The pioneering surgeon who stood up to Rasputin
She pioneered lifesaving battlefield surgery, challenged the medical establishment, stood up to Rasputin, and became the world's first female professor of surgery – yet today, few people have heard of...
12 Okt 48min
The stolen Native Americans who shaped US history
Between 1492 and 1880, as many as 600,000 Native Americas were enslaved in the area that would become the United States. That’s the figure estimated by historian Linford D Fisher in his book Stealing ...
11 Okt 47min
Being disabled in the medieval era
Prosthetic legs, wheelbarrow wheelchairs and guide… children? Those were just some of the assistive technologies and body augmentations available to our medieval and early modern ancestors. In this ep...
8 Okt 45min
Vanilla: a far from ordinary history
It's now often used as an adjective for anything standard, plain, and borderline boring – but the history of vanilla is anything but. Eric T Jennings – whose book Vanilla: The History of an Extraordin...
6 Okt 37min
Ancient explosives and the philosopher's stone: a history of alchemy
Think of alchemy, and you likely imagine bubbling vials of strange potions and molten metals. But how close is this popular perception to the truth? That’s the question behind historian and adventurer...
5 Okt 35min
North Korea's religious dictators
More than three decades after the end of the Cold War and the fall of the USSR, the North Korean regime remains steadfastly in place, defiantly ploughing its own path some eight decades after its foun...
4 Okt 45min
Inside Venice’s Jewish ghetto
In the early 16th century, Venice confined its Jewish population to a restricted quarter on an island in the city. It was the first settlement to bear the name 'ghetto' – a word that would go on to sh...
1 Okt 46min
WW2's bloody battle for Arakan
In 1944, the Allies unleashed an offensive in Burma – a brutal campaign spearheaded by 3 Commando Brigade alongside the Indian and West African troops of XV Corps. Against a ruthless enemy and in one ...
29 Sep 37min
