The Black Death: The Deadliest Plague

How long could you stand living in a house haunted by a vengeful poltergeist?That's the situation a Scottish family found themselves in in the late 17th century. As members of the local community gathered to try investigate, a terrifying mystery unfolded... What was the cause beh ...  Show more

What’s better than a witch story on Halloween? Today, we’ve got a special episode from Cautionary Tales’ Tim Harford to share. Back in 1612 Lancashire, a chance roadside argument between a peddler and a teenage girl spirals into England's most notorious witch trial, after the ped ...  Show more

Between 75 million and 200 million people died in the Black Death, or Plague, which caused social, economic and religious upheavals that had a profound effect on the course of European history. How did the Black Death come about? How did if affect particular populations? For how ...  Show more

The Black Death was gruesome: Symptoms included tumors, purple splotches, fevers and vomiting. But how did this disease manage to spread from the Gobi desert and kill approximately one-third of the population of 14th-century Europe? Find out in this classic episode.

In the late 1340s, people in cities, towns and villages across the medieval world began to fall ill from a mysterious pestilence. This six part series looks at the how the Black Death shook the Middle Ages, killing millions and transforming societies. Speaking to expert historian ...  Show more