Dan Snow's History Hit - TopPodcast.com

Latest Episodes:

Rasputin: Myth & Manhood Oct 25, 2022

Show notes

Was 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.

*WARNING there are naughty words and discussions of sexual coercion in this episode*

Produced by Charlotte Long and Sophie Gee.

Betwixt the Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society. A podcast by History Hit.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!

To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Extraordinary Life of James Harley Oct 24, 2022

Show notes

James 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-winning creative producer and historian. Her work as Founder and Director of Black Oxford Untold Stories has raised the profile of many black scholars from the turn of the twentieth century. Pamela joins Dan to offer insight into the Antiguan scholar, his entry by marriage to the Washington elite, and his clerical and political careers.

Produced by Hannah Ward and edited by Joseph Knight.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!

To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

TUTANKHAMUN: Mini-Series Coming Soon! Oct 24, 2022

Show notes

On 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 discovery, Dan Snow’s History Hit is bringing you a dramatic retelling, recorded from within the tombs of Egypt’s Valley of the Kings. With celebrated Egyptologists, Dan unravels the story of one of the world’s greatest ancient dynasties and the discovery that gripped the globe and still does to this day.

Get lost in the Valley of the Kings with Dan, coming to the podcast soon…

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Battle of El Alamein Explained Oct 23, 2022

Show notes

Fought 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 but, possibly, the end of the beginning’.

In this episode, Dan explores the circumstances that provoked this historic confrontation, and takes us through the twists and turns of the battle itself, from the perspective of those who fought it.

Produced by Dan Snow, James Hickmann and edited by Joseph Knight.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!

To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Battle of Trafalgar Oct 20, 2022

Show notes

On 21 October 1805, A British fleet commanded by Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson met the combined might of the French and Spanish fleets off the coast of Spain. Outnumbered, Nelson used innovative tactics to break up the allied fleet and ensure success but at great cost to his men and of course himself. It was a truly crushing defeat for the Franco-Spanish forces though. With the majority of their ships destroyed or captured it confirmed Britain's naval supremacy for decades to come. In this dramatic telling of one of the most famous battles in naval history, Dan brings to life the men, the commanders, the ships, and the tactics that enabled the British fleet to emerge as victors.

This episode was edited by Dougal Patmore.

This episode was first broadcast on 21st October 2021.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!

To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

FORENSICS: The Beginning Oct 19, 2022

Show notes

Death 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 Wikipedia page for ‘forensic science’ this book is the earliest written evidence of forensic thinking. Is that correct?

Our guest today is Daniel Asen, a historian of China at Rutgers University.

This is the first episode in a mini-series from Patented: History of Inventions we’re bringing you all about the invention of Forensics.

Produced by Freddy Chick

Edited by Pete Dennis and Anisha Deva

The actors were Lucy Davidson and Tristan Hughes

The Executive Producer is Charlotte Long

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!

To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mary Seacole: Doctress of the Crimean War Oct 18, 2022

Show notes

Born 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 woman of mixed race and how she nursed the wounded of the Crimean War.

This episode was produced by Hannah Ward and edited by Dougal Patmore.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!

To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Britain's Worst Prime Minister Oct 17, 2022

Show notes

Could 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 documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!

To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Cuban Missile Crisis Oct 16, 2022

Show notes

In 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 considered to be the closest that the Cold War came to escalating to full-scale nuclear war. Serhii Plokhy, author of Nuclear Folly: A New History of the Cuban Missile Crisis, is Dan's guest on the podcast.

This episode was first released on 16 April 2021.

The audio editor for this episode was Dougal Patmore.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!

To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Long History of African and Caribbean People in Britain Oct 13, 2022

Show notes

There 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 writing about the history of African and Caribbean people in Britain for decades. Hakim joins Dan to chart a course through British history with an unobscured view of the actions of African and Caribbean people, sharing the stories of the Africans in Britain during the Roman period, Black Tudors, Stuarts and Victorians, and shedding light on the Windrush Myth.

This episode was produced by Hannah Ward and edited by Dougal Patmore.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe to History Hit today!

To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

Complete the survey and you'll be entered into a prize draw to win 5 Historical Non-Fiction Books- including a signed copy of Dan Snow's 'On This Day in History'.

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our TOPPODCAST Picks

Follow Us

Stay Connected

Dan Snow’s History Hit

Related Podcasts

Links

Stay Connected