History Hit Podcasts

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...

America's Worst President

What makes a bad President? Who was the worst of all time? In this episode from the archive, Don is joined by Professor Jeremi Suri, author of The...

The Battle of New York Explained

Manhattan, Brooklyn, the Hudson, the East River - today, these are the very heart and soul of New York City. But in 1776, they were the...

Henry VIII: From Cradle to Crown

How did a dazzling young Tudor prince become one of history's most notorious kings? How much of Henry VIII’s later tyranny was shaped by the...

Georgian London's Celebrity Criminal

What is it about a ‘bad boy’ that we love? That’s as true today as it was in the 18th century. In this episode of After Dark, Anthony and...

Human Origins: Did We Begin in Africa?

The story of human origins is often imagined as a simple journey from Africa, but is the truth actually much messier? Tristan Hughes and leading...

Battle of Grunwald: Defeat of the Teutonic Knights

In July 1410, the formidable Teutonic Knights, rapacious crusaders clad in heavy plate armour, faced a massive Polish-Lithuanian alliance. After...

How Many Penises Are There On The Bayeux Tapestry?

The Bayeux Tapestry is one of the most famous works of medieval art in the world, but what do we actually know about it? Who made it? Where? Why?...

Who Was The Greatest Cleopatra?

Was Cleopatra actually Egyptian?

It's a surprisingly important question. When most people think of Cleopatra, they have a specific person in...

The People's Founding Father

Signatory of both the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution, James Wilson was a sitting Supreme Court justice when he died. So why is...

The Rise & Fall of Babylon

Babylon has a PR problem, and it's 2,600 years in the making.

The Bible remembers it as the ultimate city of sin, the place that crushed...

Egypt's Lost Cities

What happens when an entire city disappears? Beneath the sands and wetlands of Egypt lie the remains of forgotten cities that once stood at the...

How to Survive as a Tudor Peasant

What was everyday life like for an ordinary person in Tudor times? How did dramatic changes in population, climate, disease and the economy...

The Wild Story of America's Biggest Traitor

Benedict Arnold was celebrated as a war hero of the American Revolution before he betrayed George Washington and the Continental Army by joining...

The King Who Created Medieval Bohemia

In 12th-century Bohemia, every royal funeral sparked a civil war. Dr. Eleanor Janega discovers how Přemysl Otakar I survived backstabbing...

Slavery in the Roman Empire

Behind the impressive relics the Romans left behind lurks a much darker story: that most of Rome was built on the back of enslaved...

The Truth About the Louisiana Purchase

We're all taught in school about the Louisiana Purchase, supposedly the greatest bargain in American history. Napoleon's deal with the Americans...

Templar's Tunnels, HMS Victory and Troy: History's Best Historical Sites with Dan Jones

The two great Dans of history - Dan Snow and Dan Jones - team up to explore the stories behind some of the world's best historical sites. Dan...

Young Elizabeth I: Princess & Prisoner

How did a child written off by the Tudor court rise to become one of England's most iconic monarchs?

Before she became queen, Elizabeth...