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
29:11
Elizabeth II: The Making of The Queen
8 September 2022Queen Elizabeth II has died after 70 years on the British throne.
Born in April 1926, Elizabeth Windsor became heir apparent, aged 10, when...
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28:59
Elizabeth II: The Making of The Queen
8 September 2022Queen Elizabeth II has died after 70 years on the British throne.
Born in April 1926, Elizabeth Windsor became heir apparent, aged 10, when...
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28:38
Elizabeth II: The Making of the Queen
8 September 2022Queen Elizabeth II has died after 70 years on the British throne. Born in April 1926, Elizabeth Windsor became heir apparent, aged 10, when her...
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37:16
Elizabethan England's Seafaring Musicians
8 September 2022Hardly anything has been written about the musicians who carried out many important tasks in England’s maritime ventures during the Elizabethan...
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47:09
Treasures of Tutankhamun
8 September 2022One of the most famous names in history - who is Tutankhamun? In 1922 Howard Carter discovered one the most intact ancient tombs in history,...
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32:05
The First Crusade
8 September 2022Today’s episode of Gone Medieval is brought to you by Paradox Interactive, the creators of the game Crusader Kings III. In it, Matt Lewis...
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58:36
Not Just the Tudors Lates: Elizabeth I on Screen - The Historians’ Verdict
7 September 2022What do you get when you bring together five top historians in a room with bottles of Prosecco to debate Elizabeth I on screen? History with the...
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31:41
Virtual Assistants ft. The Real Siri
7 September 2022We talk to the real life Siri in this episode. Susan Bennett was the original voice of Siri back in 2011, although she didn't know it at the...
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33:40
A Short History of Humans
6 September 2022Why are humans the only species to have escaped – only very recently – the subsistence trap, allowing us to enjoy a standard of living that...
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36:51
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Vikings
6 September 2022September is Vikings month on Gone Medieval, as Dr. Cat Jarman presents a mini-series about her favourite, specialist subject. Over her next four...
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43:11
Divorce
6 September 2022Why would a married couple stage an affair? Was Henry VIII really the beginning of the end for marriages? And how is the divorce process different...
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26:35
Atoms and X-rays: Experiments That Changed History
5 September 2022For millennia, people have obsessed over questions about the nature of matter in our universe. Then, by the turn of the twentieth century, we...
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24:15
Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing
5 September 2022*WARNING: This episode contains very strong language - including the F and C words - and derogatory terms for sex workers. So if you're likely to...
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37:37
WW2: The British Resistance
5 September 2022If Germany's audacious plan to invade Britain - Operation Sea Lion - had succeeded, what exactly would the country's last line of defence have...
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28:11
The Man Who Rebuilt the Faces of WW1
4 September 2022The mechanised warfare of the First World War brought unprecedented new levels of firepower and destruction to the battlefield and with it...
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28:00
Contact Lenses
4 September 2022The Contact Lens. The humble Contact Lens. Oh boy, do we have a rip-roaring episode for you about the humble contact lens.
Nazi villains,...
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44:46
Rise of the Persians
4 September 2022The Achaemenid Empire, or better known as the First Persian Empire, was one of the largest empires in History - led by Cyrus the Great it covered...
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40:40
The Medieval Bishop’s Sex Workers
3 September 2022Outside Medieval London’s city walls, Southwark was a land without rules. It was the place where people went to indulge their love of theatre,...
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51:49
The Battle of Salamanca
2 September 2022The Battle of Salamanca was fought in Napoleonic Spain on 22 July 1812, during the Peninsula War. It pitted Lt Gen Arthur Arthur Wellesley, the...
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38:45
Mafia Women
2 September 2022Who was Pupetta Maresca? And what did she do to become the first woman in Italy to be prohibited from having a funeral?
In this episode,...
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29:24
The Great Fire of London
1 September 2022In the early hours of September 2, 1666, a small fire broke out on the ground floor of a baker's house in Pudding Lane. In five days that small...
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