Podcast Episodes
Back to SearchThanksgiving: everything you wanted to know
Episode 1826
Rachel Herrmann charts the long history of America’s famous holiday – from modern parades and celebrations to the first feast
From the fabled first fe…
2 years, 8 months ago
Shakespeare: Past Master | 2. Romeo and Juliet
Episode 1821
Sophie Duncan delves into the playwright’s world-famous tragedy to reveal what it tells us about youth in the Tudor era
The doomed romance of young lo…
2 years, 8 months ago
The dangers of medieval travel
Episode 1824
Why did medieval people hit the road or the high seas? Was it expensive to travel in the Middle Ages, and what were the biggest risks that a medieval…
2 years, 8 months ago
The Princes in the Tower: has the mystery been solved?
Episode 1822
In the summer of 1483, two young princes disappeared from the Tower of London – and were never seen again. Had they been killed by their uncle, Richa…
2 years, 8 months ago
The Pre-Raphaelites: everything you wanted to know
Episode 1821
How did the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood become so famous? Did Elizabeth Siddal really almost die in a bathtub when she modelled for John Everett Milla…
2 years, 8 months ago
Resistance in the Second World War
Episode 1820
Why, across Nazi-occupied Europe, did some people choose to resist the Third Reich? This is the question at the heart of Halik Kochanski's book Resis…
2 years, 8 months ago
Shakespeare Trailer
William Shakespeare’s plays are among the celebrated works in all of English literature – but they also offer key insights into the time in which the…
2 years, 8 months ago
Shakespeare: Past Master | 1. Henry V
Episode 1819
Jerry Brotton offers expert insights into what the playwright’s much-quoted history play tells about nationalism and nationhood at the time it was fi…
2 years, 8 months ago
George Orwell’s forgotten wife
Episode 1818
George Orwell – the author of classics like 1984 – is a household name. But have you heard of his first wife, Eileen O’Shaughnessy, who convinced her…
2 years, 8 months ago
Magic books: a global history
Episode 1816
What are the earliest forms of written magic? How do the stories of magic and religion intersect? And how will these stories’ continued presence in p…
2 years, 8 months ago