History Hit Podcasts

Jefferson & the Revolutionary War

Thomas Jefferson has had no issue being remembered in American History. Ask anyone, this man was fundamental to Independence. But did he fight in...

Ice Age America: The Clovis Culture

Before the mammoths disappeared, people hunted them across Ice Age America. Armed with distinctive stone spear points, the mysterious Clovis...

The Rotten End of Henry VIII

Death, death, and more death surrounds Henry VIII's final years.

What happens when a monarch is trapped by physical decay, paranoia, and...

How Grim Were Victorian Slums?

We've spent a lot of time in of Victorian London on this podcast- a world of cobbled streets, grimy buildings and crowded homes. But how accurate...

Knights vs Ottomans: The Great Siege of Malta

The fate of the Mediterranean hung in the balance during this bloody battle between the Knights of St John and the armies of Suleyman the...

The Invention of Hell

"All hope, abandon ye who enter here." These words from Dante’s Divine Comedy may shape our modern vision of hell, but did you know that the...

How Debauched Were Roman Orgies?

The Romans have gone down as some of the greatest perverts of all time. But what really went on inside a Roman orgy? Joining Kate to get behind...

What Really Happened At Waco?

76 people died on 19th April 1993 when the compound of a religious sect, the Branch Davidians, went up in flames. It had been under siege by...

The KGB Double Agent Who Stopped Armageddon with Ben McIntyre

This is an extraordinary story of espionage, betrayal and an unlikely friendship between spies on opposite sides - and of a man who risked his...

Henry VIII's Reign of Terror

**Contains graphic description of execution**

What happened when one monarch's personal obsession dismantled an entire international order?...

Dark History From The Caribbean Plantations

In 1675, a planned uprising by the enslaved people of Barbados was crushed before it had a chance to come to fruition. For three years, the...

The First Punic War

How did the Romans ambush a massive Carthaginian fleet from behind a Sicilian island to win one of history's fiercest sea battles? For over 20...

Sword in the Stone: Origins of Arthurian Legends

Who first imagined King Arthur pulling a shining blade from solid rock? What do extraordinary Bronze Age discoveries reveal about the legend's...

The Paris Showgirl Who Fought The Nazis

Josephine Baker went from poverty and segregation in St. Louis to becoming Paris’s most sensational showgirl, captivating Europe with her...

Sherman's March: Invading the South

General William Tecumseh Sherman's famous invasion of the Confederacy in 1864 has become American legend... but what did Union troops do along...

The Battle of Stamford Bridge Explained

Dan explains how England’s last great Viking invasion met its brutal end. At Stamford Bridge in September 1066, King Harold Godwinson’s army...

Iron Age Ireland

How much of Iron Age Ireland is myth, and how much is archaeological reality? At the monumental Hill of Tara, sacred kings ruled over a landscape...

Quest for an Heir: Henry VIII, Aragon and Boleyn

In the 1520s, a dynastic crisis loomed behind the brilliance of Henry VIII's court. Desperate for a male heir after Catherine of Aragon's string...

When Medieval Peasants Attacked London

In 1381, thousands of ordinary people rose up against the Crown, marched on London, and came close to bringing England’s political establishment...

How to Read Runes

**Contains very strong language/Tavern talk**

Were runes really magical symbols used by Viking sorcerers? Or were they the everyday...

Mary Queen of Scots & Her Sh*thead Husband

Mary Queen of Scots has gone down in history for her power struggle with her cousin, Elizabeth I. But this was just one of the challenges she...