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
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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25:11
Ogham: A Forgotten Medieval Alphabet
11 October 2022Across the world, a wide range of writing systems developed in diverse societies and Medieval Europe was no different. Apart from the Latin...
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39:15
Karnak: Egypt's Greatest Temple
10 October 2022Located on the banks of the River Nile in Luxor, Egypt, the Karnak Temple complex is one of the largest buildings ever constructed for religious...
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49:55
Cuban Missile Crisis
10 October 2022In October 1962, the United States confirmed that Soviet missiles were being deployed in Cuba. President John F. Kennedy had to contemplate the...
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30:27
Escape from Colditz with Ben Macintyre
10 October 2022In World War Two the ancient fortress of Colditz Castle was used by the German Army to hold its most defiant prisoners of war. Located near...
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31:37
Malay’s Dynasty of Reigning Queens
10 October 2022The Sultanate of Patani - now part of modern day Thailand - enjoyed a golden age during the reign of four successive queens, which commenced in...
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29:43
The Romanovs
9 October 2022The Romanov family were the first imperial dynasty to rule Russia, reigning from the early seventeenth century until the Russian Revolution of...
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29:53
Punk & the Sex Pistols
9 October 2022Have you ever heard the story of how punk began?
“They are Dickensian-like urchins who with ragged clothes and pockmarked faces roam the...
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33:47
Race in Antiquity
9 October 2022History is littered with devastating accounts of prejudice that shines a harsh light on the atrocities humans have inflicted on each other for...
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22:51
DNA and Jewish Persecution in Medieval Britain
8 October 2022When the skeletons of six adults and 11 children were found at the bottom of a Medieval well in Norwich in 2004, they were thought perhaps to be...
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32:44
Pirates of the American Revolution
7 October 2022When we think of pirates our minds turn to figures both real and fictitious such as Blackbeard and Long John Silver, or perhaps even Somali...
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40:08
Phobias & Manias
7 October 2022What did Salvador Dali, Elizabeth I and Sigmund Freud have in common? They all had phobias, and it's possible you do too.
As ‘normal’ as...
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30:33
Outlaws, Cattle Rustling and Bootlegging: The Life of Josie Bassett
6 October 2022Josie Bassett Morris' life epitomised the Wild West. She grew up on a homestead in the late 18th century, in Northern Utah, USA. Their home was...
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20:22
Charles Ignatius Sancho: From Slavery to High Society
6 October 2022Please note that this episode contains discussion of racist language.
Charles Ignatius Sancho was born on a slave ship crossing the Atlantic...
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42:48
Central Park: What Lies Beneath
6 October 2022Central Park is an oasis of nature in New York City, amidst the countless skyscrapers and gridded streets of Manhattan. Over 800 acres of sweeping...
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47:52
March of the 10,000
6 October 2022Recorded by Xenophon, the 10,000 were a force of Greek mercenaries employed by Cyrus the Younger, with the aim of taking back the Persian Empire...
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43:24
The Legacy of the Mary Rose
6 October 2022The raising of the Mary Rose 40 years ago - along with some 19,000 objects which sank with her - has become a great boon to Tudor historians,...
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36:50
Recorded Sound
5 October 2022From talking sponges to voices frozen in ice, the history of recorded sound is not what you expect.
People fantasised about being able to...
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