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
30:00
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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38:47
The Wars of the Roses: The Origins
7 May 2022The Wars of the Roses is a complex and fascinating period of English history that dominates the second half of the 15th century and leads to the...
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42:18
Declaring The War On Drugs
6 May 2022As the Cold War came to an end, US President George H.W. Bush defined his 1992 election bid in terms of the War on Drugs. It was said that there...
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36:50
Diving for Lost Slave Shipwrecks
5 May 2022From the 16th to the 19th centuries, European slave traders forcibly uprooted millions of African people and shipped them across the Atlantic in...
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43:43
Sex & The Tudors
5 May 2022There’s not an infinite number of ways that humans can act on sexual desire. Human bodies haven’t changed, but the cultural landscape around...
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35:14
Gardening for Mental Health
5 May 2022It’s Mental Health Awareness Week this month, and Jimmy will be joined by a selection of guests who will tell us how nature can have an impact...
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25:12
The World of Stonehenge
5 May 2022Described as the "most important piece of prehistoric art to be found in Britain in the last 100 years", an elaborately decorated 5000 year-old...
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25:41
Agincourt: Myths Explained
4 May 2022Agincourt is a name which conjures an image of plucky English archers taking on and defeating the arrogant and aristocratic knights of the French...
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22:53
Hitler's American Gamble
4 May 2022The Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7 1941 remains etched in public memory as the turning point of WW2. But in fact, it was Hitler’s...
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41:01
Death, Desire, Power & Scandal: The House of Dudley
3 May 2022The Dudleys were the most brilliant, bold and manipulative of power-hungry Tudor families. Every Tudor monarch made their name either with a...
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33:11
The Valkyries: Handmaids of the Gods
3 May 2022In Norse mythology, the Valkyries determine who lived and who died on the battlefield. Translated as “Chooser of the Fallen” in Old Norse,...
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33:26
John Donne: Poet of Love, Sex and Death
2 May 2022John Donne (1572-1631) lived myriad lives. Sometime religious outsider and social disaster, sometime celebrity preacher and establishment darling,...
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26:08
Walter Raleigh's Quest for El Dorado
2 May 2022Sir Walter Raleigh remains one of the enduring names from the Elizabethan era. He was a true Renaissance man - a statesman, soldier, writer,...
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