James Boyce joins me on the pod to discuss the indigenous population of the Fens of eastern England. Between the English Civil Wars and the mid-Victorian period, the Fens fought to preserve their homeland against an expanding empire. After centuries of resistance, their culture and community were...

500 years ago this week marked the start of one of the most extraordinary diplomatic gatherings in history: The Field of the Cloth of Gold. In 1520, England and France - traditionally bitter rivals - sought to bring conflict to an end in a magnificent show of opulence and pageantry. Henry VIII of...

On August 6 and 9, 1945, US B-29 bombers, dropped their nuclear bombs on the two cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, killing hundreds of thousands and consigning millions to disease and genetic defects. The accepted wisdom in the U.S. since has been that dropping the bombs on these Japanese cities ...

Dan talks to aviation historian Ian Castle about the First Blitz, an effort to kick Britain out of a world war.

Dan and Dr Prashant Kidambi talk about the dominance of Indian cricket team over recent years, as well as its humble origins. They discuss the relationship between cricket and the empire, as well as sport's role as a potent nationalistic force. Dr Prashant Kidambi is an Associate Professor in Col...

For millennia, people have obsessed over questions about the nature of matter in our universe. Then, by the turn of the twentieth century, we believed we had answered everything. Our understanding of matter was finally complete. But an unprecedented outburst of scientific discovery was about to c...

George. Where did it all go wrong? George Washington could have had a comfortable career as a loyal member of HIs Majesty's Virginia militia and colonial grandee. But no, he had to go and roll the dice. I am thrilled in this episode to be talking to historian Alexis Coe about her new biography of...

Sarah Churchwell and Kathryn Gray joined me on the podcast to discuss the first Thanksgiving of 1621. They critique mythologies of Thanksgiving that have arisen from 19th century ideologues, to Reagan, to the present day, and reframe settler colonial narratives.

Tim Cook joined me on the pod to discuss how Canadian contributions are frequently overlooked or diminished in discussions of the War. Most major war histories are written by British or American authors, who give little credit to the Canadians as a separate fighting force.

David Andress delves into the French Revolution, explaining its causes, its outcomes, and how we should look at its historical legacy.

Sarah Parcak talks to Dan about how advances in technology have enabled us to discover far more historical sites than we believed ever existed. She talks about drones and satellites and how they can read topography and vegetation to give us all new pictures of the world beneath our feet, and disc...

Was The Great Escape as great as its name suggests? Guy Walters thinks otherwise, and argues that the mass breakout from Stalag Luft III actually helped the German war effort. Dan chats to him to find out more.

2/2. Eva Schloss remembers her days as a girl in Amsterdam playing in the street with the other children including Anne Frank who, for a time, took a particular interest in her older brother Heinz. Eva also remembers the day the Dutch resistance worker exposed her family to the Nazis and they wer...

Greg Jenner is the historical consultant to Horrible Histories and is the author of 'A Million Years in a Day: A Curious History of Everyday Life'.

Dan talks to Cat Jarman, a scientist who has worked to establish whether the bones in the charnel house at Repton are those of Ivar the Boneless' Great Heathen Army.

1/2. On the morning of the 4th of August 1944, exactly 78 years ago today, the Frank family cowered behind a bookshelf in Amsterdam, listening to heavy boots and German voices on the other side. Anne Frank and her family were discovered and taken to the Nazi concentration camps where they all per...

One of the most studied military victories in history, and arguably one of the worst Roman defeats - what went wrong for the Romans at Cannae?

In our final episode in the Hannibal mini-series, Dr Louis Rawlings explains just what happened at Cannae in 216BCE, and why that battle is still so impo...

Ben Gummer @ben4ipswich was Member of Parliament for Ipswich, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General. The Cabinet of the United Kingdom is the collective decision-making body of Her Majesty's Government of the United Kingdom, composed of the Prime Minister and some 21 cabinet minis...

Pete Brown used to advertise lager for a living, until he realized that writing books about beer was even more fun, and entailed drinking even more beer. He appears regularly on television as a beer expert, writes on beer for a variety of publications and is the author of Man Walks into a Pub and...

The use of unmanned aircraft stretches all the way back to the First World War. Dan talks to James Rogers about this fascinating, unknown history.

Archaeology has a lot to contribute to our knowledge and understanding of the so-called Dark Ages, and every now and then new sites are found in places where we previously knew nothing about the people who once lived there.

In today’s Gone Medieval, Dr. Cat Jarman goes to the Ministry of Defence...

Dan talks to Ali Ansari about the history of Iran, and discovers just how much of it there is.

Dan talks to Ali Ansari about the history of Iran, and discovers just how much of it there is. In this episode he focuses on Iran in the eighteenth century and its interaction with European powers.

Dan talks to Christopher Andrew about the history of intelligence from Moses to the present day.