Richard Sorge is one of the greatest spies in history. Famously he reported to Stalin that the Germans were going to invade Russia, and famously Stalin ignored him. He then reported that the Japanese weren't going to invade Russia, and this time, the Russians listened. Siberian troops were redepl...

Suzie Boniface discusses those who were harmed by the nuclear tests conducted by the British atom bomb, as controversy surrounds the first British atomic test in 1952, and the subsequent testing program. Those who worked on the sites were exposed to dangerous levels of radiation and they have nev...

Calder Walton talks to Dan about Russian interference in past elections.

Tom Bower joined me on the podcast to discuss the history and legacy of the Nuremberg Trials.

Queen Elizabeth II has died after 70 years on the British throne. Born in April 1926, Elizabeth Windsor became heir apparent, aged 10, when her uncle Edward VIII abdicated and her father George VI became king. In 1947 – She married navy lieutenant Philip Mountbatten, a Greek Prince, at London’s W...

The Foundlings were children whose mothers were destitute or dead, and they were taken in by various philanthropic institutions. One such place, the Foundling Hospital, was founded in London in 1739 by Thomas Coram. It was a children's home established for the "education and maintenance of expose...

Dan talks to Helen Parr, whose new book Our Boys, traces the history of the Parachute Regiment and her own, personal, involvement with it.

Saladin was one of the greatest Sultans of the middle ages, and the first sultan of Egypt and Syria. He famously defeated the Crusader army at the Battle of Hattin, and recaptured Jerusalem. The Christian armies of the west never recaptured the Holy City. Saladin's legacy still holds resonance ac...

We think of archaeology as an exclusionary profession, one reserved for experts in the field. But why isn't the discipline more accessible to the public? Should the past not belong to everybody, and are there some basic skills that anyone can learn to help rediscover our past? The archaeologist a...

Shiraz Maher @ShirazMaher is a British writer and analyst, and a senior research fellow at the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence at King's College London. He also teaches at Johns Hopkins University. Salafi-Jihadism: The History of an Idea is out now.

Patricia Clavin, Niamh Gallagher and Caoimhe Nic Dháibhéid joined me on the pod to discuss the history of the partition of Ireland.

Jonathan Fennell has written a new book discussing the 'citizen armies' that made up the core of the British and Commonwealth armies, and Dan talks to him to find out more.

In this podcast Dan talks to Golden Globe winning film maker Sam Mendes about his new World War One film 1917. Based in part on an account told to Mendes by his paternal grandfather, Alfred Mendes, it chronicles the story of two young British soldiers at the height of WWI during Spring 1917.

In the 5th century BC the world's first super power, the Persian Empire, went to war against a ragtag collection of cities and statelets on its western frontier. It was the start of the Persian War. Thankfully for us this war was recorded in some detail by the world's first historian. Herodotus. ...

One of the most famous names in history - who is Tutankhamun? In 1922 Howard Carter discovered one the most intact ancient tombs in history, filled with 5,000 priceless artefacts from the boy-king's life. But is Howard Carter truly responsible for this momentous discovery? And what can we learn a...

The Peterloo Massacre was a critical moment in the reform movement at the start of the 19th century. Thousands of people gathered at St Peter's Fields near Manchester to protest for an expansion of the franchise. The local magistrates summoned yeomanry to dispel what they saw as a riot, but as th...

Dan talks to Captain Jay Singh-Sohal about his work on Saragarhi and Sikh military history.

June 1944: the SAS parachute deep into occupied France, to wreak havoc and bloody mayhem. In a country crawling with the enemy, their mission is to prevent Hitler from rushing his Panzer divisions to the D-Day beaches and driving the Allies back into the sea. Damien Lewis joined me on the podcast...

Chris Naunton joined me on the podcast to talk about the work of the many people who contributed to our understanding of ancient Egypt.

Today’s episode of Gone Medieval is brought to you by Paradox Interactive, the creators of the game Crusader Kings III. In it, Matt Lewis explores all of the logistics of going on a Medieval crusade and looks at how the first crusade played out.

Matt has been losing whole weekends to this game! ...

In September 1918 David Lloyd George, the charismatic wartime Prime Minister, visited the city of Manchester, attended a vast public gathering and then collapsed. He spent the next week and a half confined to the Manchester Town Hall in a hastily assembled private hospital ward. He needed assista...

Dan talks to Kevin Butcher about the Roman festival of Saturnalia, with its drinking, gift-giving, and sense of a world turned upside-down.

Kim Ghattas joined me on the podcast to explore how Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shia Iran - who were once allies and the twin pillars of US strategy in the area - became mortal enemies after the revolution of 1979. In a war of cultural supremacy, we discussed the nature of various groups using and dis...

Dr Sue Black is a British computer scientist, academic and social entrepreneur. She has been instrumental in saving Bletchley Park, the World War II codebreaking site. Her book documenting this vital task is 'Saving Bletchley Park: How #SocialMedia Saved the Home of the WWII Codebreakers'.