Podcast Episodes

Roman homes: everything you wanted to know

Episode 2381

If you could sneak a peek past the front door of a Roman home, what could you expect to find? Why was having a hole in your ceiling a clever feat of engineering in the ancient world? How could sharin…

Published on 4 weeks, 1 day ago

Preview: Should historians be celebrities?

Historian, author and broadcaster David Olusoga is among the famous faces to feature on new TV series The Celebrity Traitors, which launches in the UK next Wednesday, 8 October on BBC One. But what a…

Published on 4 weeks, 2 days ago

Queer life in Georgian Britain

Episode 2380

There were many ways queer people in the Georgian era fought against social and legal restrictions to express their desire and convey their love for one another, from molly houses and marriages to ad…

Published on 1 month ago

Breaking news! How stories spread in early modern Europe

Episode 2379

If you lived in 16th-century London, would you have any idea what was happening in Paris, Venice or Frankfurt? Well, yes, according to Joad Raymond Wren – and that news could reach you quicker than y…

Published on 1 month ago

Robert Peel: life of the week

Episode 2378

He established the Metropolitan police, became embroiled in years of bitter disputes over the Corn Laws, and was vilified for his political U-turns. During his political career including two tenures …

Published on 1 month ago

The German Peasants' War: a summer of fire and blood

Episode 2377

The German Peasants' War of 1524-5 was the largest popular uprising in western Europe before the French Revolution. Thousands flocked to its cause as it swept across vast quantities of German-speakin…

Published on 1 month ago

Art Deco: everything you wanted to know

Episode 2376

In the interwar period, a movement emerged that brought together architecture, fashion, and even typography that echoed the hopes, anxieties and ambitions of the early 20th century. Charting the rise…

Published on 1 month ago

America in Korea: a failed occupation?

Episode 2375

For three quarters of a century, the Korean peninsula has been divided between two very different regimes that are bitterly opposed to each other. But did it have to be this way? In his book, A Fract…

Published on 1 month, 1 week ago

The real Miss Moneypennys: the secret history of Britain's female spies

Episode 2374

From cleaners to codebreakers, women’s contributions to the history of British intelligence have often gone unrecognised and forgotten. But in actuality, female operatives penetrated enemy networks, …

Published on 1 month, 1 week ago

Andrew Carnegie: life of the week

Episode 2373

How did a man who crushed unions in Gilded Age America come to see himself as humanity’s benefactor? Speaking to Elinor Evans, historian and biographer David Nasaw explores the many contradictions of…

Published on 1 month, 1 week ago