History Hit Podcasts

Origins of the Silk Road

The Silk Road was a pivotal ancient exchange network that connected the grassy steppes of Asia and the Middle East with the Western world. The...

The Biblical Kingdom of Israel

The story of the ancient kingdom of Israel is a central part of the Old Testament. Famous for its kings like Saul, David and Solomon, the kingdom...

Women Pirates of the Caribbean

Anne Bonny and Mary Read were pirates who sailed the Caribbean in the early 18th century. For both of them, piracy offered a chance at a freedom...

Spooky Origins of the Ouija Board

Do you dare try? The Ouija board was invented in 1890. It was an idea lifted from Spiritualist devices for communicating with the dead. Find out...

Magna Carta in America

What does a document written in 1215 in England have to do with the United States? Surprisingly a lot actually! The Magna Carta is thought to have...

Incest in Ancient Egypt

From recent research we know that the great boy king Tutankhamun was a result of incest.

How did it effect him? And was incest in Ancient...

The Real Moriarty with Ben Macintyre

Adam Worth was the quintessential criminal mastermind. He faked his own death, robbed banks in the US, stole diamonds in South Africa and amassed...

The Rosetta Stone

In 1798, the young French General Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt. After successfully taking Alexandria, he ordered the reconstruction of a fort...

The First Battle of the Civil War: Fort Sumter

A 34-hour bombardment, one (accidental) death, and the start of the bloodiest war the United States has ever seen.

The Battle of Fort...

Shogun and Shinto: What Life Was Like In Feudal Japan

What was life like in feudal Japan? If you were born into the chaos of the Warring States period, would you have been a farmer, a merchant or a...

Six Wives: Katherine Howard

Six wives - six lives that we think we know everything about.  But beyond their mostly doomed marriages to Henry VIII and, in most cases,...

Ghost of Marie Antoinette

What if a leisurely visit to the Palace of Versailles transported you back to the court of Marie Antoinette — would you believe it or question...

John the Baptist

Not long after the turn of the first millennium, a Jewish prophet emerged from a period of desert solitude in the Jordan River valley. He wore...

Heracles

Tristan Hughes continues the Greek Gods and Goddesses series with today’s deity; the most popular mythical hero of them all: Heracles, or...

London's Oldest Parish Church: Great St. Barts

Once connected to a busy and thriving hospital, Great St Bart's Church in Smithfield is not only a survivor of the Great Fire of London, but also...

The Whiskey Rebellion: Tax Protest & Armed Resistance

This episode was first released on November 14 2022.

The Whiskey Tax, imposed in 1791, was the first federal tax on a domestic product by a...

Sex Life of Henry VIII

When we think of Henry VIII we think of a big, blood thirsty tyrant.

But was there more to this caricature of a king then we give him credit...

Legendary Woman Samurai: Hosokawa Gracia

Toda Mariko, or Mariko-san, one of the main characters from the new TV series Shogun - adapted from James Clavell's epic novel - is based on a...

Last Witches of England

This is the dark history of the last people to be executed for witchcraft in England. In 1682, Temperance Lloyd, Mary Trembles and Susannah...

The Ark of the Covenant

The Ark of the Covenant is one of the most famous, yet mysterious, objects mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. This special box that held the sacred 10...

The Other D-Day: The Eastern Front

Historian, broadcaster and author Jonathan Dimbleby joins Dan to explain how Hitler's plans in the East went disastrously wrong.

2 weeks...