60s: Timothy Leary and LSD

27 October 2022

In 1963, a Gilded Age estate in Millbrook, New York, became a venue for academic research into therapeutic uses for LSD, led by psychologist...

Listen Now
35:44

Nur Jahan: Empress of Mughal India

27 October 2022

In 1611, the daughter of a Persian nobleman and widow of a subversive official, became the 20th and favourite wife of the Mughal Emperor Jahangir....

Listen Now
43:49

Colosseum

27 October 2022

Nicknamed the 8th wonder of the ancient world, the Colosseum still stands in splendour today. Located in the heart of Rome, nestled at the bottom...

Listen Now
36:33

Elizabeth Báthory: The Vampire of Hungary

26 October 2022

The inspiration behind countless gothic novels, Countess Elizabeth Báthory is said to be one of the most prolific serial killers of all time,...

Listen Now
37:56

Nuclear Fusion Power

26 October 2022

For almost a century we’ve been trying to build a star on earth. Not easy with temperatures reaching 150,000,000℃.

Today on Patented...

Listen Now
50:28

Rasputin: Myth & Manhood

25 October 2022

Was Rasputin really Russia’s greatest love machine? Did he have any healing powers? And why might his penis be pickling in a jar?

In this...

Listen Now
42:36

Ghosts

25 October 2022

How long have people believed in ghosts?

Eleanor Janega is back Betwixt the Sheets with Kate to tell us why you should always stand up to...

Listen Now
30:47

Who were the Africans in Medieval Britain?

25 October 2022

Earlier this month, it was reported that DNA analysis of the skeleton of a 10-year-old girl buried in Kent in the 7th century showed she was of...

Listen Now
23:28

The Extraordinary Life of James Harley

24 October 2022

James Arthur Stanley Harley was a scholar, reverend, politician, and perhaps aristocrat. Born in a poor village in the Caribbean island of...

Listen Now
2:31

TUTANKHAMUN: Mini-Series Coming Soon!

24 October 2022

On the 1st of November comes an immersive mini-series telling the story of one of the great discoveries of all time: the tomb of Tutankhamun. For...

Listen Now
40:53

The Oregon Trail

24 October 2022

From the 1830s until the arrival of the transcontinental railroad, hundreds of thousands of people packed their possessions into wagons and headed...

Listen Now
43:25

Edward VI & The Prayer Book Rebellion

24 October 2022

The so-called “Prayer Book Rebellion” of 1549 saw the people of Devon and Cornwall rising up against the young King Edward VI, determined to...

Listen Now
40:19

Origins of Modern Iran

24 October 2022

As protests continued across Iran last week, a number of Iranian-made kamikaze drones were fired by Russian forces at targets thousands of miles...

Listen Now