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
44:42
Rewriting the First Crusade
6 September 2024The Crusades still capture the imagination today, for all of their professed good intentions they were also bloody ideological...
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46:47
What The Ancient Greeks Got Wrong About The Female Body
6 September 2024Why did the Ancient Greeks depict a womb as an octopus in their textbooks?
Their writings and (mis)understandings of the female body might...
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43:07
Machu Picchu: The Lost City
5 September 2024Part 1/4. Dan takes the podcast to the Peruvian Andes as he follows in the footsteps of intrepid American explorer Hiram Bingham who revealed...
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39:02
President Woodrow Wilson: Progressive? Warmonger? Overrated?
5 September 2024The 20th Century is up and running and the next President in our series, Woodrow Wilson, is in for a challenge. Reconstruction is over, Europe is...
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48:00
The Romans and India with William Dalrymple
5 September 2024Ancient India was the single greatest trading partner of the Roman Empire. For centuries, Indian sailors navigated the Indian Ocean and Red Sea to...
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48:37
The Black Death: The Deadliest Plague
5 September 2024It was beyond Biblical in its horror. Around half of all Europeans are estimated to have died in the Black Death. Death ravaged towns and...
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37:28
Elizabeth I Slept Here: Longleat House
5 September 2024Queen Elizabeth I’s travels round England - known as ‘progresses’ - were never a quick day-trip or city break. They involved scores of...
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28:38
Hitler's V1 & V2 Rockets
3 September 2024As the world closed in on the Third Reich in the final chapter of World War Two, a desperate Adolf Hitler turned to his so-called 'Revenge...
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46:37
Smallfolk Under Siege: Visions of Medieval Violence
3 September 2024In the year 940 in North-Eastern France, a young peasant girl began to experience vivid visions that mirrored the brutal conflict engulfing her...
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43:56
Could You Survive Victorian Surgery?
3 September 2024What was it really like inside a Victorian operating theatre? Did people really smoke cigars and eat oysters while they watched high risk surgery...
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34:47
British Brides for American Tobacco: A Tudor Trade
2 September 2024In 1621 the Virginia Company of London put out a call for young, handsome and honestly educated women to become wives for the planters in its new...
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34:59
Omens, Signs and False Prophets
2 September 2024In the autumn of 1621, hundreds of starlings were seen fighting in the sky above Cork. The following May, the city was ravaged by fire. The...
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35:21
Macabre Death of Edgar Allan Poe
2 September 2024Edgar Allan Poe was a poster boy for the macabre whose work thrilled readers throughout America and beyond. How did he end up in a gutter in...
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1:02:07
How WWII Started
1 September 2024On September 1st, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. Two days later, France and the United Kingdom declared war on the Third Reich. This was the...
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41:25
Battle of Teutoburg Forest: The Roman Invasion
1 September 2024Tristan Hughes travels to the site of the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest, one of the most epic defeats of the Roman army when an alliance of...
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36:26
Tolkien: Middle Earth & the Middle Ages
30 August 2024For millions of Tolkien lovers around the world, The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings are more than just fantasy fiction. Their rich mix of...
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40:42
Medieval Life During Plague & War
30 August 2024When so much of history is written by men, Margaret Paston's letters offer us a rare insight into the life of a woman and the world around her in...
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38:50
Boudica, Britain's Warrior Queen
29 August 2024In 61 CE, Boudica of the Iceni led a bloody revolt to end Roman rule in Britain. Roman historians tell us with great drama and flair that the...
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38:27
Who Was The Richest President?
29 August 2024Which President was best with their money? Which was worst? And are Presidents responsible for paying for their food, staff and parties during...
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39:58
Catherine de' Medici, Serpent Queen
29 August 2024Queen Consort of France and mother to three successive Kings, Catherine de’ Medici's legacy could have been one of intelligence, fortitude,...
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44:51
Petra: Ancient Wonder of the World
29 August 2024Despite being one of the most visited historic spots on the planet today, Petra was once a so-called ‘lost city,’ hidden from western eyes in...
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