Episodes
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Historian, broadcaster and author Jonathan Dimbleby joins Dan to explain how Hitler's plans in the East went disastrously wrong.
2 weeks after the D-Day landings, a gigantic Soviet offensive tore through the German lines on the Eastern Front. Named for the Russian general who fought Napoleon, Operation Bagration swept through Byelorussia and put the Red Army within striking distance of Berlin. On the anniversary of this vital offensive, Jonathan and Dan look at the role it played in the liberation of Europe.
Jonathan's new book is called 'Endgame 1944: How Stalin Won the War'.
Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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Please note that this episode contains some explicit language.
This is the story of Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, Britain's most extraordinary soldier. The one-handed, one-eyed, walking stick-wielding war hero fought in the Second Boer War, The First World War and the Second World War. He was wounded countless times, awarded prestigious medals for gallantry, and made into a figure of legend. Away from the battlefield the eccentric veteran rubbed shoulders with kings and emperors, and worked with some of the most important world leaders of the 20th century.
To tell this astonishing tale, Dan weaves his storytelling with the words of Carton De Wiart himself, read by Dan's father, Peter Snow. In this second episode, Carton de Wiart survives the 1939 invasion of Poland, becomes a POW in Italy and eventually makes his way to China, where he becomes Churchill's personal representative to Chiang Kai-shek.
Written and produced by Dan Snow, and edited by Dougal Patmore.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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Missing episodes?
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This is the story of Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, Britain's most extraordinary soldier. The one-handed, one-eyed, walking stick-wielding war hero fought in the Second Boer War, The First World War and the Second World War. He was wounded countless times, awarded prestigious medals for gallantry, and made into a figure of legend. Away from the battlefield the eccentric veteran rubbed shoulders with kings and emperors, and worked with some of the most important world leaders of the 20th century.
To tell this astonishing tale, Dan weaves his storytelling with the words of Carton De Wiart himself, read by Dan's father, Peter Snow. In this first episode, we follow the aspiring young officer from his baptism by fire in South Africa to the trenches of the Western Front.
Written and produced by Dan Snow, and edited by Dougal Patmore.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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With a sinister hierarchy of "grand wizards" and "dragons," hooded Klansmen concealed their identities as they unleashed a reign of terror on Black Americans and other minorities across America for almost a century.
Dan is joined by Professor Kristofer Allerfeldt from the University of Exeter to map out the rise and fall of the KKK founded in 1866 by Confederate veterans in Tennessee, as a vehicle for white Southerners to resist Reconstruction and the enfranchisement of Black Americans right through to the 21st century.
Produced by Mariana Des Forges, James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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100 years ago, in the spring of 1864, the Overland Campaign ignited a ferocious clash between two titans of US military history: Ulysses S. Grant, the rugged and relentless Union general, versus the Confederate general Robert E. Lee, a suave southern officer and master of strategy.
Theirs was a hotly-contested rivalry, and the debate still rages on to this day - who was the better general? To help you decide, we're joined by Jonathan D. Bratten, an engineer officer and command historian in the Maine Army National Guard.
Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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The British weren't always imperial global players with an empire of viceroys, redcoats and industrialised trade systems. The early years of the British Empire were actually pretty chaotic; for the English in the 17th century, it was a period of exploration, rugged individuals, private companies, pirates, misadventure and failure.
Dan is joined by David Veevers, historian of Early Modern History at the University of Bangor, to explore those tumultuous early years, how the English moved into new lands, the challenges they faced, how they interacted, cooperated with, attempted to subjugate and were resisted by the indigenous peoples they found.
David's book is called The Great Defiance: How the World Took on the British Empire
Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Teän Stewart-Murray.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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On January 28, 1986, the nation watched in horror as the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded just 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members aboard, including Christa McAuliffe, the first civilian selected to fly into space. The devastating tragedy unfolded live on television, shattering the dreams of millions of schoolchildren who had tuned in to witness this historic mission.
Dan is joined by British journalist and former U.S. correspondent for The Sunday Telegraph Magazine Adam Higginbotham to explore what caused the explosion and how the disaster exposed a deeply flawed decision-making process within NASA, as well as the bravery of the whistleblowers who challenged authority and paid a heavy price.
Adam's book is called Challenger: A True Story of Heroism & Disaster at the Edge of Space.
Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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Dan unravels the mystery surrounding George Mallory and Andrew Irvine's daring attempt to conquer Mount Everest in 1924 - a feat that could have made them the first to stand atop the world's highest peak. He tells the tale of Irvine and Mallory's ascent into the 'Death Zone' where they embarked on their final summit push amidst biting winds and punishing altitudes. Dan also hears from world-renowned climber Jake Norton who was part of an expedition in 1999 to find out what happened to the climbers and describes the group's truly astonishing discovery.
Written and produced by Dan Snow, and James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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With closed borders, a totalitarian regime, electricity blackouts and widespread poverty, North Korea is a brutal place to survive; even looking at a foreign media outlet can get a North Korean citizen sent to a concentration camp. So why, in 2011 did leader Kim Jong Il allow Jean Lee, a celebrated American journalist to set up a news bureau in Pyongyang?
In today's episode, Jean is Dan's guide to North Korea. She tells him about her extraordinary experiences living and working in North Korea as the AP bureau chief. She delves into the history of the Korean peninsula, the Korean War and what made North Korea the country it is today- including the mythology of the Kim dynasty and the famine of the 1990s.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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Just after midnight on the 6th of June, 1944, 181 British glider-borne infantry crashed to earth in the Normandy countryside. They clambered out of their gliders and rushed towards their objectives; two German-held bridges near the D-Day landing zones. This was the opening salvo of D-Day, and their mission was vital - if they failed, their comrades would be trapped on the beaches, unable to move off the sand and vulnerable to counterattack.
To mark the 80th anniversary of this assault, Dan is joined by Neil Barber. Neil has been interviewing veterans of the British 6th Airborne Division in Normandy for almost 30 years. He is the author of ‘Pegasus Bridge - The Capture, Defence and Relief of the Caen Canal and River Orne Bridges on D-Day’. Remembered in the words of the people who were there, Dan and Neil retrace this vital chapter of the D-Day story.
This episode uses AI-generated voices for the excerpts of veteran testimony.
Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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Please note that this episode contains explicit language.
On the 29th of May, 1944, less than a week before D-Day, General George S. Patton gave a rip-roaring speech to the First US Army Group. He spoke of the indomitable American spirit and the fear that his men would inspire in their enemies. He'd given this expletive-riddled address dozens of times, and American GIs loved him for it. But this time, there was a catch; the army he was addressing did not actually exist.
Dan is joined by Taylor Downing, a historian, writer and author of 'The Army That Never Was: D-Day and the Great Deception'. Taylor takes us through this remarkable deception operation, without which D-Day may have gone very differently.
Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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Dan and military historian Stephen Fischer record a moment by moment play of the dramatic and bloody first crucial hour and a half of D-day, as it happened. They breakdown the assaults across the Normandy Beaches including Sword, Omaha and Gold, where over one hundred thousand British, American and Canadian troops landed under a barrage of German fire in an attempt to turn the tide of the war against the Nazis.
Stephen's latest book is called 'Sword Beach'.
Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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In the second episode of our D-Day series, we look to the skies. In the build-up to Operation Overlord, thousands of Allied pilots in heavy bombers and fighter planes ground down the Luftwaffe and destroyed vital infrastructure. On D-Day itself, they supported their comrades on the ground and at sea in roles ranging from reconnaissance to close air support and dropped elite airborne units behind enemy lines.
To talk us through all of that aerial action, Dan is joined by James Daly, a historian, museum curator and author of 'Proposed Airborne Assaults During Operation Overlord'.
Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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This is the often forgotten chapter of the D-Day story.
To begin our series for the 80th anniversary of the D-Day landings, we turn to the massive naval operations that made it all happen. On D-Day itself, 7,000 ships and 195,000 sailors undertook the gargantuan challenge of ferrying men, weapons and supplies ashore to begin the liberation of Europe. But that was just on the 6th of June - it was preceded by years of bitter warfare at sea, without which Operation Overlord could never have happened.
Dan is joined by naval historian Nick Hewitt, author of 'Normandy: The Sailors' Story', who explains why Allied sailors were the bedrock for Operation Overlord. Whether it be through intelligence gathering, naval bombardment or sinking German U-boats, actions at sea were absolutely vital in paving the way for D-Day.
Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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In the 1950s, the US government conducted a series of nuclear bomb tests in the Mojave desert, right next door to Las Vegas. Tourists flocked to the luxurious hotels of America's gambling capital to watch mushroom clouds billow over the horizon. These tests sparked an obsession with a chemical element that still inspires fear and fascination to this day - uranium.
Dan is joined by Lucy Jane Santos, author of 'The Atomic City: Las Vegas, Nuclear Energy, and the Uranium Era'. Lucy takes us through the highlights of the history of uranium and explains why Las Vegas exemplifies our fascination with this element.
Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Max Carrey.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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"I came. I saw. I conquered".
Perhaps the most famous Julius Caesar quote of all time. But after hearing all about his bedroom antics, it takes on a slightly...different meaning.
From Cleopatra to his three wives, to male lovers, to mistresses - Julius Caesar definitely slept his way around Rome.
Today Kate is Betwixt the Ancient Roman Sheets with Emma Southon, to find out all about his rampant sex life.
This podcast was edited by Tom Delargy and produced by Stuart Beckwith. The senior producer was Charlotte Long.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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This is the story of a bloody mutiny aboard the Boston-based schooner, the Rising Sun. The ship had been on a routine smuggling voyage before it was violently seized by three opportunistic crew members. They had their sights set on the lucrative cargo she carried, but below decks, the Rising Sun hid an even more sinister secret; 15 terrified enslaved people, held in the ship's hold as the mutiny raged overhead.
Dan is joined by Jared Ross Hardesty, a professor of history at Western Washington University and the author of ‘Mutiny on the Rising Sun: A Tragic Tale of Slavery, Smuggling, and Chocolate’. Jared takes us through this rebellion at sea from beginning to end and sheds light on the shady worlds of smuggling and slavery in 18th century colonial America.
Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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June 6th marks the 80th anniversary of D-Day and Dan Snow's History Hit is it by bringing you its biggest series yet. From now until May next year, we'll be marking the pivotal moments from D-Day to VE Day. This was the titanic struggle that saw the Allies advance from East and West to crush the Third Reich and hasten the end of the most terrible war in history.
Join us as we take you through the Battle of Normandy and the liberation of France, the disaster of Operation Market Garden, the terrible fighting in the Ardennes as well as the gargantuan clashes on the Eastern Front. We'll also be marking the big anniversaries in the Pacific and Southeast Asian theatres as well. You can expect some epic storytelling from the best experts in the field. We're going to be hearing from Nick Hewitt, James Holland and Jonathan Dimbleby amongst many others. And, we'll also hear testimony from those who were there during those climactic final months of The Second World War.
This is your definitive guide to World War II from D-Day to Berlin so make sure to follow Dan Snow's History Hit wherever you get your podcasts.
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Jane Seymour is a paradox. Of Henry VIII’s six wives, she is the one about whom we know perhaps the least. She was the most lowly of the queens, but she had royal blood. She's often described as plain and mousy and lacking opinions, but when we do see her in the sources, she tends to be doing something that shows agency, while wearing some very flashy clothes indeed. So what can we make of Jane Seymour?
In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Dr. Elizabeth Norton, author of a 2009 book about Jane Seymour and a forthcoming scholarly biography.
This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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2/2. The British Empire aggressively pursued the opium trade well into the 19th century, fueling an addiction epidemic within China. The Qing government was determined to stamp out this destructive trade, leading to the First and Second Opium Wars. But the British Royal Navy was at its apogee, and re-exerted British control over the Chinese state. In the infamous final chapter of this story, British and French forces looted and destroyed the Imperial Summer Palace in Beijing stealing everything from priceless art to the Emperor's Pekinese dogs.
In the second episode of a two-part mini-series Dan and Dr Jeremiah Jenne, a professor of Late Imperial and Modern China, delve into the history of the Opium trade in the British Empire, how it brought crisis to China and started a war that still impacts China's relationship with the west today.
Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Dougal Patmore.
Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.
We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at [email protected].
You can take part in our listener survey here.
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