Science and Technology

Science and Technology

Documentaries, interviews and podcasts about the Information Age. From the Technological revolution to Brexit and the Coronavirus Pandemic.

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Science and Technology
  • 🎧 2008 Financial Crash with Adam Tooze

    Dan speaks to economic historian Adam Tooze for the tenth anniversary of Lehman Brothers' collapse in this special podcast.

  • Philip Pullman Meets the Art Detective

    Janina Ramirez meets renowned author Philip Pullman.

  • 🎧 28 Years on Death Row with Anthony Ray Hinton

    Anthony Ray Hinton is an Alabama was held on death row after being convicted of the murders of two restaurant managers, John Davidson and Thomas Wayne Vasona, in Birmingham, Alabama on February 25 and July 2, 1985. He was released in 2015 after winning a new trial.

  • 🎧 500th Episode: A History of Fatherhood and Some History Hit Highlights

    We celebrate our 500th podcast with a new look at fatherhood and a selection of the best moments from our podcast. We hear the testimony of survivors of genocide, Dan talks radical new historiography with Norman Ohler, and he commemorates the dead of World War One at the Menin Gate. Thank you for...

  • Sex in Pandemics

    I invited Kate Lister to join me after the enormous popularity of her last appearance on the pod. But this time we talked about how our sexual habits are both dulled and invigorated in unprecedented times - wars, plagues, pandemics. We discussed licentious widows who let loose during plagues, the...

  • Coronavirus: Lessons From History

    In the past few months more than a billion people have faced restrictions unlike any seen before. Shops are closed; the death toll is rising; people across the globe have been forced to rise to an extraordinary challenge. But it is important to remember that humans have experienced pandemics befo...

  • History and The Environment

    Andrew Simms is an author, analyst and co-director of the New Weather Institute. He comes on the show to explain how history is full of examples where humans have proven their capacity to make radical transformation. He explains why we must be capable of similarly-extraordinary things today to co...

  • Urban Exploring: Beneath the Decay

    As an emerging art historian, Victoria Jenner asks how she can make art and architecture more accessible for everyone. This film documents her journey into the wild exploration of abandoned structures and looks at accessibility in a variety of forms. Whether that be access to derelict buildings t...

  • Who Owns History?

    In the late 1960s, when many in the UK viewed colour television as tacky, art historian Kenneth Clarke was asked to produce a series all about Western Art. Clarke duly delivered on this assignment, creating the series β€˜Civilisation’. At a time when there was a genuine belief that the world stood ...

  • Visions from Bedlam: Neil Gaiman Meets the Art Detective

    Richard Dadd was a chocolate-box style painter destined to be forgotten, until he tragically went insane and murdered his own father in 1843. After he was transferred to Bedlam, Dadd’s paintings became labyrinthine, masterful, and incredibly dark. Over a period between six to nine years, he creat...

  • Uncharted Heights: Leaving the Planet with Dallas Campbell

    Dallas Campbell talks to Dan about the secret history of the Space Race, reveals the truth about the moon landings and examines mankind's insatiable, eternal drive to reach new worlds.

  • Total War: The Three Kingdoms of China

    Something a little different... Total War: Three Kingdoms is the fastest selling real time strategy of all time, and based on the Wei, Shu, and Wu division of China in the 200s AD. This is an interview that talks about fact and fiction within gaming narratives and the historical research undertak...

  • 🎧 A People's History of Tennis

    David Berry joined me on the pod to discuss a people’s history of tennis. From the birth of modern tennis in Victorian Britain to the present day, we talked about struggles around sexuality, gender, race and class that have transformed the nature of tennis and sport itself.

  • Tony Blair on Political Power

    Former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair, who was also the longest serving Labour Prime Minister, spoke to Dan about the nature of political power - within party politics, government policy and Britain's role in the world stage. He also discusses the major challenges Britain faces in a changing world ...

  • The Life and Times of Avi Shlaim

    Avi Shlaim is Emeritus Professor of International Relations at St Antony's College, Oxford. Here he discusses his life - from his birth in Baghdad, to studying in Britain and his ongoing historical research.

  • The HistoryHit Show

    In the first ever episode of our new topical history show, Dan Snow covers subjects from North Korea, to the Tudors, and Santa.

  • The Crown: History vs Myth

    The Crown has been a highly successful series, watched with intense interest across the globe. The settings and costumes are of high quality, the acting is superb, and it all looks convincing. However writer and broadcaster Hugo Vickers has several historical reservations. He comes on the show to...

  • Saving Timbuktu's Manuscripts

    For centuries the city of Timbuktu was famed as a golden metropolis situated on the southern fringes of the Sahara; tales of its immense wealth and its reputation as a key centre of learning obsessed travellers and adventurers for many hundreds of years. Timbuktu certainly has one of the most ill...

  • Sam Mendes on 1917

    1917 is a new film directed by Golden Globe winning film maker Sir Sam Mendes. Set in early 1917, at the height of the First World War on the Western Front, Mendes uses the backdrop of the German retreat to the Hindenburg Line as the stage for telling a story inspired by the memories of Alfred Me...

  • Pandemics: Science and History

    I was thrilled to be joined by the legendary Peter Frankopan, Professor of Global History at Oxford University and bestselling author of 'The Silk Roads: A New History of the World'. In this podcast we discussed the current crisis in a wider historical context, and Peter gave some fascinating ins...

  • Mudlarking

    Dan joins author and mudlark expert Lara Maiklem for a spot of mudlarking.

  • Modern Spain

    Sir Paul Preston CBE comes on the show to discuss Spain's modern history and explain how the stripping away of its empire in the early 19th century had such a catastrophic impact on the country.

  • 🎧 A Very Stable Genius

    Philip Rucker and Carol Leonnig are both Pulitzer Prize winning journalists at the Washington Post. They've written a new book with yet more revelations from inside the Trump White House so Dan seized the opportunity to ask just how insane the whole thing is. That's it really.

  • Ink: A History of Tattooing

    Matt Lodder is the world's leading expert on the history of tattoos. He has found evidence of people using ink or charcoal on their bodies stretching back thousands of years. He explodes myths at every turn. Tattoos were common long before Captain Cook allegedly imported them back from the Pacifi...