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
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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44:35
Sex Robots
16 August 2022Can a sex robot really fulfil our needs in the bedroom? And what attempts have been made in the past?
Sex robots may sound like a thing of...
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30:11
Anglo-Saxon Cave Dwellings
16 August 2022The unusual Anchor Church Caves in south Derbyshire were, until quite recently, thought to have been follies cut into the rock in the eighteenth...
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33:16
The Tiananmen Square Massacre
15 August 2022In 1989, Beijing's Tiananmen Square became the focus of large-scale demonstrations as mostly young students crowded into central Beijing to...
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34:10
Becoming Elizabeth I
15 August 2022Queen Elizabeth I has been depicted on the big and small screen more times than most of her contemporaries. Now, a critically acclaimed TV series...
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25:07
The Iraq War... In Alaska
15 August 2022If you were asked what you thought about the Iraq War in Alaska, you'd probably be more than a little confused. But that confusion might turn to...
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22:53
Mutiny on The Bounty
14 August 2022Numerous novels, TV shows and as many as 5 movies- including the Hollywood classic starring Clarke Gable and Marlon Brando - have immortalised the...
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31:04
Vantablack: The Darkest Material On Earth
14 August 2022!!!REAL LIFE INVENTOR ALERT!!!
Usually we talk about dead people on this podcast. It is history after all. But this week we’ve got living,...
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51:25
Ancient Americas: Teotihuacan
14 August 2022A jewel of Mesoamerica, Teotihuacan was a vibrant, painted city - but who built it? And who actually lived there?
In the second episode of...
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24:33
How the English Accent Changed Forever
13 August 2022Between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries, a profound transformation took place in the ways that the English language was spoken and words...
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55:06
300 Years of British Prime Ministers Part 2
12 August 20222/2. It's a big summer for British politics with Boris Johnson's resignation and the race between conservative hopefuls Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss...
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27:32
Escaping the Blitz: A WW2 Evacuee Remembers
12 August 2022Today's guest Kitty Baxter was aged just nine when World War II broke out in 1939. One of five children born to a road sweeper and a cleaner,...
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51:17
Rasputin: Myth & Manhood
12 August 2022Was Rasputin really Russia’s greatest love machine? Did he have any healing powers? And why might his penis be pickling in a jar?
In this...
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43:21
The Witches of Warboys: England's Most Famous Witch Trial
11 August 2022The Cambridgeshire village of Warboys was the scene of one of the most famous English witch trials of the sixteenth century. There, the privileged...
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44:24
The Oracle of Delphi
11 August 2022"If Croesus goes to war he will destroy a great empire." That was the prophecy the Oracle of Delphi delivered to the Lydian King - she just...
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49:42
300 Years of British Prime Ministers Part 1
10 August 20221/2. It's a big summer for British politics with Boris Johnson's resignation and the race between conservative hopefuls Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss...
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36:47
Pyramids
10 August 2022The Great Pyramid of Giza was the tallest building in the world for nearly four thousand years…until it was beaten by Lincoln...
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32:48
Unrest in Parliament: The Hot Summer of 1911
9 August 2022The summer of 1911 was a hot one. Massive strikes took place across the country, including seamen, railwaymen, coal miners, women working in food...
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43:04
What the Romans Did for Us
9 August 2022Early Medieval Britain was more Roman than we think. The Roman Empire left vast infrastructural resources, not least roads, walls and bridges. Why...
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41:31
Female Pirates
9 August 2022Yo ho ho, a pirate’s life for me - but what is a pirate’s life, and what was it like for women?
This is the story of Anne Bonny and Mary...
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44:21
The Origins of Rome
8 August 2022Known as the Eternal City, ancient Rome was one of the greatest civilisations in human history, but how did it come about?
With a turbulent...
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