For hundreds of years, people have gathered after dark to drink, dance and escape the pressures of everyday life. But how did 'going out' become a habit across the world? Jon Bauckham chats to Imogen Willetts about the hedonistic history of partying, journeying from 17th-century ...Show more
All Episodes
A wild history of partying
For hundreds of years, people have gathered after dark to drink, dance and escape the pressures of everyday life. But how did 'going out' become a habit across the world? Jon Bauckham chats to Imogen Willetts about the hedonistic history of partying, journeying from 17th-century ...Show more
Yuri Gagarin: life of the week
Yuri Gagarin’s journey from a Nazi-occupied Soviet village into outer space make him one of the most famous people on Earth. In this episode, historian Asif Siddiqi tells Danny Bird about the life behind the legend, revealing how Gagarin came to embody the USSR’s postwar ambition ...Show more
How Christianity conquered the Roman empire
The Roman empire was home to a multitude of religious cults in the first century AD. However, only one – Christianity – rose to global domination. But why? That's a question that Tim Whitmarsh sets out to answer in his latest book, Rome's Age of Revolution. In this episode, Tim t ...Show more
The Odyssey’s forgotten epilogue
Why did Alexander the Great sleep with a copy of the Odyssey under his pillow? In this final episode of HistoryExtra's four-part series, Kev Lochun and classicist Daisy Dunn explore the astonishing cultural legacy of a poem that has been shaping how we think about home, heroism a ...Show more
Why did witches confess?
Who were the people that were accused of witchcraft in the 1640s British witch trials? And why did they confess to being in league with the devil? In this episode, Marion Gibson breaks down the trial and interrogation records left behind by the witch hunters, to reveal the real s ...Show more