Dan Snow's History Hit

While Ukraine fights to defend itself from Russian forces, Putin makes a nuclear threat to the west and the rest of the world. Dr Jeremy Garlick, Associate Professor of International Relations and China Studies at the University of Economics, Prague, explains the strategies currently being used by Russia and the West, ‘game theory’ and nuclear deterrence between these two opposing forces through recent history.

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Ernest Shackleton's famous shipwreck the Endurance has been found! This is the exclusive behind the scenes story of how the international crew of the Endurance22 expedition made the discovery of a lifetime.

Having not been seen since it was crushed by the Antarctic pack ice in 1915, the Endurance has now been located 3008 metres down, roughly 4 miles from where it sank in the Weddell Sea. A race against the clock and the encroaching winter dashed hopes and grand revelations; Dan brings you the dramatic story from onboard the SA Agulhas II, as they found it.

Produced by Mariana Des Forges

Mixed and Mastered by Dougal Patmore

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After World War One women outnumbered men by the highest margin in recorded history, even compared to after World War Two. This had wide-reaching implications for the social, demographic and economic fabric of post-war society.

Today Dan is joined by Mary McKee and Paul Nixon from Findmypast to explore: What does the 1921 Census reveal about the impact of the First World War for Britain?

Are you interested in exploring your own family history? After years spent digitising and transcribing this unique record of your recent history, the 1921 Census is now available exclusively online with Findmypast. Start exploring now at findmypast.co.uk.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

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In April 1945, weeks before the Nazi defeat, nine women made a last-ditch escape from the concentration camp at Ravensbruck. The group, who had all been imprisoned for resistance activity, then undertook a perilously 10-day journey across Nazi frontlines. 

In today's episode, Dan speaks to Gwen Strauss, whose great-aunt was among the nine, about how she uncovered the details of this incredible escape whilst researching her book. 

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

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This year is the 150th anniversary of the world's first national park of its kind, Yellowstone. Each year nearly four million people visit the park but many are unaware of how it was founded.

Its founding act as a snapshot of key forces in post Civil War America; reconstruction and the Republican parties national project; industrialisation and the coming of the railways, and; and the resistance of Native Americans at risk of losing their homelands to white settlers moving westward.

In this episode, we are joined by Megan Kate Nelson, author of Saving Yellowstone: Exploration and Preservation in Reconstruction America, who will unpick the complicated legacy of this iconic landmark.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

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Edward VI, son of Henry VIII, became king at the age of nine. All around him loomed powerful men who hoped to use him to further their own ends. Edward was the only Tudor monarch who was groomed to reign, and it was assumed he would become as commanding a figure as his father had been. In this edition of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb talks to Professor Stephen Alford, to discover the story of a boy learning to rule and emerge from the shadows of the great aristocrats around him - only to die unexpectedly at the age of 15.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

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On today's episode, Dan takes the podcast out onto the Antarctic ice to find penguins, seals and the expedition scientists conducting experiments. He joins Dr Stefanie Arndt of the Alfred Wegener Institute as she researches climate change in the Weddell Sea's ice. Dan catches her just as she discovers some tiny and very rare snow crystals and her enthusiasm is infectious.

He also takes a trip back up to the ship's bridge to speak with Captain Knowledge Bengu, South Africa's first black ice pilot about his trailblazing career and the sheer might of the SA Agulhas II as he navigates through the heavy ice.

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Who were the real Peaky Blinders? Did they really exist? Carl Chinn reveals the true story of the notorious gangs that roamed Birmingham's streets during the city's industrial heyday.

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After the death of Chinggis Khan, the founder and first Emperor of the Mongol Empire, the land became the largest contiguous empire in history.

The Horde, the western portion of the Mongol empire, was the central node in the Eurasian commercial boom of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries and was a conduit for exchanges across thousands of miles. A force in global development as important as Rome, the Horde left behind a profound legacy in Europe, Russia, Central Asia, and the Middle East, palpable to this day.

Marie Favereau, Associate Professor of History at Paris Nanterre University, joins Dan on the podcast. They discuss the Mongols as thinkers who constructed one of the most influential empires in history and how that empire continued to shape, incubate and grow the political cultures it conquered.

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Please note that this episode contains spoilers from the film ‘The Duke’.

Kempton Bunton was a taxi driver who stole Goya’s portrait of the Duke of Wellington from the National Gallery in London. It was the first and remains the only, theft in the Gallery’s history. Kempton proceeded to send ransom notes declaring that he would only return the painting on the condition that the government invest more in care for the elderly, specifically bringing attention to his long-running campaign for pensioners to receive free television.

With Dan currently away in Antarctica, Matt Lewis, from the ‘Gone Medieval’ podcast, stepped in to make sure that you did not miss out on this caper that details the theft and the following trial. Matt is joined by Kempton Bunton's grandson, Chris, for a discussion of ‘The Duke’ and the remarkable true story behind the film.

‘The Duke’ is in UK cinemas from 25th February.

If you'd like to learn more, we have hundreds of history documentaries, ad-free podcasts and audiobooks at History Hit - subscribe today! To download the History Hit app please go to the Android or Apple store.

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