Archive of Dan Snow's History Hit 🎧

Archive of Dan Snow's History Hit 🎧

To get the latest episodes of Dan Snow's History Hit,

If you signed up after October 2023 go to historyhit.com/dashboard

If you signed up before October 2023 go to this form: https://insights.historyhit.com/podcast-rss-feed

Share
Archive of Dan Snow's History Hit 🎧
  • 🎧 Γ†thelflΓ¦d, Lady of the Mercians

    Matt Lewis kicks off Gone Medieval’s special series of podcasts about Medieval Queens with a look at Γ†thelflΓ¦d, Lady of the MerciansΒ who ruledΒ Mercia in the MidlandsΒ from 911 until her death. She was the eldest daughter ofΒ Alfred the Great and his wifeΒ Ealhswith, and played a pivotal role in defe...

  • 🎧 Pompeii: The Eruption of Vesuvius

    This episode contains references to scenes that some listeners may find distressing

    In 79 AD, ancient armageddon hit Pompeii: Mount Vesuvius erupted, freezing in time a town and its inhabitants.

    Nearly 2000 years on, Pompeii's story continues. In the last episode of our special mini series, we'...

  • 🎧 President Thomas Jefferson

    Thomas Jefferson was the principal author of the Declaration of Independence, so how did it work out when he became the leader of this nation that he was so instrumental in founding?

    For the third episode in our special series about the Presidents, we're exploring Jefferson's presidency. What ch...

  • 🎧 Secret Origins of the SAS

    In 1974, a pioneer of the SAS and master of military deception, Dudley Clarke, passed away. His death went almost entirely unnoticed by the British public, despite the fact that he carried out some of the most dramatic deception campaigns of World War Two. He waged a covert war of trickery and mi...

  • 🎧 Dutch Golden Age: 'The Goldfinch' and its Painter

    On the morning of 12 October 1654, in the Dutch city of Delft, a sudden explosion was followed by a thunderclap that could be heard more than 70 miles away. Carel Fabritius - now known across the world for his exquisite painting ’The Goldfinch’ - had been at work in his studio. He, along with man...

  • 🎧 Charlie Chaplin

    The Golden Age of Hollywood was a place of pioneers, storytellers, ideas, westward expansion, money, politics and scandal- the story of Hollywood is the story of America itself.Β At the turn of the 20th century, Hollywood in Los Angeles was a dusty country hamlet, but soon bright young things came...

  • 🎧 The 1906 San Francisco Earthquake

    45 seconds. An estimated 7.9 on today's Richter scale. The deadliest earthquake in US history.

    In this episode, we're examining the 1906 San Francisco Earthquake. What happened? Why were this earthquake and the fires that it caused so disastrous? And who did this seemingly indiscriminate force o...

  • Re-Run: History of Sex for Sale

    Many people claim sex work to be the oldest profession, but we can likely put that down to being midwifery or medical professionals of some sort.

    However, since money has changed hands, it has also done so for sex.

    In today's episode of Betwixt the Sheets we're going back to a conversation I ...

  • 🎧 Explorers: First Polynesians

    In small wooden canoes and with just the stars for navigation, how did the first Polynesians conquer the largest ocean on Earth? For centuries this has perplexed scholars and anthropologists. The Polynesian Triangle is drawn by connecting the points of Hawaii, New Zealand, and Easter Island and e...

  • 🎧 How to be an Atheist in the Middle Ages

    We tend to think that it was impossible not to subscribe to Christianity in the Middle Ages. But, as in any age, belief can wax and wane. But the chroniclers of the period largely ignored the voices of ordinary people, whose faith may not have been quite so devout as we have been led to believe.
    ...

  • 🎧 Henry VIII's Billionaire Wardrobe

    Henry VIII was described as the 'best dressed sovereign in the world' by the Venetian ambassador Sebastian Giustinian. The Tudor King spent the equivalent of Β£2 million a year on clothes.
    Β 
    In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, first released in April 2021, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined...

  • 🎧 How Fear Shaped History

    What scares you? Some of humankind’s most common fears and phobias include fear of heights, flying, spiders, snakes, injections, germs, public speaking and….death.

    When you think about it…fear, and the panic it produces ,has long been driving forces β€” perhaps the driving force β€” of world history...

  • 🎧 Henry I of England

    The fourth son of William the Conqueror, King Henry I, is remembered as a harsh but effective ruler. He skilfully manipulated the barons in England and Normandy. He strengthened the existing Anglo-Saxon system of justice, local government and taxation, with more institutions including the royalΒ e...

  • 🎧 Homo Floresiensis: Early Human β€˜Hobbit’

    An extinct species of archaic human, Homo floresiensis has been discovered solely in one, very specific location - the Indonesian island of Flores. Nicknamed 'the hobbit' due to its diminutive stature (and discovery coinciding with a certain film franchise), this hominid is something of an enigma...

  • 🎧 WWII Britain: The Home Guard's Silent Assassins

    WWII Britain's Home Guard wasn't a bumbling dad's army but in fact included factions of highly trained silent killers and spies hiding out in secret bunkers, caves and safe houses all over the country. The Auxiliary Unit was given a deliberately boring name to disguise the top secret mission they...

  • 🎧 Prehistoric North America

    What could the prehistoric artists of North America have in common with the graffiti artists of today? Picked into the rocks of southwestern Arizona, a couple hour drive from Tucson, are marks of the Patayan and Hohokam traditions. The petroglyphs are an insight into these civilisations, their re...

  • 🎧 Girls on Stage and Page in the Elizabethan Age

    Contrary to the idea that the early modern stage was male-dominated, girls actually played an active part in religious dramas, civic pageants, Elizabethan country house entertainments, and Stuart court and household masques. Girls also excelled as singers, translators and authors whose power was ...

  • 🎧 Sex Work in Pompeii with Kate Lister

    This episode contains some strong language references to sexual content.

    Pompeii is shrouded in myths and legends about it's vibrant, after hours, night life. With theories of carved stone penis' pointing towards brothels, frescoes of graphic images, and bawdy graffiti immortalising individual's...

  • 🎧 Gay Identity in Nazi Germany

    Berlin in the early 1930s was a place of incredible liberation for its queer community.Β 

    There were over 100 gay clubs, and Magnus Hirschfeld’s Institute for Sexual Science - the first sexology research centre in the world - developed pioneering gender assignment surgery.Β 

    Sadly, with the Nazis...

  • 🎧 Pocahontas: The True Story

    Despite her's being a household name, how much do we really know about Pocahontas? Where did she come from? How old was she? And what was her real relationship with the colonists?

    Don is joined for this episode by Camilla Townsend, a Historian of Early Native American and Latin American History ...

  • 🎧 The Ancient Greek Computer: The Antikythera Mechanism

    In the recent Indiana Jones: The Dial of Destiny movie, the Antikythera Mechanism is used for time travel but in reality it was actually more of a celestial calculator- to track and predict astronomical phenomena. It was discovered by a group of Greek sponge divers in 1901 as they explored the si...

  • 🎧 How The North Turned Christian

    Christianity's inroads into the pagan north of England began with the marriage of Γ†thelburhΒ of Kent to King Edwin of Northumbria.Β  A condition of their marriage was Edwin's conversion to Christianity.Β  But most of the things we know about this period come from the Venerable Bede, which may hide m...

  • 🎧 Elizabeth I's War with Ireland

    Queen Elizabeth I, Gloriana, victor over the Spanish and patron of the arts ushered in a Golden Age for England. But she was also Queen of Ireland, and her campaigns to control her Catholic subjects in the late 17th century led to some of the bloodiest battles of her reign. The Nine Years' War as...

  • 🎧 Stealing the Crown Jewels with Al Murray

    In 1671, an Anglo-Irish officer, the self-styled Colonel Blood attempted to steal the Crown Jewels from the Tower of London.Β  The thwarted crime brought him face-to-face with King Charles II.Β  This incredible story is the subject of a riotous new stage comedy, The Crown Jewels, starring Al Murray...