Podcasts

Was Henry VIII England's Most Evil King?

This is the turbulent reign of that infamous Tudor monarch, Henry VIII. His spectacularly complicated love life, break with Rome, political...

The Maya Ballgame

A rubber ball. A stone court. And a sport where the stakes could be life and death.

For more than 2,000 years, Mesoamerican peoples played a...

James V: Scotland's Ambitious Renaissance King

Was James V of Scotland a beleaguered child king or a brilliant Renaissance ruler who mastered the performance of power?

Crowned before his...

Great Buildings of the Middle Ages

How did medieval builders create monuments that still leave us awestruck? How were vast cathedrals, temples and cities constructed and...

The Mad Monk & The Witch Hunts

Malleus Maleficarum may sound like a spell but it is actually almost the opposite. This book was nicknamed the Hammer of Witches, and today we're...

Reconstruction Era: Terror in the South

Reconstruction promised freedom and political equality, but how quickly did that promise begin to unravel? Why did white Southern resistance...

The Making of Osama bin Laden

A deep dive into the rise and fall of Osama bin Laden, from his affluent childhood in Saudi Arabia to his assassination during the biggest manhunt...

True Crime: Mass Murderering Artist Cellini

How did a murderous, swaggering, wildly unreliable goldsmith become one of the most celebrated artists of the 16th century? Does genius excuse...

The Spy Who Fooled The Nazis

She was the only person during World War Two to parachute from Britain behind enemy lines into Nazi-occupied Germany, all while wearing a...

How Slavery Built the Roman Empire

Was the Roman Empire really made by conquest? Or was it powered by something much darker?

For centuries, millions of enslaved people...

Henry III vs. Simon de Montfort

Was Henry III overthrown by England's first constitutional revolution? How did Simon de Montfort's rebellion change the course of...

History's Deadliest Women: The Husband Killer

Until the 19th century in Britain, a woman killing her husband was guilty of worse than murder, she was guilty of petty treason.

So what is...