The Hanseatic League: everything you wanted to know
The Hanseatic League was often compared to a crocodile, because it was a shadowy, somewhat sinister entity that kept its true intentions concealed. Here, in conversation with Spencer Mizen, Professor ...
12 Jan 202544min
Secret forceps & pig bladders: medical objects through time
What was it like to undergo an operation in a world with no anaesthetic? How was the stethoscope invented? And when did surgeons first operate on a human heart? Talking to Lauren Good, Dr Carol Cooper...
10 Jan 202538min
How Roman roads transformed Europe
They spanned a continent, offered a conduit for soldiers and pilgrims alike – and may not have been as straight as legend suggests. Roman roads played a formative role in Europe's development for cent...
9 Jan 202538min
Hotel Lux: the guesthouse of world revolution
History is often told through the epic struggles of famous personalities or grand movements. Yet sometimes the voices of ordinary people break through. In this episode, Maurice J Casey speaks to Danny...
8 Jan 202534min
Introducing History's Greatest Scandals | New Podcast
Poisoned sweets. Criminal misdeeds. And a sex scandal involving… the prime-minister. Listen to HistoryExtra's new podcast History’s Greatest Scandals, delving into the murky underworld of The Victori...
7 Jan 20252min
Susan B Anthony: life of the week
The name Susan B Anthony is inextricable from any history of the American movement for women's suffrage. Yet the life of the woman herself can be obscured by her status as a campaigner and figurehead....
7 Jan 202549min
How the compass became a political weapon
Why did early Islamic cartographers place south at the top of their maps? Who invented the magnetic compass? And why has 'the west' become an intensely political term, as well as a geographical one? H...
6 Jan 202535min
Medieval towns: everything you wanted to know
What was it like to live in a British town or city in the Middle Ages? Were they filthy hotbeds of crime and violence? How often did fires break out? And where could you get a good slap-up meal if you...
5 Jan 202545min
