HistoryExtra podcast

The First Crusade Trailer

11 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When we talk about the crusades today the mental images that spring to mind are as clear as they are striking – valiant crusader knights emblazoned ...

Re-examining women in the Roman empire

10 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

St Augustine of Hippo is one of the most influential Christian thinkers of the past 2,000 years – and his work also offers fresh insights into the l...

History Behind the Headlines Trailer

09 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Our new monthly series explores the historical stories hitting the headlines – and the way in which the past informs today’s world. To access this...

Is black history still being overlooked?

08 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As the UK marks Black History Month, a panel of expert historians – Hannah Cusworth, Pamela Roberts and Hakim Adi – tackle some of the biggest que...

Cat history: everything you wanted to know

07 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Cats have lived alongside us for centuries, and our relationship with them has transformed over time – from venerating them to vilifying them. What ...

The Huxleys: how one family shaped our view of nature

05 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Known as “Darwin’s bulldog”, Thomas Henry Huxley fought a tireless battle against the opponents of evolutionary theory. His grandson Julian live...

Great Reputations: Gandhi

04 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest in our series charting the contested reputations of key historical figures, Vikram Visana and Jad Adams debate the complex, sometimes co...

The Cultural Revolution: a Chinese catastrophe

03 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For the decade between 1966 and 1976, Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution wreaked immense havoc on China – with up to 2 million killed, and another...

The brutal WW2 battle for Italy

02 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Allied forces invaded Italy in September 1943, they hoped to be in Rome by Christmas. But by the end of the year, after four months of unrelentin...

David Mitchell on a new history of England’s monarchy

01 Oct 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From his turn as Shakespeare in Upstart Crow to his historical sketches with Robert Webb, comedian and actor David Mitchell’s work has often touched...

Archaeology’s golden age: everything you wanted to know

30 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The first half of the 20th century is often talked about as a golden age of archaeology – a time marked by thrilling finds such as those of Tutankha...

One day in the British empire

28 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

On 29 September 1923, the British empire was at its territorial height. But even as British power stretched across the globe, were the seeds of the em...

Great Reputations: Emmeline Pankhurst

27 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest in our series charting the reputations of key historical figures, June Purvis and Lyndsey Jenkins discuss the life and contested legacy ...

Radio Times: a century of British broadcasting

26 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1923, a new periodical was launched to guide listeners through the BBC’s nascent radio offerings. Its name? The Radio Times. Across the coming de...

How to live like a Roman emperor

25 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What did Roman emperors actually do all day? Were they really as bloodthirsty as legend would suggest? And why was food so important? Speaking to Matt...

How has fear shaped history?

24 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

With the climate crisis, war in Ukraine, a recent pandemic and the rise of AI, it can feel like there is more to be fearful of today than ever before....

The Battle of Britain: everything you wanted to know

23 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Battle of Britain has gone down in history as an epic dogfight between the RAF and the Luftwaffe – one where Britain faced overwhelming odds and...

Rocket women: America’s first female astronauts

21 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the late 1970s, NASA admitted women onto their space programme for the first time. Six women were chosen as the first cohort, and would endure unpr...

Great Reputations: Napoleon

20 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest in our series charting the contested reputations of key historical figures, Laura O’Brien and David Andress discuss the life and after...

Chaos & violence in country houses

19 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We think of English houses as idyllic locations for an afternoon out, but as Stephanie Barczewski reveals, many have a more turbulent and violent hist...

The shoemaker who helped slaves escape the South

18 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Thomas Smallwood, a formerly enslaved shoemaker, helped hundreds of people to flee from slavery in the American South in the 1840s. Speaking to Elinor...

Scandals that shocked Georgian Britain

17 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From torrid affairs and messy duels to corrupt law-enforcers and vengeful ghosts, Georgian Britain loved a good scandal. Speaking to Ellie Cawthorne, ...

British parliament: everything you wanted to know

16 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From the gunpowder plot and Oliver Cromwell’s clash with Charles I to Winston Churchill’s speeches during the Second World War, parliament has wit...

When poison pen letters caused chaos

14 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Long before the rise of the internet troll, malicious letters written by anonymous authors were causing untold grief to those who received them, and t...

Great Reputations: Cleopatra

13 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest in our series charting the contested reputations of key historical figures, Joyce Tyldesley and Catharine Edwards discuss the life and c...

Secrets of the Anglo-Saxon bone chests

12 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Held in Winchester Cathedral are several ornate chests, said to contain the venerated bones of early kings of Wessex and England, dating from the seve...

Jane Austen’s passion for fashion

11 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From ribbons, bonnets and ballgowns to Mr Darcy’s see-through shirt, the works of Jane Austen have long sparked the imaginations of fashion-minded r...

The brain behind the Dambusters raid

10 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Dambusters raid of May 1943 is one of the most celebrated episodes of the Second World War. But in military terms, was it in fact a flop? And was ...

Spanish flu: everything you wanted to know

09 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Did the Spanish flu pandemic actually begin in Spain? What were the symptoms? Is it true it killed more people than the First World War, and how simil...

Women who shaped the Roman empire

07 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do you surface the stories of women in the Roman empire, when the majority of ancient texts were written by men, telling of military victories and...

Great Reputations: Oliver Cromwell

06 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the latest in our series charting the contested reputations of key historical figures, Ronald Hutton and Mark Stoyle debate the life and legacy of ...

The secret club for radical New York women

05 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In downtown New York, in the early 20th century, a secret club of women met regularly, to discuss ideas, politics, art and their own lives. They forge...

Margaret Cavendish: scandalous 17th-century writer

04 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Margaret Cavendish has been largely forgotten and, when remembered, divides opinion. One of England’s first female philosophers, professional author...

The triumph of Joan of Arc

03 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1429 a young peasant woman burst onto the scene and transformed the fortunes of England and France in the Hundred Years’ War. In today’s episod...

Rome v Carthage: everything you wanted to know

02 Sep 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Of all the enemies the Roman empire faced in its centuries-long history, one name stood out: Hannibal. In the late third century BC, the Carthaginian ...

Tokyo’s devastating 1923 earthquake

31 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Exactly 100 years ago today, on 1 September 1923, the streets of Tokyo began to shudder. It was the first warning sign that something terrible was com...

US Civil Rights: legacy

30 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When cries of “Black Lives Matter” rang out across the world in 2020, protestors were echoing the chants of civil rights activists advocating for ...

On the trail of a Nazi war criminal

29 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1949 the notorious Nazi doctor Josef Mengele, known as the “Angel of Death” fled to South America. Three decades later, US lawyer Gerald Posner...

How did empire shape modern Britain?

28 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Across the 20th century, Britain’s empire reached a peak and then began to disintegrate. Yet, according to historian Charlotte Lydia Riley, the coun...

Why did medieval Europe become Christian?

27 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why did Christianity become so deeply embedded across western Europe in the centuries after the end of the Roman empire? To what extent did the old go...

The Mongols: everything you wanted to know

26 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How brilliant a military leader was Genghis Khan? Could the Mongols have conquered all of Europe? And were they as brutal as they’re often portrayed...

The lost world of Dickens’ London

24 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From grimy back alleys and ghastly churchyards to debtors’ prisons and old curiosity shops, Charles Dickens evoked a vision of Victorian London that...

US Civil Rights: Malcolm X’s assassination

23 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1965, Malcolm X walked out onto the stage of a Harlem ballroom, and was shot dead. In the fifth episode of our series delving into the US Civil Rig...

The miners’ strike: a view from the ground

22 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In March 1984, miners across Britain walked out of the pits and refused to go back. What followed was one of the longest, largest, and most divisive s...

California’s hidden history of slavery

21 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Today California is renowned worldwide as a heartland of sun-drenched luxury. But, according to Jean Pfaelzer, the state’s prosperity is in large pa...

Letters from medieval England

20 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Pastons were a prominent aristocratic family from around 1380 to 1750, with stakes in the dynamic politicking of the Tudor and Stuart courts. But,...

New Zealand: everything you wanted to know

19 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

New Zealand has a short history in terms of human settlement – but according to Professor James Belich, that makes it all the more interesting and w...

Indian experiences in WW2

17 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Around 2.5 million Indian soldiers fought in the Second World War. Behind this staggering number lies a complex web of emotional experiences – and D...

US Civil Rights: the 1964 Civil Rights Act

16 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When President Lyndon B Johnson signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act, he made history – but did sweeping laws actually result in tangible social change...

Learning disabilities: an overlooked history

15 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When we think about the experiences of people with learning and intellectual disabilities in the past, we often hear stories of discrimination, poor t...

Secrets of ancient Chinese tombs

14 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

We’ve all heard of the astonishing Terracotta Warriors, but they are just one of a number of fascinating ancient burials to have been discovered acr...

How forgers helped rescue Holocaust victims

13 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Between 1940 and 1943, a group of Polish diplomats and Jewish activists created a secret programme to forge and smuggle Latin American identity docume...

Ancient Egyptian religion: everything you wanted to know

12 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

For more than 3,000 years, the ancient Egyptians adhered to a rich and complex system of beliefs, worshipping a vast pantheon of mighty – and often ...

Introducing HistoryExtra Long Reads

11 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Take a deep dive into the past as we bring you the very best of BBC History Magazine, Britain’s bestselling history magazine. With a new episode rel...

Did our ancestors really think the world was flat?

10 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When did people first figure out the world wasn’t flat? Well, according to author James Hannam, it was much earlier than you might imagine. In today...

US Civil Rights: the March on Washington

09 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As well as being one of the largest protest marches ever staged, the 1963 March on Washington also made history as the setting for Martin Luther King ...

Roger Mortimer: medieval rebel

08 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Seven hundred years ago this August, Roger Mortimer broke out of the Tower of London and went on to mastermind the deposition of his captor and arch-e...

Emotional revolution in postwar Britain

07 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

After the psychological trauma and family separation of the Second World War, Britain underwent an emotional revolution. Psychologists and social refo...

Rome vs Persia: an unwinnable fight

06 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Roman empire was used to getting its own way – but there was one power it was never able to overcome. Despite frequent bouts of warfare, the Par...

British seaside holidays: everything you wanted to know

05 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What did Victorians get up to on the beach? When did fish and chips first become popular? And what’s the dark story behind Punch and Judy? It’s ti...

Surviving Hitler and Stalin

03 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Daniel Finkelstein’s parents were born into comfortable Jewish families in Germany and Poland, but the rise of Nazism and the onset of the Second Wo...

US Civil Rights: the Montgomery bus boycott

02 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Rosa Parks’ momentous refusal to vacate her bus seat for a white passenger in 1955 sparked a boycott that lasted for 381 days, and successfully pres...

Renaissance beauty regimes

01 Aug 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Appearance was everything in the Renaissance – a way to make a good marriage and gain power and influence. But what if you fell short of the era’s...

AI: An ancient nightmare?

31 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Artificial intelligence’s development seems to be moving at breakneck speed, and the ability of AI to automate even complex tasks – and, potential...

A jujitsu-trained suffragette bodyguard

30 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Known as “Mrs Pankhurst’s bodyguard”, Kitty Marshall was a cricket-ball-wielding, jujitsu-trained suffragette ready to go fist-to-fist with the ...

The NHS: everything you wanted to know

29 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How did the British public respond when the NHS was first founded 75 years ago? How have the roles of doctors and nurses changed in the decades since?...

Life in a WW2 tank regiment

27 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In military history, we often hear the stories of great battles and detailed strategic manoeuvres, but what was life like for the men responsible for ...

US Civil Rights: Fighting for freedom

26 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In this HistoryExtra podcast series, we chart some of the key moments in the transformative history of the US Civil Rights movement. Expert historians...

US Civil Rights: the lynching of Emmett Till

26 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When Mamie Till decided to display the bruised and beaten body of her son, 14-year-old Emmett Till, in an open casket funeral, she poured gasoline on ...

A ring of poisoners: Hungary’s most notorious murders

25 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In 1929, a sensational murder trial took place in Hungary. A group of women, all hailing from the same tiny village, stood accused of murdering dozens...

RAF Coastal Command: unsung heroes of WW2

24 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Throughout the Second World War, the men of RAF Coastal Command took to the skies and valiantly defended Allied ships from German U-boats in the Atlan...

UFO sightings: an otherworldly history

23 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

A recent Nasa press conference detailing the American space agency’s research into UFO sightings sparked headlines across the globe about extraterre...

Dog history: everything you wanted to know

22 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When were dogs first domesticated? Why was adopting from London’s “Temporary Home for Lost and Starving Dogs” such a radical move? And how did a...

History's greatest cities | Season 2 Trailer

21 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Why do some settlements become great centres of international influence, while others languish and ebb away? And how have Europe’s most important ur...

Oppenheimer: “destroyer of worlds”

20 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

When the atom bomb was dropped in 1945, how did its inventor, J Robert Oppenheimer, feel? To mark the release of Christopher Nolan’s new blockbuster...

How Barbie changed the world

19 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Barbie has been catapulted back into the cultural spotlight this week, thanks to a new movie. But, why is the iconic doll historically significant? Si...

Britain’s love affair with Edward VII

18 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The death of King Edward VII in 1910 pitched Britain into a frenzy of mourning, as the nation marked the passing of a symbol of continuity and stabili...

The WAAF: the many behind the few

17 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In his famous speech of summer 1940, Winston Churchill hailed the RAF as the “few” who protected the skies during the Battle of Britain. But the s...

Eastern Europe: a personal journey through the region’s past

16 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Eastern Europe has been the setting for some of history’s most climactic events. Yet barely 30 years since the collapse of Communism heralded the so...

Roman gods & goddesses: everything you wanted to know

15 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How were Roman deities different to Greek deities? Why did the Romans sacrifice animals? What did religious cults get up to in ancient Rome? And just ...

Blindness: a cultural history

13 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As far back as the archaeological record takes us, we can find evidence of blind people. But the experiences of those people – and the ways they wer...

Big questions of the Crimean War: aftermath and legacy

12 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

From advances in weaponry and warships to the use of telegraphs and photography, the Crimean War produced a whole host of innovations. In the final ep...

Kate Mosse on pirate women & Huguenot refugees

11 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Writer Kate Mosse shares the historical inspirations behind her latest novel, The Ghost Ship, which takes readers across the high seas from 17th-centu...

How did medieval people tell the time?

10 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

It would be easy to assume that before the invention of the modern clock, people didn’t have a very sophisticated sense of time – they rose with t...

Lost civilisations of the Mediterranean

09 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Mediterranean coastline is strewn with the remnants of lost civilisations. From Tyre and Carthage, to Ravenna, Syracuse and Antioch, Katherine Pan...

1980s Britain: everything you wanted to know

08 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Lucy Robinson responds to your questions on Britain in the decade of Thatcherism, Live Aid, Bananarama and the rise of the yuppie It was the decade ...

Tom Holland on Rome’s golden age

06 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As history shows, ruling a vast empire is no mean feat. But in the second century AD the Romans seemed to be able to manage it with relative ease. Thi...

Big questions of the Crimean War: into the Valley of Death

05 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

You may be familiar with Alfred Lord Tennyson poem, The Charge of the Light Brigade, which famously – though not entirely accurately – describes t...

Why Britain fell in love with the NHS

04 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

July 2023 marks the 75th anniversary of Britain’s National Health Service: an institution which has come to occupy a unique place in British life si...

From mysterious knitting needles to strange silhouettes: recreating historical clothing

03 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

How do you begin to recreate clothing from the past? What are the most tricky historical fashions to get right? And how important is accuracy in all t...

Life on Britain’s WW1 home front

02 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

What was it like to be a child on Britain’s First World War home front? Just how effective was Britain in producing the mammoth amount of materials ...

The Franco-Prussian war: everything you wanted to know

01 Jul 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Franco-Prussian War was a short, if bitter conflict. Prussia would emerge as a clear winner in a matter of months – but the consequences of the ...

How the Age of Revolutions rocked the Royal Navy

29 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

In the late 18th-century, Britain was catapulted into war with Republican France. At the same time, it was also grappling with the tumult of the Age o...

Big questions of the Crimean War: the build up

28 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Crimean War of 1853 to 1856 saw an alliance led by Britain and France challenge Russian expansion. But why did the fighting break out, and can it ...

The Georgian Bank of England: a day in the life

27 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Just how rich were Georgian bankers? What did they eat for lunch? And could they be described as “virtuous”? Speaking with Rob Attar, Professor An...

How germs shaped human history

26 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

As recent history has shown us, human societies can prove surprisingly frail in the face of a tiny, yet powerful force: the microbes that cause infect...

Salon Kitty: sex & spying in Nazi Germany

25 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Salon Kitty was the most notorious brothel in 1930s Berlin. Yet little did its clientele – foreign diplomats and high-ranking army officers among th...

The Luddites: everything you wanted to know

24 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

The Luddites are best remembered for smashing up machinery during the Industrial Revolution. But what did these 19th-century activists actually want f...

Women on the front line, from forgotten commanders to cross-dressing soldiers

22 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Military history is generally assumed to be a male domain. But according to Sarah Percy, author of Forgotten Warriors, this popular perception ignores...

Before Windrush: Britain’s long relationship with the Caribbean

21 Jun 2023

Contributed by Lukas

Seventy-five years ago, on 22 June 1948, HMT Empire Windrush landed at Tilbury docks. The arrival of the ship is rightly remembered as a landmark mome...