History Hit Podcasts

Sex Work in 18th Century Paris

Paris was a wild place in the 18th century.

It was the Age of the Enlightenment, cafe culture was exploding along with the world of ballet...

Crusader Criminals

Please be aware that this episode mentions sexual violence

Amongst the countless crusaders who travelled to the Holy Land, there were...

The Real Society of the Snow: I Survived the Andes Flight Crash

Warning: this episode includes descriptions of human suffering and cannibalism.

High in the remote Andes mountains, a Uruguayan rugby team...

Kamala Harris: An Unprecedented Candidacy?

Cleopatra, Catherine the Great, Boudicca, Margaret Thatcher, Angela Merkel: what do these women have in common? They were all leaders of their...

American History Hit: 200 Episodes On

Host Don Wildman has a message for listeners old and new, marking 200 episodes of American History Hit.

American History Hit first started...

The Parthenon: Wonder of Athens

It is the most famous monument of ancient Greece. Its remains standing tall above modern Athens today, more than 2,000 years old. The Parthenon. A...

Lorenzo de' Medici, the Magnificent

All this month, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is taking a deep dive into the complex and controversial House of Medici, which left an indelible mark...

Harry Houdini: the Original Ghostbuster

Harry Houdini was the greatest magician that ever lived. He was also the greatest ghostbuster ever, exposing countless spiritual mediums as...

The Fall of Roman Britain

By 410 AD, over 450 years after Julius Caesar first landed on its shores, the Romans had formally withdrawn from Britain. Burdened by military...

The Real Joan of Arc

How did a peasant girl go on to lead French armies at the age of 17? How did her visions of saving France from the English play a part in her...

The Real Cleopatra

Cleopatra. One of the most famous people from history, and remembered for her beauty, power and scandalous love affairs. But how accurate is her...

President Theodore Roosevelt

What kind of a nickname is Bull Moose? How progressive was Theodore Roosevelt's presidency? And how does his legacy live on?

Don is joined...

China's First Tourists: Travel Writers in the Ming Dynasty

Around the same time as the Mayflower was landing at Cape Cod, on the other side of the world tourism was thriving in China, giving rise to a...

Who Built The Parthenon?

An enduring symbol of ancient Greek artistry and architecture. Arguably the most recognisable monument they left behind. The...

"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...

The Rise of Roman Britain

On August 26th, 55 BC, Julius Caesar and his legionaries waded ashore just north of the White Cliffs of Dover. Right there in the surf, they were...

Mycenae: Cradle of Bronze Age Greece

Overlooking the Argolid Plain in the eastern Peloponnese, Mycenae was once the envy of the Mediterranean world. It rose to prominence in the late...

The Curious History of Beds

Sex and beds have a long, interwoven history. Here on Betwixt we often cover sex history, but we haven’t done a deep dive into the history of...

Antisemitism in Medieval Europe

Christians had a problematic relationship with Jewish populations as the Medieval period progressed. Jews were frequently persecuted, targeted...

The Bronze Age Collapse

Around 3,200 years ago, a vast, interconnected civilisation suddenly collapsed. A 'perfect storm' of climate catastrophe, famine, drought and...

Lawrence of Arabia

The famed British officer who fought alongside Arab guerrilla forces in WW1. Best known for his legendary exploits as an intelligence officer in...