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. 

Unlock full access to HistoryExtra.com for 6 months for just 99p https://www.historyextra.com/join/

History
1026
Escaping slavery in the American South
Shaun Wallace discusses how newspaper adverts for fugitive enslaved people can be used to reconstruct the stories those who escaped slavery
34 min
1027
Munich: the real history behind the new film
Robert Harris speaks about Munich: The Edge of War, the new Netflix film adapted from his 2017 historical novel
22 min
1028
The Gothic: from Dracula to The Shining
Roger Luckhurst explores how the ever-evolving Gothic genre has been used to explore society’s anxieties over time
41 min
1029
Women of the Rothschild dynasty
Natalie Livingstone chronicles the unexplored lives of the women who shaped the famous Rothschild banking dynasty
33 min
1030
Queen Victoria’s spy network
Richard J Aldrich and Rory Cormac discuss Queen Victoria’s love of espionage and her network of royal intelligence agents
43 min
1031
Mao’s Cultural Revolution: everything you wante...
Rana Mitter answers your questions on one of the defining events of modern Chinese history, launched by Chairman Mao in 1966
44 min
1032
How the Beatles were in tune with 60s Britain
Dominic Sandbrook explains how the Beatles reflected 1960s Britain, from the globalisation of pop culture to a fascination with mysticism
38 min
1033
Shining new light on medieval Europe
Matthew Gabriele and David M Perry challenge some widely held views about the history of medieval Europe
46 min
1034
A murder mystery in 19th-century Dublin
Thomas Morris recounts a strange historical cold case revolving around a body found in a railway office that was locked from the inside
32 min
1035
Trading and crusading in the Middle Ages
Mike Carr reveals how there was more to Muslim-Christian relations in the medieval era than the Crusades
29 min
1036
The Demerara slave uprising
Thomas Harding discusses a little-known uprising by enslaved people in the British colony of Demerara in 1823
42 min
1037
The Age of Sail: everything you wanted to know
Naval historian Kate Jamieson tackles listener questions on the Age of Sail, when sailing ships dominated global trade and warfare
50 min
1038
Ancient Greek scientific thinking
Jane Desborough speaks about a new Science Museum exhibition, Ancient Greeks: Science and Wisdom
16 min
1039
Hells, heavens and afterworlds: a traveller’s g...
Edward Brooke-Hitching explores the many heavens, hells and lands of the dead from civilisations across global history
29 min
1040
Women who served in WW2
Tessa Dunlop explores the lives of the last surviving women who served in Britain’s armed forces during the Second World War
58 min
1041
A forgotten witch hunt in New England
Malcolm Gaskill speaks about a little-known 1651 witchcraft case from Springfield, Massachusetts.
39 min
1042
Goods & globalisation: merchants in Tudor & Stu...
Edmond Smith reveals how a tightly-woven merchant community helped bring about the globalisation of England between 1550 and 1650.
32 min
1043
The Jacobites: everything you wanted to know
Murray Pittock answers listener questions on the Jacobites, and their attempts to restore the Stuart dynasty to the throne
42 min
1044
History’s greatest mysteries: what caused the m...
On several occasions from the 14th to 16th centuries, hundreds of people in central Europe began moving their bodies in a strange uncontrollable fashion – often for days on end. What was behind this unusual behaviour? In the final episode of this serie...
21 min
1045
History’s greatest mysteries: why did Mao’s cho...
Fifty years ago, in September 1971, Lin Biao boarded a flight out of the country, only to crash in the Mongolian desert shortly afterwards. Was this the result of an aborted coup on Lin’s part? And where exactly was his plane heading? In the latest in ...
37 min
1046
History’s greatest mysteries: was the Trojan Wa...
Thanks largely to Homer’s Iliad, the Trojan War is one of the most famous events in Greek mythology. But how much – if any – of the legend is actually true? In the latest in our series on history’s biggest conundrums, the author and classicist Daisy Du...
28 min
1047
History’s greatest mysteries: what happened to ...
The Ninth Legion of the Roman army was last recorded in York in around AD 107. After that it simply vanished from history. To this day no-one knows what caused the destruction of this elite army unit, although many theories have been put forward.
32 min
1048
History’s greatest mysteries: Agatha Christie d...
In December 1926, crime writer Agatha Christie left her home and vanished without a trace. When she was discovered 11 days later, Christie claimed to have no memory of what had happened. As part of our series on history’s greatest mysteries, Dominic Sa...
30 min
1049
The state of history in 2021
Anna Whitelock looks back on some key moments that made the historical headlines in 2021
32 min
1050
Christmas feasts: WW2 rationing & postwar absur...
Annie Gray looks back on festive food in the 20th century – from suspect dishes made under rationing to joyful postwar creations
27 min