History Hit Podcasts

First Ever Submarine

400 years ago on the River Thames a mad genius showed off the world's first submarine. A crowd of thousands including King James watched as...

Sex & Scandal in Hampton Court

From Catherine Howard’s affairs whilst she was with Henry VIII, to Charles II’s mistress staging a lesbian wedding as part of a threesome…...

Sabotage & Secret Weapons: The WW2 Dirty Tricks Department

What is a bat bomb? Why would you cover a fox in radioactive paint? And who are the masterminds behind the Office of Strategic Services, the...

Emma of Normandy

Matt Lewis continues Gone Medieval’s special series showcasing Medieval Queens with a look at Emma of Normandy, the Norman-born noblewoman...

Eating with the Tudors

What did the Tudor age understand about digestion? How did this affect what foods people prepared and ate? Was there such a thing as healthy...

Ramesses the Great

One of the greatest Pharaohs from Ancient Egypt, Ramesses II is renowned for commissioning some of the most iconic architecture and art from...

Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn

This is the story of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn as you've never heard it before. From their childhoods and courtship through to their union and...

Inventing Fire: the First Spark of Humanity

Fire is the unsung hero of human evolution. We could not have turned into the big-brained, deep-thinking animals we are on raw food alone. The...

President Thomas Jefferson

Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, so how did it work out when he became the leader of this nation that...

Sex In Old Age: Myths, Toys & Desire

As taboos go, sex between two consenting adults should not be up there as one of them.

And yet! When we talk about sex in old age many...

My Great-Grandfather's War: Lt-Gen Thomas Snow & The Somme

Dan explores his great-grandfather's part in the First World War. Lieutenant-General Thomas Snow was a senior officer in the British Army who...

Three Mile Island: Nuclear Accident in Pennsylvania

It's the worst accident in US commercial nuclear power history. In March 1979, the Unit 2 reactor at Three Mile Island nuclear generating station...

Henry VIII’s Fool, Will Somer

In some portraits of Henry VIII there appears another, striking figure. This is Will Somer, the king’s fool, a celebrated wit who could raise...

Holy Roman Empire

Voltaire famously wrote that the "The Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” But Dr. Eleanor...

The Origins of the Popes

The popes of Rome emerged from the humblest of beginnings. The first was a fisherman, charged with spreading the word of God under the watchful...

The Great Mosque

The Great Mosque was positioned in the center of Baghdad, with numerous smaller mosques dotted around the various neighborhoods. A place of daily...

Rise and Fall of High Heels

For most of their history, High Heels were resolutely masculine. The most manly of manly footwear. How did they turn into burning icons of...

Harappan Civilisation

The Harappan civilisation, also known as the Indus Valley civilisation, was an ancient urban civilisation that thrived in the Indus River valley...

The Middle Ages in Five Facts

Where is the grave of King Arthur? What was the worst year in human history? Who were the most fractious royal siblings? What were the origins of...

Hate Mail: A Scandalous History

From tip-off letters about the gun powder plot to village quarrels that lead to jail time - today we’re going Betwixt the Sheets to find out...

President James Madison

His life is one of firsts for the United States. Having contributed to the Federalist Papers, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, in 1812...