HistoryExtra podcast

In the middle of the 19th century, the world's fastest ships raced across oceans carrying cargo, and the fortunes of ambitious young sea captains. In this episode, author Tilar J Mazzeo explores one voyage that produced an unlikely maritime legend. Speaking to Elinor Evans, Mazzeo shares the remarkable life of Mary Ann Patten, who found herself commanding a clipper ship after her husband fell grav...

Much of what was eaten by inhabitants of Georgian London is, perhaps surprisingly, familiar to us today. In this episode, Peter Ross takes Lauren Good on a culinary journey through the city – from people pocketing baked potatoes on their way home in the small hours to explaining why jelly was considered an aphrodisiac. ----- GO BEYOND THE PODCAST To find out more about what was eaten in the Georgi...

From his birth in 1881 to his death in 1973, Pablo Picasso lived a life as revolutionary as his art. A child prodigy who transformed modern art, his story is one of genius, reinvention, scandal and relentless creativity. In this episode, Danny Bird speaks to Sue Roe about the passions and upheavals that shaped the pioneer behind Cubism and masterpieces such as Guernica. They explore Picasso’s rise...

The Cold War cast a shadow over all aspects of life – including the world's favourite sport. All sides of the ideological divide used football to score political goals. Tony Shaw and Alan McDougall talk Spencer Mizen through some of the most explosive Cold War footballing clashes in a story that takes in Pele, Eusebio, North Korean upsets and a galloping major. ----- GO BEYOND THE PODCAST To liste...

After declaring independence, the United States still had to survive a brutal conflict. In the third episode of HistoryExtra's four-part series on the American Revolutionary War, Elinor Evans and Adam IP Smith explore the military realities of the American Revolution: George Washington’s leadership, the importance of France, and the turning points that changed the conflict. ––––– GO BEYOND THE POD...

As the United States marks the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence, Americans are taking a fresh look at their nation's past. But what if the story of the US isn't best told through presidents, wars and famous speeches? In this episode, Roman Mars – host of new series The History of the United States in 100 Objects – tells Emily Briffett about what some of those items tell us abou...

Which letter of the English alphabet did Benjamin Franklin think we'd be better off without? Why must the letter U (almost) always follow the letter Q? And what is the point of silent letters? From the first scratches carved into stone to the maddening mysteries of modern English spelling, the alphabet has had a long and extraordinary journey. In this episode, Emily Briffett is joined by linguist,...

As the wife of a founding figure in early American history, Abigail Adams was able to push beyond the restrictions of many of her sex in the 18th century, influencing policy and advocating for those in society who often didn't have a voice. These actions have sometimes seen her remembered as a proto-feminist in the story of the US. But how true is this reputation? And what other strides was she ab...

From divorce settlements and cattle disputes to surprisingly modern ideas about gender and compensation, the laws of Hywel Dda shed unique light on how society functioned, in a turbulent age of rival princes and conquest. Speaking to Elinor Evans, legal historian Sara Elin Roberts explains the laws often attributed to a tenth-century king, and what they tell us about Wales in the Middle Ages. ----...

It’s 250 years since the Declaration of Independence brought a new nation into formal existence. But what did it actually say – and who did it leave out? In the second episode of HistoryExtra’s series on the American Revolutionary War, Elinor Evans and Professor Adam IP Smith explore the drafting of the Declaration, the grievances against George III, and the document’s immediate and long-term impa...

He sailed to Antarctica with Captain Cook, rubbed shoulders with Benjamin Franklin and helped found a revolutionary republic. It’s little wonder, then, that Andrea Wulf describes George Forster – the 18th-century traveller, botanist and champion of human rights – as “one of the most fascinating figures you've never heard of”. In conversation with Spencer Mizen, Andrea explores a life that reads li...

We might picture Charlotte Brontë's life as an isolated one, separated from much of the world and its fashions as she whiled away the hours in her father's Haworth parsonage. But the truth, as Eleanor Houghton tells Lauren Good, is very different. By exploring the clothes Charlotte wore, we discover new sides to a woman who, despite battling insecurity throughout her life, owned clothes much more...

Anarchist, feminist, revolutionary: 19th-century activist and writer Emma Goldman emigrated from the Russian empire to the United States as a teenager, and spent decades challenging power and convention. In this episode, Ruth Kinna tells Danny Bird about Goldman's extraordinary story – which intersects with American labour disputes, the Russian Revolution, and the Spanish Civil War – and her contr...

In 1944, as Allied troops pushed across Europe after D-Day, the Allies faced a terrifying new threat: Hitler’s V2 weapons, striking without warning at supersonic speed. In this episode, Emily Briffett speaks to author, historian and journalist Guy Walters about his new book, Stealing Hitler's Rocket, which uncovers the extraordinary secret mission to smuggle parts of the Nazi 'vengeance weapon' ou...

The United States often presents its birth as a straightforward struggle for liberty – but reality was far more messy. In this first episode of HistoryExtra's four-part series on the American Revolutionary War, Elinor Evans is joined by Adam IP Smith to explore the colonies before independence, the fallout of the Seven Years’ War, the Stamp Act crisis, and the road to the ‘shot heard around the wo...

Why did Protestant missionaries travel the globe across the course of centuries, only to convert remarkably few people? Alec Ryrie – author of new book The World’s Reformation – tells Elinor Evans about the neglected global history of early Protestant missions, how preachers travelled across Asia, Africa and the Americas centuries earlier than many assume, and why so many of their ambitious effort...

Many histories of the 16th century tell stories of monarchs and courtiers – but there is, of course, much more to the century than that. Speaking to Charlotte Vosper, Nandini Das charts the ways in which migration and movement shaped the Tudor and Stuart periods, and traces the lives of the early modern individuals who embarked on new lives in other lands. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit p...

Stretching from Greece to India, Alexander the Great’s empire was one of the largest in human history, and he’d conquered it all by the time he was 30 years old. So how did this young king of a small Greek kingdom defeat the mighty Persian empire and become a godlike figure in the process? Alexander’s astonishing story is explored by Edmund Richardson in a new biography and, in this HistoryExtra p...

Have royal women's stories been misconstrued? Speaking to Charlotte Vosper, Kate Williams argues that many of them have been, tracing the lives of a whole host of queens – from Hatshepsut to Queen Victoria – to explore how and why these women have so often been viewed through a particular lens. ----- GO BEYOND THE PODCAST If you’d like to hear more from Kate Williams about the real lives of royal...

The final chapter of Cleopatra’s life is shrouded in mystery. Did she really take her own life? Was an asp involved? And why don’t we know where her tomb is? In this final episode of our four-part Sunday Series on the ancient queen’s life and times, Islam Issa – professor of public humanities at Birmingham City University – tackles these questions, and explores just why Cleopatra continues to fasc...

They 'haunted' an Indonesian general with a talking ghost and planted fake hippies in a Bulgarian youth festival. But did they change the course of the Cold War? Rory Cormac introduces Spencer Mizen to the comically absurd – and dangerously controversial – tactics deployed by a group of misfits and mavericks charged with raining down confusion on Britain's adversaries in the 1950s and 60s. ----- G...

In the summer of 1940, the Royal Navy attacked a French fleet moored off the coast of north Africa, killing almost 1,300 sailors. Winston Churchill described his decision to greenlight the operation as the toughest he ever had to take. But was it the right decision? Edward Abel Smith talks to Spencer Mizen about an incident that would shake Britain's wartime relations with France. ––––– GO BEYOND...

Henry Paget, 5th Marquess of Anglesey, lived a life of extravagance, luxury and theatre – and for this, he was the subject of much intrigue in the late 19th century. In this episode, Michael Hall speaks to Charlotte Vosper about the man dubbed the 'Dancing Marquess' – and whose story has now been dramatised for the big screen in new film Madfabulous. ––––– GO BEYOND THE PODCASTIf you'd like to hea...

How did women in the past experience sex and pleasure? Kate Lister reveals that this is a rather complicated question. Instead of simply lying back and thinking of England, women have long fought for their right to pleasure. But at the same time, women's sexual experiences have also been bound up in cultures of shame and control since antiquity. Speaking to Charlotte Vosper, Kate introduces us to...

We often think of Cleopatra as using her feminine wiles to secure, and maintain, power. But was that really the case? And what other skills and qualities did she have? In this third episode of our four-part Sunday Series charting the ancient queen and her world, Matt Elton is joined by Islam Issa – professor of public humanities at Birmingham City University – to discover more about Cleopatra the...