HistoryExtra podcast

Horrible Histories: 15 years of death, poo and talking rats

14 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Since it first hit TV screens back in 2009, Horrible Histories has brought Terry Deary and Martin Brown’s hugely successful series of books to an en...

Medieval medicine: everything you wanted to know

13 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What would a medieval first aid kit have contained? What were the era's strangest cures? And is it true that it was better to steer clear of the docto...

Death & hubris in west Africa: how two British expeditions met with disaster

11 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 19th century, two different British expeditions headed into the interior of West Africa – and both ended in disaster. But what was driv...

Conspiracy Revisited: The JFK assassination – Oswald’s second murder

10 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In part 2 of a special bonus episode of our Conspiracy series, Rob Attar and Gerald Posner delve deeper into the questions surrounding the assassinati...

Clotilda: the last slave ship to America

09 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The transatlantic slave trade was formally abolished in both Britain and the US in 1807 and 1808 – yet slave ships were still forcibly bringing ensl...

History behind the headlines: the Bengal famine

08 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest episode of History Behind the Headlines, Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter are joined by award-winning journalist and producer Kavita Puri to...

Spying in the Troubles: the murky world of double agents in Northern Ireland

07 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Troubles in Northern Ireland was a difficult, bloody period, which lasted for almost 30 years. During that time, the British secret services ran a...

Welsh mythology: everything you wanted to know

06 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What do white horses symbolise in Welsh mythology? What is the Mabinogion? Was King Arthur from Wales? And why do fairy folk hold a particularly sinis...

Tying the knot: 500 years of wedded bliss and marital misery

04 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Over the last 500 years, countless people in England and Wales have decided to tie the knot. But what motivated people in the past to get married? Wha...

Conspiracy Revisited: The JFK assassination – 95 per cent certain?

03 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The killing of President John F Kennedy in Dallas in November 1963 is one of the defining events of the 20th century and the subject of multiple consp...

The British empire's divisive legacy

02 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Sathnam Sanghera’s bestselling 2021 book Empireland catapulted the author into the eye of a media storm. Following the release of its follow-up, Emp...

Saladin: life of the week

01 Apr 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The name of medieval leader and military commander Saladin has gone down in history for unifying the Muslim Near East, capturing the holy city of Jeru...

Back in the USSR: the Soviet Sixties

31 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Within just a few years of Stalin's death in 1953, the Soviet Union had sent the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, into orbit. An era of renewal an...

Anglo-Saxon kingdoms: everything you wanted to know

31 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Were the Anglo-Saxons always called the Anglo-Saxons? What did it take to make or break an early medieval king? And how did Christianity revolutionise...

Dinosaurs: a Victorian obsession

29 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Through the 19th century, people began to find strange and spectacular bones of "impossible monsters" in the earth. But what creatures could these bon...

Tiger Tamer | 6. battling against Bovril

28 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

At the turn of the 20th century, bicycles and motor cars became fixtures on Britain’s roads. Bob Carlisle, the original ‘wheelbarrow pedestrian’...

How was Elizabeth I shaped by her childhood?

27 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Elizabeth I is probably best remembered as an aging monarch, with a powdered white face and elaborate red wig. But she was just 25 when she became que...

Joan of Arc: life of the week

26 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Joan of Arc has gone down in history as the virgin saviour of France – a patriotic martyr who was unjustly burnt at the stake at the hands of her An...

Leftovers: how our ancestors battled food waste

25 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From Tudor slop buckets to WW2 potato peel recipes, Eleanor Barnett tells Ellie Cawthorne about how our ancestors used up food leftovers. She reveals ...

WW1's eastern front: everything you wanted to know

24 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How did the murder of Archduke Franz Ferdinand lead events in Europe to spiral out of control so rapidly? Why was Germany and Austria-Hungary's bloody...

Eric 'Winkle' Brown: Britain's most extraordinary pilot

22 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

It would be fair to say that Second World War pilot Eric 'Winkle' Brown led an extraordinary life. He narrowly escaped death when his ship was torpedo...

Tiger Tamer | 5. crazy about wheelbarrows

21 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The great wheelbarrow craze of 1886-7 was a short-lived media sensation, witnessing a flood of people charging from Scotland to London with barrows. O...

Will the real Jesus please stand up?

20 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the modern world we have a relatively narrow idea of who Jesus was, but things were quite different in the early years of Christianity. Many altern...

Mary Wollstonecraft: life of the week

19 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Mary Wollstonecraft was a firebrand thinker of the Enlightenment – proposing radical ideas about the fundamental rights of women. And her life was j...

An obscenity trial that shocked Victorian Britain

18 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In 1877, Annie Besant took the stand. She was on trial for selling an "obscene publication" – a pamphlet designed to educate the masses on birth con...

The Capetians: everything you wanted to know

17 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How did the Capetian dynasty hold on to the French throne for such a long time during the Middle Ages? How did deep-seated religious beliefs shape the...

Lothar II vs Theutberga: a marriage scandal that shook the ninth century

15 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

King Henry VIII famously ran into a world of problems trying to get out of his numerous marriages. And interestingly, we can find a similar story of r...

Tiger Tamer | 4. celebrity pedestrian

14 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tickling tigers one day, and cracking jokes to expectant crowds the next, Bob Carlisle was a circus showman, agent, clown and big cat tamer. In the th...

A political earthquake: Britain's first Labour government

13 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In January 1924 Ramsay MacDonald, the son of a farm labourer, strode into 10 Downing Street as prime minister - and changed the nation's political lan...

James VI and I: life of the week

12 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

James Stuart became king of Scotland at just 13 months old, and has since been known as 'the cradle king'. So, what was his childhood like? How did he...

From Russia to Texas: the search for a Jewish homeland

11 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

At the turn of the 20th century, millions of European Jews were seeking an escape from antisemitic persecution. While many dreamed of Palestine, a few...

British Redcoats: everything you wanted to know

10 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Was the Duke of Marlborough Britain's greatest ever military commander? How did Britain face down the challenge of an expansionist France? And did sol...

The West's attempt to crush Bolshevik Russia

08 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Following the October Revolution of 1917, Russia's nascent Bolshevik regime acted on its word to take the country out of the First World War by broker...

Tiger Tamer | 3. would you let a tiger lick your face?

07 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Tickling tigers one day, and cracking jokes to expectant crowds the next, Bob Carlisle was a circus showman, agent, clown and big cat tamer. In the th...

Mary & George: the real history behind the new drama

06 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

New drama Mary and George has just arrived on Sky Atlantic and HBO, transporting us back to the intrigues and scandals of the court of King James VI a...

History Behind the Headlines: ageing politicians & new names for the London Overground

05 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The latest instalment of our monthly series sees Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter talk to Matt Elton about the extent to which age has historically been a...

The man who ran Auschwitz: the real story of The Zone of Interest

04 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Oscar-nominated film The Zone of Interest is one of the most acclaimed and talked about films of 2024. Directed by Jonathan Glazer and loosely bas...

Alcatraz: everything you wanted to know

03 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Alcatraz is remembered as one of history's most hardline prisons, known for its ingenious escape attempts, gruelling regime, barren location and dange...

Plague, leprosy & murder: unlocking the secrets of medieval bones

01 Mar 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What secrets can medieval human remains unlock? With exciting new developments in the science of palaeopathology, researchers are able to glean much m...

Tiger Tamer | 2. sail, steam & stormy seas

29 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What was it like to sail the high seas in the Victorian age? In the second episode in our new series on Bob Carlisle, a widely forgotten but larger-th...

The EU: from Maastricht to Brexit

28 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From Maastricht to Brexit, the European Union's first three decades have entailed plenty of political and economic drama. Danny Bird speaks to Dermot ...

Rudyard Kipling: life of the week

27 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Rudyard Kipling is beloved by many for his children's books and inspirational poems. But he was also called the "Bard of Empire", known for writing Th...

Winthrop Bell: a Canadian spy who predicted Nazi horrors

26 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In his public life, Dr Winthrop Bell was a Harvard professor and wealthy businessman. But as a secret agent, reporting from Germany in the aftermath o...

Arts & Crafts movement: everything you wanted to know

25 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What was the Arts and Crafts movement? How far was it associated with radical politics? And is it alive and well today? The Victorian cultural movemen...

Stonewall: the 1969 fight for gay rights

24 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

To mark LGBT+ history month, we're revisiting a classic episode on a pivotal moment in LGBTQ+ history. Speaking to Matt Elton in 2019, historian Chris...

The Chinese migrants chasing an American dream

23 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What led two teenagers from Canton province in China to emigrate to California in the late 19th-century? And what lives awaited them on America's west...

The Tiger Tamer who went to sea | Trailer

22 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Tiger Tamer who went to sea, from HistoryExtra, is the story of one remarkable Victorian man who lived the life of a dozen men. His adventures as ...

Tiger Tamer | 1. “the life of a dozen men”

22 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Bob Carlisle was a Victorian influencer and minor celebrity; a global seafarer, circus clown and lion tamer, and Britain’s original long-distance ‘...

The Britons who rebuilt postwar Germany

21 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Daniel Cowling talks to Spencer Mizen about the British occupation of Germany from 1945-49, and describes how the young officials tasked with rebuildi...

Christopher Columbus: life of the week

20 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the list of famous explorers, the name of Christopher Columbus stands out. Seen for many years as the man who supposedly 'discovered' the Americas,...

Slavic Myths: vampires werewolves – and cabbages

19 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Slavic diaspora is one of the biggest in the world – so why aren't their myths better known? Speaking to Kev Lochun, Noah Charney and Svetlana S...

The Roman army: everything you wanted to know

18 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

What did the average Roman soldier eat and drink while on campaign? Were the legions seen as a oppressive force in the regions they conquered? And why...

Chanel: glamour and controversy on the Riviera

17 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

As AppleTV+ new drama The New Look hits our screens, we revisit this classic episode surrounding one of the series' central characters – fashion ico...

Victorian death rituals

16 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Death was an everyday part of life in 19th-century Britain – and the Victorians were fascinated by it, developing a wealth of customs and rules abou...

Conspiracy | 5. Legends of the Knights Templar

15 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In the early 14th century, the Knights Templar were suppressed and the 200-year history of this military religious order came to an abrupt end. Or did...

Happily ever after? Love and marriage in Austen's era

14 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From unwanted proposals and lingering looks across ballrooms to a wet-shirted Mr Darcy emerging from a lake, the romantic stories of Jane Austen – a...

History Behind the Headlines: the Post Office, US elections and Alexander the Great

13 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The latest instalment of our monthly series sees Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter explore the long history behind the Post Office Scandal, the historical ...

Drag: a British history

12 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Drag is an art form that's seen a great deal of success – and a little controversy – in recent years. Yet, as Jacob Bloomfield argues in his recen...

Medieval Ireland: everything you wanted to know

11 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How did medieval Ireland come to have 150 kings at the same time? Who were the gallowglass? What is Brehon law, and why is it so influential in our un...

Peking to Paris: the world’s first great motor race

09 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In June 1907, five plucky teams departed the Chinese capital and embarked on a 9,317-mile automobile race to Paris. Traversing scorching deserts and p...

Conspiracy | 4. The Protocols of the Elders of Zion

08 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

First published in Russia in 1903, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion purported to demonstrate evidence of a global Jewish conspiracy. Though it has ...

Love: a weird & wonderful history

07 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From prehistoric carvings and medieval spell books to grand romantic gestures and tokens of affection, throughout history there has been no shortage o...

Life of the week: the Duke of Wellington

06 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington has gone down in history as one of Britain's most formidable military commanders. But how did he earn such an...

Ploughman's for the people: a culinary history of Britain

05 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Did you know that the seemingly bucolic Ploughman's lunch actually came about because of a marketing ploy? Or that turnips were once thought to be an ...

Chivalry: everything you wanted to know

04 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Where does the word "chivalry" come from? How should an honourable knight treat his vanquished foes? And do chivalric ideals underlie modern-day misog...

Alexandria: the first modern city

02 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

According to legend, when Alexander the Great rocked up on the island of Pharos in northern Egypt, he had a vision of a spectacular city – a vision ...

Conspiracy | 3. Who killed JFK?

01 Feb 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On the 22 November 1963, President John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested and charged with the murder, but over the...

Masters of the Air: the real history behind the new show.

31 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Donald L Miller shares how US 'bomber boys' made D-Day possible, a story now dramatised in the Apple TV+ series Masters of the Air Masters of the Ai...

Life of the week: Spartacus

30 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

"I am Spartacus" is one of the most iconic lines in cinema history: from the 1960 film starring Kirk Douglas in the titular role, it has come to defin...

The West's enduring fascination with Asia

29 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Asia has long enthralled people in the west, with voyages of discovery and military expeditions setting out in search of wealth, wisdom and the chance...

Seven Wonders of the Ancient World: everything you wanted to know

28 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Did the hanging gardens of Babylon really exist? How was Egypt's Great Pyramid built? And could any one person have seen all seven ancient wonders? In...

Nicholas Winton: the 'British Schindler'

26 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War, a British stockbroker worked tirelessly to rescue hundreds of Jewish children from Nazi-occupied ...

Conspiracy | 2. Was Pearl Harbor an inside job?

25 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor. It's one of the most notorious surprise attacks in history, but how much of a su...

Ireland's tangled relationship with empire

24 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Often described as England's first colony, Ireland has a long – and deeply complicated – relationship with empire. Rhiannon Davies speaks to histo...

Life of the Week: Harold Godwinson (Harold II)

23 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

King Harold II is famous for getting an arrow to the eye at the battle of Hastings. But is that story even true? And what else should we know about th...

Britain's long love affair with sport

22 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Britons may not always be the best at playing sports. But, as David Horspool tells Spencer Mizen, when it comes to inventing, codifying and becoming u...

The Silk Road: everything you wanted to know

21 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Silk Road is one of the most famous trade routes in history, a vast interconnected network along which not only goods but ideas, knowledge and cul...

The Renaissance: an explosion of creativity

19 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From the nightmarish creations of Hieronymus Bosch to the intricate flying machines of Leonardo da Vinci, the Renaissance was a time of experimentatio...

Conspiracy | 1. Was Elizabeth I a man?

18 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

In her most famous speech, delivered on 9 August 1588, Queen Elizabeth I declared that she had the "heart and stomach of a king". Was that just rhetor...

Conspiracy | Series 2 Trailer

18 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Who shot JFK? Have the Knights Templar been hiding the Holy Grail? And what really landed at Roswell in 1947? In the second series of Conspiracy from ...

From the Mongols to the Huns: the nomads who dominated Eurasia

17 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From the Huns, Mongols and Magyars to the Turks, Xiongnu, Scythians and Goths, these nomadic people of the Eurasian steppes built long-lasting empires...

Life of the Week: Frederick Douglass

16 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Having run away from a life of slavery as a young man, Frederick Douglass went on to forge his own path as an abolitionist, orator, writer and statesm...

The hidden history of women in intelligence

15 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From women who worked in vital wartime intelligence centres like Bletchley Park to those who parachuted behind enemy lines as part of SOE operations, ...

The Bloomsbury Group: everything you wanted to know

14 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

From the groundbreaking novels of Virginia Woolf to the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, the Bloomsbury Group shook up British culture in the...

'Madness' and the supernatural

12 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The birth of psychiatry in the early-19th century changed the way that 'madness' was understood, with beliefs in the supernatural becoming evidence of...

Boston Tea Party | 5. A complex legacy

11 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why does the Boston Tea Party still loom so large in the popular story of American independence today? Is it right that it holds so much significance?...

Why were the Romantics obsessed with Mount Vesuvius?

10 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The Romantics were obsessed with Mount Vesuvius, climbing up to peer into its bubbling depths, and even using it as a metaphor to describe some of the...

Life of the Week: Stalin

09 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Josef Stalin is a titan of modern history – and one of its most infamous leaders, responsible for the deaths of millions. Danny Bird spoke to Robert...

James Longstreet: Confederate Judas

08 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

James Longstreet spent the American Civil War as one of the leading generals in the Confederate Army. But after 1865 he became a supporter of reconstr...

Medieval popes: everything you wanted to know

07 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Who were some of the most influential popes of the Middle Ages? What did you have to do to earn the title of 'anti-pope'? And which pope was believed ...

A history of song: from Schumann to Sting

05 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Songs can trigger a range of emotions in their listeners: intense joy, sadness or even disgust. But how did this type of musical composition develop a...

Boston Tea Party | 4. The crackdown

04 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The consequences of the protest are vital in understanding the role of the Boston Tea Party in the revolution that was to come. In episode four, we he...

Aztec warfare

03 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

Why did warfare play such a pivotal role in Aztec society? How could claiming captives benefit a warrior in life and death? And what was 'Flower War'?...

History Behind the Headlines: Elections, ‘panda diplomacy’ and the word of the year

02 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

The latest instalment of our monthly sees Hannah Skoda and Rana Mitter look back at the history behind the big stories of 2023 – and what they might...

How spies shaped the modern world

01 Jan 2024

Contributed by Lukas

How did British agents bug German PoWs during the Second World War? What qualities do you need to be a successful spy? And how are deepfakes changing ...

The Habsburgs: everything you wanted to know

31 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Habsburgs were one of Europe's most formidable – and durable – dynasties, ruling over swathes of the continent for centuries. Speaking to Spen...

The medieval Welsh Marches: identity on the frontier

29 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The medieval Welsh Marches are often seen as a hotly contested border territory between Wales and England that frequently boiled over into violence. B...

Boston Tea Party | 3. The destruction of the tea

28 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The destruction of more than 46 tonnes of tea on the evening of 16 December 1773 is an event that holds huge importance in the popular story of the US...

Sherlock Holmes: the real history that inspired the detective stories

27 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Sherlock Holmes is arguably the most famous fictional detective of all time. The resident of 221B Baker Street has been the subject of countless film ...

Life of the week: Queen Victoria

26 Dec 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What picture comes to mind when you think of Queen Victoria? For many, it will be a grieving woman in her mourning gown, or perhaps a monarch cooly st...