History Extra podcast
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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...
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Becoming Jane Austen
What inspired the daughter of a rural reverend to write about eligible bachelors and drunken misadventure? In this first episode of our four-part seri...
Ghosts, gods & sea monsters: a supernatural history of the Atlantic
For centuries, sailors crossing the Atlantic believed they were not alone – haunted by ghost ships, watched by mermaids, and stalked by sea monsters....
The summer that changed everything for the Kennedys
Historian Leigh Straw describes one pivotal summer in the life of the Kennedy family. With most of the family in their Cape Cod summer home, the summe...
Margaret Beaufort: life of the week
Born in the tumultuous 15th century, Margaret Beaufort – mother of Henry VII – endured personal tragedy, dynastic danger, and the ever-shifting fortun...
Idi Amin's willing helpers
Idi Amin is 20th-century Africa’s most notorious ruler – a cartoonish tyrant who has been bracketed with the likes of Hitler and Stalin. And it’s true...
“You can’t kill and maim with impunity”: the powerful legacy of Nuremberg
In the 80 years since Nazi leaders stood in the dock, how has the international community sought to deal with war criminals around the globe? For this...
Assassins vs Templars
The Assassins and the Knights Templar are two of history’s most intriguing, enigmatic and legendary groups. While they may seem vastly different on th...
WW2's Tunisian campaign: the Stalingrad of Africa
For the Allies it was an enormous triumph and for Nazi Germany it was another Stalingrad. But 80 years on, the battle for Tunisia is barely mentioned...
Empress Matilda: life of the week
In the tumultuous aftermath of Henry I’s death, England was thrown into one of the most chaotic civil wars in its history – the Anarchy. At the heart...
How warhorses transformed medieval England
William the Conqueror used them to devastating effect in 1066. Robert the Bruce worked out how to neutralise them. And when Richard III was knocked fr...
Did the Nazis get a fair trial?
In October 1946, after a trial lasting almost a year, the Nazi leaders on the dock in Nuremberg received their verdicts. But what did the judges decid...
Forgotten female secret agents of WW2
From sabotage operations to devastating betrayals, stories of the women of Special Operations Executive are some of the most incredible stories of the...
What causes cultures to decline and fall?
The new BBC TV series Civilisations: Rise and Fall charts the decline of some of history's most famous cultures, from the Aztecs to the ancient Egypti...
Christopher Marlowe: life of the week
From his possible espionage work for the Elizabethan state to his open flirtations with atheism and subversive sexual themes, the brief life of playwr...
Uprising: the Civil Wars untangled
On 30 January 1649, Charles I was led on to a freshly erected scaffold outside Whitehall’s Banqueting House in London. Thousands of spectators watched...
The Nazis’ crimes laid bare
When the Nazi leaders went on trial in Nuremberg from November 1945, the true horrors of their regime were exposed to the world. In the second episode...
What does Hitler’s DNA really tell us?
A recent documentary drawing conclusions from new analysis of Adolf Hitler’s DNA has sparked headlines around the world. But how did the programme’s r...
Mutilated corpses and undead mothers-in-law: vampire epidemics through history
Fears of the undead rising from their graves to cause trouble have recurred in societies around the globe throughout the centuries. But why was your m...
The problem with poo: a millennium of manure
When did poo become a problem? Why was manure so important in the medieval economy? And why don't we have vacuum-powered sewers? All these questions –...
James Garfield: life of the week
US president James Garfield's life is often overshadowed by his untimely death in 1881, as the second president to be assassinated in office. However,...
A new history of multicultural Britain
As Britain's influence on the world around it grew throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, so too did the world influence Britain – and a key part of...
What should we do with the Nazis? The road to the Nuremberg Trials
At the end of the Second World War, the victorious Allies had to decide the fates of the surviving leaders of a regime that had initiated the bloodies...
Who stole the Tudor crown?
On her deathbed Elizabeth I named the Scottish James VI as her successor, ensuring a smooth transition from the Tudor to Stuart monarchies. That, at l...
The librarian who stole KGB secrets
When an elderly man with a battered suitcase walked into the British embassy in Vilnius in 1992, few could have guessed what he was about to hand over...
Nellie Bly: life of the week
In the late 19th century, when female reporters were largely confined to newspapers' society pages, Nellie Bly's daring investigations and headline-gr...
The improbable alliance that defeated Hitler
To what extent does the course of history turn on the force of individual personalities? It’s a question that looms large when examining the unlikely...
Remember, remember: The legacy of the Gunpowder Plot
'Remember, remember the fifth of November…'. For more than 400 years, the Gunpowder Plot has been etched into Britain’s memory. In the final episode o...
Five partitions that shaped South Asia
If you were to look down at South Asia from space at night, you would see a bright scar stretching more than 2,000 miles. This is the border between I...
Crystal balls & contacting angels: predicting the future in early modern England
Eating the palpitating heart of a mole. Sleeping with a wolf's tooth under your pillow. Communicating with angels through a crystal ball. In the 16th...
Giuseppe Garibaldi: life of the week
He led one of history's most celebrated guerrilla campaigns, showed remarkable political acumen, and drove aristocratic English women wild. Is it any...
A day in the life of a gladiator
If we were to step back in time on to the blood-soaked sand of the Roman gladiatorial arena, what would we uncover about society, power and entertainm...
What if the Gunpowder Plot had succeeded?
We know the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 failed – but what if it hadn’t? What if Guy Fawkes had ignited the gunpowder under parliament, killing the king, no...
Bodies, bones & overflowing churchyards: a history of graveyards
Burying the dead has never been a simple matter. Whether due to elaborate grave goods, unique burial rituals, or public health concerns, burial places...
Myspace and MTV: how will future historians study the 21st century?
From social-media accounts to TV shows and video games, recent decades offer an enormous wealth of material for future historians to explore. But what...
Malcolm X: life of the week
Malcolm X was one of the most influential – and, sometimes, divisive – figures of the civil rights movement in the United States, a political activist...
Ghosts, grief and the paranormal
Why are we so spooked – and yet so fascinated – by things that go bump in the night? And can science really prove that ghouls exist? Alice Vernon talk...
How the Gunpowder Plot unravelled
In the autumn of 1605, Catholic conspirators believed they were about to strike a blow to the heart of the English state – but then a mysterious lette...
Sex and sensationalism: a history of the tabloids
Tabloid journalists often get a bad press. From publishing libellous headlines to hacking celebrities’ phones, recent years have not exactly done much...
11th-century Europe: not just the Norman Conquest
When we think of Europe in the 11th century, one date stands out: 1066. However, as Professor Charles West explains, this was a century of great chang...
William Shakespeare: life of the week
William Shakespeare is one of history’s most famous names – but how much do we really know about the man himself? And how did his family, education an...