Podcasts
All Podcasts
37:43
Swords in Elizabethan England
19 January 2023In Elizabethan England, swords were everywhere. Hanging on girdles, used in plays and depicted in paintings, they were an important marker of...
Listen Now
28:30
Zheng He: The Ming Dynasty Explorer
19 January 2023The Ming Dynasty emerged in the second half of the 14th century, having achieved a hard-won victory over the declining Mongol-led Yuan Dynasty....
Listen Now
30:04
Sawing Someone in Half Trick
18 January 2023When this trick was first performed, ushers poured buckets of blood down the gutter outside the theatre to entice people into the macabre...
Listen Now
23:28
North America's French Indian War
18 January 2023As the British and French colonies in North America expanded in the middle of the 18th century, they inevitably clashed. Fighting between the two...
Listen Now
34:33
Ireland's First Convicted Witch
17 January 2023In 1324, Alice Kyteler became the first woman in Britain and Ireland to be tried for witchcraft. Married to four different husbands - all of whom...
Listen Now
32:26
The Blues
17 January 2023So much of today’s music takes inspiration from the Blues, but where did Blues music itself come from?
Kate is joined by Lamont Jack...
Listen Now
29:03
Hitler and Mussolini
17 January 2023Just over 100 years ago, in October 1922, Mussolini and 30,000 Blackshirts marched on Rome. It was a mass demonstration that would see his...
Listen Now
34:51
Dr Martin Luther King Jr
16 January 2023Dr Martin Luther King Jr was one of the figureheads of the civil rights movement in America. On 28th August 1963, he made one of the greatest...
Listen Now
44:23
Spitfires of the Sea
16 January 2023After the fall of France during the Second World War, Britain became an isolated nation - dependent on the strength of it's coastal forces to keep...
Listen Now
57:52
Demonic Possession in 17th-Century Canada
16 January 2023When strange signs appeared in the sky over Quebec in 1660, the French settlers started to worry about evil forces in their midst. Then, a...
Listen Now
20:40
Churchill's Surprising Career in Scotland
16 January 2023Winston Churchill is possibly the most famous politician in British history. Throughout his career, he would hold numerous positions in...
Listen Now
28:05
Levi's Jeans
15 January 2023150 years ago a patent was lodged for the first ever pair of jeans (what we’d think of as jeans today at least). There were two names on it. One...
Listen Now