Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchHow did the US get so many guns?
Episode 2100
Today there are an estimated 450 million guns in civilian hands in the United States – ten times the number than at the end of the Second World War. But how did that conflict spark a weaponry boom? A…
Published on 1 year, 3 months ago
Communism: everything you wanted to know
Episode 2099
First published in 1848, the The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels presents communism as a 'spectre' haunting Europe. During the century that followed, this revolutionary ideology…
Published on 1 year, 3 months ago
Liberating WW2 Naples: triumph and tragedy
Episode 2098
When Allied forces arrived in Naples in October 1943, they found a city on its knees. Already ravaged by three years of war, Naples had been further decimated by German occupiers and now faced a desp…
Published on 1 year, 3 months ago
1066: the battle for England | 1. Vikings, Normans and rebellious Anglo-Saxons
Episode 2097
The roots of the Norman Conquest of 1066 can be traced all the way back to 1016 – when England was hit by an earlier foreign invasion. This time, the assault came from Denmark and the forces of Cnut.…
Published on 1 year, 3 months ago
Churchill's prewar crisis meetings
Episode 2096
In the run-up to the Second World War, Winston Churchill's Kent home, Chartwell, was transformed from a cosy country pile to an informal Home Office, as the politician invited influential guests to c…
Published on 1 year, 3 months ago
Henry VII: life of the week
Episode 2095
Henry VII has gone down in history as the miserable miser who, rightly or wrongly, seized the English Crown from the hands of Richard III at the battle of Bosworth. But, according to historian and au…
Published on 1 year, 3 months ago
Tokyo 1946: the war crime trial that shaped Japan's future
Episode 2094
In 1946, as Japan stood in ruins at the end of the Second World War, an international trial was launched in Tokyo. It was a mammoth legal and political undertaking that lasted more than two years, as…
Published on 1 year, 3 months ago
The Stuarts: everything you wanted to know
Episode 2093
What do we know about James I's sexuality? How did Charles I squander his throne? How successful was the 'Glorious Revolution'? And why is the turbulence of the 17th century still overshadowed by the…
Published on 1 year, 3 months ago
Hidden environmental histories of the last 500 years
Episode 2092
From the Mongol expansion to the world wars, and from colonialism to the slave trade, the biggest historical events of the past 500 years have reshaped not only human history, but also the natural wo…
Published on 1 year, 3 months ago
Ancient Egypt | 5. a lost world?
Episode 2091
Why are we still so obsessed with ancient Egypt? In this fifth episode of Ancient Egypt: the big questions, Emily Briffett is joined by curator and Egyptologist Campbell Price for a final time to exp…
Published on 1 year, 3 months ago