Podcast Episodes

Unsung Victorians: Grace Darling, Josephine Butler & George Biddell Airy

Author Mark Beatty joins to explore three Victorians who shaped their era in very different ways yet rarely get the spotlight. We trace Grace Darling’s 1838 sea rescue and the birth of tabloid celebr…

Published on 15 hours ago

John Dee: Queen Elizabeth's Wizard

Who was John Dee—the Tudor polymath who advised Elizabeth I, mapped the heavens, spoke (he believed) with angels, and penned a landmark preface to Euclid? Historian and writer Rachel Morris joins to …

Published on 15 hours ago

Berlin in 1945

In 1945, weeks before the Western Allies arrived in Hitler's capital the Red Army controlled the city and began to quietly impose a new generation of German communists. Amid the ruins and devastation…

Published on 3 days, 11 hours ago

The politics of rearmament in Britain - 1936

In the mid-1930s, with the shadow of one great war still looming and the threat of another growing darker, Britain faced a vexing national crisis: should it rearm? This episode delves into the comple…

Published on 1 week, 2 days ago

The Ottoman Empire and Germany - 1914

In this episode of Explaining History, we delve into the intricate web of diplomacy, ambition, and betrayal that led the Ottoman Empire into the Great War. Drawing from Eugene Rogan's "The Fall of th…

Published on 1 week, 3 days ago

Italian dockworkers and Gaza

As an international aid flotilla approaches the shores of Gaza, sailing directly towards an Israeli naval blockade, strikers in Italy have forced the government there to send warships to escort them …

Published on 1 week, 3 days ago

Economica: The Hidden History of Women, Wealth, and Power

Who really built the global economy? Traditional history books tell a story dominated by men—inventors, industrialists, and financiers. But what if this narrative is missing half the picture?

In this …

Published on 2 weeks ago

Uzbekistan and Central Asia in transition

Unveiling Uzbekistan: A Nation at the Crossroads of History and Future

Join host Nick as he welcomes back acclaimed journalist and author Joanna Lillis to the Explaining History podcast. Seven years a…

Published on 2 weeks ago

The Holocaust and the General Government in occupied Poland

In this episode, The Explaining History Podcast explores the dark and complex evolution of genocide during the Second World War. Drawing on the foundational research of Nikolaus Wachsmann in his semi…

Published on 2 weeks, 3 days ago

Social Democracy and the Splintering of the 60s left

In the post war decades huge strides were made across the world to address the worst aspects of social deprivation using the coordinated power of the state. Often the resulted showed working class co…

Published on 3 weeks, 2 days ago