The best history podcasts

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last updated 2 August 2024

If tales of the past are your bag, the podcast has proven to be a fine platform for both historical deep dives and retrospective digestible nibbles. "Being a history buff is no longer just about reading books", said Time Out, and if you have the appetite "luckily, there’s absolutely loads of them out there." And as our pick of history podcasts reveals "Little is as connective as a truly great story", said Vogue, "and history is full of them."

Behind the Bastards

Robert Evans looks at history through the lens of its very worst humans in "Behind the Bastards". The American journalist and author manages to "find fresh and enjoyably weird angles", even when "covering well-trodden ground", said The New York Times. He also has a "knack" for drawing parallels with more recent events; following the murder of George Floyd in 2020 he produced a spin-off series, "Behind the Police" that examined the "chequered history" of policing in the US.

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Matt Forde and Alice Levine delve into the darker side of the British elite, unpacking a new scandal each series from the Profumo affair to Jeremy Thorpe's downfall. In the "strangely effective formula", one presenter recounts a story while the other "chips in with jokes, reactions and cheeky asides", said James Marriott in The Times. More recently, the duo turned their hands to current affairs with an "entertaining" series on the poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko which "just about stayed on the right side of good taste".

Produced by Slate, this in-depth multi-season podcast examines the people and events that have "profoundly impacted" the world we live in today. The "strongest instalments" are the early series hosted by Leon Neyfakh, said Vogue. First comes a "truly gripping, blow-by-blow" account of the Watergate scandal, followed by a "hair-raising and heart-breaking" examination of the Clinton-Lewinsky affair. The "meticulously researched" podcast makes it feels as if "you're right there in the room with those involved".

This series sees historians Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook "interrogating the past, and attempting to de-tangle the present", said the team. They're "distilling the entirety of human history, or, as much as they can fit into about 50 minutes". The series is "breathtaking in its scope", said The New Statesman, as it teaches us about "Pompeii, Vladimir Putin and 'killer fashion', including flammable tutus". The latest eight-part series, launched this week, explores the French Revolution, from Marie Antoinette's controversial life to the dramatic transformation of French society.

This sporadically released series discusses historical events such as the Cold War, Adolf Hitler and the First World War in a "theatre of the mind" style. "If you plan to dedicate any time at all to the history genre, you would be negligent not to start here," said WhatPods. In 2014, Slate magazine ranked the "Ghosts of the Ostfront" episode from 2009 the fifth-best podcast episode of all time, lauding Carlin as a "wide-eyed, colourful guide".

Greg Jenner, of "Horrible Histories" fame, takes the fun of that franchise to the airwaves in this charming podcast. It covers everything from the history of fairy tales, to the history of chocolate. "Whether it is useful in a pub quiz, to impress your friends with fun historical facts, or to broaden your perspective on what history itself means", said Retrospect Journal, this pod will "teach you valuable lessons while you don't even realise you're learning".

This chronological retelling of the history of Britain focuses on the lives of people. "You won't find a dry recounting of dates and battles here," say the makers. "Instead you'll learn about who these people were and how their desires, fears, and flaws" shaped our history. The "fiercely independent" series is a "deep, deep dive into the misty past", said Forbes, and "a blast from podcasting's past".

Dan Snow's podcast is "top of the list for history shows", said the London Evening Standard. There are episodes covering events such as the Peterloo Massacre in 1800s Manchester, and the Hiroshima atomic bombing. Offering "digestible nuggets", said The Times, this podcast sets out to cover the "most exciting and important things that have ever happened on the planet". You can't say fairer than that.

Sarah Marshall channels her obsession with the past into this podcast that "reconsiders a person or event that's been miscast in the public imagination", including Tom Cruise jumping on Oprah Winfrey's couch and whether Yoko Ono broke up The Beatles. While they "never sacrifice accuracy for the sake of fun", said Time, their "breezy tone keeps even the heaviest of topics engaging". The hosts "prove time and time again that the past is a different country", said The Irish Times.

Have you missed the biggest news of the week? Or at least the stories which will shape our lives in years to come, when the passing hype of the day's headlines have faded from memory. That's the premise of The Week's own award-winning podcast, "The Week Unwrapped", which seeks out under-reported stories with unexpected consequences, from the world-changing to the small but personally significant.

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