Fernando Cervantes joined me on the podcast to reframe the story of the Spanish conquest of the New World, set against the political and intellectual landscape from which its main actors emerged.

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...

Roger Crowley is the author of the new book, Accursed Tower: The Crusaders' Last Battle for the Holy Land. The city of Acre, powerfully fortified and richly provisioned, was the last crusader stronghold. When it fell in 1291, two hundred years of Christian crusading in the Holy Land came to a blo...

"If Croesus goes to war he will destroy a great empire." That was the prophecy the Oracle of Delphi delivered to the Lydian King - she just left out that fact it was his own empire that would be destroyed.

Known as the Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi was the High Priestess of the Temple of Apollo a...

Catherine Nixey @catherinenixey is a classicist, radio critic of The Times and author of The Darkening Age: The Christian Destruction of the Classical World.

Did Hitler shoot himself in the Führerbunker, or did he slip past the Soviets and escape to South America? There have been innumerable documentaries, newspaper articles and twitter threads written by conspiracy theorists to back up the case for escape. Luke Daly Groves has made it his mission to ...

Archaeologists in Norway have discovered an intact Viking ship. Dan chatted to Erich Nau about this momentous discovery and what it could mean for our understanding of the Norsemen.

The summer of 1911 was a hot one. Massive strikes took place across the country, including seamen, railwaymen, coal miners, women working in food processing and garment-making and even school children. That, combined with record-breaking temperatures made Britain a constitutional, industrial and ...

The universe has always been there, kind of, but it took intelligent life on earth billions of years to start to grapple with its nature. Carolyn Collins Peterson is a science writer who charts the progress of astronomy through the observatories used throughout history, from the earliest such as ...

Duncan Weldon's new Radio 4 Series looks at the economics of the Second World War, and crucial they were in determining the outcome of the war. He joins Dan to talk about why no participants expected France to fall so quickly, and why Norway mattered economically. Producer: Peter Curry

In this emergency podcast, Dan talks to Dr Andrew Blick about Boris Johnson's accession to the role of Prime Minister, the history of the UK's electoral system, and the role the monarchy has to play in the constitutional system. Producer: Peter Curry

The crisis in the Home Office about the treatment of citizens who arrived on the Windrush and their families has consumed British politics for months. Dan talks to Alex Von Tunzelmann about empires, immigration, and how the current situation arose.

What happened on the last morning of the First World War, in the hours before the guns fell silent at 11:00? Dan talks to Paul Reed about how exactly you go about ending a four-year war, and the young men who didn't survive that last morning.

Early Medieval Britain was more Roman than we think. The Roman Empire left vast infrastructural resources, not least roads, walls and bridges.
Why have they survived so well? And what did the people who lived here immediately after the Romans think of them and do with them?

In this episode of Go...

Claudio Saunt joined me on the podcast to discuss the United States' expulsion of Native Americans from the East to territories west of the Mississippi River. Justified as a humanitarian enterprise, the undertaking was to be systematic and rational, overseen by Washington’s small but growing bure...

Dan talks to Military Historian and True Crime author Duncan McNab about the extremes of humanity.

Dan talks to Squadron Leader Kevin O'Brien and Brigadier David Chaundler about Airdrop Ursula, which took David from a desk in Whitehall to the Falkland Islands in a matter of hours. In the first half of this very-special podcast, we hear the background to the operation. Image credit: Griffiths91...

Dan talks to David Chaundler about the events of the Falklands War, from the Battle of Goose Green to the end of the conflict.

80 years ago this week, one of the most extraordinary evacuations in military history was under way: 'The Miracle of Dunkirk'. But how, and why, did the Allies find themselves in such a dire position? On this podcast, I was joined by one of the great historians of the Second World War, Peter Cadd...

On December 9th 1917, General Allenby took Jerusalem. Dan discusses the anniversary with Juliette Desplat from the the National Archives at Kew.

November 2019 marks the 500th anniversary of the meeting of Hernan Cortes and Aztec ruler Montezuma at the gates of the magnificent Aztec capital at Tenochitlan, now Mexico City. Caroline Dodds Pennock is a specialist in the Aztecs. She takes Dan on a whirlwind tour through the events of that ext...

One of the most famous, and sophisticated, cultures of Mesoamerica, why are the Maya known only for predicting the end of the world?

In the first episode of our new mini series 'The Ancient Americas', Tristan is joined by Professor Matthew Restall from Penn State University to help debunk the id...

9 November 1989 was one of the most significant dates in 20th century history. The Berlin Wall fell, changing the entire geopolitical situation and marking the start of the decline of Russia's world standing. Author Rory MacLean was present when the Wall fell, and he talks about the jubilation of...

Ben Monro-Davies is a journalist who has interviewed all the surviving participants of the cabinet meeting in which Margaret Thatcher announced her decision to resign. He and Dan listen to the recordings, and chat about their significance, and the way Mrs Thatcher and others responded to her fall...