HistoryExtra podcast
The HistoryExtra podcast brings you gripping stories from the past and fascinating historical conversations with the world's leading historical experts.
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1776
The shipwreck that sank a royal dynasty
Charles Spencer gives a lecture on England’s early Norman monarchs and the White Ship disaster – the 1120 maritime tragedy that threw England’s royal line into disarray.
42 min
1777
The NHS: a brief history
Susan Cohen discusses the highs and lows of the NHS, from its creation in 1948 to the challenges it faces today.
38 min
1778
Rebuilding Europe after WW2
Paul Betts explores how postwar regeneration after 1945 was inspired by the contested concept of civilisation
38 min
1779
How oceans shaped human civilisation
Helen Czerski explores the impact of oceans on human history, from providing food to connecting trade routes.
25 min
1780
Searching for freedom after the Holocaust
Rosie Whitehouse tells the story of a group of Holocaust survivors who sailed to Palestine in 1946, in defiance of the Royal Navy
43 min
1781
The race for vaccines: lessons from history
As the campaign to vaccinate the population against Covid-19 picks up pace, Gareth Williams explores previous efforts to combat lethal diseases, from smallpox to polio
42 min
1782
Britain’s Swinging Sixties: everything you want...
Dominic Sandbrook answers popular search queries and listener questions about Britain in the 1960s
51 min
1783
MI9’s secret escape missions
Helen Fry gives a lecture on MI9’s missions during the to help Allied prisoners of war escape during the Second World War
45 min
1784
Hitler and Stalin: tyrants at war
Laurence Rees compares the actions of the two dictators over the course of the Second World War
49 min
1785
How historians helped build the British empire
Priya Satia explores how historians helped advance the British empire, only to later become critics of imperialism
22 min
1786
When British pop invaded America
David Hepworth tells the story of the British rock bands – from the Beatles and Rolling Stones to Led Zeppelin – who took the United States by storm in the 1960s
39 min
1787
The collapse of the Third Reich
Frank McDonough discusses his new book charting the demise of Hitler’s Germany from 1940-45.
40 min
1788
Domesday Book: medieval big data
Stephen Baxter discusses the latest insights revealed by a new study of the 11th-century survey of England
50 min
1789
The Renaissance: everything you wanted to know
Professor Jerry Brotton responds to listener questions and popular internet search queries about the Renaissance era.
45 min
1790
The decline and death of Henry VIII
Robert Hutchinson gives a lecture on the Tudor monarch's final years, plagued by illness, bankruptcy, and thwarted ambitions
40 min
1791
Was the 1990s a golden age for British South As...
Kavita Puri discusses the experiences of British South Asians during the 1990s and early 2000s.
32 min
1792
Editor’s pick: Ian Kershaw on postwar Europe
In this episode from our archive, Ian Kershaw offers his take on how the continent has developed since the Second World War
60 min
1793
Brexit’s long historical roots
Robert Tombs discusses the historical background to Brexit, exploring Britain’s long and fluctuating relationship with Europe
39 min
1794
Editor’s pick: Lenin’s revolutionary train journey
In this archive episode, Catherine Merridale recounts how the future Soviet leader travelled to Petrograd in 1917 – a key moment in the Russian Revolution
28 min
1795
The battle for Sicily, 1943
James Holland tells the story of the dramatic Allied assault on the island of Sicily in the Second World War
40 min
1796
The Industrial Revolution: everything you wante...
Emma Griffin tackles internet search queries and questions submitted by listeners about Britain’s Industrial Revolution
42 min
1797
German Jews in WW1
Tim Grady gives a lecture exploring the varied experiences of German Jews in the First World War
46 min
1798
Bizarre books and macabre manuscripts
Edward Brooke-Hitching discusses some of history’s strangest literary curiosities, from hoax manuscripts to tomes bound in human skin
41 min
1799
Bonnie Prince Charlie: hero or coward?
Jacqueline Riding considers whether the Jacobite prince was a valiant freedom fighter, or a haughty coward
44 min
1800
Editor’s pick: covert Catholicism in Elizabetha...
In this episode from our archive, Jessie Childs tells the story of Tudor gentleman Thomas Tresham, whose faith set him at odds with the Virgin Queen
29 min