History Extra podcast - October 2008 - Part 2

The Anglo-Saxon Kingdom of Mercia played an important role in the development of England. Although it was sandwiched between the other Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of Northumbria and Wessex, unlike those two ...

22 Kesä 202541min

Professor James Palmer guides us through the 300-year reign of the Merovingians, the Frankish dynasty whose legacy helped birth the very idea of France. Speaking to Kev Lochun, he explores how they us...

21 Kesä 202537min

This summer it's 80 years since the greatest conflict in human history came to an end. To mark the anniversary, the military historian, author and broadcaster James Holland has co-written a book that ...

19 Kesä 202534min

The science of health and wellbeing is a hot topic of modern life, and it was no different for the ancient civilisations of Greece and Rome. From what you should eat, to how you should exercise, and w...

17 Kesä 202537min

Thomas Aquinas was a 13th-century Dominican theologian whose groundbreaking ideas set medieval Europe aflame – and continue to resonate today. As 2025 marks the 800th anniversary of Aquinas's birth, E...

16 Kesä 202542min

Bogus sex parties, fake corpses, exploding tin cans and belligerent pigs. If you thought that James Bond's fictional escapades were outrageous, then the real-life experiences of his creator, Ian Flemi...

15 Kesä 202539min

What does it mean to be a father? When did people first start talking about men as 'father figures'? And how has the concept of fatherhood changed over the millennia? In conversation with David Musgro...

14 Kesä 202538min

During the Cold War, the CIA book programme was a covert campaign to smuggle books into the Eastern Bloc using everything from balloon drops to baked bean tins. But why was literature such a significa...

12 Kesä 202534min