HistoryExtra Podcast

HistoryExtra podcast episodes are released every week, featuring interviews with notable historians on topics spanning ancient history through to recent British to American events. Episodes feature history stories and perspectives on everything from crusading knights to Tudor monarchs and the D-Day landings.

Helen Czerski explores the impact of oceans on human history, from providing food to connecting trade routes. (Images by Getty Images)

How oceans shaped human civilisation

Rosie Whitehouse tells the story of a group of Holocaust survivors who sailed to Palestine in 1946, in defiance of the Royal Navy. (Image by Getty Images)

Searching for freedom after the Holocaust

Gareth Williams explores previous efforts to combat lethal diseases, from smallpox to polio. (Image by Getty Images)

The race for vaccines: lessons from history

Dominic Sandbrook answers popular search queries and listener questions about Britain in the 1960s. (Image by Getty Images)

Britain’s Swinging Sixties: everything you wanted to know

Helen Fry gives a lecture on MI9’s missions during the to help Allied prisoners of war escape during the Second World War.

Second World War

MI9’s secret escape missions

Hitler and Stalin: Laurence Rees compares the actions of the two dictators over the course of the Second World War. (Image by Getty Images)

Second World War

Hitler and Stalin: tyrants at war

Priya Satia explores how historians helped advance the British empire, only to later become critics of imperialism. (Image by Getty Images)

How historians helped build the British empire

David Hepworth tells the story of the British rock bands. (Image by Getty Images)

When British pop invaded America

Frank McDonough discusses his new book charting the demise of Hitler’s Germany from 1940-45. (Image by Getty Images)

Second World War

The collapse of the Third Reich

Stephen Baxter on the Domesday Book (Image by Getty Images)

Domesday Book: medieval big data

Jerry Brotton on the Renaissance. (Image by Getty Images)

The Renaissance: everything you wanted to know

Robert Hutchinson on the death of Henry VIII. (Image by Getty Images)

The decline and death of Henry VIII

Kavita Puri on the HistoryExtra podcast

Was the 1990s a golden age for British South Asians?

Ian Kershaw on the Second World War. (Image by Fran Monks for BBC History Magazine)

Editor’s pick: Ian Kershaw on postwar Europe

Robert Tombs on Brexit's long historical roots. (Image by Getty Images)

Brexit’s long historical roots