Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchHalloween traditions: everything you wanted to know
How did a Catholic religious celebration transform into a spooky, supernatural festivity? Why were turnips and swedes replaced by pumpkins? And what …
1 year, 11 months ago
Medieval women: friendship, wanderlust and the medieval hustle
Episode 2122
Marie de France, Julian of Norwich, Christine de Pizan and Margery Kempe: what can these four extraordinary female writers reveal about the everyday …
1 year, 11 months ago
The Tyrant, the usurper and the hero | Richard II: tyrant
Episode 2121
Richard II lacked all the qualities a medieval monarch needed, bar one: birthright. Born believing he was God's representative on Earth, the narcissi…
1 year, 11 months ago
Chris Packham & Peter Frankopan: can history help tackle the climate crisis?
Episode 2120
Climate change is an issue that animates politicians, scientists and activists around the world – but could looking to history help shape our approac…
1 year, 11 months ago
History Behind the Headlines: political memoirs, fuel and access to nature
Episode 2119
In the latest episode of our monthly series charting the past behind the present, Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter explore the history of political memoi…
1 year, 11 months ago
Tudor spymaster: the secret machinations of Robert Cecil
Episode 2118
Late Tudor England was a dangerous place, with plots both at home and abroad, and no certainty about who was going to succeed the ageing queen, Eliza…
1 year, 11 months ago
The Korean War: everything you wanted to know
Episode 2117
On today's Everything You Wanted to Know episode, we're covering the Korean War, exploring how the nation came to be divided in two, what the impact …
1 year, 11 months ago
Roman slavery: a brutal life in the ancient empire
Episode 2116
How many slaves were there in the Roman empire? Were they cruelly treated, or could they sometimes go on to win fame, fortune and freedom? And how of…
1 year, 11 months ago
1066: the battle for England | 4. the long and violent Norman Conquest
Episode 2115
William of Normandy’s victory at the Battle of Hastings in October 1066 was far from the end of the Norman Conquest of England. It took many years, a…
1 year, 11 months ago
Imperial spectacle: inside Britain's 1924 'Empire Exhibition'
Episode 2114
A century ago, in 1924, the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley opened its doors, receiving as many as 27 million visits over two years. It was a gr…
1 year, 11 months ago