Updated on 3rd December

A History of the World in 100 Objects

With Neil MacGregor’s excellent Germany: Memories of a Nation having recently finished on Radio 4, listeners already missing the Director of the British Museum’s erudite radio presence may be pleased to learn that his 2010 magnum opus - a hundred-part, object-led journey through two million years of human history - is also available as a podcast. Each fifteen-minute episode works as a standalone (as well as a part of the greater whole), and focuses on a single artefact - from a simple stone chopping tool found in the Rift Valley to a solar powered lamp and phone charger - which MacGregor describes and contextualises with captivating, Attenborough-esque skill.

History Extra

This engaging weekly podcast by the folks behind BBC History Magazine contains features on a mixture of popular, big-draw topics (Thomas Cromwell, the Great War, Richard III), and pleasingly off-piste ones (Cold War smuggling, the relationship between James Bond and Jamaica, the trials of Joan of Arc). Recent contributors include Randulph Fiennes, Charles Spencer and Tracy Borman.

The Memory Palace

Created by a sparklingly talented American writer and radio producer called Nate DiMeo, this podcast applies dreamy, This American Life-style production values to short historical narratives, often to beguiling effect. Episodes are bracingly concise, sporadically uploaded, and have touched upon everything from the historical perspective of the arctic bowhead whale (#50) to 19th century reports of civilised beavers observed living on the moon (#24) to Harriet Quimby, the first American woman to be granted a pilot’s licence (#59).

Bizarre States



Listeners with an interest – however quizzical – in UFOs, ghosts, government conspiracies and all things paranormal may warm to this podcast from the unabashedly geeky Nerdist team. Hosted by Jessica Chobot and Andrew Bowser, each episode dives enthusiastically down a rabbit hole or two – among them Paris’s macabre network of catacombs, the uncannily dark history of L A’s Cecil Hotel, and the as-yet-unexplained phenomenon of “Toynbee tiles”, which have been appearing in cities around the world since the Eighties. Entertaining, quirky, and not-entirely-serious listening.

To the Best of Our Knowledge



Each episode of this series from Wisconsin Public Radio takes a big theme, enlists a handful of experts, and attempts to shed some light on it. The result is like a more zeitgeisty, less academic version of Radio 4’s In Our Time, and has recently tackled subjects as diverse as the passing of time, religion in a secular age, the beauty of laughter and the emotional lives of our ape cousins.

BBC World War One



As you’d expect of a national broadcaster on the hundredth anniversary of an epoch-defining conflict, the BBC has been airing a wealth of different material about the First World War, from drama to documentaries to historical debates - much of it archived and accessible via www.bbc.co.uk/ww1. But if that seems like a rather daunting haystack of content, this more manageable podcast strand collects the WW1-related documentaries aired on BBC radio into one place.

Rex Factor



Promising "a light–hearted look at all the kings and queens of England, from Alfred the Great to Elizabeth II", this lively podcast strand has been active for the last three years and is now on its penultimate monarch, George VI. Presented by a pair of jovial enthusiasts called Graham Duke and Ally Hood, it's a long way from the David Starkey school of monarchical history, preferring pithy facts, jokes and Top Trumps–style rankings to bookish analysis; but it's genuinely entertaining stuff and could be a good way of introducing young listeners to the subject.

History of World War Two Podcast



With 70–plus years having passed since the events of the Second World War, the conflict shows no signs of loosening its grip on our collective curiosity – much to the chagrin of historians in other fields. No such problems for Ray Harris Jr, a likeable American specialist who writes and presents this long–running podcast series charting the history of the War. Be warned, though: it's a decidedly in–depth affair, with nearly 90 episodes already online and the years 1942–1945 yet to be covered. Still, the detail is compelling. One episode is dedicated entirely to the lives of American emigres in Occupied Paris

Stuff You Missed in History Class



This bi–weekly history podcast is made by the team from the supremely popular How Stuff Works website (www.howstuffworks.com). It's a quirky, diverting series, which hones in on stories that get glossed over in history books, from a profile of the first African American war correspondent to a look at the top five scandals involving Marie Antoinette.

Oxford Dictionary of National Biography



The good folks at the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography have recorded over two hundred podcast readings from their vast (59,000+) archive of biographies of British figures. Organised into curiosity-piquing categories like 'criminal lives', 'explorers and pioneers' and (my personal favourite) 'one-offs', they weave a stimulating tapestry of British figures from the near and distant past -- taking in everyone from Friar Tuck to Boudicca to Mo Mowlam.

Philosophize This!



Steven West, the writer-presenter of this wise and accessible series about the history of philosophy, began making it because he felt that other podcasts on the topic were pitched too high. A year later, it’s clocked up nearly thirty episodes, thousands of fans, and has allowed him to quit his day job as a fork-lift truck operator to concentrate on the podcast full-time. Each episode focuses on a different philosophical school or thinker - from Pre-Socratic Philosophy to Montaigne - and never fails to leave me feeling more enlightened.

Witness



Every weekday morning at ten to eight, the BBC World Service broadcasts an episode of this wonderful series in which people who were present at defining historical events talk about their experiences. It's a little sad to think that the majority of the British listening public – glued as we are then to the Today programme or Chris Evans – regularly miss it; but thankfully it's available as a podcast as well. Recent highlights include firsthand memories of F Scott Fitzgerald, the exposé of a secret US attack on Cambodia during the Vietnam War and Sir Stanley Matthews's careerdefining performance in the 1953 FA Cup final.

Snap Judgement



This long-running American podcast allows regular people who have lived through challenging, strange or painful experiences to tell their stories - often with fantastically emotive results. To give a particularly moving recent example, episode #324 featured the recollections of a 93 year-old British veteran called Tom Tate, who narrowly avoided death during the Second World War thanks in part to the kindness of an anonymous German woman.

The Writer’s Almanac



There are few more comforting radio voices on the planet than that of Garrison Keillor, American broadcaster, humourist and author, whom you may know either from A Prairie Home Companion or the voiceovers on Honda’s TV ads. This beautiful daily podcast features him reading a handful of “on this day in history” nuggets and a short poem or two. Bliss.