Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchThe British empire's divisive legacy
Episode 1945
Sathnam Sanghera’s bestselling 2021 book Empireland catapulted the author into the eye of a media storm. Following the release of its follow-up, Empireworld, he spoke to Matt Elton about how it felt …
Published on 1 year, 8 months ago
Saladin: life of the week
Episode 1944
The name of medieval leader and military commander Saladin has gone down in history for unifying the Muslim Near East, capturing the holy city of Jerusalem and an iconic rivalry with Richard the Lion…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Back in the USSR: the Soviet Sixties
Episode 1943
Within just a few years of Stalin's death in 1953, the Soviet Union had sent the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into orbit. An era of renewal and excitement beckoned. Speaking to Danny Bird, Ro…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Anglo-Saxon kingdoms: everything you wanted to know
Episode 1942
Were the Anglo-Saxons always called the Anglo-Saxons? What did it take to make or break an early medieval king? And how did Christianity revolutionise the governance of their kingdoms? Speaking to Em…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Dinosaurs: a Victorian obsession
Episode 1941
Through the 19th century, people began to find strange and spectacular bones of "impossible monsters" in the earth. But what creatures could these bones belong to – and what did that mean both for re…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Tiger Tamer | 6. battling against Bovril
Episode 1940
At the turn of the 20th century, bicycles and motor cars became fixtures on Britain’s roads. Bob Carlisle, the original ‘wheelbarrow pedestrian’, found himself overtaken in this transport revolution.…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
How was Elizabeth I shaped by her childhood?
Episode 1939
Elizabeth I is probably best remembered as an aging monarch, with a powdered white face and elaborate red wig. But she was just 25 when she became queen, and had by then had already lived a dramatic …
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Joan of Arc: life of the week
Episode 1938
Joan of Arc has gone down in history as the virgin saviour of France – a patriotic martyr who was unjustly burnt at the stake at the hands of her Anglo-Burgundian opponents. But there's more to the s…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
Leftovers: how our ancestors battled food waste
Episode 1937
From Tudor slop buckets to WW2 potato peel recipes, Eleanor Barnett tells Ellie Cawthorne about how our ancestors used up food leftovers. She reveals some ingenious and appetising tactics for tacklin…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago
WW1's eastern front: everything you wanted to know
Episode 1936
How did the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand lead events in Europe to spiral out of control so rapidly? Why was Germany and Austria-Hungary's bloody clash with the Russian empire during the First W…
Published on 1 year, 9 months ago