History Hit Podcasts

WW2: Forgotten Mission of the 6888th Battalion

This episode contains references to highly offensive racist language and events.

In February 1945, with the war in Europe still raging,...

Ragnar Lothbrok: The Viking Legend

The ninth century Danish king and warrior Ragnar Lothbrok became notorious again most recently through the TV series The Vikings. But what do we...

History of Camp: From Oscar Wilde to James Bond

As the old adage goes, attitude is everything. And if there’s one attitude that stands proud above the rest it’s the utterly fabulous,...

The CIA & MI6: The Real Special Relationship?

Behind the handshakes of leading politicians, beyond the trade deals and beneath mutually beneficial military deals, how has the 'special...

Shakespeare's London: Going to the Theatre

In this third special episode of Not Just the Tudors celebrating the 400th anniversary of the publication of Shakespeare’s First Folio,...

Origins of Water

When you envision what Earth was like 4.5 billion years ago, shortly after its creation, images of dust-filled air and raging volcanoes tend to...

The Windrush Generation & Scandal

The journey of the Empire Windrush that docked in Essex with 1,027 passengers & at least two stowaways on 22nd June 1948 has come to define a...

Kitchens

Who invented the Kitchen? It might seem silly to ask that but there is in fact one kitchen that people point to as the mother-of-all-kitchens. It...

The Titanic Wreck

In 1912 Titanic departed on her first and last voyage from Southampton, sinking over 2 miles to the bottom of the dark North Atlantic Ocean,...

Dick Pics: The History

Depictions of dicks have been an obsession in art for as long as art has been around, but the act of sending a real life image of ones penis is a...

The Crusades and Ireland

Ireland has long been overlooked in the context of crusading. It has not only been largely absent from accounts of crusades and crusading, it has...

George VI and Elizabeth, Queen Mother

This episode brings the marriage of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother to life, from the uproar of King Edward VIIIs abdication...

The Long Death of Slavery

We celebrate abolition - in the United States during the Civil War and on Juneteenth, in Haiti after the revolution, and in the British Empire...

Elizabeth I’s Royal Tours

Every spring and summer of her 44 year reign, Queen Elizabeth I insisted that her court go "on progress" — royal visits to towns and...

5 Assassinations That Changed History

Assassins have been plotting, murdering, and executing for thousands of years—from the famed Ides of March to forgotten British Prime Ministers....

The Stonewall Uprising

Pride month happens in June in commemoration of the Stonewall Uprising that took place in the summer of 1969 after police undertook a routine raid...

Pride Flag: Birth of a Rainbow

The first ever Pride Flag was 30 ft high and 60 ft wide. A suitably epic beginning for a flag that has had a massive impact on the...

The Picts

Emerging around the 3rd century CE and later designated official adversaries of the Roman Empire, the Picts wreaked havoc across the northern...

Medieval Trans Saints & Sex Workers

In this episode of Gone Medieval for Pride Month, Matt Lewis takes a look at some transgender stories from the Middle Ages. Marinos was a 5th...

Ukraine: The Counter Offensive Explained

After months of preparation, speculation, and planning, the Ukrainian counteroffensive has finally begun. With battles underway across the...

Shakespeare's Sex Life

The Bard’s work featured many references to sex and sexuality - some more obvious than others. But what does the work reveal about the sexuality...