History Hit Podcasts

The Dark History of Ballet

Whilst ballet is undoubtedly one of the most graceful and elegant art forms, it also has a long and dark history of sexual exploitation.

How...

Medieval Sex Work

Prostitutes were everywhere in the streets and neighbourhoods of medieval cities. In one and the same building, there might be a school upstairs,...

1. The British Empire: Mughals & the East India Company

This is the story of the British Empire in India. Over two episodes, we'll chart India's history from the birth of the Mughal Empire until the...

Who is the Real Dracula? The Bloody History

This is the incredible history of Dracula, from medieval ruler Vlad the Impaler, to Bram Stoker and the Victorian theatre world. Get ready for a...

Jewish History of Venice

Essential to any history of Venice during its glory days is the story of its Jewish population. Venice gave the world the word ghetto....

D.B. Cooper & the 70s Hijacking Craze

On 23 June 1972, a man boarded American Airlines Flight 119 in St Louis. He sat most of the way to Tulsa before donning a wig and a pair of gloves...

The Salem Witch Trials

More than 200 accused, 20 executed and a village plagued with hysteria. Were the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and 1693 the work of superstition, a...

Britain After the Ice Age: Star Carr

Over 13,000 years ago, Britain emerged from the ravages of the Ice Age as a changed land. Mesolithic hunter-gatherers who had adapted to cold...

The Real Shogun: The English Navigator Who Became a Samurai

In the year 1600, a bedraggled English sailor and his sick and dying crewmates anchored off the coast of Kyushu, Japan. His name was William...

King Henry II

One of the pivotal figures in Medieval history, King Henry II centralised royal power, instituted legal reforms and established common...

Did the Cold War Ever End?

Would the Cold War have happened if the nuclear bomb was never created? How did Gorbachev, Reagan and Thatcher reduce tensions between the East...

Abraham Lincoln's Sex Life

Abraham Lincoln is often thought of as the most loved president in America's history, but how much do we know about his personal...

England's Worst Witch Trial: Pendle Witches

Inside the heavy walls of Lancaster Castle, the darkest & deadliest of English witch trials played out in 1612 - the Pendle Witch Trials. By the...

Tudor Ladies-in-Waiting

For every Tudor Queen, their ladies-in-waiting were their confidantes, chaperones and intimate witnesses to their lives. These women were high...

Great Wall of China

It's one of the most iconic structures in the world: The Great Wall of China.

But is it just one wall? And who built it and why? Today,...

Atlantis

The fictional island of Atlantis has intrigued and eluded us for millennia. First mentioned in the works of Plato, it's a story that captures our...

The Power of Medieval Icons

In the Middle Ages, how did art - particularly Christian icons - serve to connect humanity with heavenly realms?  How did such images spread...

The Celebrity Sex Worker of Ancient Greece

This is the story of one of the most notorious women of the Ancient world.

Phrynne was a sex worker in the 4th century BC who came from an...

Persia: Rise of the Sasanians

The Sasanians are renowned as one of Rome's most feared enemies. Founded in third-century Persia by an Iranian noble called Ardashir, their...

Irish in America: Poverty to Power

At least 23 of the Presidents of the United States can have their ancestry traced back to Ireland.

So why did this diaspora come to America?...

Diary of a Tudor Gentlewoman

Diaries written by gentlewomen in the mid-16th century are hard to find. Yet, they lived through an age of upheaval as old ways were effaced in...