Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchMining history: everything you wanted to know
Episode 2221
Historically, how much would a British miner have earned for a hard day's work? Did women and children also work underground? And why were canaries t…
1 year, 5 months ago
Bruisers and bare knuckles: the brutal world of Victorian boxing
Episode 2220
Men fighting pumas. Brutal prize-fights in sacred chapels. A pair of sisters who could pack a punch. In Victorian Britain, boxing offered up edge-of-…
1 year, 5 months ago
Did Britain really rule the waves?
Episode 2219
It's often proclaimed that British sea power was at its pinnacle in the years following the French and Napoleonic wars. But was this really a time wh…
1 year, 5 months ago
Jane Austen: life of the week
Episode 2218
Jane Austen remains one of the most influential novelists in English literature. Her sharp social commentary, wit, and exploration of love, class, an…
1 year, 5 months ago
The princess who fled Romanov Russia
Episode 2217
Born in 1781, Princess Juliane of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld grew up in a world convulsed by the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars. And her life proved…
1 year, 5 months ago
The Opium Wars: everything you wanted to know
Episode 2216
Why did Britain go to war with China in the 19th century to protect the interests of drug dealers? Speaking with Elinor Evans, Stephen R Platt discus…
1 year, 5 months ago
Rome's most scandalous emperors
Episode 2215
How cruel was Caligula? How depraved was Tiberius? And how monstrous was Nero? The dark reputations of these emperors owe a great deal to the Roman w…
1 year, 5 months ago
The royal threesome that rocked Anglo-Saxon England
Episode 2214
In the year 955, Eadwig became king of England – and, according to 10th-century sources, he celebrated in quite a salacious fashion. These stories cl…
1 year, 5 months ago
Are we celebrating the wrong Magna Carta?
Episode 2213
The history books tell us that Magna Carta was sealed on 15 June 1215. But, according to Professor David Carpenter, that's not actually the date we s…
1 year, 5 months ago
The forgotten JFK assassination plot
Episode 2212
In December 1960, as president-elect John F Kennedy made his way to church in Florida, a would-be assassin waited nearby, preparing to detonate a bom…
1 year, 5 months ago