History Hit Podcasts

Girls on Stage and Page in the Elizabethan Age

Contrary to the idea that the early modern stage was male-dominated, girls actually played an active part in religious dramas, civic pageants,...

Homo floresiensis: Early Human ‘Hobbit’

An extinct species of archaic human, Homo floresiensis has been discovered solely in one, very specific location - the Indonesian island of...

WWII Britain: The Home Guard's Silent Assassins

WWII Britain's Home Guard wasn't a bumbling dad's army but in fact included factions of highly trained silent killers and spies hiding out in...

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology may seem like something from a sci-fi movie plot, but it’s a very real thing and has likely affected many areas of your life,...

Chairman Mao

Leader of the Chinese Communist Party from 1949 until his death in 1976, Chairman Mao reshaped the nation's course of history, founding the...

How The North Turned Christian

Christianity's inroads into the pagan north of England began with the marriage of Æthelburh of Kent to King Edwin of Northumbria. A...

Gay Identity in Nazi Germany

Berlin in the early 1930s was a place of incredible liberation for its queer community. 

There were over 100 gay clubs, and Magnus...

Elizabeth I's War with Ireland

Queen Elizabeth I, Gloriana, victor over the Spanish and patron of the arts ushered in a Golden Age for England. But she was also Queen of...

Pocahontas: The True Story

Despite her's being a household name, how much do we really know about Pocahontas? Where did she come from? How old was she? And what was her real...

City of Peace

What would a visitor have seen entering the City of Peace? Deana and Ali tour the medieval metropolis that is Baghdad. Capital city of the Abbasid...

Battle of Kursk with James Holland

This year marks 80 years since one of the more ferocious clashes of the Second World War: the Battle of Kursk. With a combined 8,000 tanks between...

Stealing the Crown Jewels with Al Murray

In 1671, an Anglo-Irish officer, the self-styled Colonel Blood attempted to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London. The thwarted...

The Ancient Greek Computer: The Antikythera Mechanism

In the recent Indiana Jones: The Dial of Destiny movie, the Antikythera Mechanism is used for time travel but in reality it was actually more of a...

Wernher Von Braun: Nazi Father of Rocket Science

Wernher von Braun launched America's space programme, and took Apollo 11 to the moon. He was also a Nazi member who served in the SS, and...

Sex Work in Pompeii

This episode contains some strong language references to sexual content.

Pompeii is shrouded in myths and legends about it's vibrant, after...

Superstitions: Witch Marks, Touching Wood & Lucky Pants

Many of them pre-date modern religions and defy what science tells us about the world - from saluting magpies, to wearing lucky pants. Yet why do...

The Sword & Its Cultural Significance

If one object stands out as synonymous with the Medieval period, it's probably the sword.

In this episode of Gone Medieval, Matt Lewis talks...

WW2 Heroes: Unheard Stories

As we get closer to the 80th anniversary of Operation Overlord and the D-Day Landings, we're beginning to witness the passing of 'living memory'...

Attila the Hun: Terror of Rome

Returning to one of the most infamous names in history, what happened to Attila the Hun after the devastation he caused in the Balkans - and where...

Elizabeth I's Censored Annals: A Major Discovery

Did King James VI of Scotland plot to assassinate Elizabeth I? Did she name him as her successor? For centuries, dozens of pasted-over passages in...

President John Adams

Sequels are always hit and miss. So what must it have been like to be the second President of the United States, following the man who originated...