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
49:09
Witches
24 August 2022What comes to your mind when you think of a witch? Broomsticks? Black cats? Warts?
Early modern witchcraft expert, John Callow, is Betwixt...
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27:19
Home Security System
24 August 2022The patent for the Ring doorbell cites this as the starting point. A Heath Robinson looking design with peep holes, sliding cameras and radio...
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21:06
The Revolution of The Chinese Script
23 August 2022What does it take to reinvent the world's oldest living language? China today is one of the world's most powerful nations, yet just a century ago...
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3:12
Welcome to American History Hit
23 August 2022Join Don Wildman twice a week for your hit of American history, as he explores the past to help us understand the United States of...
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47:24
Viking Sex
23 August 2022Who was Loki having sex with? What is a horse penis cult? And were the Vikings as brutal as we think they were?
Betwixt the Sheets today,...
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45:40
Viking Sex
23 August 2022In this episode of Gone Medieval, presenter Dr. Cat Jarman swaps seats and becomes the guest of Dr. Kate Lister’s brilliant podcast from History...
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26:48
The Voyage That Kickstarted Globalisation
22 August 2022In February 1882 the SS Dunedin departed New Zealand on a voyage that would revolutionise the way we eat and kickstart the globalisation of the...
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31:58
India-Pakistan: On the Brink of Nuclear War
22 August 2022In 1970, the deadliest storm in modern history ripped Pakistan in two, leading the world to the brink of nuclear war after American and Soviet...
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35:41
The Borgias: Sin in Renaissance Italy
22 August 2022In Renaissance Italy, the Borgia family were admired for their audacity and their ruthlessness - they even inspired Mario Puzo’s depiction of...
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29:19
100 Years of British Political Nightmares
21 August 2022Over Britain’s first century of mass democracy, from the Great Depression to the pandemic, politics has lurched from crisis to crisis. How does...
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42:06
Ancient Americas: The Olmec Heads
21 August 2022One of the the earliest Mesoamerican civilisations discovered so far - Olmec influences are visible throughout history. But who were they? And...
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28:33
Play-Doh
21 August 2022Find out what Play-Doh has to do with sooty walls. And how we have a nursery teacher called Kay Zufall and a TV presenter called Captain Kangaroo...
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26:57
A Fourteenth Century Thriller: The Lawless Land
20 August 2022England, 1351. In the aftermath of the Pestilence, Gerard Fox - a young knight robbed of his ancestral home, his family name tarnished - sets...
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44:56
Women & Football
19 August 2022Football, or soccer depending on where you are in the world, is quite unsuitable for women, wouldn’t you agree? No? Well the Football...
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34:10
WW2: The Dieppe Raid Disaster
19 August 202280 years ago today on 19 August 1942, a 6,000 strong combined Allied landing force took part in a raid on Dieppe, Northern...
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31:02
Warships
18 August 2022Today we are talking warships: from the revolutionary Tudor ships to modern aircraft carriers, and all the innovations along the way.
In...
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59:02
Elizabeth I on Screen: The Historians’ Verdict
18 August 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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42:01
The Origins of Jerusalem
18 August 2022One of the oldest cities in history, and revered by religions across the world - what do we know about the origins of Jerusalem?
In this...
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39:26
What happened to the bones of the Waterloo battlefield?
17 August 2022In June 1815 the French army under the command of Napoleon was decisively beaten by an allied army led by Britain and Prussia at Waterloo in what...
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33:51
Cloud Seeding & Climate Engineering
17 August 2022Pyres on the Appalachian mountains. Planes spraying chemicals into clouds. Mirrors in space. “I can make it rain, I can make it rain, I can make...
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32:15
Walter Purdy: The Traitor of Colditz
16 August 2022In the Second World War, the Germans liked to boast that there was 'no escape' from the infamous fortress and POW camp Colditz. However, the elite...
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