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
50:28
Rasputin: Myth & Manhood
25 October 2022Was 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...
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42:36
Ghosts
25 October 2022How 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...
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30:47
Who were the Africans in Medieval Britain?
25 October 2022Earlier 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...
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23:28
The Extraordinary Life of James Harley
24 October 2022James Arthur Stanley Harley was a scholar, reverend, politician, and perhaps aristocrat. Born in a poor village in the Caribbean island of...
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2:31
TUTANKHAMUN: Mini-Series Coming Soon!
24 October 2022On 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...
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40:53
The Oregon Trail
24 October 2022From the 1830s until the arrival of the transcontinental railroad, hundreds of thousands of people packed their possessions into wagons and headed...
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43:25
Edward VI & The Prayer Book Rebellion
24 October 2022The so-called “Prayer Book Rebellion” of 1549 saw the people of Devon and Cornwall rising up against the young King Edward VI, determined to...
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40:19
Origins of Modern Iran
24 October 2022As protests continued across Iran last week, a number of Iranian-made kamikaze drones were fired by Russian forces at targets thousands of miles...
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44:45
Battle of El Alamein Explained
23 October 2022Fought in the second half of 1942, the Battles of El Alamein were a series of climactic confrontations in Egypt between British Imperial and...
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39:01
The First Black Archaeologist
23 October 2022Born to slaves in 1863, John Wesley Gilbert was the first student of the Paine Institute, a graduate of Brown University, and the first black...
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32:51
Linoleum
23 October 2022Linoleum, or “lino”, once ruled the world (of flooring). It appeared everywhere from the Titanic to your gran’s kitchen. But where did it...
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34:18
King Charles VI of France
22 October 2022On 21 October 1422 - 600 years ago - King Charles VI of France died at the age of 53 after reigning for 42 years. He was known as both Charles le...
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47:04
The Grisly Deaths of Kings & Queens
21 October 2022Did Henry VIII really have syphilis? Who died from a red hot poker up the bum? And which king was taken down by a school of fish?
To learn...
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44:54
First Indochina War: Dien Bien Phu
21 October 2022The siege of Dien Bien Phu took place in 1954 and was a definitive victory for Vietnam. Although the battle brought an end to French colonial...
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1:04:05
The Battle of Trafalgar
20 October 2022On 21 October 1805, A British fleet commanded by Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson met the combined might of the French and Spanish fleets off the coast...
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43:09
CIA: The History
20 October 2022When the Central Intelligence Agency was created by President Truman in 1947, it was the latest incarnation of an American intelligence-gathering...
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46:46
Eustace Chapuys: Ambassador to the Tudor Court
20 October 2022Historians would be completely lost without the colourful, crucial insights of Eustace Chapuys, the Spanish Ambassador to Henry VIII's court from...
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41:41
Virgil
20 October 2022One of Antiquity's greatest poets, Virgil's legacy is seen across history. Following in the footsteps of his predecessor's Homer and Hesiod -...
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33:10
FORENSICS: The Beginning
19 October 2022Death by tiger bites. Death by prodding. Death from sexual excess. Deaths from over-eating and over-drinking. The opening of graves.
These...
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25:36
How The Victorians Took Us To The Moon
19 October 2022If a Victorian met Elon Musk they would completely get him. The world’s richest man, determined to use technology that doesn’t yet exist to...
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22:12
Mary Seacole: Doctress of the Crimean War
18 October 2022Born Mary Jane Grant in the colony of Kingston, Jamaica, in November 1805, Mary would later become a businesswoman, traveller and healer....
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