History Hit Podcasts

Henry II & Thomas Becket: A Doomed Friendship

It's 1163; Thomas Becket has cast off the shackles of his working class roots to become King Henry II's right-hand man. He is appointed to the...

President Grover Cleveland: Panic in the Second Term

What caused the economic panic of 1893? In this episode we are delving into the event that made Grover Cleveland's second term so different from...

Birth of the Iron Age

It’s the end of the 12th century BC, and a once remarkable Near eastern world lay in ruin. Drought, warfare, famine, earthquakes, plague - all...

Tutankhamun's Curse

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

The First Japanese Visitor to Elizabethan England

In November 1588, a 21-year-old Japanese man called Christopher met Queen Elizabeth I. On the way, he had already become the first recorded...

Britain's Secret Atomic Tests in Australia

During the 1950s, in the remote expanses of Australia's outback, the British government conducted a series of clandestine nuclear tests. These...

Was Scott's Antarctic Expedition Sabotaged?

In the winter of 1911, Captain Robert Falcon Scott and his party set out into the frozen heart of Antarctica. Battling blizzards and treacherous...

Pope vs. Emperor: An 11th Century Crisis

When you think of drama in the medieval period the appointment of bishops would not naturally come to mind. But the Investiture Controversy is...

Queer London & The Post-War Moral Panic

In the wake of the Second World War, a moral panic swept through Britain around a rise in homosexuality.

London was the heart of this scare...

Communism in America

The history of the United States' relationship with communism is one littered with fear and persecution. So where did the American Communist Party...

Zionism in Texas

What do you know about Galveston, Texas? Perhaps you've heard about the disastrous hurricane of 1900, perhaps not. This was also likely the case...

Charles II's Lost Queen: Catherine de Braganza

Despite Catherine of Braganza's crucial place in British history, she has always been overshadowed by stories of Charles II’s many mistresses...

How The Metropolitan Police Shaped London

Scotland Yard: the home of London's Metropolitan Police Force. In this episode, Matt Lewis and Dr Jonah Miller put a magnifying lens to the...

Emperor Heraclius: Rome vs Persia

Emperor Heraclius took the Byzantine Empire from its lowest ebb to its greatest heights. After years of turmoil at the hands of invading Persian...

Bell Witch of Tennessee: America's Greatest Ghost Story

It's America's greatest ghost story: the 1817-1821 haunting of a rural family by a mysterious entity—sometimes violent, sometimes mischievous,...

The Bronze Age Brotherhood of Kings

More than 3,000 years ago, a coalition of Bronze Age rulers existed across the Near Eastern world. Kings reigning over great Bronze age powers...

Emperors & Scandals in Ancient Rome with Mary Beard

What happens at a Roman emperor's dinner party? Why would you be lucky to get out alive? And how are emperors even chosen?

Joining Kate...

How Parliament Came to Westminster

Parliament is perhaps the single most significant institution in the United Kingdom. Like anything worthwhile, it's a medieval creation. But why...

What is Populism? From the Farmers' Alliance to Trump

In the long unanswered question of whether the established elite truly support the concerns of ordinary people, a supposed hero arises:...

Domina: Women Who Shaped Rome

The crisis of the Roman Republic is a period littered with iconic male power players. Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Pompey, Brutus and the Gracchi...

Ultimate Tudor Spy-Master: Robert Cecil

Robert Cecil, statesman and spymaster, stood at the heart of the Tudor and then Stuart state, a vital figure in managing the succession from...