HistoryExtra podcast
Episodes
WW2 evacuees: everything you wanted to know
02 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Imagine being torn from your home and sent to live with strangers... well that was exactly what happened for many in the Second World War. To escape t...
Queen Victoria's secret love affair
31 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Ever since the 1870s, rumours have swirled around Queen Victoria and her Highland servant John Brown. Were the pair in love? Could they have got marr...
The 300-year battle over free speech
29 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From the French Revolution to the social media age, Fara Dabhoiwala charts the surprising history of the idea that people should be able to say what t...
Erik the Red: life of the week
28 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
According to the Vinland Sagas of the early 13th century, Erik the Red was a violent and murderous outlaw. But he was also an explorer, a powerful lea...
Power & terror: a history of the nuclear age
27 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the closing years of the 19th century, scientists began recording strange phenomena – mysterious glowing gas, smudges on photographic plates. Fin...
The Minoans: everything you wanted to know
26 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Centred on the island of Crete, the Bronze-Age Minoan civilisation stretched from roughly 3000 to 1200BC, and is probably most famous for its legend s...
Fun, fear and flatbread: childhood in ancient Rome
24 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What was it like to be a child in ancient Rome? Historian, author and broadcaster Bettany Hughes delves into life for young people across the civilisa...
Iron Mountain: the conspiracy that duped America
22 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As the war in Vietnam spiralled out of control, US president Lyndon B Johnson was confronted by a different type of threat: a fake report so convincin...
Bayeux Tapestry politics & natural disasters: history behind the headlines
21 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the latest episode of our monthly series charting the historical background of current news events, regular panellists Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter...
Deadly bellringing and fatal bacon: grisly accidental Tudor deaths
20 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From drowning and agricultural mishaps to getting stabbed during a football match, crushed by a pig, scalded by porridge or suffocated by a fish, ther...
Beer history: everything you wanted to know
19 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Beer is one of the world’s most popular alcoholic beverages. From refreshing lagers to amber ales and creamy stouts, there’s a style for virtually...
Mein Kampf: Hitler's dark vision for the future
17 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Published 100 years ago in 1925, Adolf Hitler's Mein Kampf was one of the most consequential books of the 20th century. It laid out Hitler's political...
King vs parliament: the moment that sparked civil war
15 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Over the winter of 1641-2, England stood on the precipice of civil war. Historian and author Jonathan Healey charts how the relationship between the k...
The Mitford sisters | 2 : life of the week
14 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Like many families, the Mitfords emerged from the Second World War bearing scars. Yet as the world entered a new, uncertain era, the sisters' knack fo...
Slavery on the medieval Silk Road
13 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Slavery was a grim but omnipresent reality across the Silk Road during the Middle Ages. Speaking to Emily Briffett, Claire Taylor unpacks the complex ...
The history of women's football: everything you wanted to know
12 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Who was Nettie Honeyball? Why was the First World War a golden age for female factory teams? And why did the English Football Association move heaven ...
Live Aid: pop's Big Bang moment
10 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It may be hard to believe for those of you who can remember it, but this month marks the 40th anniversary of the iconic music extravaganza that was Li...
Exploring the medieval world with Marco Polo
08 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
You may be familiar with the name of Marco Polo – the 13th-century Venetian merchant who travelled along the Silk Road, journeyed through Asia and s...
The Mitford Sisters | 1 : life of the week
07 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For much of the 20th century, six sisters from Britain’s minor aristocracy had a knack for making headline after scandalous headline. They were Nanc...
Beyond the trenches: a new take on WW1
06 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When you think of the First World War, what springs to mind? Is it trench warfare? The myth that troops would be home by Christmas? Or perhaps the ide...
Roman warfare: everything you wanted to know
05 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Did the Roman legions actually wear red? How often was their famous 'tortoise' formation actually used? How did military leaders maintain control of a...
Preview: Was Pearl Harbor an inside job?
04 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the first episode of season 2 of History’s Greatest Conspiracy Theories, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Steve Twomey joins Rob Attar to t...
The People's Princess: why Diana captivated the world
03 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From her introduction into the royal family to the tragic circumstances of her death, Diana, Princess of Wales was never far away from a newspaper fro...
Secrets of medieval manuscripts
01 Jul 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On first glance, what might you notice about a medieval manuscript? Maybe the material it's made from, the elaborate script, or ornamental illustratio...
Owain Glyndŵr: life of the week
30 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Famed for his dramatic and determined revolt against English rule in the early 15th century, as well as his bold vision for an independent Wales, Owai...
Magic beakers & Roman helmets: artefacts that shaped history
29 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Metal detectorists and members of the general public have contributed hugely to our understanding of Britain's past, through the artefacts they have f...
SOE: everything you wanted to know
28 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From parachuting into Nazi-occupied France to silent assassinations and exploding rats, many of the missions undertaken by the Special Operations Exec...
Sisi & Eugénie: the empresses who redefined royalty
26 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the latter half of the 19th century, Europe was dazzled by the beauty, charm and sensibility of two empresses: Eugénie, Empress of the French via ...
Ghosts, vampires & Abba holograms: an uncanny history of London
24 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Millions of tourists flock to London each year, eager to snap a selfie in front of Buckingham Palace or Big Ben. But beyond the crowds lies a darker –...
International security & rough sleeping: history behind the headlines
23 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the latest episode of our monthly series charting the historical background of current news events, regular panellists Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter...
Make Mercia Great Again
22 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia played an important role in the development of England. Although it was sandwiched between the other Anglo-Saxon kin...
The Merovingians: everything you wanted to know
21 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Professor James Palmer guides us through the 300-year reign of the Merovingians, the Frankish dynasty whose legacy helped birth the very idea of Franc...
How the Allies won WW2
19 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
This summer it's 80 years since the greatest conflict in human history came to an end. To mark the anniversary, the military historian, author and bro...
Ancient tips for health and happiness
17 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The science of health and wellbeing is a hot topic of modern life, and it was no different for the ancient civilisations of Greece and Rome. From what...
Thomas Aquinas: life of the week
16 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Aquinas was a 13th-century Dominican theologian whose groundbreaking ideas set medieval Europe aflame – and continue to resonate today. As 20...
Barmier than Bond: Ian Fleming's extraordinary wartime escapades
15 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Bogus sex parties, fake corpses, exploding tin cans and belligerent pigs. If you thought that James Bond's fictional escapades were outrageous, then t...
Fatherhood: a short history
14 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What does it mean to be a father? When did people first start talking about men as 'father figures'? And how has the concept of fatherhood changed ove...
CIA book smugglers of the Cold War
12 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
During the Cold War, the CIA book programme was a covert campaign to smuggle books into the Eastern Bloc using everything from balloon drops to baked ...
The Renaissance: not such a golden age?
10 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From Michelangelo's David and Machiavelli's The Prince to the plays of Shakespeare, the Renaissance produced some of history's most astounding works o...
Archimedes: life of the week
09 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
He’s best known for his Eureka moment, but Archimedes was far more than a naked man in a bathtub. Speaking to Kev Lochun, Professor Michael Scott ta...
The Third Reich's first genocide
08 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Between 1939 and 1945, the Nazis killed nearly 300,000 people with learning disabilities or psychiatric illnesses. Some 400,000 more were forcibly ste...
English folklore: everything you wanted to know
07 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What happens when you step inside a fairy ring? Where did the figure of the Green Man come from? And why have so many East Anglians been terrorised by...
What happened in Shakespeare's "lost years"?
05 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Shakespeare is now a towering figure of global theatre. But in the 1590s, he was just an up-and-coming young playwright, trying to scratch out a livin...
Plague, famine and chivalry: a human history of the 14th century
03 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Plague, war, regicide, famine, revolt – during the 14th century, life for people in England was turned on its head. Historian Helen Carr charts this...
WW2 legacies and Magna Carta: history behind the headlines
02 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the latest episode of our monthly series charting the past behind the present, historians Rana Mitter and Hannah Skoda explore the ways the Second ...
Drink, dance, death: wine in ancient Egypt
01 Jun 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From merriment to mummification, new year revelries to funerary rites, wine played a key role in ancient Egyptian culture. Islam Issa speaks to Matt E...
The Scottish Enlightenment: everything you wanted to know
31 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In everything from the social sciences and technology to art and architecture, 18th-century Scotland saw a flowering of ideas and innovation. But what...
Deadly skies: the WW2 mission to fly over the Himalayas
29 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
During the Second World War, a promise by President Roosevelt to provide supplies to nationalist China led to the creation of an ill-fated air supply ...
Royal sisters: the tragic lives of Queen Victoria's granddaughters
27 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Victoria, Ella, Irene and Alix of Hesse were four young European princesses and granddaughters of Queen Victoria, whose marriages would change the fac...
Calamity Jane: life of the week
26 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Calamity Jane roars into the popular imagination atop the Deadwood Stage with a 'whip-crack-away' and her pistol ready-loaded. A bold and resourceful ...
Spiritual showmen: the 1920s occult
25 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Tahra Bey became a celebrity with his apparent ability to control his pulse, stab himself without pain and even bury himself alive. Dr Dahesh, meanwhi...
Cheese history: everything you wanted to know
24 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nothing beats a well-loaded cheeseboard. But while so many of us enjoy a stinky stilton and ripe brie, or chuck a reliable old cheddar into our basket...
Taking sides: how the Civil War turned friends into enemies
22 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As 17th-century Britain edged ever closer to civil war, two friends, Bulstrode Whitelock and Ned Hyde, found their relationship under increasing strai...
Were Roman women done dirty by modern translations?
20 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The stories of ancient Rome are littered with despicable women, and those of the Julio-Claudian dynasty are especially infamous. But where do these st...
Otto von Bismarck: life of the week
19 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Few 19th-century leaders have a CV quite like Otto von Bismarck's. This formidable statesman's cunning, charisma and eye for an opportunity helped him...
The Einstein murders
18 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the summer of 1944, as the German forces were retreating in northern Italy, a small group of soldiers made a detour to a remote villa in search of ...
The Beaker People: everything you wanted to know
17 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Who were the Beaker People? What was their contribution to the building of Stonehenge? And did their arrival in Britain really lead to the obliteratio...
Gods, demons, witches and exorcists: inside an ancient Assyrian library
15 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the seventh century BC, the ancient Assyrian king Ashurbanipal created a gigantic library in his capital city – one that contained centuries of w...
Peaks, perils, and pioneers: the deadly history of mountaineering
13 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What has prompted humans throughout history to risk life and limb to conquer some of the world's highest mountains? Author and climber Daniel Light ta...
Josephine Baker: life of the week
12 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Showbusiness, spying and civil rights - the extraordinary life of Josephine Baker had it all. From difficult beginnings, Baker transformed herself int...
Women who ruled over Africa
11 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From rainmaking queens to dogged isolationists, the lives and reigns of Africa’s female rulers have long been shrouded in mystery, misunderstanding ...
The Taiping Rebellion: everything you wanted to know
10 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
It's considered to be the bloodiest civil war in history, but there's a fair chance you've never heard of it. The Taiping Rebellion convulsed China fr...
How to choose a pope
08 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
All eyes have been on the Vatican in recent days, as the conclave have decided who will be the next pope. But how does the process today compare to th...
VE Day: a people's history
06 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nazi Germany had finally been defeated. And, for 24 hours, Britons could let their hair down and celebrate. But not everyone was in the mood to party....
Nikola Tesla: life of the week
05 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Nikola Tesla is remembered as an enigmatic, eccentric genius who harnessed the power of electricity. But if we strip away some of this myth, what can ...
What caused the Irish Famine?
04 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1840s, famine hit Ireland with devastating consequences. But what were the circumstances that turned a potato blight into a catastrophe that sh...
The unification of Italy: everything you wanted to know
03 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1861, the kingdom of Italy was proclaimed, unifying the various Italian states under one national banner. But what did it mean to be 'Italian' in t...
Public vs private: history behind closed doors
01 May 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What's the difference between private and public life – and where should we draw the line between the two? Over the centuries, these boundaries have...
The rise of James VI & I: when Britain went global
29 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Was Elizabeth I holding England back from establishing itself upon the global stage? Speaking to James Osborne, Professor Anna Whitelock explores how ...
Papal elections and tariff troubles: history behind the headlines
28 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the latest episode of our monthly podcast series, regular panellists Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter are joined by Frank Trentmann to discuss the hist...
How the English took Manhattan
27 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
How did the English take Manhattan from the Dutch in the 17th century without firing a single shot? Speaking to Elinor Evans, historian Russell Shorto...
Troubadours: everything you wanted to know
26 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Composing songs of courtly love and war in the High Middle Ages, the troubadours were the poet-musicians of western and southern Europe – especially...
The 93 penises of the Bayeux Tapestry
24 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Historians have counted lots of things in the Bayeux Tapestry – animals, ships, hands and plants. But nobody had counted the number of penises it co...
The great siege of Malta: Knights Hospitaller vs the Ottoman empire
22 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the summer of 1565, the might of the Ottoman empire faced off against a few hundred Knights Hospitaller and their allies on the island of Malta. Th...
Joanna Plantagenet: life of the week
21 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Richard the Lionheart is well-known for his travels to distant lands, time on crusade, and wrangling with international politics… But, less well kno...
Suleyman the Magnificent's bid for world domination
20 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Henry VIII lorded it over England. Francis I dominated France. Charles V was the main man in central Europe. Yet arguably none was as powerful as Otto...
The Etruscans: everything you wanted to know
19 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Lasting from the ninth century BC right up until Roman conquest in the first century BC, the Etruscans were a powerful ancient civilisation who inhabi...
Lexington and Concord: 250 years on
17 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On 19 April 1775, American militia and British regulars clashed at Lexington and Concord in what would become the first battles of the Revolutionary W...
The botanists of besieged Leningrad
15 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cut off from the outside world and with food and other essentials dwindling, it's estimated that upwards of one million people died. Yet throughout th...
The Brothers Grimm: life of the week
14 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From Snow White to Sleeping Beauty, the Brothers Grimm are best known for collecting and curating fairy tales. But, as Ann Schmiesing reveals, recordi...
Could the US have won the Vietnam war?
13 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
When US forces entered Vietnam, the nation's leaders believed they could contain communism and secure victory. Instead, they found themselves trapped ...
The Teutonic Order: everything you wanted to know
12 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Emerging from crusading endeavours in the Holy Land, the Teutonic Order was one of great military orders established in the 12th century. Its influenc...
The women's orchestra of Auschwitz
10 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Amid the horrors of Auschwitz, a group of female musicians were forced to play for their lives. Author Anne Sebba joins Lauren Good to discuss this wo...
JFK: the man behind the myths
08 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
John F Kennedy remains one of America’s most iconic presidents – his life and untimely death wrapped in both mythology and conspiracy. But how muc...
Fulvia: life of the week
07 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
She super-charged Mark Antony's rise to power, whipped up gang violence, went to war with Octavian – and may, just may, have abused Cicero's decapit...
Simon Schama on the Holocaust
06 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Sir Simon Schama is one of the world's leading historians, a bestselling author and a renowned documentary maker. In his latest documentary film, The ...
The 'Scramble for Africa': everything you wanted to know
05 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Between the 1870s and the First World War, European colonialists set their sights on the Africa, making territorial land grabs that consumed nearly th...
A Nazi in Chile: did an SS commander work for Pinochet?
03 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What connects a notorious Chilean dictator with an SS commander who played a key role in the Holocaust? This is the question at the heart of a book by...
Tariffs and trade wars: a history of economic warfare
01 Apr 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Trade wars and tariffs have once again been making headlines in recent weeks, as US president Donald Trump's government adopts combative economic poli...
Funding cuts and culture wars: history behind the headlines
31 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the latest episode of our monthly series, Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter discuss recent headlines about funding cuts to history departments in the UK...
Why we shouldn't see museum artefacts as 'stolen'
30 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Debates about whether museum artefacts should be returned to the cultures that made them have made headlines several times in recent years. But histor...
The Belle Époque: everything you wanted to know
30 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Paris's Belle Époque – or 'Beautiful Era' – conjures up images of cafés, can-can dancers and sunny walks along the River Seine. But was life in ...
Body in the basement: Dr Crippen and the 'crime of the century'
28 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1910, music hall performer Belle Elmore went missing. Her husband Dr Hawley Harvey Crippen claimed Belle had gone to America to visit a dying relat...
The Philadelphia gun-runners who supplied the IRA
26 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the 1970s, as the Troubles divided Northern Ireland, hundreds of armalite guns were sent to the IRA from across the Atlantic. Reporter Ali Watkins ...
Thomas Becket: life of week
25 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Thomas Becket is probably medieval England's most famous martyr and saint – yet the circumstances of his life are overshadowed by his infamous feud ...
Why Africa's history is more than just the slave trade
24 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Has our focus on the impact of the transatlantic slave trade blinded us to the diversity and complexity of Africa's past? That's one of the arguments ...
The Great Stink: everything you wanted to know
23 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Why, in the 1850s, was the excrement of thousands of people being deposited straight into the Thames? How lethal were Victorian London's cholera outbr...
Handel's Messiah: the scandalous birth of a classical masterpiece
21 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Even if you're not a fan of classical music, chances are you will have heard Handel's Messiah. Going behind the scenes of its creation, Charles King d...
Women killers of the early modern era
19 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From true crime pamphlets to reports from the scaffold, early modern Britain was gripped by tales of women who killed. But were these cases as common ...
Rosa Luxemburg: life of the week
18 Mar 2025
Contributed by Lukas
While the Suffragettes were fighting to win the vote, over in Germany, Rosa Luxemburg was focused on overthrowing the entire system. A committed Marxi...