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.
‘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.
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.
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 archaeologist Cat Jarman and historian Matt Lewis, 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 our all new podcast ‘On Jimmy’s Farm‘, celebrity farmer Jimmy Doherty talks to eco-experts and well-known faces about trying to live a greener life. Guests include Jamie Oliver, Eshita Kabra-Davies, Jake Humphrey, Sir Tim Smit, BOSH!, Dale Vince, & Bez from the Happy Mondays.
Click on any of the listings below to listen to our most recent episodes from our network.
All Podcasts
30:02
Anglo-Saxon Royals: Unexpected Veggies?
17 May 2022Early medieval royals ate mostly meat, right? Wrong! A new study that’s made headlines around the world has shown that medieval kings were...
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23:59
HMS Black Joke
16 May 2022Please note that this episode contains mentions of racial trauma, slavery and violence.
The most feared ship in...
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27:13
The Aluminium Trail: WW2 Pilots in the Himalayas
16 May 2022Robert ‘Bob’ Binzer wanted to be a pilot from a young age, and during the Second World War he got his wish. Bob was an aviator with the United...
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1:01:16
The Siege of Loyalty House
16 May 2022The Civil War was the most traumatic conflict in British history, pitting friends and family members against each other, tearing down the old...
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33:59
The Secret Plot to Kill the Government
15 May 2022On the night of February 23 1820, twenty-five impoverished craftsmen assembled in an obscure stable in Cato Street, London, with a plan to...
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42:58
The Origins of Homo Sapiens
15 May 2022What do we know about the earliest hominins to exist? With a story spanning one million years and counting, we're discovering more about how we...
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28:57
The Wars of the Roses: Dynastic War
14 May 2022Part one of this comprehensive trilogy covering the Wars of the Roses left the Yorkist lords attained and in exile. From this point, the 15th...
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42:38
Post Traumatic Stress: A History of War Trauma
13 May 2022Whether talking about shell shock, war neurosis, combat trauma or PTSD; the impacts of war zones on those who fight in them or encounter them have...
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32:55
How to Survive in Medieval England
12 May 2022If you travelled back in time to the Medieval period this very second, do you think you would survive? The short answer is probably not. If you...
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36:03
The Founding of Jamestown
12 May 2022415 years ago this month, 104 English men and boys landed in North America and established a settlement they called Jamestown in...
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39:56
Climate Optimism with Lily Cole
12 May 2022Environmental activist and model Lily Cole is On Jimmy’s Farm to discuss how we can protect the planet we love, and the healing power of...
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41:37
The Birth of Physiology
12 May 2022The treatment of mental health has been rapidly growing and improving over the past few decades, but it actually goes back thousands of...
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30:00
Codebreaking at Bletchley Park
11 May 2022Bletchley Park, Britain's key decryption centre during WWI, is known for the success of breaking the Nazi Enigma codes - experts have suggested...
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32:12
Operation Pedestal with Sir Max Hastings
11 May 2022By the summer of 1942 Malta had been under siege by Axis forces for over a year and the situation on the island was bleak with food and fuel...
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28:59
Mental Health in Victorian Britain
10 May 2022This week is Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK so we’ve got a special episode exploring the surprising way Victorians approached mental...
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29:37
Margery Kempe: Medieval Mysticism or Psychosis?
10 May 2022Margery Kempe: mystic, autobiographer…schizophrenic?
In honour of Mental Health Awareness week, Dr Cat Jarman is joined by Dr Alison...
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28:54
The 1650s: Britain's Decade Without a Crown
9 May 2022In 1649 Britain was engulfed by revolution. Charles I was executed for treason and within weeks the English monarchy had been abolished and the...
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32:53
A Self-Help Manual for the Melancholy
9 May 2022To mark Mental Health Awareness Week, Not Just the Tudors casts a 21st century eye over "one of the most perplexing, elusive, attractive,...
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43:13
Black Ops: A Life in the CIA
9 May 2022Enrique ‘Ric’ Prado found himself in his first firefight at age seven. The son of a middle-class Cuban family caught in the midst of the...
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22:45
VE Day
8 May 2022For most of us, VE Day conjures up black and white images of carefree servicemen and women dancing and beaming in Trafalgar Square, of Churchill...
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32:53
Pandora
8 May 2022According to Greek myth, Pandora was the first human woman - moulded from the earth by Hephaestus on the instruction of Zeus...
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