Podcast Episodes

WW2 evacuees: everything you wanted to know

Episode 2336

Imagine being torn from your home and sent to live with strangers... well that was exactly what happened for many in the Second World War. To escape the threat of bombing in British cities, thousands…

Published on 4 months, 3 weeks ago

Queen Victoria's secret love affair

Episode 2335

Ever since the 1870s, rumours have swirled around Queen Victoria and her Highland servant John Brown. Were the pair in love? Could they have got married? And might they even have had a secret child? …

Published on 4 months, 4 weeks ago

The 300-year battle over free speech

Episode 2334

From the French Revolution to the social media age, Fara Dabhoiwala charts the surprising history of the idea that people should be able to say what they like

From America's founding fathers via Joh…

Published on 5 months ago

Erik the Red: life of the week

Episode 2333

According to the Vinland Sagas of the early 13th century, Erik the Red was a violent and murderous outlaw. But he was also an explorer, a powerful leader and the father of a famous dynasty. Historian…

Published on 5 months ago

Power & terror: a history of the nuclear age

Episode 2332

In the closing years of the 19th century, scientists began recording strange phenomena – mysterious glowing gas, smudges on photographic plates. Findings like these triggered a process of scientific …

Published on 5 months ago

The Minoans: everything you wanted to know

Episode 2331

Centred on the island of Crete, the Bronze-Age Minoan civilisation stretched from roughly 3000 to 1200BC, and is probably most famous for its legend surrounding the mythical Minotaur and the fabulous…

Published on 5 months ago

Fun, fear and flatbread: childhood in ancient Rome

Episode 2330

What was it like to be a child in ancient Rome? Historian, author and broadcaster Bettany Hughes delves into life for young people across the civilisation, unpicking everything from lice combs and go…

Published on 5 months ago

Iron Mountain: the conspiracy that duped America

Episode 2329

As the war in Vietnam spiralled out of control, US president Lyndon B Johnson was confronted by a different type of threat: a fake report so convincing that it tricked Americans into believing danger…

Published on 5 months, 1 week ago

Bayeux Tapestry politics & natural disasters: history behind the headlines

Episode 2328

In the latest episode of our monthly series charting the historical background of current news events, regular panellists Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter are joined by Matt Elton and Dr David Musgrove t…

Published on 5 months, 1 week ago

Deadly bellringing and fatal bacon: grisly accidental Tudor deaths

Episode 2327

From drowning and agricultural mishaps to getting stabbed during a football match, crushed by a pig, scalded by porridge or suffocated by a fish, there were myriad ways to accidentally die in Tudor E…

Published on 5 months, 1 week ago