History Hit Podcasts

Oppenheimer: What If America Never Dropped the Atomic Bomb?

The new Oppenheimer movie has everyone asking questions about the atomic bombs dropped on Japan in 1945 - were two bombs necessary? Would the war...

The Walkman: The First Intimate Technology

Think about how intimate our relationship with technology is. In today’s day and age, it’s almost impossible to function in the modern world...

The Fall of Mussolini

Benito Mussolini, the Italian fascist dictator met a gruesome end during the final days of World War II when he and his mistress were executed and...

How to Survive Plague and War in the Middle Ages

Throughout history, there have been plenty of hugely destructive, catastrophic moments. And yet somehow the human race managed to live on until...

Barbie: Feminist Icon?

Barbie is many things: an astronaut, a robotics engineers, a judge, and now a movie star! But can she be considered a feminist...

Warrior Women: Boudicca to Ukrainian Snipers

From Boudicca to Ukrainian snipers, battlefields have always contained a surprising number of women.

Today Kate is joined Betwixt the Sheets...

Barbie: German Sex Doll to American Icon

She's an icon, a polymath, a fashionista, and she's absolutely everywhere right now.

Where did Barbie come from? What has she represented to...

The Reformation: What Catholics & Protestants Believed

In the sixteenth century, religious beliefs underwent a dramatic change. As differences between the late medieval Roman Catholic Church and the...

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...

Nazi's Most Wanted: Assassin Hannie Schaft

Known among the Nazis as "the girl with the red hair," Hannie Schaft was a resistance fighter so deadly that Adolf Hitler personally ordered her...

Stonehenge

Stonehenge. The most iconic prehistoric monument in the world. And yet its story is still so enigmatic.

In this episode, host Tristan Hughes...

Chewing Gum: From the Aztecs to Avocados

Spearmint, peppermint, double-bubble. You may think that chewing gum is a modern invention, when in fact we've been chewing the stuff since the...

Scottish Kings' Sex Lives

One thing royal families strive for is the common touch. Whilst some have struggled with it, King James IV and V in the 15th and 16th centuries...

Lost Vikings of Greenland

Is there a lost colony of Vikings somewhere in Greenland, shut off from the rest of the world? For hundreds of years, that question has taxed...

Oppenheimer

Often referred to as the father of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer's work in the field of theoretical physics changed the world as we knew...

Mormons & The Founding of Salt Lake City

The Church of the Latter Day Saints is one shrouded in mystery, whispers of polygamy and is often synonymous with Salt Lake City. But where did...

Ivan the Terrible

The name Ivan the Terrible is synonymous with brutality and ruthlessness. While Western scholars insist that the first crowned Tsar of all Russia...

Homo Naledi: The First Burials?

Uncovered a decade ago in the Rising Star Cave system in South Africa, Homo Naledi's discovery has impacted paleoanthropology in ways nobody could...

Oppenheimer

On a summer morning in 1945, a device known simply as 'Gadget' was detonated. An enormous explosion tore a crater into the New Mexico desert,...

Karaoke: The History

When you think about it, the Karaoke machine is a simple invention. Basically two existing inventions, the tape deck and the microphone, were...

Black Boxes: Recording Airplanes' Final Moments

They can survive in lava for half an hour and accelerations of 3,400 Gs. Their beacons can be detected 20,000 feet beneath the waves. Most...