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King Solomon's Mines
Episode 332
In 1885, H. Rider Haggard’s brother offered him a wager: five shillings if he could write a book half as good as Robert Louis Stevenson’s “Treasure I…
2 years, 10 months ago
American Witches
Episode 331
It’s 1647, and in New England, where puritan settlers live in fear of God’s wrath and a hostile indigenous population, there are rumours coming from …
2 years, 10 months ago
Herodotus: The Birth of History
Episode 330
Born on the Western edge of an empire that stretched all the way to India, Herodotus was a Greek historian of the 5th century BC. His major work The …
2 years, 11 months ago
Coronations: Chaos, Ceremony and Empire (Part 3)
Episode 329
What was the most calamitous coronation of all time? Which ceremony does Tom think is the most boring topic he's ever discussed on the podcast? How w…
2 years, 11 months ago
Coronations: Sex, Holy Oil and Civil War (Part 2)
Episode 328
Whether it’s London descending into a riot, a bad hangover with Samuel Pepys, or a royal lacking discretion… Charles III will certainly be hoping tha…
2 years, 11 months ago
Coronations: The Deep History (Part 1)
Episode 327
The roots of the coronation ritual are fabulously ancient: certain elements of the ceremony are vestiges from the later Roman Empire, others have the…
2 years, 11 months ago
The Year of Revolutions: 1848
Episode 326
Few years in European History saw as much change and turmoil as 1848: across the continent, from Vienna to Paris to Palermo, mass protests took place…
2 years, 11 months ago
Fall of Saigon: Apocalypse Now (Part 2)
Episode 325
“It is 105 degrees in Saigon, and rising.” This announcement, made through U.S. Armed Forces radio on a spring morning in 1975, is the cue for all Am…
2 years, 11 months ago
Fall of Saigon: The Nightmare Begins
Episode 324
It's 1975, and in the final act of the Vietnam War, the U.S. have ordered all remaining civilian and military personnel to be withdrawn from South Vi…
2 years, 11 months ago
History's Greatest Dogs
Episode 323
Rin Tin Tin, born on the Western Front in 1918, became one of the biggest movie stars of the silent film era. Greyfriars Bobby gained his fame for gu…
2 years, 11 months ago