Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchOradour-sur-Glane: one of WW2's most infamous massacres
Episode 56
On the morning of the 10 June 1944, the residents of Oradour-sur-Glane were going about their lives as normally as was possible in occupied France. C…
2 years, 1 month ago
From Tudor to Stuart: a brand new era?
Episode 55
The passing of the English crown from Elizabeth I to James VI and I was welcomed by a nation hungry for change. But, as historian Susan Doran argues …
2 years, 1 month ago
The madcap Paris Olympics: how chaos nearly derailed the 1900 Games
Episode 54
With the 2024 Summer Olympics taking place in Paris, this Long Read, written by David Goldblatt, describes how the 1900 Games, the first held in the …
2 years, 1 month ago
The West Africa Squadron: Britain's war on slave ships
Episode 53
In the early 19th century, a Royal Navy squadron was sent to West Africa to hunt down ships carrying enslaved people to the Americas. The operation w…
2 years, 1 month ago
Club AD 130: a Roman holiday
Episode 52
From cruising down the Nile to carving names into historical monuments, ancient leisure habits don't seem too far from our own. This Long Read, writt…
2 years, 2 months ago
Airborne assault: the spearhead of the D-Day invasion
Episode 51
Hours before the assault on Normandy’s beaches got under way on 6 June 1944, British airborne troops launched an attack on targets in the French coun…
2 years, 2 months ago
The women behind Henry VIII's queens
Episode 50
Banished. Exiled. Died. Widowed. Berated. Survived. The ladies-in-waiting to Henry VIII’s wives were serious political operators with unparalleled ac…
2 years, 2 months ago
The Normandy campaign's forgotten naval heroes
Episode 49
Ferrying troops to the beaches wasn’t the only contribution sailors made during the Allied invasion of Normandy. In this special Long Read written by…
2 years, 2 months ago
Victorian scandals: sex, sadism & sugared death
Episode 48
Breaking news coverage of outrageous, taboo-busting or immoral behaviour has horrified - and captivated - societies for centuries. And the Victorians…
2 years, 2 months ago
Roman slaves: the hidden lives of the empire's invisible labour force
Episode 47
Rome’s slaves were brutalised, mocked, exploited – or simply ignored. Yet, writes Guy de la Bédoyère in this Long Read, the Roman empire could hardly…
2 years, 3 months ago