HistoryExtra podcast
Episodes
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...
Cornwall: a brief history
20 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What makes Cornwall different from the rest of England? Is it history or geography that sets the area apart? And how have the industries of fishing, m...
Franco’s Spain: paranoia, conspiracy & antisemitism
19 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What are the consequences when conspiracy theories, lies, and paranoia are combined with military might? Speaking with Danny Bird, Paul Preston discus...
The myth and memory of Waterloo
18 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Why is Waterloo still a fixture in the story Britain tells about its national history, more than two centuries on from the battle itself? Speaking to ...
Coffee history: everything you wanted to know
17 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From Sufi mystics in 16th-century Yemen to hipster baristas in cities across the world today, the history of this caffeinated beverage is a long and f...
Caesar: Death of a Dictator Trailer
16 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
On the Ides of March, 44 BC, the most famous Roman in history was murdered. Julius Caesar’s killers hoped to save the Republic, but in the end the...
Economies in meltdown: lessons from past financial crashes
15 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
From the Wall Street Crash of 1929 to the global turmoil of 2008, financial crises have wrecked countless lives, businesses and economies. But have le...
Living through the Troubles
14 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Troubles is a chapter of history that many in Northern Ireland would rather forget, but 25 years on from the Good Friday Agreement, its legacy can...
What can we learn from the fall of Rome?
13 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
What can the fall of Rome teach us about the decline of the west today? That’s the question at the centre of political economist John Rapley and his...
Anne Boleyn & Elizabeth I: the overlooked bonds between mother & daughter
12 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Since Elizabeth I was less than three years old when her mother was executed, it is often thought that Anne Boleyn had little influence on her life. S...
Fight like a man? Masculinity in WW2
11 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
How were sexuality, gender roles, and attitudes to the body influenced by men’s experiences in the Second World War? That’s something explored in ...
Penal transportation to Australia: everything you wanted to know
10 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Why did the British state decide to send criminals across the globe to Australia? Was it really as grim as you might expect to be one of those transpo...
Pregnancy & childbirth in the 19th century
08 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Despite motherhood being viewed as a fundamental part of a woman’s destiny during the 19th century, pregnancy, birth, and the postnatal experience a...
Historical echoes of the Ukraine war
07 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
More than a year in, the war between Russia and Ukraine has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths, with repercussions on an international scale. It ...
Plato: the world’s greatest philosopher?
06 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
He learned from Socrates, taught Aristotle and is often described as the key figure in the history of philosophy. But what do we actually know about t...
How women helped sustain the slave trade
05 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Slavery was a system that pervaded life in the American South, and as historian Stephanie E Jones-Rogers reveals in her book They Were Her Property, w...
The fall and rise of Henry III
04 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
King Henry III was one of England’s longest reigning monarchs, but his time on the throne saw a long period of peace punctured by an extraordinary r...
The SAS in WW2: everything you wanted to know
03 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The SAS – or Special Air Service – is Britain’s elite special forces unit. Founded in the deserts of North Africa during the Second World War, i...
Plot or paranoia? The Amboyna conspiracy trial
01 Jun 2023
Contributed by Lukas
In 1623, at a Dutch fort on the remote island of Ambon, in modern-day Indonesia, a young Japanese mercenary was arrested for asking suspicious questio...
Messalina: sex, slander & scandal in imperial Rome
31 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Even in the ancient Roman world of ruthless politicking, suspicious deaths and high-stakes schemes, the scandalous reputation of Empress Valeria Messa...
Amazing archaeological discoveries that trounce Indiana Jones
30 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
You may think that Indiana Jones created a swashbuckling vision of archaeology that only exists on the silver screen – but, in fact, real archaeolog...
Living the life of luxury with the Persians & Greeks
29 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When Greek soldiers captured the royal command tent of the Persian king during the Greco-Persian wars, they were stunned by what they saw. Their might...
Simon Schama on how inoculation changed the world
28 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
As the recent past will attest, the discovery of vaccines can not only save lives, but also change the course of human history. Speaking with Matt Elt...
Mountaineering on Everest: everything you want to know
27 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
When were the first attempts to summit Mount Everest? Did Mallory really say he wanted to climb it just “because it’s there”? How did climbing e...
The History Extra podcast – tell us what you think
26 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
We’re always looking to improve, so it’s really important to us to give you a voice in what we do next. Are you listening during a commute, while ...
Is history too politicised?
25 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The relationship between politics and history has long been a fraught one – particularly in recent years, when concerns that a political agenda may ...
Six wives | 6. Katherine Parr
24 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Katherine Parr was not just the “survivor”. She was also a ground-breaking intellectual, passionate religious reformer and canny political player....
Battling the British empire
23 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The history of the British empire has often been told as the story of an all-conquering spread of British values and influence across the globe. But, ...
William the Conqueror’s invasion plans
22 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
William the Conqueror famously defeated King Harold at the battle of Hastings in 1066. But in order to achieve this victory, he first had to get his a...
Did Black Death trigger the rise of Europe?
21 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The Black Death unquestionably wrought a horrific death toll in the mid-14th century, but did it also sweep in social and cultural changes that eventu...
Chartism: everything you wanted to know
20 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
The first half of the 19th century witnessed the rise of an extraordinary working-class campaign for political reform: Chartism. What made this moveme...
Three young queens: the unexpected bonds between Renaissance royals
18 May 2023
Contributed by Lukas
Before being scattered across different kingdoms, Catherine de’ Medici, Elisabeth de Valois and Mary, Queen of Scots spent many years of their forma...