Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchPapal elections and tariff troubles: history behind the headlines
Episode 2268
In the latest episode of our monthly podcast series, regular panellists Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter are joined by Frank Trentmann to discuss the historical parallels behind recent developments in th…
Published on 8 months ago
How the English took Manhattan
Episode 2267
How did the English take Manhattan from the Dutch in the 17th century without firing a single shot? Speaking to Elinor Evans, historian Russell Shorto explains a many-layered colonial history, includ…
Published on 8 months ago
Troubadours: everything you wanted to know
Episode 2266
Composing songs of courtly love and war in the High Middle Ages, the troubadours were the poet-musicians of western and southern Europe – especially southern France. But were they really the lovesick…
Published on 8 months ago
The 93 penises of the Bayeux Tapestry
Episode 2265
Historians have counted lots of things in the Bayeux Tapestry – animals, ships, hands and plants. But nobody had counted the number of penises it contained until Oxford historian Professor George Gar…
Published on 8 months ago
The great siege of Malta: Knights Hospitaller vs the Ottoman empire
Episode 2264
In the summer of 1565, the might of the Ottoman empire faced off against a few hundred Knights Hospitaller and their allies on the island of Malta. The outcome might have seemed inevitable but the ev…
Published on 8 months, 1 week ago
Joanna Plantagenet: life of the week
Episode 2263
Richard the Lionheart is well-known for his travels to distant lands, time on crusade, and wrangling with international politics… But, less well known is the fact that his sister, Joanna Plantagenet …
Published on 8 months, 1 week ago
Suleyman the Magnificent's bid for world domination
Episode 2262
Henry VIII lorded it over England. Francis I dominated France. Charles V was the main man in central Europe. Yet arguably none was as powerful as Ottoman sultan Suleyman the Magnificent – a true heav…
Published on 8 months, 1 week ago
The Etruscans: everything you wanted to know
Episode 2261
Lasting from the ninth century BC right up until Roman conquest in the first century BC, the Etruscans were a powerful ancient civilisation who inhabited Etruria in ancient Italy, and rubbed shoulder…
Published on 8 months, 1 week ago
Lexington and Concord: 250 years on
Episode 2260
On 19 April 1775, American militia and British regulars clashed at Lexington and Concord in what would become the first battles of the Revolutionary War. But, as historian George Goodwin reveals, the…
Published on 8 months, 1 week ago
The botanists of besieged Leningrad
Episode 2259
Cut off from the outside world and with food and other essentials dwindling, it's estimated that upwards of one million people died. Yet throughout this ordeal, a group of indomitable scientists risk…
Published on 8 months, 2 weeks ago