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
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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37:02
Medieval Pubs
18 October 2022For centuries, the pub has played a central role in our lives and communities. Throughout Britain, there are many pubs saying that they are the...
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39:12
Black Georgians
18 October 2022Who were Ignatius Sancho, Dido Elizabeth Belle and Francis Barber?
Between 10,000 and 30,000 black people lived in Britain during the...
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31:24
Britain's Worst Prime Minister
17 October 2022Could Liz Truss be Britain's worst Prime Minister? As the political scene in the UK hurtles into further disarray, Dan gets together historians...
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34:53
The US Marines' Pacific War
17 October 2022When US Marines landed on the island of Guadalcanal in the Pacific, in August 1942, they were taking part in the first US ground offensive of...
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32:14
Battle of Midway
17 October 2022The Battle of Midway has gone down in history as a key turning point in the Pacific Campaign of the Second World War. In June 1942, the US Navy...
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46:31
Female Sodomy
17 October 2022Few cases of same-sex acts between women are known in early modern Europe. Yet in the Southern Netherlands, some 25 women were charged with...
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23:49
The Cuban Missile Crisis
16 October 2022In October 1962 the world came very close to annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis. During the autumn of 1962, a U2 reconnaissance aircraft...
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28:15
End of Stone Age Orkney
16 October 2022Around 5200 years ago, during the Neolithic period, when farming first took hold, Orkney was a hugely influential cultural centre. Yet, as Europe...
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39:16
Eco Farming
16 October 2022George Washington Carver is well known to Americans as the Peanut Man. It’s been written of him that ‘peanuts were like paintbrushes: They...
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30:28
Africans in Medieval Europe
15 October 2022Were sub-Saharan Africans present in Medieval Europe? Despite their absence from many histories, they were. Arriving as traders, as explorers, as...
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30:55
Henrietta Maria: The Most Hated Queen Consort?
14 October 2022What does it take to get the reputation as one of the least popular queens in history?
Should we remember Henrietta Maria as the wife of the...
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36:12
Oil & War
14 October 2022In a world so dependent on the need for oil and gas, it's no wonder why oil rich nations like Russia hold such power on the global stage. The...
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27:57
The Long History of African and Caribbean People in Britain
13 October 2022There remains a tendency to reduce the history of African and Caribbean people in Britain to a simple story: it is one that begins in 1948 with...
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43:40
Edward Rulloff: The Gilded Age Hannibal Lecter
13 October 2022Edward Rulloff was described as “a monster imbued by the spirit of the devil”. In 1844, he murdered his wife, likely killing his daughter at...
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46:04
Rosetta Stone
13 October 2022In July 1799 a group of French soldiers stumbled upon a stone that was set to change our understanding of the ancient world.
The iconic...
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49:03
Women Letter Writers in the Early Modern Period
13 October 2022Historians face an enormous challenge finding documents that tell the stories of women in times past. In this episode of Not Just the Tudors,...
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30:07
Russia Falters in Ukraine: Parallels with WW1
12 October 2022Russia's current conflict in Ukraine was supposed to be a showcase of military prowess, a quick war that solidified her status as a great power....
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47:33
FORENSICS: DNA
12 October 2022The birth of DNA fingerprinting will forever be tied to Leicester, England. It was invented in a lab in the city’s university by Alec Jeffreys...
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19:57
The US and The Holocaust
11 October 2022After Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, thousands of German Jews facing systematic persecution wanted to flee the Third Reich but found few...
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39:35
Serial Killers & Misogyny
11 October 2022What is it with our culture’s fascination with serial killers? Ted Bundy, Jeffrey Dahmer, Peter Sutclifffe, Jack the Ripper….these violent...
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