History Extra podcast

The History Extra podcast brings you gripping stories from the past and fascinating historical conversations with the world's leading historical experts.


Produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine, History Extra is a free history podcast, with episodes released six times a week. Subscribe now for the real stories behind your favourite films, TV shows and period dramas, as well as compelling insights into lesser-known aspects of the past. 

 

We delve into global history stories spanning the ancient world right up to the modern day. You’ll hear deep dives into the lives of famous historical figures like Cleopatra, Anne Boleyn and Winston Churchill, and explorations of intriguing events from the past, such as the Salem witch trials, the battle of Waterloo and D-Day. 

 

Expect fresh takes on history, helping you get to grips with the latest research, as we explore everything from ancient Roman archaeology and Viking mythology to Renaissance royals and Tudor kings and queens. 

 

Our episodes touch on a wide range of historical eras – from the Normans and Saxons to the Stuarts, Victorians and the Regency period. We cover the most popular historical subjects, from the medieval world to the Second World War, but you’ll also hear conversations on lesser-known parts of our past, including black history and women’s history. 

 

Looking at the history behind today’s headlines, we consider the forces that have shaped today’s world, from the imposing empires that dominated continents, to the revolutions that brought them crashing down. We also examine the impact of conflict across the centuries, from the crusades of the Middle Ages and the battles of the ancient Egyptians to World War One, World War Two and the Cold War.  

 

Plus, we uncover the real history behind myths, legends and conspiracy theories, from the medieval murder mystery of the Princes in the Tower, to the assassination of JFK.  

 

Featuring interviews with notable historians including Mary Beard, Tracy Borman, James Holland and Dan Jones, we cover a range of social, political and military history, with the aim to start conversations about some of the most fascinating areas of the past. 

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History
1
Crystal balls & contacting angels: predicting t...
27 min
2
Giuseppe Garibaldi: life of the week
David Laven delves into the escapades of the great hero of Italian unification
36 min
3
A day in the life of a gladiator
Harry Sidebottom shares what it was like to be a gladiator in ancient Rome, from brutal training to deadly fights in the amphitheatre
29 min
4
What if the Gunpowder Plot had succeeded?
Historian John Cooper ponders what might have happened had the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 succeeded
23 min
5
Bodies, bones & overflowing churchyards: a hist...
Roger Luckhurst takes listeners on a tour of some of history's most unusual and intriguing graveyards
28 min
6
Myspace and MTV: how will future historians stu...
Jane Winters and John Wills discuss how social media and digital records chart the story of recent decades – and how they pose a challenge for historians
40 min
7
Malcolm X: life of the week
40 min
8
Ghosts, grief and the paranormal
From Victorian mediums to modern-day psychic investigators, Alice Vernon explores our enduring attempts to communicate with the dead
36 min
9
How the Gunpowder Plot unravelled
Historian John Cooper explains how the Gunpowder Plot was exposed – and how the men behind it were hunted down and subjected to brutal punishment
27 min
10
Sex and sensationalism: a history of the tabloids
Terry Kirby investigates the 500-year history of tabloid journalism – from the first gossip rags to the muckraking exploits of the 20th-century popular press
40 min
11
11th-century Europe: not just the Norman Conquest
Charles West explains how the 11th century saw a raft of major changes and a plethora of significant events that extend beyond the Norman Conquest
32 min
12
William Shakespeare: life of the week
41 min
13
Tudor life with Ruth Goodman
Ruth Goodman, presenter of a new HistoryExtra Academy on Tudor life, uncovers what everyday life was really like in 16th-century England
24 min
14
Who laid the fuse for the Gunpowder Plot?
Historian John Cooper introduces us to the conspirators behind the infamous plot to blow up king and parliament
42 min
15
Reagan's plan to 'make America great again'
Phil Tinline explores why Ronald Reagan's presidency was a pivotal moment for the United States – and the extent to which we can draw parallels between the country during his 1980s tenure and today
34 min
16
How enslaved people fought for freedom across t...
Sudhir Hazareesingh highlights forgotten uprisings by enslaved people across the Atlantic, and explores how resistance to slavery is as old as slavery itself
35 min
17
Aneurin Bevan: life of the week
Dr Nye Davies explores the life of Aneurin Bevan, the Welsh coal miner-turned-politician who was behind Britain's National Health Service
39 min
18
Bandits & blasphemers: crime in 17th century Sc...
Allan Kennedy unpacks what looking at crime and punishment can reveal about Scottish values in the 17th century
47 min
19
The Normans: everything you wanted to know
44 min
20
How Julius Caesar's funeral drama fuelled the mob
Jessica Clarke unearths the subtle counterplot that turned the political tides against Julius Caesar's assassins
25 min
21
The dark side of Samuel Pepys
Samuel Pepys is one of the most famous diarists in history, but as Guy de la Bédoyère suggests, he also had a disturbingly dark side
34 min
22
Margaret Tudor: life of the week
Helen Newsome-Chandler charts the life of the medieval queen and mother through her letters and correspondence
41 min
23
Britain's female slaveowners: the heiresses who...
Miranda Kaufmann reveals how 'Caribbean heiresses' who married into the British aristocracy brought the profits of slavery to Britain 
34 min
24
Roman homes: everything you wanted to know
Hannah Platts offers up a tour through the spaces that shaped daily life in the Roman world
47 min
25
Preview: Should historians be celebrities?
7 min