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 researchers get hold of the key evidence? And what ...
22 Nov 202548min
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 mother-in-law especially likely to become a vampire...
21 Nov 202538min
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 – and more – are answered in this brief history of ...
19 Nov 202535min
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, his story is now once again in the limelight, tha...
18 Nov 202556min
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 that influence was the arrival of people from othe...
17 Nov 202542min
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 bloodiest conflict in history, and perpetuated the Holocau...
16 Nov 202541min
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 least, is what we've long believed. But an explosiv...
14 Nov 202533min
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. Gordon Corera tells the story of Vasili Mitrokhi...
12 Nov 202532min
