History Hit Podcasts

Elvis Presley's Sex Life

Elvis Presley embraced sexuality from the start. Rock n roll was not tame music, and neither were his early performances.

So much so that he...

President Rutherford B. Hayes: The First Great Depression

Emerging victorious from an electoral quagmire in 1876, Rutherford B. Hayes became the 19th President of the United States.

Professor Mark...

The Library of Alexandria

The Library of Alexandria was one of the most important and most celebrated buildings of the ancient Mediterranean. It was a great hub of learning...

The Birth of Science in 16th Century Europe

The traditional view of the birth of modern science places it firmly in the 17th century with such huge names as Bacon, Descartes, Newton, and...

Cannibalism in Scotland: Legend of Sawney Bean

According to legend, Sawney Bean and Agnes "Black" Douglas raised a clan of cannibals in a remote Scottish cave. They killed and ate unlucky...

Rwandan Genocide Explained

Warning: This episode contains some upsetting descriptions of human suffering.

The Rwandan Genocide is a dark and pivotal moment in modern...

Medieval Italy

The huge peninsula of what we today call Italy saw waves of invasions and sweeping changes over the course of the Medieval period, with huge...

Ancient Greek Sexual Health: Wandering Wombs & Headless Beetles

If there’s one thing you’ll find out from this episode, it’s that the Ancient Greeks were better at philosophy than...

Pontius Pilate

Pontius Pilate was the Roman Prefect of Judea during the reign of Emperor Tiberius and is most famous for condemning Jesus of Nazareth to death by...

Founding Father: Who Was John Hancock?

An iconic signature on the Declaration of Independence - that is what John Hancock is best known for. But how did he come to be the first...

What is the Yeti?

Did you know legendary mountaineer Edmund Hillary found evidence of the Yeti? Or that David Attenborough is on board with the idea it exists?...

How Spices Shaped the Modern World

In the 16th century, spices drove the world economy, creating riches on an unprecedented scale. Spanish and Portuguese explorers competed to find...

The Battle of Crécy

The English won a decisive battlefield victory over the French in the first decade of the Hundred Years' War. At the Battle of Crécy, an...

Apollo: God of the Sun

Apollo, the favourite son of Zeus and twin brother of Artemis, was a Greek God with many faces. Perhaps most famous as Phoebus, the God of the...

Iran & Israel: From Allies to Enemies

On the 1st of April, 2024, a presumed Israeli airstrike destroyed the Iranian consulate in Damascus, killing 13 people. Amongst them was a...

How the Plantagenets Built England

Six Plantagenet kings ruled between 1199 and 1399 - two centuries that witnessed civil war, deposition, the murder of kings and the ruthless...

Sex in the Aztec Empire

The Aztec Empire might conjure up images of human sacrifice.

And whilst religious violence was part of their society, theirs was also a very...

The 1921 Murder Farm Massacre: Slavery After the Civil War

During the spring of 1921, eleven bodies were found in in rural Georgia. These men were victims of horrific murders, and also of a more widespread...

Elizabeth I: Make-Up & Beauty Tips

What do we know about what Elizabeth I actually looked like? How was her appearance altered through the use of cosmetics? Portraits suggest...

The Goths

The Goths are renowned for many things, not least sacking Rome in 410 AD and helping to bring about the fall of the Western Roman Empire. They...

The Georgian Husband with Fourteen Wives

Charles Hamilton allegedly had fourteen wives according to the newspapers, but the headline was that Charles used to be called Mary. In the 18th...