Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchWhy the Maginot Line couldn't save France in WW2
Episode 2357
As the threat of war began to loom in the 1930s, an elaborate system of fortifications sprung up in northeastern France. Known as the Maginot line, t…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
Crime fiction history: everything you wanted to know
Episode 2356
From Hercule Poirot to Sherlock Holmes, crime fiction has long been a popular genre. But what was the first crime novel? How has crime writing affect…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
How Christianity came to dominate the Roman world
Episode 2355
What if the 'fall' of Rome wasn’t a collapse, but a rebrand? In this episode, Alice Roberts delves into the dramatic transformation of the Roman worl…
6 months, 3 weeks ago
The spy next door: Moscow's century-long plot to infiltrate the west
Episode 2354
In 2010, the world was stunned when the United States exposed a covert Russian spy network operating on its soil. Seemingly all-American families liv…
7 months ago
Edward the Confessor: life of the week
Episode 2353
Edward the Confessor, England’s penultimate Anglo-Saxon king, has long been remembered as a saintly, pious monarch – but was he really the weak ruler…
7 months ago
Britain and the Caribbean: from slavery to Black Lives Matter
Episode 2352
Histories of British involvement in the Caribbean tend to focus mainly on the period of plantation slavery but, in her new book Empire Without End, I…
7 months ago
Nationalism: everything you wanted to know
Episode 2351
Human beings tend to identify with being in a group, and, historically, few groupings have been more potent than the idea of the nation. But when did…
7 months ago
Preview: The forgers who faked a fortune
In 1775, a respectable lady, a mild-mannered apothecary and his fast-living identical twin stood accused of pulling off a scam that had earnt them a …
7 months ago
From dodos to 'lost' tribes: a history of extinction
Episode 2350
After causing the extinction of the dodo, humans soon realised that we had the power to destroy entire species – and we continue to reckon with that …
7 months ago
Europe's last pagans
Episode 2349
Christianity came to dominate Europe in the Middle Ages. However, some parts of Europe remained pagan until very recently. So how did non-Christian p…
7 months, 1 week ago