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
The Man Who Rebuilt the Faces of WW1
September 04, 2022 23:30 - 28 minutes - 38.9 MBThe mechanised warfare of the First World War brought unprecedented new levels of firepower and destruction to the battlefield and with it horrific new injuries. Advances in medicine also meant that soldiers were surviving injuries that previously would have been fatal. Many of these men were left with horrific, disfiguring facial injuries which carried with them not just a physical trauma but a social stigma as well. One man made it his mission to help them and in the process developed many...
The Great Fire of London
September 01, 2022 23:30 - 29 minutes - 40.6 MBIn the early hours of September 2, 1666, a small fire broke out on the ground floor of a baker's house in Pudding Lane. In five days that small fire would devastate the third largest city in the Western world. Adrian Tinniswood is a historian, teacher and writer, as well as a consultant to the National Trust. Adrian joins Dan to explore the cataclysm and consequences of the Great Fire of London. Together, they piece together the story of the Fire and its aftermath - the panic, the search fo...
Taiwan: China's Ukraine?
August 31, 2022 23:30 - 39 minutes - 54.2 MBLocated just 100 miles off the coast of mainland China, the nation of Taiwan sits in the so-called 'first island chain' - a group of US-friendly territories deemed crucial to American foreign policy. Yet China's president Xi Jinping maintains that Chinese reunification with Taiwan must be fulfilled. He's not ruled out the possible use of military force - and neither has US president Joe Biden. Tensions have grown even in the last few weeks, so to what extent can tensions over Taiwan be comp...
The March on Washington
August 29, 2022 23:30 - 32 minutes - 44.7 MBOn August 28, 1963, some 200,000 people gathered in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. to protest the continuing inequalities faced by African Americans. The final speaker of the day was Dr Martin Luther King who would deliver one of the most famous orations of the civil rights movement—and of human history. Dr Clayborne Carson is a historian, founder of the Martin Luther King, Jr., Research and Education Institute, and now director of the World House Project. Having edited t...
Storytime with the Snows: 1066
August 28, 2022 23:30 - 34 minutes - 47.6 MB1066 is one of the most critical and dramatic years in British history. In the space of one year, the country had three kings, three major battles and a year that decided the fate of British history. To tell the thrilling story of this infamous year Dan is joined by three very special guests his children Zia, Wolf and Orla. They test Dan's historical knowledge to its limits and ask the questions we're all too afraid to ask. This episode was produced by Marianna Des Forges, the audio editor ...
Richard III: How to find a Lost King
August 25, 2022 23:30 - 27 minutes - 37.7 MBIn August 1485, King Richard III was killed at the Battle of Bosworth. In 2012, having been lost for over 500 years, the remains of King Richard III were discovered beneath a car park in Leicester. Joining Dan on the podcast today is the very person who led that successful search to locate the grave of King Richard III. Following seven and a half years of enquiry, Philippa Langley identified the likely location of the church and grave, instructing exhumation of the human remains uncovered i...
Witches
August 24, 2022 23:30 - 49 minutes - 67.7 MBWhat comes to your mind when you think of a witch? Broomsticks? Black cats? Warts? Early modern witchcraft expert, John Callow, is Betwixt the Sheets with Kate to explain the history behind the stereotypes we have today. They also chat about the Bideford Witches, the last three women to be hanged for witchcraft in England, as well as the misogyny in witch trials throughout the ages. You can find out more about John's work via his website johncallow.co.uk. WARNING this episode includes som...
The Revolution of The Chinese Script
August 23, 2022 23:30 - 21 minutes - 29.2 MBWhat does it take to reinvent the world's oldest living language? China today is one of the world's most powerful nations, yet just a century ago it was a crumbling empire with literacy reserved for the elite few, left behind in the wake of Western technology. Jing Tsu is a cultural historian, linguist and literary scholar. Joining Dan on the podcast, Jing tells the story of China's most daunting challenge as a linguistic one: to make the formidable Chinese language - a 2,200-year-old writi...
The Voyage That Kickstarted Globalisation
August 22, 2022 23:30 - 26 minutes - 37 MBIn February 1882 the SS Dunedin departed New Zealand on a voyage that would revolutionise the way we eat and kickstart the globalisation of the world's food supply chain. Aboard were thousands of mutton, lamb and pig carcasses as well as 250 kegs of butter, hare, pheasant, turkey, chicken and 2226 sheep tongues. This cargo would be kept fresh in the ship's hold using a Bell-Coleman compression refrigeration machine and would mark the first time fresh goods had ever been transported over such...
100 Years of British Political Nightmares
August 21, 2022 23:30 - 29 minutes - 40.5 MBOver Britain’s first century of mass democracy, from the Great Depression to the pandemic, politics has lurched from crisis to crisis. How does this history of political agony illuminate our current age of upheaval? Phil Tinline is a leading producer and presenter of historical narrative documentaries for BBC Radio 4. Phil joins Dan on the podcast to reveal how politics is transformed through fear— providing answers to fascinating questions: How did the Great Depression’s spectres of fascis...
Warships
August 18, 2022 23:30 - 31 minutes - 42.8 MBToday we are talking warships: from the revolutionary Tudor ships to modern aircraft carriers, and all the innovations along the way. In this episode of Patented: History of Inventions Dan, a self-confessed Maritime history nerd, joins Dallas on a whistle-stop tour of nearly 200 years of naval history. From the rise of wooden warships, to how these feats of engineering were built and how they transformed the world, forever. This episode was produced by Emily Whalley The senior producer is...
What happened to the bones of the Waterloo battlefield?
August 17, 2022 23:30 - 39 minutes - 54.4 MBIn June 1815 the French army under the command of Napoleon was decisively beaten by an allied army led by Britain and Prussia at Waterloo in what is now Belgium. This titanic clash took a terrible toll on both men and animals. An estimated 20,000 men lost their lives that bloody day. As archaeologists have attempted to unpick the events of Waterloo a mystery has emerged. What has happened to the remains of the soldiers who fought there? Very few human or animal remains have been found on th...
Walter Purdy: The Traitor of Colditz
August 16, 2022 23:30 - 32 minutes - 44.5 MBIn the Second World War, the Germans liked to boast that there was 'no escape' from the infamous fortress and POW camp Colditz. However, the elite British officers imprisoned there were determined to prove the Nazis wrong and get back into the war; since then the fortress became just as famous for its escape attempts. As the officers dug tunnels, removed bricks and got lines of communication to the outside world the Gestapo were determined to uncover their secrets and planted a double agent-...
The Tiananmen Square Massacre
August 15, 2022 23:30 - 33 minutes - 45.9 MBIn 1989, Beijing's Tiananmen Square became the focus of large-scale demonstrations as mostly young students crowded into central Beijing to protest for greater democracy. On June 4, 1989, Chinese troops stormed through Tiananmen Square, firing into the crowds of protesters. The events produced one of the most iconic photos of the 20th century - of ‘Tank Man,’ an unidentified protester who stood in front of a line of army tanks. Louisa Lim is an award-winning journalist who grew up in Hong K...
Mutiny on The Bounty
August 14, 2022 23:30 - 22 minutes - 31.6 MBNumerous novels, TV shows and as many as 5 movies- including the Hollywood classic starring Clarke Gable and Marlon Brando - have immortalised the story of the Mutiny on the Bounty in the popular imagination forever. The mutiny on the HMS Bounty occurred in the South Pacific Ocean on 28 April 1789. Disaffected crewmen, led by acting-Lieutenant Fletcher Christian, seized control of the ship from their captain, Lieutenant Bligh, and set him and eighteen loyalists adrift in a rowing boat. The m...
300 Years of British Prime Ministers Part 2
August 12, 2022 16:30 - 55 minutes - 75.8 MB2/2. It's a big summer for British politics with Boris Johnson's resignation and the race between conservative hopefuls Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss to take his place, firmly on. To make sense of this coveted premiership, we've delved into the History Hit podcast archives for our rampaging explainer on the history of British Prime Ministers. In this second episode, Dan is joined by the brilliant Robert Saunders, Reader in Modern British History at Queen Mary University of London. Together, they...
300 Years of British Prime Ministers Part 1
August 10, 2022 23:30 - 49 minutes - 68.4 MB1/2. It's a big summer for British politics with Boris Johnson's resignation and the race between conservative hopefuls Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss to take his place firmly on. To make sense of this coveted premiership, we've delved into the History Hit podcast archives for a rampage through the history of British Prime Ministers. In this episode, Dan is joined by Dr Hannah Grieg for a whirlwind tour of the eighteenth century's many Prime Ministers. From Sir Robert Walpole through William Pitt...
Unrest in Parliament: The Hot Summer of 1911
August 09, 2022 23:30 - 32 minutes - 45.3 MBThe 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 political tinderbox. It was harder to endure than today: no refrigeration for food, heavy clothing; more manual/outdoor labour, unventilated workplaces, surging food prices, and limited deodorant. Al...
The Origins of Rome
August 08, 2022 23:30 - 44 minutes - 61.1 MBKnown as the Eternal City, ancient Rome was one of the greatest civilisations in human history, but how did it come about? With a turbulent history of Kings, civil wars and imperial desires - Rome has an incredible history. But who founded it? Were Romulus and Remus real brothers fighting for their kingdoms, or did a Trojan hero found one of the mightiest Italian states? Recent archaeological discoveries indicate a far more complicated picture of Rome's beginnings - but where does its mysti...
The Decision to Use the Atomic Bomb
August 07, 2022 23:30 - 27 minutes - 38.3 MBOn 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 was the only way to end World War II without an invasion of Japan that would have cost hundreds of thousands of American and perhaps millions of Japanese lives. Gar Alperovitz is a historian, politi...
Anne Frank's Step Sister: 'How I Survived the Holocaust' Part 2
August 04, 2022 23:30 - 48 minutes - 66.4 MB2/2. 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 were carted off to Auschwitz. She remembers the train pulling up to the platform in Poland and the promise she made her brother to go back to find the paintings he'd done in hiding, if he didn't make it...
Anne Frank's Step Sister: 'How I Survived the Holocaust' Part 1
August 03, 2022 23:30 - 38 minutes - 53.4 MB1/2. 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 perished, apart from Otto. Anne's diary stops in the summer of 1944 so it's difficult for us to truly know exactly what her experience was after her arrest, as a teenage girl enduring the horrors of the...
Thor: The God behind the Superhero
August 02, 2022 23:30 - 42 minutes - 58.1 MBFew early medieval gods are as well-known and as popular as Thor. He’s currently thrilling moviegoers worldwide with his new outing for the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Thor: Love and Thunder. But behind the countless films and works of fiction, what’s the real origin story for Thor? How was he worshipped? And how has he secured such an enduring place in popular culture? In this episode of Gone Medieval, Dr Cat Jarman speaks to Professor Carolyne Larrington, an expert in Norse literature and ...
When Football Banned Women
August 01, 2022 23:30 - 19 minutes - 27.2 MBEngland’s historic Euro 2022 victory on Sunday night was the most watched TV programme of the year. It feels like it's the first time women's football is getting the attention it deserves. Well, a century ago, it was women who dominated the pitch, commanding crowds bigger than the men's games. But that changed on the 5th of December 1921 when the FA placed a complete ban on women playing professional football. That ban lasted 50 years. In this episode from our archive, celebrated broadcaste...
The Defeat of the Spanish Armada
July 31, 2022 23:30 - 51 minutes - 70.3 MBIn July 1588 the Spanish Armada sailed from Corunna to conquer England. Three weeks later an English fireship attack in the Channel—and then a fierce naval battle—foiled the planned invasion. Many myths still surround these events. The genius of Sir Francis Drake is exalted, while Spain’s efforts are belittled. But what really happened during that fateful encounter? For this episode of the podcast, Dan welcomes back distinguished professor and historian, Geoffrey Parker. They deconstruct th...
The Long Death of Slavery
July 28, 2022 23:30 - 23 minutes - 33 MBWe celebrate abolition - in Haiti after the revolution, in the British Empire in 1833, and in the United States during the Civil War. Yet, over the approximately 100 years in which there were various moments of emancipation, these processes often provided failed pathways to justice for people who had been enslaved. Kris Manjapra is a professor, author and historian. Kris joins Dan on the podcast to unearth disturbing truths about the Age of Emancipations, 1780-1880. They discuss examples of...
Anne of Cleves
July 27, 2022 23:30 - 41 minutes - 56.5 MBAnne of Cleves was the ‘last woman standing’ of Henry VIII’s wives and the only one buried in Westminster Abbey. How did she manage it? Was she in fact a political refugee, supported by the King? Was she a role model for her step-daughters Mary and Elizabeth? Why was her marriage to Henry doomed from the start? In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb is joined by author Heather R. Darsie - editor of maidensandmanuscripts.com - whose research into Anne of Cleves c...
A Short History of the Ottoman Empire
July 26, 2022 23:30 - 23 minutes - 32.9 MBThe Ottoman Empire was gigantic; at one point it reached the walls of Vienna to the Persian Gulf and beyond. It was established at the end of the 13th century with its centre in what is now modern Turkey. It held swathes of Europe for centuries right up to the First World War. In this episode, Professor of International History, Marc Baer and Dan rampage through that history and discover how the Ottomans weren't simply the Islamic-Asian antithesis of the Christian-European West, but in fact...
The Biggest Prison Breakout of WW2
July 25, 2022 23:30 - 23 minutes - 53.7 MBDuring World War II, in the town of Cowra in central New South Wales, thousands of Japanese prisoners of war were held in a POW camp. On the icy night of August 5th they staged one of the largest prison breakouts in history, launching the only land battle of World War II to be fought on Australian soil. Five Australian soldiers and more than 230 Japanese POWs would die during what became known as The Cowra Breakout. In this episode historian and podcaster Mat McLachlan joins Dan to tell him...
Putin, Power and Personality
July 24, 2022 23:30 - 31 minutes - 71.8 MBVladimir Putin has the power to reduce the United States and Europe to ashes in a nuclear firestorm. He invades his neighbours, most recently Ukraine, meddles in western elections and orders assassinations inside and outside Russia. But who is the man behind the headlines? For years, Philip Short was a foreign correspondent for the BBC. He is now the author of many acclaimed biographies. Having spent eight years interviewing those who dealt with Putin as part of their official duties, Phili...
Waterloo Uncovered: Bones from the Battlefield
July 22, 2022 02:00 - 44 minutes - 61.6 MBIn a special episode from our sister podcast Warfare, Dan is joined by host James Rogers fresh off the Waterloo battlefield in Belgium where last week an astonishing discovery was made. The project Waterloo Uncovered unearthed bones that could hold extraordinary insights into the experiences of Waterloo soldiers, their diets, health, life and death. This episode was edited and sound designed by Aidan Lonergan. For more Warfare content, subscribe to our Warfare Wednesday newsletter here. If...
The Apollo Programme with Kevin Fong
July 20, 2022 23:30 - 28 minutes - 39.5 MBGetting to the moon was no easy feat, no matter how confident President Kennedy may have sounded in his famous 1961 speech. NASA built a team from the ground up, and there were plenty of moments where it seemed as if they weren't going to make it. Kevin Fong tells stories of just how close they came, and how risky it was. After all, it was hard to feel safe when a pen could go straight through the module. Professor Kevin Fong is a consultant anaesthetist at UCLH and professor of public engag...
Hatshepsut: The Temple of Egypt's Female Pharaoh
July 19, 2022 23:30 - 15 minutes - 21 MBOn the West Bank of the Nile in Luxor, Egypt sits a temple considered to be one of the great architectural wonders of ancient Egypt. The memorial temple of Hatshepsut, the great female pharaoh who came to the throne of Egypt in 1478 BC sits nestled beneath a dramatic amphitheatre of limestone cliffs on the edge of the Valley of the Kings. Hatshepsut lived as long before Jesus was born as Henry the 8th lived after and presided over rich and powerful Egypt. She established trade routes and her...
Formidable Heroines of History
July 18, 2022 23:30 - 26 minutes - 36 MBFrom the notorious thief Mary Frith in the seventeenth century to industrialist and LGBT trailblazer Anne Lister in the nineteenth, these heroines redefined what a woman could be and what she could do in pre-twentieth-century Britain. Holly Kyte, author and literary critic, joins Dan to shine a light on some of the unsung heroines of British history who refused to play by the rules. They detail the histories of the formidable women whose grit, determination and radical unconventionality saw...
My Life as a Child Prisoner of War
July 17, 2022 23:30 - 17 minutes - 24.4 MBThe Imperial Japanese occupation of Hong Kong began on December 25, 1941, after the then Governor, Sir Mark Young, surrendered the British Crown colony to the Empire of Japan. The occupation lasted until Japan surrendered at the end of World War Two. Joining Dan on the podcast today is Barbara Sowerby, who was born in Hong Kong in 1936 to an English father and Portuguese mother. Aged just five years old, Barbara’s happy childhood would change when her family were amongst the fleeing civilia...
Beer
July 14, 2022 23:30 - 45 minutes - 62.1 MBPint, bottle, schooner, tinny … no matter how you drink it, beer is undeniably a part of social life here in Britain and around the world. But how did it come to hold this position? Why has this been more true for British men than for British women? And what did beer taste like before mass production and microbiology? Kate Lister has a pint with author, broadcaster and beer lover Pete Brown to find out. WARNING this episode includes some fruity language Produced by Charlotte Long and Sop...
Wars in the Atlantic World
July 13, 2022 23:30 - 28 minutes - 64.9 MBHow has warfare shaped the way humans live in the Atlantic World? Well, a lot. Military campaigns from the late Middle Ages to the Age of Revolution drove the development of technologies like ships, port facilities, fortresses, and roads. Crossing the ocean was made possible, connecting previously separate lands, nations and empires from Europe to West Africa and North and South America. In this episode, Professor of Early Modern History Geoffrey Plank joins Dan to discuss how connecting th...
The 'Dark Ages' with Michael Wood
July 12, 2022 23:30 - 26 minutes - 36.1 MBLasting 900 years, the ‘Dark Ages’ were between the 5th and 14th centuries, falling between the fall of the Roman Empire and the Renaissance. Today’s guest overturns preconceptions of the ‘Dark Ages’ as a shadowy and brutal era, showing them to be a richly exciting and formative period in the history of Britain. For more than 40 years, historian and broadcaster Michael Wood has made compelling journeys into the past, which have brought history alive for a generation. Michael joins Dan on th...
The Black Medal of Honour
July 11, 2022 23:30 - 29 minutes - 40.6 MBIn 1945, when Congress began reviewing the record of the most conspicuous acts of courage by American soldiers during WWII, they recommended awarding the Medal of Honour to 432 recipients. Despite the fact that more than one million African-Americans served, not a single black soldier received the Medal of Honour. Rob Child is an Emmy-nominated screenwriter, director and published author. Allene Carter is the daughter-in-law of Edward Allen Carter Jr., an Army sergeant who exhibited heroism...
The Shortest History of Democracy
July 10, 2022 23:30 - 38 minutes - 53.5 MBIn a time of grave uncertainty about the future of our planet, the radical potential of democracy is more important than ever. From its beginnings in Syria-Mesopotamia – and not Athens – to its role in fomenting revolutionary fervour in France and America, democracy has subverted fixed ways of deciding who should enjoy power and privilege, and why. Democracy encourages people to do something radical: to come together as equals, to determine their own lives and futures. In this vigorous, il...
Boris Johnson: Removing a Prime Minister
July 06, 2022 21:39 - 36 minutes - 50.3 MBIt's been an extraordinary day in British politics with dozens of Conservative MPs handing in their resignations and expressing a lack of confidence in Prime Minister Boris Johnson. It feels like this could be the end of his premiership. Johnson has clung to power despite scandal after scandal, including allegations of financial misconduct, risking national security and lying to parliament. Anyone else would have resigned or been ousted by now. How has Boris Johnson managed to stay in office...
The Forgotten Massacre at Dartmoor Prison
July 05, 2022 23:30 - 28 minutes - 39.1 MBDuring the War of 1812, the last time Britain and the United States went to war with each other, more than six thousand American sailors ended up in Dartmoor Prison. At the end of the war, prisoners remained behind Dartmoor’s walls for months after peace had been ratified. The prisoners’ fury at their continued incarceration led to an uprising on April 6, 1815, and then to a massacre: nine Americans were shot dead, the last men to be killed in a war between the two countries. Nick Guyatt is...
The Life of Malcolm X
July 04, 2022 23:30 - 39 minutes - 54.7 MBBorn Malcolm Little in 1925, Malcolm X would become human rights activist— a prominent African American minister and figure during the civil rights movement. As a spokesman for the Nation of Islam until 1964, Malcolm X was a vocal advocate for Black empowerment, Black nationalism and the promotion of Islam within the Black community. After Malcolm X’s assassination in 1965, his posthumous autobiography popularised his ideas of Black pride, Black dignity and the importance of political activi...
The Real Alexander Hamilton
July 03, 2022 23:30 - 32 minutes - 45.4 MBHow does a bastard, orphan, son of a whore and a Scotsman, dropped in the middle of a forgotten spot in the Caribbean by providence impoverished in squalor, grow up to be a hero and a scholar? This is the famous question posed by Lin Manuel Miranda in his smash-hit Broadway show Hamilton that's swept the globe. It's a celebration and looks into the life of the once lesser-known founding fathers, instrumental in the creation of the United States in the late 18th Century. To mark American Ind...
Viking Voyages and Legends
June 30, 2022 23:30 - 43 minutes - 59.8 MBIn the dying days of the eighth century, the Vikings erupted onto the international stage with brutal raids and slaughter. The medieval Norsemen may be best remembered as monk murderers and village pillagers, but this is far from the whole story. Throughout the Middle Ages, long-ships transported hairy northern voyagers far and wide, where they not only raided but also traded, explored and settled new lands, encountered unfamiliar races, and embarked on pilgrimages and crusades. In this epi...
The Death of Alexander the Great Explained
June 29, 2022 23:30 - 1 hour - 89.3 MBAlexander the Great’s untimely death at Babylon in 323 BC triggered an unprecedented crisis across his continent-spanning empire. Within a couple of days, the very chamber in which he died witnessed a gore-soaked showdown between his previously united commanders and soldiers. Within a fortnight, Babylon saw the first siege of the post-Alexander age. In this special explainer episode to mark the anniversary of Alexander’s death, Tristan brings to life the imperial implosion that was the imm...
The Man Who Escaped Auschwitz
June 28, 2022 23:30 - 32 minutes - 45 MBIn April 1944 nineteen-year-old Rudolf Vrba and fellow inmate, Fred Wetzler broke out of Auschwitz. Under electrified fences and past armed watchtowers, evading thousands of SS men and slavering dogs, they trekked across marshlands, mountains and rivers to freedom. Vrba's mission: to reveal to the world the truth of the Holocaust. Celebrated journalist and broadcaster Jonathan Freedland joins Dan on the podcast to tell this astonishing story which can be found in his new book 'The Escape Ar...
The Assassination of Franz Ferdinand
June 27, 2022 23:30 - 32 minutes - 45 MBEurope in 1914 was a tinderbox of imperial tensions and the spark that would light the conflagration would be the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. But there is much more to this story than simply the murder of two royals on the street of Sarajevo. Archduke Franz Ferdinand was an often misunderstood figure seemingly hard and old-fashioned. But in private he was a dedicated family man and husband who had married for love against the wishes of the Emporer and he and Sophie had endured...
Cleopatra
June 26, 2022 23:30 - 24 minutes - 34.3 MBCleopatra VII was part of a dynasty of Macedonian rulers founded by Ptolemy, who served as general under Alexander the Great during his conquest of Egypt in 332 B.C. Cleopatra served as the dominant ruler in all three of her co-regencies and was a shrewd strategist and an ingenious negotiator. Though her life spanned fewer than forty years, it reshaped the contours of the ancient world. Stacy Schiff is the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Cleopatra: A Life. Stacy joins Dan on the podcast to...
A Short History of Nomads
June 23, 2022 23:30 - 20 minutes - 28.2 MBThe roots of the word ‘Nomad’ dates back to an extremely early Indo-European word, ‘nomos’. After towns and cities are built and more people settle, ‘Nomad’ comes to describe people who live without walls and beyond boundaries. Now, the word is used by settled people - for some with a sense of romantic nostalgia, and for others, it carries an implicit judgement that such people are wanderers of no fixed abode. Yet, often overlooked, Nomads have fostered and refreshed civilisation throughout ...