History Hit Podcasts

Why Do Humans Wage War?

Why, despite knowing the devastation it causes, do humans insist on starting wars? Countless battles have littered the pages of our shared human...

THE LEADERS - Mini Series Coming 3rd March

Why do we, as humans, allow such individuals to hold such power over us? And at what cost? Our world is shaped by choices—some calculated, some...

President Harry Truman: From Farm to Oval Office and the Atom Bomb

The end of the Second World War. The start of the Cold War. The dropping of the Atomic Bomb and the growth of the Civil Rights movement. When FDR...

Samurai or Shinobi: Who Really Ruled Medieval Japan?

Chasing Shadows 2. Politics

Assassin's Creed Shadows gives players the chance to experience history as two icons of medieval Japan: samurai...

The Persian Wars: Xerxes, Thermopylae and Salamis

In 486 BC, King Xerxes ascended the Persian throne, inheriting its vast and glittering world empire. But his ambition didn’t stop there - he...

The Great Siege of Malta

What happens when a small island faces the might of the Ottoman Empire?

In 1565, Malta was the setting for a brutal clash between the forces...

The Curse of King Tutankhamun's Tomb

Untimely deaths followed the opening of Tutankhamun's tomb by Howard Carter. Coincidence or ancient curse? When the tomb of King Tutankhamun was...

Mary, Queen of Scots

This is the story of the incredible rise and fall of Mary, Queen of Scots. She was queen of Scotland, she was queen of France, and she could have...

Is the Renaissance a Myth?

Dr. Eleanor Janega reveals the darker side of the Renaissance with Dr. Ada Palmer, challenging the notion that it was a golden age, exposing it as...

Sex & Scandal in 1920s Soho

When and why did Soho become a hedonistic hotspot, the home of sex, drugs and music?

Kate is Betwixt the Sheets with Dan Snow to talk about...

Jamestown: Decline & Fall?

In 1699, Virginia’s government and capital moved from Jamestown to Middle Plantation, renaming it Williamsburg.

But why did they abandon...

How to Run a Stuart Household

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb delves into the world of Stuart-era recipe books, in which medicine, cookery and women's roles combine in fascinating...

Final Days of Thomas Cromwell

From ruthless schemer to pragmatic hero - who is the real Thomas Cromwell? And how did he meet his end? Today Anthony Delaney tells Maddy Pelling...

Mount Hiei: Home of Japan's Warrior Monks

Assassin's Creed Shadows gives players the chance to visit the imperial capital of medieval Japan. But today, we're heading to a mountain lying...

Soho: London's Most Notorious Neighbourhood

Soho was once a thriving melting pot of speakeasies, sex work and organised crime. From razor gangs of the 1920s to money laundering, the area has...

End of Ice Age Britain

As Ice Age Britain thawed, temperatures surged, sea levels rose, and humans and animals faced a fight for survival. But this shift was anything...

Inside Europe's Biggest Red Light District

Between 1860 and 1925, tens of thousands of women worked in Dublin's Monto, the largest red light district in Europe.

It was a world of...

Aztecs

Matt Lewis is joined by Professor Camilla Townsend to delve into the story of the Mexica, commonly known as the Aztecs. They unpack the true...

Dogs

From the small corgis that drove cattle to Smithfield market to the Dalmatians that protected carriages from highwaymen, humans and dogs have...

Jamestown: Surviving The Fort

What was it like to live in the fort at Jamestown? Who was in charge? What provisions were there? And why is this considered to be the birthplace...

Giordano Bruno: Mystic, Heretic, Spy

Giordano Bruno was burned at the stake 425 years ago this month. His crime? Radical thinking which clashed with the ideas of the Roman Catholic...