Podcast Episodes

The Irish across the globe

Episode 1523

From the 19th century onwards, waves of Irish emigrants left their home nation to begin new lives across the globe. Sean Connolly, author of On Every Tide, tells Ellie Cawthorne about the experiences…

Published on 3 years ago

Warrior queens & quiet revolutionaries: forgotten women from history

Episode 1522

Author Kate Mosse shares inspirational stories of women from across global history – including the forgotten life of her great grandmother Lily Watson

During lockdown, author Kate Mosse set out on her…

Published on 3 years ago

Sixties counterculture: everything you wanted to know

Episode 1521

Where did the term “hippie” originate? What music best reflected a generation’s disaffection with the establishment, and opposition to the Vietnam War? And how did the culture wars of the sixties sha…

Published on 3 years ago

Conspiracy Trailer

Did Adolf Hitler really die in 1945? Did Ancient Egyptians really build the pyramids? And did Shakespeare really write the plays that bear his name? In our new upcoming HistoryExtra podcast series, C…

Published on 3 years ago

Books of the year 2022

Episode 1520

From books delving into hidden histories to eye-opening global stories and epic World War Two blockbusters, 2022 has been an excellent year for history books. Rhiannon Davies is joined by historians …

Published on 3 years ago

The Cuban Missile Crisis: tensions mount

Episode 1519

How did the world end up on the brink of nuclear disaster? In the first episode of our series on the Cuban Missile Crisis, Elinor Evans speaks to expert historians Alex von Tunzelmann, Mark White and…

Published on 3 years ago

Debtors’ prisons: Dickensian horrors or economic successes?

Episode 1518

Debtors’ prisons were a major feature of Georgian society in England and Wales. But how did the idea of locking up debtors to make them pay their creditors actually work in reality? Dr Alexander Wake…

Published on 3 years ago

Dark Age bullies & forgotten kingdoms: busting early medieval myths

Episode 1517

The traditional story that’s told about Britain from the end of the Roman period through to the arrival of the Vikings is one of coalescing kingdoms, leading inexorably towards the rise of Wessex as …

Published on 3 years, 1 month ago

Enslavement, separation & survival: the story of "Ashley's sack"

Episode 1516

In 1850s South Carolina, an enslaved woman named Rose packed a sack containing a few precious items for her nine-year-old daughter Ashley. Ashley §was then separated from her mother and sold, and it’…

Published on 3 years, 1 month ago

Surgical history: everything you wanted to know

Episode 1515

Why was a transfusion of lamb’s blood believed to cure epilepsy? What surgical procedures could you get in ancient Egypt? And were medieval surgical practitioners really a help to patients – or a hin…

Published on 3 years, 1 month ago