Dan Snow's History Hit
1,842 episodes - English - Latest episode: 29 days ago - ★★★★★ - 3.5K ratingsHistory! The most exciting and important things that have ever happened on the planet. Powerful kings, warrior queens, nomads, empires and expeditions. Historian Dan Snow and his expert guests bring all these stories to life and more in a daily dose of history. Join Dan as he digs into the past to make sense of the headlines and get up close to the biggest discoveries being made around the world today, as they happen.
If you want to get in touch with the podcast, you can email us at [email protected], we'd love to hear from you!
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Episodes
Lost Recordings from the Front Line
November 11, 2022 00:30 - 28 minutes - 39.4 MBOften faster than letters sent by ship, WWII soldiers stationed in South East Asia would send heartfelt and humorous video messages to their loved ones who'd gather in cinemas across Britain. Using the revolutionary technology of the time the men spoke directly to the camera, addressing their families and partners watching back home in Britain, it was a way the government ensured those fighting further away weren't forgotten. For Remembrance Day, Dan takes a trip to South Yorkshire to the P...
Lost Recordings from the Front Line
November 11, 2022 00:30 - 28 minutes - 39.4 MBOften faster than letters sent by ship, WWII soldiers stationed in South East Asia would send heartfelt and humorous video messages to their loved ones who'd gather in cinemas across Britain. Using the revolutionary technology of the time the men spoke directly to the camera, addressing their families and partners watching back home in Britain, it was a way the government ensured those fighting further away weren't forgotten. For Remembrance Day, Dan takes a trip to South Yorkshire to the P...
The Crown: A Short History of British Monarchy
November 10, 2022 00:30 - 22 minutes - 31.1 MBFor at least 1,500 years, since the mists swirling around the Dark Ages began to clear, the British Isles have had monarchical rulers. For hundreds of years, they were the central figures of the nation: the focus of its politics and society, consecrated by God, endorsed (or not) by the nobility, the arbiters of its arts and culture, the makers of its laws, the directors of its government and the leaders in its wars. Stephen Bates is an award-winning author and journalist, most recently, the...
Fall of the Berlin Wall
November 09, 2022 00:30 - 42 minutes - 59.3 MBOn November 9th, 1989, 33 years ago to the day, the Berlin Wall that had symbolised the ideological and physical division of Europe came crumbling down. We remember this in the West as a triumph of Democracy and the beginning of a new, post-Cold War world. But was it that clear cut for the people whose lives were most closely touched by this momentous occasion? How did people in Germany respond to events as they unfolded? For this special anniversary episode, Dan is joined by four people who...
Origins of Modern Iran
November 08, 2022 00:30 - 40 minutes - 55.2 MBAs protests continued across Iran, a number of Iranian-made kamikaze drones were fired by Russian forces at targets thousands of miles away in Kyiv, Ukraine. It marks the first time that these Iranian weapons have been used against a European capital, as well as a new low for relations between Iran and the West - which were already under strain. So how did we get here? In this episode of Warfare, James Rogers is joined by Professor Ali Ansari of St Andrews University in Scotland to learn t...
The Birth of the CIA
November 07, 2022 00:30 - 21 minutes - 30.1 MBAmerican intelligence services like the CIA are commonly thought of as global behemoths of international surveillance and covert operations, responsible for carrying out everything from cyber espionage to assassinations and political coups. But its origins in the Second World War paint a picture of a very different kind of intelligence agency, operating on a smaller scale, and with very different goals. We are joined by historian Nicholas Reynolds, who has in his time been a marine and an em...
4. Tutankhamun: Inside the Tomb
November 04, 2022 00:30 - 34 minutes - 47.7 MB4/4. Dan descends the very same stone steps into Tutankhamun's tomb that Carter did, 100 years earlier. From within the chamber, Dan and Egyptologist Alia Ismail give a sense of the awe Carter and Carnarvon would have felt, of the riches and sarcophagi that housed the mummy of Tutankhamun. Meanwhile, Dr Campbell Price gets into the obsession the discovery sparked- ‘tut-mania’- as the public bought all the rolls of film in Luxor and slept on camp-beds in the grounds of the winter Palace hotel...
3. Tutankhamun: The Life of a Boy Pharaoh
November 03, 2022 00:30 - 24 minutes - 34 MB3/4. How much do we know about Tutankhamun, his short life and even shorter reign? Dan unravels the complicated legacy of Tutankhamun's predecessor Akhenaten who changed the very fabric of Egyptian society, leaving his son Tutankhamun to change it back. In life, the boy pharaoh was plagued by health complications and died aged 18, leaving very little information about his life. Dan and Egyptologist Dr Campbell Price look to his tomb to see what it can tell us about his reign, death and funer...
2. Tutankhamun: The Discovery of a Lifetime
November 02, 2022 00:30 - 25 minutes - 35.7 MB2/4. Dan dives into Carter’s obsession with Tutankhamun and the trials and idiosyncrasies that made him the right man for the discovery. Dan visits the house Carter built where he conducted his search. There, architectural historian Nicholas Warner tells Dan about the many frustrating years of finding nothing...until water boy Hussein Abdel-Rassoul stumbled upon a square stone that looked like a step. They dug down and discovered a tomb door with the royal seal. No one could have imagined th...
1. Tutankhamun: The Valley of the Kings
November 01, 2022 00:30 - 35 minutes - 49.1 MB1/4. On the West Bank of the Nile in Luxor lie the burial chambers of some of Ancient Egypt's greatest pharaohs - Ramses II, Seti I and Tutankhamun. From Luxor, Dan delves into the history of the Valley of the Kings with Alia Ismail whose current project is 3D mapping the tombs. He ventures deep into the earth inside the most magnificent of all the valley tombs- Seti I - as he and celebrated Egyptologist Salima Ikram tell the story of Giovanni Belzoni and the many explorers and archaeologist...
Smugglers of Jamaica Inn
October 31, 2022 00:30 - 27 minutes - 38.5 MBStories of shipwrecks, smugglers and ghosts. Built in the mid-18th century, over the years many of the Jamaica Inn's patrons have been less respectable than most. The inn has a long history of being used by smugglers to hide away contraband that was brought ashore concealed in all sorts of things - potatoes, women's stockings and even a hollowed-out turtle. It is estimated that half the brandy and a quarter of all tea being smuggled into the UK was landed along the Cornish and Devon coasts. ...
A Short History of Seances
October 27, 2022 23:30 - 28 minutes - 39.3 MBFrom their origins in necromancy to their ritualisation in the religion of Spiritualism, seances have long been a staple in the occultist's toolbelt. Purporting to call forth spirits and allow communication with the dead, they exploded in popularity in the nineteenth century, attracting great scientists, writers and thinkers to their cause. Dan is joined by Lisa Morton, an expert on Spiritualism and author of Calling the Spirits: A History of Seances to talk about where seances came from, wh...
Elizabeth Báthory: The Vampire of Hungary
October 26, 2022 23:30 - 36 minutes - 50.4 MBThe inspiration behind countless gothic novels, Countess Elizabeth Báthory is said to be one of the most prolific serial killers of all time, accused of the murder of 600 girls during the late 16th century. Dan talks to Professor Kimberly Craft, a legal historian who has spent over a decade researching the life and trial of Countess Báthory and over a year translating original source material into English. Where does the truth lie, a conspiracy started by her enemies or a psychopathic vampir...
Rasputin: Myth & Manhood
October 25, 2022 23:30 - 50 minutes - 69.5 MBWas Rasputin really Russia’s greatest love machine? Did he have any healing powers? And why might his penis be pickling in a jar? In this episode, we are drawing this mystical man out of his cloud of green smoke to find out which of the things we know about him might actually be true. Kate Lister from Betwixt The Sheets is joined by Douglas Smith, historian, translator and expert in Russian history, who has emerged from the archives with a new interpretation of this cartoon baddy. *WARNIN...
The Extraordinary Life of James Harley
October 24, 2022 23:30 - 23 minutes - 32.4 MBJames Arthur Stanley Harley was a scholar, reverend, politician, and perhaps aristocrat. Born in a poor village in the Caribbean island of Antigua, he went on to attend Howard, Harvard, Yale and Oxford universities, was ordained a priest in Canterbury Cathedral and was elected to Leicestershire County Council. This remarkable career was all the more extraordinary because he was black in an age - the early twentieth century - that was institutionally racist. Pamela Roberts is an award-winnin...
TUTANKHAMUN: Mini-Series Coming Soon!
October 24, 2022 08:41 - 2 minutes - 3.48 MBOn the 1st of November comes an immersive mini-series telling the story of one of the great discoveries of all time: the tomb of Tutankhamun. For more than 3000 years, the boy pharaoh lay undisturbed and almost forgotten in the Valley of the Kings; when in 1922 British archaeologist Howard Carter noticed a set of steps leading down into the earth, they would reveal the most extraordinary gateway to the afterlife the world had ever seen Marking the 100th anniversary of Howard Carter’s discov...
TUTANKHAMUN: Mini-Series Coming Soon!
October 24, 2022 08:41 - 2 minutes - 3.48 MBOn the 1st of November comes an immersive mini-series telling the story of one of the great discoveries of all time: the tomb of Tutankhamun. For more than 3000 years, the boy pharaoh lay undisturbed and almost forgotten in the Valley of the Kings; when in 1922 British archaeologist Howard Carter noticed a set of steps leading down into the earth, they would reveal the most extraordinary gateway to the afterlife the world had ever seen Marking the 100th anniversary of Howard Carter’s discov...
Battle of El Alamein Explained
October 23, 2022 23:30 - 44 minutes - 61.6 MBFought in the second half of 1942, the Battles of El Alamein were a series of climactic confrontations in Egypt between British Imperial and Commonwealth forces, and a combined German and Italian army. Intended as a last-ditch attempts by the British to halt German gains in North Africa, they resulted in a clear victory for the British and represented a key turning point in the Second World War. Winston Churchill famously remarked that it was ‘not the end, not even the beginning of the end b...
FORENSICS: The Beginning
October 19, 2022 23:30 - 33 minutes - 45.7 MBDeath by tiger bites. Death by prodding. Death from sexual excess. Deaths from over-eating and over-drinking. The opening of graves. These are a few of the chapter headings in a 13th-century Chinese book called ‘The Washing Away of Wrongs’. It is a compendium of grizzly, gory, bizarre murders and deaths. Its author was Song Ci, a Confucian trained bureaucrat who, like his fellow officials all over China, was responsible for investigating murders in his jurisdiction. According to the Wikipe...
Mary Seacole: Doctress of the Crimean War
October 18, 2022 23:30 - 22 minutes - 30.7 MBBorn Mary Jane Grant in the colony of Kingston, Jamaica, in November 1805, Mary would later become a businesswoman, traveller and healer. Posthumously, Mary is best known as a Black British nurse. Gretchen Gerzina is an author and academic who has written mostly historically-grounded biographical studies. Grethen joins Dan to share the story of Mary Seacole— how the traditional Afro-Caribbean medicine she learned from her mother would inform much of her life, her experiences as a Jamaican w...
Britain's Worst Prime Minister
October 17, 2022 23:30 - 31 minutes - 43.4 MBCould Liz Truss be Britain's worst Prime Minister? As the political scene in the UK hurtles into further disarray, Dan gets together historians Tim Bale, Catherine Haddon and Robin Eagles to put forward who they think has been Britain's worst Prime Minister over the centuries. Anthony Eden, Edward Heath and the 3rd Earl of Bute contend for first place. This episode was produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore. If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history document...
The Cuban Missile Crisis
October 16, 2022 23:30 - 23 minutes - 32.9 MBIn October 1962 the world came very close to annihilation during the Cuban Missile Crisis. During the autumn of 1962, a U2 reconnaissance aircraft produced clear evidence that the Soviet Union and the Cuban authorities were building medium-range ballistic missile facilities on the island of Cuba and only around 100 miles from the coast of Florida. The resulting confrontation between the USA under JFK and the Soviet Union led by Nikita Khrushchev lasted just over a month and it's often consid...
The Long History of African and Caribbean People in Britain
October 13, 2022 23:30 - 27 minutes - 38.6 MBThere remains a tendency to reduce the history of African and Caribbean people in Britain to a simple story: it is one that begins in 1948 with the arrival of a single ship, the Empire Windrush. Yet, from the very beginning, from the moment humans first stood on this rainy isle, there have been African and Caribbean men and women set at Britain's heart. Professor Hakim Adi is the first historian of African heritage to become a professor of history in Britain— he has been researching and wri...
Russia Falters in Ukraine: Parallels with WW1
October 12, 2022 23:30 - 30 minutes - 41.6 MBRussia's current conflict in Ukraine was supposed to be a showcase of military prowess, a quick war that solidified her status as a great power. Instead, it has laid bare issues in leadership, training, supply and morale, all of which have crippled the military's operational capabilities. Although separated by a century, this conflict and Russia's handling of it bear a striking resemblance to Russia's involvement in the First World War. Dan speaks to Alexander Watson, acclaimed historian and...
The US and The Holocaust
October 11, 2022 23:30 - 19 minutes - 27.6 MBAfter Adolf Hitler’s rise to power in 1933, thousands of German Jews facing systematic persecution wanted to flee the Third Reich but found few countries willing to accept them. For refugees fleeing the Nazis, America’s immigration quotas, established in the 1920s and sustained by popular and Congressional support, made it extremely difficult to enter the United States. Ken Burns and Lynn Novick join Dan to explore America's response to one of the greatest humanitarian crises in history. Th...
Karnak: Egypt's Greatest Temple
October 10, 2022 23:30 - 39 minutes - 54.1 MBLocated on the banks of the River Nile in Luxor, Egypt, the Karnak Temple complex is one of the largest buildings ever constructed for religious purposes. Dedicated to the god Amun-Ra and covering over 200 acres - the Karnak Temple complex is bigger than some ancient cities. Earlier this year, Tristan from The Ancients podcast, visited the Temple complex and spoke to the Director of Karnak Temples, El-Tayeb Gharieb Mahmoud. In this special, on-location episode, Tristan and Tayeb give us a t...
The Romanovs
October 09, 2022 23:30 - 29 minutes - 41 MBThe Romanov family were the first imperial dynasty to rule Russia, reigning from the early seventeenth century until the Russian Revolution of 1917. Including such illustrious names as Peter the Great, Catherine the Great and Alexander I, they oversaw and often instigated, dramatic changes to the fabric of Russian society and culture as a whole. Through conquest and expansion, they carved out a Russian Empire and propelled their nation into great power status. The myth and memory of the Roma...
Outlaws, Cattle Rustling and Bootlegging: The Life of Josie Bassett
October 06, 2022 23:30 - 30 minutes - 42.2 MBJosie Bassett Morris' life epitomised the Wild West. She grew up on a homestead in the late 18th century, in Northern Utah, USA. Their home was situated on the Outlaw Trail and gun-slingers like Butch Cassidy and the Sun Dance Kid would stay as they passed through. Her mother was a forbidding cattle rancher and Josie quickly learnt the trade. As an adult, she was known for her quick wit, hardy lifestyle on the land and the many husbands she got through- she was smart, self-reliant and kind; ...
Charles Ignatius Sancho: From Slavery to High Society
October 06, 2022 08:57 - 20 minutes - 28.2 MBPlease note that this episode contains discussion of racist language. Charles Ignatius Sancho was born on a slave ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean, in what was known as the Middle Passage. He was soon orphaned and then brought to England, where he was enslaved in Greenwich, London, by three sisters who opposed any attempt at education. So how did Charles Ignatius Sancho later go on to meet the King, write and play highly acclaimed music, become the first Black person to vote in Britain and ...
The Troubles Begin
October 04, 2022 23:30 - 31 minutes - 43.1 MBThis episode will establish the century-long roots of sectarian tensions, paint a picture of the political atmosphere in Northern Ireland as the decade came to a close, and track the series of escalating conflicts that climaxed in the deployment of British Troops. Dan is joined by Tim McInerney, co-host of The Irish Passport podcast, for this deep dive into the pivotal events of 1969 to the early 1970s. This episode was edited by Dougal Patmore. If you'd like to learn more, we have hundr...
Remembering Hilary Mantel
October 03, 2022 23:30 - 26 minutes - 36.9 MBDame Hilary Mantel died on 22 September 2022 at the age of 70. Her acclaimed Wolf Hall trilogy - which brought the life of Thomas Cromwell so vividly to life - has sold more than five million copies worldwide. She won the Booker Prize twice - for Wolf Hall and its sequel, Bring Up the Bodies. In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb and History Hit's Dan Snow pay tribute to one of the greatest English-language novelists of our century. The Senior Producer was Ele...
The Energy Crisis: 2022 vs 1973
October 02, 2022 23:30 - 15 minutes - 21.8 MBA long dark, cold winter looms with soaring energy prices. Some of the advice we've heard recently includes buying a new kettle or taking a flannel bath...echoing previous advice given during the brutal fuel crisis of 1973. The Arab–Israeli War sent oil sky high and Britain saw a wave of crises from rolling strikes to energy shortages but the 1970s saw a fuel shortage and what we're facing now is fuel at inflated prices. Any sense of communal struggle and national unity is absent this time. ...
The Evolution of Warfare with Sir Lawrence Freedman
September 29, 2022 23:30 - 39 minutes - 54.2 MBFrom the stone age to current day, from sticks and rocks to drones and artillery - the nature of warfare has changed drastically throughout history. Over the years, technology and societal organisation have transformed the battlefield. Dan talks to Professor Sir Lawrence Freedman, a professor of war studies at King's College London about the evolution of warfare. Professor Freedman takes the temperature of the war in Ukraine from the point of view of history, examining the patterns of recent...
The Atomic Bomb & the Secret City
September 28, 2022 23:30 - 31 minutes - 43.1 MBIn 1939 Franklin D Roosevelt received a letter from Albert Einstein, warning him that the Nazis might be developing nuclear weapons. America has to act fast. What follows is the creation of a secret city in the rural area of Oak Ridge, Tennessee. Around 75,000 people moved to the secret city during World War Two, and the first atomic bomb was developed in just 28 months. Don Wildman is joined by historian, Ray Smith, to find out how it was possible, and to hear about the experiences of the...
What Could Labour Learn From Harold Wilson?
September 27, 2022 23:30 - 23 minutes - 32.8 MBIn the week of the Labour Party when polls indicate that the party is likely to form the next government, it seems an opportune moment to examine what lessons they might be able to draw from their own history. But why Harold Wilson? Harold Wilson won four general elections. More than Clement Atlee or Tony Blair. Wilson was a wily, strategic political operator who made some radical changes to the UK including the decriminalisation of homosexuality, legalising abortion, abolishment of the dea...
A Short History of the Bank of England
September 26, 2022 23:30 - 21 minutes - 29.1 MBAs the UK's bond market has suffered its biggest fall in decades and the pound has reached its lowest ever price against the US dollar, Dan talks to Dr Nuno Palma, a senior lecturer and associate professor in economics at the University of Manchester about the Bank of England. Dr Palma explains its historical role in Britain's imperial expansion and the industrial revolution and now how it's fighting to keep the British economy from the precipice. This episode was produced by Beth Donaldson...
Agatha Christie with Lucy Worsley
September 25, 2022 23:30 - 38 minutes - 53.6 MBAgatha Christie is the best-selling fiction writer of all time and her many detective novels, short stories and plays have gripped and entertained millions around the world. Her real life was just as fascinating as any of her crime novels. It was full of love and loss, travel and adventure and an enduring passion for archaeology. In this episode, Dan is joined by historian and Chief Curator at Historic Royal Palaces Lucy Worsley to discuss the life of Agatha Christie. They talk about her up...
Eleanor of Aquitaine
September 22, 2022 23:30 - 53 minutes - 73.1 MBFrom an age in which women’s lives were obscured and poorly recorded, one shines brightly from the darkness. Eleanor of Aquitaine - born 900 years ago - has been the subject of scandal and legend for almost a millennium. Nevertheless, she played a central role in the pivotal events that defined nations and set relationships across Europe for centuries to come. In this special explainer episode of Gone Medieval, Matt Lewis recounts an incredible life, separating the myths from the facts to ...
Suleyman the Magnificent
September 21, 2022 23:30 - 33 minutes - 46.9 MBThe Lion House is a riveting new book from journalist and historian Christopher De Bellaigue, written like a novel that tells the dramatic story of Suleyman the Magnificent and his power and influence over 16th Century Europe. In this episode recorded at the Chalke Valley History festival earlier this summer, Christopher talks Dan through what was happening at the opposite end of Europe to Henry VIII and the Holy Roman Emperor Charles V as this fearsome Sultan set his sights on swathes of th...
The Man Wrongfully Hanged at Cardiff Prison
September 20, 2022 23:30 - 26 minutes - 36.8 MBIn September 1952 Mahmood Hussein Mattan became the last to be executed at Cardiff Prison, but Mahmood had in fact been framed by the police and 70 years later South Wales Police formally apologised to his family for his wrongful conviction. Mahmood originally hailed from Somalia and had been a merchant seaman who had ended up settling in Cardiff and marrying a Welsh woman called Laura Williams. They lived in the Tiger Bay district of Cardiff and had three children before their separation i...
Scottish Clans
September 19, 2022 23:30 - 27 minutes - 37.4 MBIt is believed clans started to emerge in Scotland around 1100AD and were originally the descendants of kings – if not of demigods from Irish mythology. As well as kinship and a sense of identity and belonging, being part of a clan was an important part of survival throughout the centuries that would follow. Scotland’s leading cultural historian, Professor Murray Pittock, joins Dan on the podcast to share the history of the clans from their Celtic origins through to the Clearances and the p...
The Mayflower Sets Sail
September 15, 2022 23:30 - 31 minutes - 43.2 MBOn the 16th of September 1620, The Mayflower set sail from Southampton to the New World. Aboard were 102 passengers determined to reach a new land, escape the religious persecution they faced and establish a colony. They endured a long and arduous crossing and a brutal first winter which they only survived due to the help of the native Wampanoag people. It was from this first, successful, colony that the United States of America would eventually grow, but it came at a terrible price for the ...
Queen Victoria's Funeral
September 14, 2022 23:30 - 25 minutes - 35.6 MBThe Queen's body has been taken to Westminster Hall in London, where she will lie in state for the public to visit and pay their respects. Over the past week since her death, we've seen a number of ceremonies and protocols enacted across the country to mark the end of her reign and life. These arrangements and the funeral we can expect to see on Monday follows a precedent set by Queen Victoria upon her death in January 1901. Before Queen Victoria, royal funerals had been quiet, private affai...
9/11: New York City in the Aftermath
September 13, 2022 23:30 - 33 minutes - 45.7 MBRay Victor is a lifelong New Yorker and tour guide from Queens. He remembers 11th of September 2001 vividly, when hijacked planes were flown into the World Trade Centre towers in New York City, the Pentagon in Virginia, and a site in Pennsylvania. Thousands were killed and injured. Ray remembers the missing posters, the hole that was left in the heart of the city, the destruction but also the humanity and the way his city came together. In this episode, Dan visits Ground Zero with Ray as he...
Malta: 'The Unsinkable Aircraft Carrier' of WWII
September 12, 2022 23:30 - 27 minutes - 38.4 MBMalta is located in the Mediterranean sea just beyond Sicily, between Europe and Africa; its warm climate and beautiful islands make it a perfect holiday destination. But in World War Two, the Islands’ strategic location made it centre stage in the theatre of war in the Mediterranean: a key stronghold from which the Allies could sustain their North African campaign and from which they could launch their eventual attack on mainland Italy. Museum curator Liam Gauci and Keith Gatt from Heritag...
Elizabeth II: A Princess At War
September 11, 2022 23:30 - 22 minutes - 31.7 MBAs a mark of respect and remembrance to the late Queen Elizabeth II, we've chosen to focus on Her Majesty's personal history as a veteran of the Second World War. For this episode, James is joined by Tessa Dunlop to learn more about how the inspirational, dedicated, and devoted monarch that was Elizabeth II went from a young girl living through the blitz, to serving as a second subaltern in the all-female Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) by the end of WW2. Note: This episode was recorde...
Elizabeth II: The Making of the Queen
September 08, 2022 18:28 - 28 minutes - 39.5 MBQueen 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 Westminster Abbey before being crowned there in 1953 in the world’s first televised coronation. In this reflection of her life and illustrious reign, Dan is joined by historian Professor Kate Williams...
Not Just the Tudors Lates: Elizabeth I on Screen - The Historians’ Verdict
September 07, 2022 23:30 - 58 minutes - 80.7 MBWhat do you get when you bring together five top historians in a room with bottles of Prosecco to debate Elizabeth I on screen? History with the gloves off - our first Not Just the Tudors Lates! Taking as her starting point the new series Becoming Elizabeth - now streaming on STARZ - Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by Dr Joanne Paul, Jessie Childs, Alex von Tunzelmann and Professor Sarah Churchwell to explore how television and films have depicted the year 1547 when - following the d...
A Short History of Humans
September 06, 2022 23:30 - 33 minutes - 46.4 MBWhy are humans the only species to have escaped – only very recently – the subsistence trap, allowing us to enjoy a standard of living that vastly exceeds all others? And why have we progressed so unequally around the world? Professor Oded Galor is an economist and the founding thinker behind Unified Growth Theory, which seeks to uncover the fundamental causes of development, prosperity and inequality over the entire span of human history. Oded joins Dan on the podcast to offer an explanati...
Atoms and X-rays: Experiments That Changed History
September 05, 2022 23:30 - 26 minutes - 36.7 MBFor 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 change the course of history... Dr Suzie Sheehy is an accelerator physicist, academic and science communicator. Suzie joins Dan to introduce us to the people who staged ground-breaking experiments— f...