HistoryExtra podcast

Watergate in 100 days: how President Nixon fell

13 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Author and former Washington Post journalist Michael Dobbs talks about his new book King Richard, which charts 100 pivotal days as the Watergate sc...

Contraception, consent & erotic connection: sex through history

12 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Fern Riddell, author of Sex: Lessons from History, discusses what we can learn from looking at sexual culture in the past, and gives her thoughts on...

The Highland Clearances: everything you wanted to know

11 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Who was to blame for the Highland Clearances? Why did they happen? And what became of those who were forcibly evicted? In the latest episode in our se...

Running to escape the horrors of war

10 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jonathan Westaway explores why there was a boom in the popularity of endurance running following the First World War   Following the First World War,...

The glamour & danger of Cairo’s 1920s nightlife scene

09 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

During its heyday in the roaring 20s, Cairo’s nightlife district was the place to go for a world-class night out – from glitzy variety shows in sm...

The Viking Great Army: the latest discoveries

07 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Julian Richards discusses the Viking Great Army, which wreaked havoc on the kingdoms of Anglo-Saxon England from 865-878   From 865-878, the Viking G...

Glee-man, high-deedy & bendsome: a language to save England

06 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Poverty and riots racked 19th-century rural England, but one eccentric Victorian cleric was convinced he had the solution – inventing a new languag...

Healthcare before the NHS

05 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Barry Doyle explains what kind of treatment you could expect If you were ill before the National Health Service was founded in 1948    If ...

The Medici: everything you wanted to know

04 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How did the Medici influence the Renaissance? Just how rich were they? And what dark family secrets were lurking in their past? In the latest episode ...

From hysteria to wandering wombs: women and medicine through history

03 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elinor Cleghorn discusses her new book Unwell Women, which traces the long history of the misdiagnosis and mistreatment of women’s health issues, a...

Hogarth: the chronicler of the 18th century

02 Jul 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jacqueline Riding discusses her new biography of William Hogarth, which charts the life and work of the famed artist and satirist. Hogarth was a large...

Digging into the Klondike gold rush

30 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From grizzled gold miners to fresh-faced boys in search of adventure, 100,000 prospectors set out for the remote Yukon in search of gold. Stephen Tuff...

The Cold War battle for Berlin

29 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Any illusions that the wartime entente between the western Allies and the Soviet Union would flourish in the new postwar world were shattered when the...

The history and mystery of UFOs

28 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Following the release of the Pentagon’s much anticipated report on UFOs, Dr David Clarke explains how the idea of extra-terrestrials in mysterious f...

Canadian history: everything you wanted to know

27 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest episode in our series tackling big historical topics, historian Donald Wright answers listener questions on the history of Canada, from ...

Forgotten heroes: Japanese Americans in World War Two

26 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Bestselling author Daniel James Brown reveals how a group of young Japanese Americans overcame suspicion and prejudice to become some of the most deco...

The trials of Ethel Rosenberg

25 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Historian and author Anne Sebba explores the life of Ethel Rosenberg, an American woman and mother of two who was executed for espionage in 1953 in on...

Socialite, countess, WW2 spy: Aline Griffith

23 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Larry Loftis details the life and work of Aline Griffith, a model-turned-spy who rose to the upper echelons of society in WW2 Spain, mingling with eve...

Murder: a legal history

22 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Kate Morgan chronicles the legal history of murder, discussing the cases that shaped UK murder laws   Lawyer and writer Kate Morgan chronicles the le...

The merits of meritocracy

21 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Adrian Wooldridge discusses his new book Aristocracy of Talent, which explores meritocracy’s role in forging the modern world, and weighs up the ch...

The Enlightenment: everything you wanted to know

20 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ritchie Robertson responds to listener questions on the intellectual and philosophical movement that swept Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries   Ho...

African Europeans

19 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In a conversation recorded as part of our virtual lecture series, Olivette Otele discusses her book African Europeans: An Untold History, which chart...

Women secret agents in Nazi-occupied France

18 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Kate Vigurs discusses the 39 female agents of the Special Operation Executive’s F-section, a diverse cohort of women recruited to carry out resistan...

Introducing: HistoryExtra Plus

17 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

We’re launching a brand-new premium podcast feed, HistoryExtra Plus – a subscription channel where we take you on a deep dive into the past, with...

Censorship, contradiction & controversy: a decade in the life of DH Lawrence

16 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

DH Lawrence’s work – such as The Rainbow, Women in Love and Lady Chatterley’s Lover – broke new ground and appalled censorious literary ...

Who was Britain’s greatest prime minister? Secrets of being a successful leader

15 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For the concluding episode of our series on the prime ministers that experts believe accomplished most during their time in 10 Downing Street, Anthony...

Unearthing Britain’s prehistoric secrets

14 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Broadcaster and academic Alice Roberts joins us to discuss her new book Ancestors: A Prehistory of Britain in Seven Burials, which reveals what archa...

The Titanic: everything you wanted to know

13 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Tim Maltin answers listener questions about the sinking of RMS Titanic in 1912   Did the band really play on as the Titanic sank into the icy dep...

What can we learn from past catastrophes?

12 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From the eruption of Vesuvius to Chernobyl and Covid-19, Niall Ferguson charts how disasters have changed the course of history   From the eruption ...

Women reporters of WW2

11 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Judith Mackrell explores the experiences of six women war correspondents who broke some of the key stories of the Second World War   From the German ...

Knights, dragons and beasts: the strange world of medieval romances

09 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

With their tales of supernatural beasts, death-defying quests and dashing knights that always got the girl, romances were the must-reads of the Middle...

Who was Britain’s greatest prime minister? Margaret Thatcher

08 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest episode of our new series profiling the prime ministers that experts believe accomplished most during their time in 10 Downing Street, h...

Wolfson History Prize 2021 special

07 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Wolfson History Prize celebrates the very best history books that combine academic rigour with popular appeal. Ahead of the announcement of the wi...

Everything you wanted to know: British prisons

06 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Rosalind Crone answers all the key questions on the history of British prisons   Just how bad was life in Victorian prisons? How hard was hard lab...

Ravenna: from Roman powerhouse to artistic hub

05 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Once the capital of the western Roman Empire, the Italian city of Ravenna was claimed in turn by Ostrogoths, Byzantines, Lombards and Franks, turning ...

Britain’s secret Jewish commandos

04 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Leah Garrett tells the story of X-troop, a group of Jewish commandos who became one of Britain’s most potent weapons against the Nazis   X-troop wa...

William Blake: “artist or genius, or mystic, or madman”

02 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

John Higgs discusses the unconventional life and extraordinary art of poet and painter William Blake. He explains how an eccentric outsider once mocke...

Who was Britain’s greatest prime minister? Lord Salisbury

01 Jun 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest episode of our series profiling the prime ministers that experts believe accomplished most during their time in 10 Downing Street, histo...

The curious tale of an Anglo-Saxon giant

31 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Tom Morcom and Helen Gittos discuss the Cerne Abbas Giant, a huge hill-carving in Dorset which has recently been re-dated to the Anglo-Saxon period  ...

The golden age of piracy: everything you wanted to know

30 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Rebecca Simon responds to your questions on the ‘golden age’ of piracy, when bands of buccaneers menaced the high seas, preying on merchant vessel...

Why are we living longer than our ancestors?

29 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Steven Johnson discusses the Extra Life project, which includes a book and new BBC Four series co-presented with David Olusoga. He chronicles a revolu...

Painting the Tudors: Hans Holbein the Younger

28 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Having painted the cream of Tudor society, including King Henry VIII, Anne of Cleves and Thomas Cromwell, Hans Holbein the Younger’s work offers an ...

Bretons, Britons, Celts & King Arthur

26 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Barry Cunliffe considers the story of Brittany from prehistory to today, and explores the region’s connections with Britain   Why is Brittany calle...

Who was Britain’s greatest prime minister? Winston Churchill

25 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest episode of our series profiling the prime ministers that experts believe accomplished most during their time in 10 Downing Street, Jerem...

What the Stasi did next

24 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

For decades the Stasi were a pervasive and terrifying force in the lives of millions of East Germans. Former FBI agent Ralph Hope reveals how officers...

The Anarchy: everything you wanted to know

23 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Anarchy – a 12th-century civil war for the English crown that pitted Empress Matilda against Stephen of Blois – is remembered as one of the mo...

Busting myths about the Anglo-Saxons

22 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Marc Morris tackles some of the most common misconceptions about the Anglo-Saxon era   What do we get wrong about the Anglo-Saxon era? Marc...

Napoleon the art thief

20 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Napoleon didn’t just humiliate his European rivals on the battlefield, he also looted their finest works of art. Author Cynthia Saltzman tells us ab...

Marcus Aurelius: thinker or fighter?

19 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Shushma Malik explores the life and career of Rome’s renowned philosopher-emperor Marcus Aurelius   Classicist Shushma Malik explores the life and ...

Who was Britain’s greatest prime minister? Pitt the Younger

18 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest episode of our new series profiling the prime ministers that experts believe accomplished most during their time in 10 Downing Street, h...

The rise and fall of Britain’s motor city

17 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Mark Evans charts the history of Coventry’s pioneering car industry, from the turn of the 20th century until the present day   Mark Evans, presente...

Samurai: everything you wanted to know

16 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest in our series tackling the big questions on major historical topics, Professor Michael Wert responds to listener questions and internet ...

The quest to find Alexander’s lost city

15 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Classicist Edmund Richardson tells the astonishing story of a British deserter from the East India Company who embarked on a quest to find a lost city...

Katharine Parr: secrets of a Tudor survivor

14 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Historian and novelist Alison Weir discusses the life of Katharine Parr – from her relationship with the king to her secret faith and other marriage...

Blackface: a brief history

12 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ayanna Thompson discusses the history of blackface – a story spanning William Shakespeare, US race relations and Dartmoor Prison   Professor Ayanna...

Who was Britain’s greatest prime minister? Harold Wilson

11 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest episode of our new series profiling the prime ministers that experts believe accomplished most during their time in 10 Downing Street, C...

Madness, property and power: the strange case of Mary Davies

10 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Leo Hollis untangles the bizarre 18th-century court case surrounding Mary Davies: a wealthy heiress married in mysterious circumstances   In 1701, Ma...

The Vietnam War: everything you wanted to know

09 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Mark Atwood Lawrence responds to listener questions and popular internet search queries on one of the most seismic events of the Cold War, A...

Medieval Ethiopia’s diplomatic missions

08 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Ethiopia was a Christian kingdom during the medieval period, and in the 15th and 16th centuries its kings sent diplomatic missions to their counterpar...

Uncovering the truth about WW2’s Katyn massacre

06 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jane Rogoyska explains how more than 20,000 Polish prisoners-of-war were murdered on Stalin’s orders in 1940, and explores the decades-long coverup ...

The changing shape of slimming clubs

05 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From Weight Watchers to Rosemary Conley’s fitness empire, slimming clubs have been a staple of British culture for decades. But, as Dr Katrina Mos...

Who was Britain’s Greatest Prime Minister? Clement Attlee

04 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest episode in our new series profiling the prime ministers that experts believe accomplished most during their time in 10 Downing Street, h...

How close to nuclear war did the Cuban Missile Crisis get?

03 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 saw a confrontation between the United States and the Soviet Union escalate to the edge of nuclear war. Historian Ser...

Prohibition: everything you wanted to know

02 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Was Al Capone’s brother really a Prohibition agent? What was the atmosphere in a speakeasy like? And why did Americans think that banning booze woul...

The Danelaw: a Viking kingdom in England?

01 May 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Ben Raffield explains how in the ninth and tenth centuries, Scandinavian laws and customs prevailed across a swathe of what’s now northern and ea...

Britain’s great postwar party

30 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Harriet Atkinson takes us back to 1951’s Festival of Britain, a celebration of a nation rising from the ashes of war   The Festival of Britain of 1...

The Peasants’ Revolt: who were the rebels of 1381?

28 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was a key moment in the reign of King Richard II. New research is revealing just how well-organised an operation it was...

Who was Britain’s greatest prime minister? Stanley Baldwin

27 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the second episode of our new series on the prime ministers that experts believe accomplished most, Dominic Sandbrook champions Stanley Baldwin   ...

Women fighters of the Jewish resistance

26 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Judy Batalion describes how a group of young Jewish women fought back against their Nazi oppressors in occupied Poland.   Author and historian Judy B...

Life in the workhouse: everything you wanted to know

25 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

From daily routines to whether inmates really ate gruel, Peter Higginbotham responds to listener questions about the workhouse   What was the daily r...

How constitutions changed the world

24 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Linda Colley discusses her new book The Gun, the Ship and the Pen, which explores how written constitutions, together with warfare, forged the modern ...

The pretenders who threatened Henry VII’s crown

23 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Nathen Amin discusses his latest book, Henry VII and the Tudor Pretenders, which explores the conspiracies and plots that challenged Henry VII’s cro...

Why are we fascinated by ‘evil women’?

21 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Joanna Bourke, who has been delivering a series of Gresham lectures on six different ‘evil women’ through history, explores what ideas about evil ...

Who was Britain’s Greatest Prime Minister? Robert Walpole

20 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the first episode of our new series profiling the prime ministers that experts believe accomplished most during their time in 10 Downing Street, h...

Barbarossa: Hitler’s greatest gamble

19 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

As we approach the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s fateful invasion of the Soviet Union in 1941, the historian, author and broadcaster Jonathan D...

The Suez Crisis: everything you wanted to know

18 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The Suez Crisis – sparked by an ill-fated Anglo-French-Israeli invasion of Egypt in 1956 – is often viewed as a turning point in modern British hi...

Traitor or triple agent? The WW2 spy Mathilde Carré

17 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Author Roland Philipps talks about his latest book, Victoire: A Wartime Story of Resistance, Collaboration and Betrayal, which recounts the extraord...

Leonardo da Vinci’s private life

16 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Catherine Fletcher discusses what is known about the private life and relationships of the Renaissance polymath. She considers the gaps in t...

The bigamy trial that scandalised Georgian England

14 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Historian and author Catherine Ostler relates the tale of Elizabeth Chudleigh, a glamorous Duchess-Countess whose high-profile bigamy trial fascinated...

Unravelling the Bayeux Tapestry ep5: What now?

13 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In the final episode of the series, our panel considers the afterlife of the Tapestry, debating its differing legacies in France and Britain, whether ...

Dan Jones on 1,000 years of British history

12 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

To mark HistoryExtra’s 1,000th episode, Dan Jones takes us on a whistlestop tour through the last millennium of British history, touching on some o...

The Maya: everything you wanted to know

11 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Professor Matthew Restall tackles listener questions and popular search queries about the central American civilisation   Professor Matthew Restall t...

Women prisoners in 19th-century Ireland

10 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Elaine Farrell shares the stories of incarcerated Irish women, from daily routines inside a convict prison to relationships with staff and contact wit...

Stalin: the real victor of WW2

09 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Sean McMeekin discusses his revisionist new history of the Second World War, which places Josef Stalin at the centre of the conflict   Historian Sean...

Sending the first man into space

07 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 1961 cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first man to journey into space. Stephen Walker delves into the supercharged battle between the Soviets and ...

Unravelling the Bayeux Tapestry ep4: What’s missing?

06 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Although the story it depicts may have gone down in history, the Tapestry’s coverage of the events of 1066 is far from the whole story. In fact, the...

The feminist who waged war on smallpox

05 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jo Willett tells the story of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, who pioneered smallpox inoculation almost a century before Edward Jenner   Mary Wortley Mont...

The Great Fire of London: everything you wanted to know

04 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

How much damage did the Great Fire of London cause? How long did it take to put out? And did it really start in Pudding Lane? Rebecca Rideal responds ...

Cleopatra: unpicking myth from reality

03 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

The ancient Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII is one of the most famous women in history, but how many of the legends surrounding her are actually true? E...

Traffickers on trial: the sensational case of Lydia Harvey

02 Apr 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In 1910, a sixteen-year-old girl named Lydia Harvey walked onto a steamship, sailed away from New Zealand and disappeared. She had been ensnared by tw...

Bog bodies: what can they teach us?

31 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Dr Melanie Giles unravels some of the mysteries around amazingly preserved human remains found in bogs – and reveals what we can learn from them   ...

Unravelling the Bayeux Tapestry ep3: What story does the Tapestry tell?

30 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

In recounting the Norman invasion of 1066, the Bayeux Tapestry tells a story that we’re all familiar with. But, look a bit closer and it’s not so ...

500 years of women’s self-portraits

29 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Jennifer Higgie charts the story of women’s self-portraits over the last 500 years of western art – uncovering tales of transgressive self-express...

The Byzantine empire: everything you wanted to know

28 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

What did it mean to be ‘born in the purple’? What lasting legacy did the empire have on how we eat dinner? And what does ‘Byzantine’ actually ...

Ammonite & the real fossil hunter Mary Anning

27 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Rebecca Wragg Sykes introduces us to 19th-century fossil hunter Mary Anning, whose life has inspired the new film Ammonite. She reveals the real wo...

Tales of Irish emigration

26 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Historian Turtle Bunbury, author of new book The Irish Diaspora: Tales of Emigration, Exile and Imperialism, shares stories of Irish emigrants and th...

The mystery of the vanishing lighthouse keepers

24 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Emma Stonex, author of a new novel The Lamplighters, talks about the strange true story of the Flannan Isles Lighthouse keepers, who vanished without...

Unravelling the Bayeux Tapestry ep2: How was the Tapestry created?

23 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

At around 70 metres long and handstitched with intricate detail, making the Bayeux Tapestry was no mean feat. In this episode, we delve into the detai...

Hate mail & mutilated horses: Conan Doyle investigates

22 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Shrabani Basu, author of The Mystery of the Parsee Lawyer, shares the surprising story of George Edalji, who was wrongly accused of fatally maiming ...

The Elizabethans: everything you wanted to know

21 Mar 2021

Contributed by Lukas

Nicola Tallis answers listener questions and online search queries about the Elizabethans. She covers everything from the dangers of using golden toot...