Prison Hulks: Floating Hells for Convicts

It all started when a huge storm drowned 40 men on Christmas Eve, 1617.The people of Vardø, northern Norway, needed someone to blame.What followed were devastating witch trials which featured one of the highest execution rates in Europe, and implicated the town's women and the su ...  Show more

The Fire that struck London in 1666 was one of the city's darkest chapters. In this episode, Anthony and Maddy examine the accounts of people who witnessed the disaster at the time, tracing the story from its origin in Pudding Lane right up until its dying embers...Who quickly di ...  Show more

Ear Hustle is prison slang for eavesdropping, and that’s what listening to the show feels like: a raw, often funny, and always surprising peek into the reality of life inside prison. Hosts Nigel Poor and Earlonne Woods co-created the show that launched in 2017 while Earlonne was ...  Show more

Why did a British ship carry over 200 women to Australia in the late 18th century? In this episode, we are going inside the Lady Juliana, a convict transportation ship.What crimes were these women being punished for? What was life like on the ship? And why was it called a 'floati ...  Show more

In this episode of Lady Swindlers, Lucy Worsley is exploring the life of Sophie Lyons, pickpocket, blackmailer and conwoman extraordinaire, known as the infamous Queen of the Underworld.Born in Germany in the late 1840s, aged 8 Sophie moves to New York, USA. She is taught from an ...  Show more

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What is it like to receive a life sentence?

We're joined by two peopl ...