Podcast Episodes

Introducing Life of the Week

We’re making our new 'Life of the Week' series freely available for everyone to enjoy. Every Tuesday from 12 December, join us as we step back into the past and learn about the lives of some of histo…

Published on 2 years ago

Caesar: Death of a Dictator | Trailer

On the Ides of March, 44 BC, the most famous Roman in history was murdered. Julius Caesar’s killers hoped to save the Republic, but in the end they destroyed it. In the six episodes of Caesar: Death …

Published on 2 years ago

Victoria's armpit and 'giant' bones: body parts that changed history

Episode 1841

How did a severed ear start a war between Britain and Spain in the 18th century? And what has Queen Victoria's armpit got to do with the development of antiseptic? Speaking to Charlotte Hodgman, medi…

Published on 2 years ago

The American Gilded Age: everything you wanted to know

Episode 1840

How did the Gilded Ages get its name? What caused the explosion of industry at this time? Who were the great industrialists of the age, and what can their philanthropy tell us about the morals of the…

Published on 2 years ago

Books and war: from James Bond to leaflet bombing

Episode 1839

Throughout time, both authors and their readers have gone to war. In that process, the written word has become a deadly weapon and a glimmer of peace and hope – from the furious printing efforts behi…

Published on 2 years ago

Shakespeare 4

Episode 1838

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Published on 2 years ago

Medieval manners: social etiquette in the Middle Ages

Episode 1837

Medieval people are often portrayed in popular culture as being grubby and smelly, with few manners to recommend them. However, in reality, such uncouth behaviour would certainly have been frowned up…

Published on 2 years ago

Marshal Pétain: Vichy France in the dock

Episode 1835

Following its liberation in 1944, France began a reckoning with its years of defeat, occupation and collaboration with Nazi Germany. On trial was Marshal Philippe Pétain, the decorated World War I he…

Published on 2 years ago

1950s Britain: everything you wanted to know

Episode 1834

Was 1950s Britain a grim, grey nation, haunted by the spectre of the Second World War, or was it a vibrant, forward-thinking country that had – in the words of Harold Macmillan – “never had it so goo…

Published on 2 years ago

The dangerous road to the Bastille

Episode 1833

The French Revolution of 1789 is one of the defining events of world history – but the decades preceding the revolution were also seismic, being marked by war, royal scandal, financial crisis and sci…

Published on 2 years, 1 month ago