History Hit Podcasts

Cleopatra

Who doesn’t know Cleopatra, legendary queen of Egypt ? A woman as beautiful as a goddess who claimed power in a world of men, seducing Roman...

Surviving Plague in Florence

Between 1630 and 1631, the city of Florence suffered its last epidemic of plague. Some 12% of the city's population of 75,000 perished.

In...

The Life of Anne Frank

It's exactly 80 years since Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in Nazi-occupied Amsterdam. Perhaps the most well-known Jewish victim of...

The Real Alexander Hamilton

How does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence impoverished...

Video Games

A whistle stop tour of the 50 year history of video games — and all the innovations along the way, from our TV sets to virtual...

Prehistoric Rock Art of Atlantic Europe

Dozens of incredible examples of prehistoric rock art have been found across western Europe in recent decades - but what do they...

The Medieval Origins of Fairy Tales

When we think of fairy tales, we think of imprisoned maidens, turreted towers, magic spinning wheels, wicked witches and demonic dwarves and...

The Korean War: A Forgotten Conflict?

Millions dead. A higher proportion of civilian casualties than in World War Two. America, Britain, Russia & China all involved in a conflict...

The First Queer Activist

On 29 August 1867, Karl Heinrich Ulrichs stood in front of the Congress of German Jurists in Munich and urged them not to extend sodomy laws...

Viking Voyages and Legends

In the dying days of the eighth century, the Vikings erupted onto the international stage with brutal raids and slaughter. The medieval Norsemen...

Elizabeth I: Last Days and Legacy

In the last years of Elizabeth I’s reign, many of the preoccupations of earlier decades had been abated. Mary, Queen of Scots had finally been...

Growing your Own Drugs with James Wong

Did you know around 50% of all medicinal drugs are derived from plants?

James Wong is a gardener, ethnobotanist, broadcaster and proud owner...

Sparta and the Nazis

Ancient Sparta was co-opted by the Nazis as a supposed model civilisation for the Third Reich’s twisted racial and martial...

The Death of Alexander the Great Explained

Alexander the Great’s untimely death at Babylon in 323 BC triggered an unprecedented crisis across his continent-spanning empire.

Within a...

Leonidas

The legendary Battle of Thermopylae has been told over and over and remains famous for an incredible act of valor : 300 Spartan warriors defending...

Drone Delivery

The drones are coming. In twenty years there’s going to be a hundred times more flying planes, taxis, parcels in the airspace than today thanks...

The Man Who Escaped Auschwitz

In April 1944 nineteen-year-old Rudolf Vrba and fellow inmate, Fred Wetzler broke out of Auschwitz. Under electrified fences and past armed...

Anglo-Saxons at Prayer: Brixworth Church

All Saints’ Church in the village of Brixworth, Northamptonshire is one of the oldest, largest and most complete Anglo-Saxon churches in...

Beer

Pint, bottle, schooner, tinny … no matter how you drink it, beer is undeniably a part of social life here in Britain and around the...

The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand

Europe in 1914 was a tinderbox of imperial tensions and the spark that would light the conflagration would be the assassination of Archduke Franz...

Was Queenship the Same Around the World?

All this month on Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb has been talking to her guests about Queenship. But the focus has...