HistoryExtra podcast
Episodes
Alva Vanderbilt: life of the week
15 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Climbing to the top of Gilded Age society in 19th-century America, socialite Alva Vanderbilt made headlines for being one of the first elite women to ...
How women were erased from economic history
14 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Across 12,000 years of history, prosperity has flourished in societies where women could fully participate – and faltered when they were pushed to t...
The Phoenicians: everything you wanted to know
13 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
They gave us the alphabet, charted the seas by the Pole Star, and built Carthage – once Rome’s greatest rival. So why have the Phoenicians been fo...
Black women and the fight for human rights
11 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Despite facing significant obstacles in their own lives, black women in the United States were at the forefront of campaigns for human rights at home ...
Soviet dissidents who challenged the Kremlin
09 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the years following Stalin’s death in 1953, a new phenomenon emerged within the Soviet Union: so-called 'dissidents'. Preferring to think of them...
El Cid: life of the week
08 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The life of El Cid, the famed 11th-century Castilian warrior otherwise known as Rodrigo Díaz de Vivar, is steeped in legend. Historian Nora Berend jo...
Burying the enemy: commemorating the world wars' fallen foes
07 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For Britain and Germany, both world wars saw hundreds of thousands of casualties – but what happened to the bodies of those who died on enemy territ...
The Mughal empire: everything you wanted to know
06 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The Mughal empire was one of the most powerful and influential dynasties in South Asian history, blending together a mix of cultural traditions to cre...
The Amazons: wonder-women of the ancient world
04 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
If you know anything about the Amazons of ancient legend, it's probably that they were fearsome female fighters, who bravely battled against male hero...
How did the Vikings shape Russia and Ukraine?
02 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The story of the Vikings who travelled to eastern Europe is just as thrilling as the story of those who headed west. It's also just as important – s...
William the Conqueror: life of the week
01 Sep 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1066, William, Duke of Normandy, crossed the Channel and changed English history forever. Known to some as a ruthless and ambitious conqueror and t...
Why the Maginot Line couldn't save France in WW2
31 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
As the threat of war began to loom in the 1930s, an elaborate system of fortifications sprung up in northeastern France. Known as the Maginot line, th...
Crime fiction history: everything you wanted to know
30 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From Hercule Poirot to Sherlock Holmes, crime fiction has long been a popular genre. But what was the first crime novel? How has crime writing affecte...
How Christianity came to dominate the Roman world
28 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What if the 'fall' of Rome wasn’t a collapse, but a rebrand? In this episode, Alice Roberts delves into the dramatic transformation of the Roman wor...
The spy next door: Moscow's century-long plot to infiltrate the west
26 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2010, the world was stunned when the United States exposed a covert Russian spy network operating on its soil. Seemingly all-American families livi...
Edward the Confessor: life of the week
25 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Edward the Confessor, England’s penultimate Anglo-Saxon king, has long been remembered as a saintly, pious monarch – but was he really the weak ru...
Britain and the Caribbean: from slavery to Black Lives Matter
24 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Histories of British involvement in the Caribbean tend to focus mainly on the period of plantation slavery but, in her new book Empire Without End, Im...
Nationalism: everything you wanted to know
23 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Human beings tend to identify with being in a group, and, historically, few groupings have been more potent than the idea of the nation. But when did ...
Preview: The forgers who faked a fortune
22 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 1775, a respectable lady, a mild-mannered apothecary and his fast-living identical twin stood accused of pulling off a scam that had earnt them a f...
From dodos to 'lost' tribes: a history of extinction
21 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
After causing the extinction of the dodo, humans soon realised that we had the power to destroy entire species – and we continue to reckon with that...
Europe's last pagans
19 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Christianity came to dominate Europe in the Middle Ages. However, some parts of Europe remained pagan until very recently. So how did non-Christian p...
VJ Day and the story of women's football: history behind the headlines
18 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the latest episode of our monthly series charting the historical background of current news events, historians Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter discuss...
The tangled legacies of two Americas
17 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
For centuries, North and Latin America have been locked in a relationship of rivalry and reciprocity. From revolutionary dreams to imperial ambitions,...
The Paris Commune: everything you wanted to know
16 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In the spring of 1871, the citizens of Europe’s second largest city rose up and proclaimed the Paris Commune. For eight extraordinary weeks, the Fre...
VJ Day: why don't we talk about WW2 in Asia?
14 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
On the 80th anniversary of VJ Day, broadcaster Kavita Puri – presenter of a new BBC Radio 4 series on the Second World War in Asia – tells Matt El...
Zoot suits, mashers & New Romantics: the evolution of the dandy
12 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
From zoot suiters and mods, to mashers and Congolese sapeurs, since the early 19th century, fashionable male subcultures have popped up across the glo...
Mary of Modena: life of the week
11 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
Cultural historian and author Breeze Barrington brings to life the fascinating – and often misunderstood – story of Maria, or Mary, of Modena. Bor...
Arson, murder and goddesses: secrets of a Seventh Wonder of the Ancient World
10 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What would it have been like to have witness one of the most spectacular sights of the ancient world first-hand? Speaking to Rachel Dinning, Bettany H...
Frontier life: everything you wanted to know
09 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
What was life like on the frontier in 19th-century America? Forget Hollywood’s high-noon shootouts and lawless swaggering cowboys – historian Kare...
Forgotten stories from South Asian history
07 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
South Asian history is currently in the spotlight, with 2025's South Asian Heritage Month focusing particularly on themes of movement and migration. B...
Was the atomic bomb necessary to end war with Japan?
05 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
The decision by the United States to drop atomic bombs on the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945 remains one of the most controversial mo...
JMW Turner: life of the week
04 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
In 2015, the Bank of England asked the British public to nominate a deceased cultural figure they felt deserved the honour of appearing on a banknote....
Hiroshima: in the shadow of the bomb
03 Aug 2025
Contributed by Lukas
At 8.15am on 6 August 1945, an atomic bomb exploded over Hiroshima. It was an event that changed the course of history, but it was also one driven by ...
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...