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History Podcast

Historical themes, events and key individuals from Akhenaten to Xenophon.

Updated: occasionally
Episodes available: indefinitely

Episodes to download

  •

    The Irish Rebellion of 1798

    Thu 8 Dec 2022

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the causes and early consequences of the 1798 rebellion.

  • Demosthenes' Philippics

    Thu 17 Nov 2022

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the speeches that set the standard for political attacks.

  • The Morant Bay Rebellion

    Thu 3 Nov 2022

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the events in Jamaica in 1865 and their consequences.

  • The Knights Templar

    Thu 6 Oct 2022

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the rise and abrupt fall of the famous military order.

  • Angkor Wat

    Thu 23 Jun 2022

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great Cambodian temple complex, begun 900 years ago.

  • Comenius

    Thu 19 May 2022

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 17th-century Czech educator committed to toleration.

  • The Davidian Revolution

    Thu 5 May 2022

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the lasting impact of David I, King of Scotland c1084-1153

  • Olympe de Gouges

    Thu 21 Apr 2022

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of The Declaration of the Rights of Woman, 1791

  • Homo erectus

    Thu 14 Apr 2022

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the two-million-year span of our most adaptable ancestor.

  • In Our Time is now first on 成人论坛 Sounds

    Fri 4 Mar 2022

    New episodes will now be available first on Sounds for 28 days before other podcast apps.

  • The Arthashastra

    Thu 3 Mar 2022

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ancient Indian Sanskrit text the Arthashastra.

  • Peter Kropotkin

    Thu 24 Feb 2022

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the prominent Russian anarchist and his idea of Mutual Aid

  • The Temperance Movement

    Thu 3 Feb 2022

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the enthusiasm in Britain for abstaining from alcohol.

  • The Gold Standard

    Thu 20 Jan 2022

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss what happened when world currencies were tied to gold

  • The Hittites

    Thu 23 Dec 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the great powers of the Late Bronze Age.

  • The May Fourth Movement

    Thu 9 Dec 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas and protests in 1919 that shaped modern China.

  • The Battle of Trafalgar

    Thu 2 Dec 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Nelson's famous victory and death on 21 October 1805.

  • The Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth

    Thu 14 Oct 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Europe's largest republic, before its partition in 1772.

  • The Manhattan Project

    Thu 7 Oct 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the race to build an atom bomb before anyone else in WW2

  • Herodotus

    Thu 23 Sep 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Greek writer known as the father of history.

  • Edward Gibbon

    Thu 17 Jun 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the author of Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.

  • Booth's Life and Labour Survey

    Thu 10 Jun 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Charles Booth's landmark survey of London's poor and rich.

  • The Interregnum

    Thu 27 May 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the upheavals of 1649-60 in the British Isles

  • The Second Barons' War

    Thu 6 May 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Simon de Montfort's fatal struggle with Henry III's forces

  • Ovid

    Thu 29 Apr 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss one of the most influential poets of Rome's Augustan Age.

  • The Franco-American Alliance 1778

    Thu 22 Apr 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the French fight against Britain in America and its impact

  • Pierre-Simon Laplace

    Thu 8 Apr 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the great French mathematician behind metrication.

  • The Russo-Japanese War

    Thu 1 Apr 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the 1904-5 clash of Japanese and Russian empires.

  • David Ricardo

    Thu 25 Mar 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Ricardo's argument on free trade after the Napoleonic wars

  • Marcus Aurelius

    Thu 25 Feb 2021

    Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the life and meditations of 'the last good Roman emperor'.

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