History Hit Podcasts

How Old is America?

When fossils were discovered in the US during the 19th Century, it altered American understandings of science, religion, race and more. So what...

Six Wives: Katherine of Aragon & Anne Boleyn

In the first of three special Christmas editions, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb offers another chance to hear the series from earlier this year in...

Who was the "Elephant Man"? Joseph Merrick's True Story

The life of Joseph Merrick, the man they dared to call "The Elephant Man", will fill you with pain and anger. He was treated so cruelly by society...

Vikings in Medieval Baghdad

In the ninth century, the Vikings earned a fearsome reputation along the coasts of western Europe. But they also travelled eastwards and reached...

Folk Christmas: Yule, Solstice & Ancient English Traditions

Folktales around the fire, gooding & mumping and the terrifying Hooden Horse are just some of England's winter folk traditions from history. In...

Druids

Aligning with the winter solstice of 2024, Tristan Hughes and Professor Ronald Hutton delve into the ancient Druids of Britain and...

Kateryn Parr | Secret Lives of the Six Wives

At the time, surely Kateryn Parr had her reservations about being Henry VIII's sixth wife?

Aside from being a tyrannical maniac who'd just...

Lives of Medieval Nuns

The often forgotten world of medieval nuns holds many secrets about the lives of ordinary people of the age, their daily routines, education, and...

How the Mongols Changed the World

After the death of Chinggis Khan, the founder and first Emperor of the Mongol Empire, the land became the largest contiguous empire in...

Outlaws vs the FBI: J. Edgar Hoover's G-Men

What makes the ideal gangster hunter? In the 1930s, outlaws like John Dillinger, Baby Face Nelson and Bonnie & Clyde were the scourge on the...

The Birth of Money

Gold has shaped human history for several millennia. But how and when did it first turn into currency? And what can it tell us about the birth of...

The Bible

How did the Bible transform from a guarded manuscript read in secret to a book accessible to millions?

Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined...

Inside the Foundling: London's First Orphanage (Part 2)

(2/2) We find out what life inside the Foundling Hospital was like as we complete the heartbreaking and heartwarming history of London's first...

Georgian Christmas

Pantomimes, pleasure gardens, bare-knuckle boxing and political upheaval. Christmas in the 18th and early 19th centuries was a very different...

How Did People Smell in Medieval Times?

Accessing stories from the past can be difficult, but how do we access smells from the past?

In today's episode, Kate is joined by...

The Haunting Medieval World of M.R.James

The chilling ghost stories of M.R.James are as much a part of our Christmas television viewing as the King’s speech. But few realise that...

Was the Civil War Won by Chance?

How did a couple's holiday save Kyoto from certain ruin? How did a landslide contribute to the Revolutionary War? Basically, how have chance...

Pirates of the Pacific & the Spanish Empire

Pirates weren’t just a menace on the high seas - they were a direct threat to Spain’s empire-building ambitions in the Pacific. Professor...

Lost Children of Georgian London (Part 1)

Today Anthony and Maddy look into the heartbreaking history of the Foundling Hospital, now London’s saddest museum. 

Starting in the...

The Mongol Invasions of Ming China

In Assassin's Creed Chronicles China, players foil a plot by Altan Khan to invade Ming China with his Mongol army. But who was Altan Khan, and how...

The Cod Wars

In the long and lamentable history of human conflicts, the Cod Wars have to be among the most bizarre. And what was the catalyst for them? You...