History Hit Podcasts

Ancient Civilisations of Arabia in Assassin's Creed Mirage: Valley of Memory

Assassin’s Creed Mirage: Valley of Memory recreates life in the AlUla oasis as it was over a millennium ago. Players can climb the...

The Origins of the Royal Navy

Henry VIII wanted to have the most powerful Navy in Europe; he also didn't want to have to travel very far to get it. Around 1512, he built a...

Surviving Plague in Venice

450 years ago, Venice found itself facing a plague outbreak that would kill more than 50,000 people - a third of its population. But to manage the...

Oscar Wilde's Very Victorian Scandal

In 1895, the world witnessed its first true celebrity trial when Oscar Wilde was charged with “Gross Indecency". To tell the powerful story of...

Stegosaurus: Titan of the Jurassic

Few dinosaurs are as instantly recognisable as the plated titan Stegosaurus - it's the Jurassic giant with a brain the size of a walnut and a tail...

Inside the Royal Harems of the Ottoman Empire

You can't move for people talking about the Roman Empire or the British Empire, but what about the Ottoman Empire?

It spanned a huge period...

Norwich Castle

Medieval Norwich comes alive as Matt Lewis and Dr. Eleanor Janega visit Norwich Castle, once a hulking Norman fortress, royal palace and later a...

What Was The Ghost Dance?

Reunion with the dead. The return of lands, food supplies and buffalo. The disappearance of white settlers.

By the end of the 19th Century,...

Rise of King Herod

He’s the villain of the Nativity. An alleged killer of innocents, remembered as one of history’s great monsters. But the truth about Herod the...

Elizabeth Boleyn: The Queen's Mother

What if the most powerful woman in Anne Boleyn’s story never spoke on the record? Elizabeth Boleyn steps out of the shadows in this revelatory...

How America Invaded (and Nearly Won) Canada

Dan narrates the remarkable story of how George Washington's newly established Continental Army tried to conquer Canada in the brutal winter of...

Does Every Family Hold A Dark Past?

Maddy and Anthony dig into their own family history in collaboration with Ancestry! They find stories from the darker side of the past in their...

The Mother of All Tudors: Child Bride to Kingmaker

Ever heard of Margaret Beaufort? Probably not. But whilst her name has been overshadowed by those of her son, grandson and great-grandchildren,...

St. Francis & the First Nativity Play

Christmas would not be complete without a nativity play: Baby Jesus, Mary and Joseph, all watched over by an ox, a donkey and assorted bystanders...

The German Spies at Pearl Harbor

What would you do if you discovered that members of your family had spied for the Japanese at Pearl Harbor? When this happened to Christine Kuehn,...

What Happened The Day Pompeii was Destroyed?

We all know the story of Pompeii: the Roman town reduced to ash when Mount Vesuvius erupted. Roughly two-thousand years later, archaeologists have...

The Bombing of Guernica

The aerial bombardment that rained down on the Spanish city of Guernica in 1937 was one of the most shocking atrocities of the Spanish Civil War....

The Boston Tea Party: Did The Sons of Liberty Really Dress Up As Native Americans?

Assassin’s Creed III recreates many key events from the American Revolution, including the Boston Tea Party, when colonists resisted British...

Henry VIII At War

**Contains descriptions of war atrocities, including rape and infanticide**

In 1544, Henry VIII led the largest army ever raised by an...

The Ten Commandments

Did Moses really receive the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai, or is that just ancient legend? Tristan Hughes is joined by Dr. Dylan Johnson to...

Sex & Scandal in Ancient Egypt

What did the Ancient Egyptians think about sex? Is there any truth to a rumoured royal sex scandal? What did they think of same-sex...