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Short History Of...
30 episodes
Salvador Dalí
Ep 249 · Aug 16, 2026 · 52 min
With his expressive face and gravity-defying moustache, Salvador Dalí is one of the most recognisable – and influential – artists of the 20th century. Famed for his paintings of melting clocks and his lobster telephone, Dalí also cultivated a larger-than-life character for himself to play, using fashion and performance to blur the boundaries between art and reality. But alongside the deliberately provocative persona lurked a fascination with fascism and a sometimes-violent temper. So…
Nellie Bly
Ep 248 · Aug 9, 2026 · 51 min
Nellie Bly was one of the most famous journalists on earth, a trailblazer who forged a unique path through an industry in which few women had ever worked. Challenging powerful institutions and exposing hidden injustice, she chased danger across continents, shocking readers with the places she was willing to go in pursuit of a story. But how did an ordinary young woman convince major editors to give her a chance to become a pioneer in journalism? What drove her to fake insanity in order to expose…
Ned Kelly
Ep 247 · Aug 2, 2026 · 50 min
Ned Kelly, the leader of the infamous Kelly gang, has been described as Australia's only truly national hero. During a short but intense crime spree at the end of the 1870s, he led a gang of notorious outlaws who rampaged through the Australian bush, robbing banks and stealing horses as they evaded capture for more than two years. For some, Kelly embodies a certain rugged, masculine Australian spirit - a heroic anti-establishment figure, standing up for poor farmers against the corruptions of th…
Longitude
Ep 246 · Jul 26, 2026 · 55 min
It was once one of the great unsolved problems of the early modern world: the calculation of exactly how far east or west a given point was on the surface of the Earth. Longitude was a challenge that sat at the intersection of science, navigation, empire and time itself. For centuries, sailors had been able to determine latitude, or their position north or south, with reasonable confidence. But its counterpart remained dangerously elusive, leaving those traversing the oceans vulnerable to error,…
Ireland’s Easter Rising
Ep 245 · Jul 19, 2026 · 54 min
In April 1916, a small group of poorly-armed Irish radicals made a stand against the British Army, in a bid for independence for their homeland. Over six days during Easter week, almost 500 people died in the uprising, and thousands more were injured, leaving Dublin one of the most war-damaged cities in Europe. The Irish insurgents in what some call the Poet’s Rebellion were not soldiers but writers, teachers, and thinkers. And though these men and women brought destruction and bloodshed to thei…
The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster
Ep 244 · Jul 12, 2026 · 53 min
In 1986, seven astronauts boarded Space Shuttle Challenger for what was meant to be a routine tenth flight of the orbiter. Seventy-three seconds after lift-off, the shuttle broke apart in front of millions of viewers, in what remains one of the worst disasters in the history of human spaceflight. But how did a craft NASA claimed was as safe as an airliner come to fail in full view of a watching nation? Who knew the risks, and when? And why, seventeen years later, did it happen again? This is a S…
The Brink’s-Mat Robbery
Ep 243 · Jul 5, 2026 · 50 min
The Brink’s-Mat robbery was one of the largest thefts in British history. The discovery of the record-breaking haul in a west London warehouse in 1983 set off a chain of events that would echo through Britain’s criminal underworld for decades. It helped shape the property boom of the 1980s, the drugs trade of the 1990s and left an enduring mark on UK crime and policing. But who were the men behind the so-called robbery of the century? Why did the tentacles of the theft reach so far? And what is…
The Founding Fathers of the US (Re-run)
Jul 3, 2026 · 58 min
The founding of the United States on July 4th, 1776, changed the world, and inspired other colonies to control their own destinies. The men responsible for writing and signing the Declaration of Independence - the Founding Fathers - have gone down in history as legends, with an almost ‘God-like status’. But nearly 250 years on, their legacy is challenged and debated. So who were the founding fathers? How did their talents, ideas and flaws shape their nation? And how do the choices they made in t…
Hurricane Katrina
Ep 242 · Jun 28, 2026 · 52 min
In August 2005, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico barrelled toward the United States. When Hurricane Katrina finally struck land, it devastated hundreds of miles of shoreline, but the disaster that captured the world’s attention unfolded in one place above all: the city of New Orleans. Within hours of the storm passing, the flood defence levees meant to protect the city broke, and it began to fill with water. What followed the natural disaster was a crisis that…
The Kray Twins
Ep 241 · Jun 21, 2026 · 53 min
Ronnie and Reggie Kray were a vicious pair of gangsters who somehow cultivated an air of charm and 60s cool. They were criminals who attracted celebrities like Jackie Collins and Judy Garland to the clubs they ran; murderers who became folk heroes in London's East End. But how did two boys from poverty-stricken post-war London come to rule the capital's underworld? Who were Reggie and Ronnie to the people who knew them, and to each other? And what caused their carefully constructed criminal empi…
Introducing: Founding Fathers: An American Dream - Episode 1
Jun 16, 2026 · 60 min
This is a preview of a brand-new show from the Noiser Podcast Network. Hosted by Clarke Peters (The Wire, The Boroughs), 'Founding Fathers: An American Dream' tells the epic story of the birth of the United States of America, 250 years ago. Follow George Washington into bloody battles, sit alongside Thomas Jefferson as he crafts the Declaration of Independence, hear Alexander Hamilton debate the future of the new nation. And discover things you may never have known about this world-changing figh…
Punk
Ep 240 · Jun 14, 2026 · 50 min
By the mid-1970s, many young British people felt locked out of life. The country was struggling, the future uncertain, and for a generation coming of age, there was a growing sense that no one was listening. In cities across the nation, and in parallel scenes in America and beyond, young people decided to make themselves heard. Picking up instruments with little training and forming bands with no expectation of success, they created something raw, fast and confrontational. Punk was a movement th…
Jacques Cousteau
Ep 239 · Jun 7, 2026 · 55 min
Co-inventor of the Aqua-Lung, Captain Jacques Cousteau opened the ocean to the public like no one before. An explorer, filmmaker and environmentalist, he led groundbreaking underwater expeditions, and pioneered techniques for filming beneath the waves. Through his documentaries and television series, he brought the mysteries of the sea into millions of homes, becoming known the world over for his trademark red knitted hat and his beloved ship, the Calypso. But why did the ocean mean so much to h…
Charlemagne
Ep 238 · May 31, 2026 · 52 min
Charlemagne remains one of the towering figures of European history. He created for himself a vast territory that covered most of modern-day France and Germany, encompassing the Low Countries, areas in northern Spain, and parts of Italy. His imperial coronation on Christmas Day 800AD was the culmination of his life’s work. But alongside his sometimes brutal military campaigning, Charlemagne was a devout and cultured leader. He sponsored educational reforms, brought leading scholars from across E…
The Golden Age of Railways
Ep 237 · May 24, 2026 · 55 min
In the early nineteenth century, engineers discovered that steam power and iron rails could be combined to move people and goods faster than any horse or ox could. Within a few decades, railways had spread across every continent. Cities were reorganised around stations, clocks were synchronised, leisure and luxury were redefined, and entire economies began to run according to railway timetables. This was the Golden Age of the railways — a period when steam and steel transformed landscapes and fu…
The Haitian Revolution
Ep 236 · May 17, 2026 · 58 min
The first and only successful uprising of enslaved people to establish a nation-state, the Haitian Revolution began in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1791. Inspired, in part, by the ideals of liberty and equality of the French Revolution, what began as scattered uprisings among the plantations quickly grew into a full-scale insurrection. But how did the Haitian Revolution begin? Who were the brave men and women who risked everything for freedom? And why has the world never stopped punish…
The Real James Bond
Ep 235 · May 10, 2026 · 53 min
In the early years of the twentieth century, long before James Bond stepped onto the page, one man was at work as a new kind of spy. He crossed borders as easily as he changed names, slipped between governments and criminal networks, and dealt in secrets that could mobilise armies and shake empires. To some, he was a genius. To others, a liability waiting to be exposed. That man’s name, or so we’re told, was Sidney Reilly. He is often described as the real James Bond – the man whose nerve, charm…
The Spanish Civil War
Ep 234 · May 3, 2026 · 54 min
The story of Franco’s rise to power and the painful, repressive regime he oversaw is fundamentally interlinked with that of the Spanish Civil War. A brutal three-year conflict that laid bare the ideological divisions of interwar Europe, it drew support from fascist governments across the continent. But it also inspired socialists from around the world to fight for the democratic, republican government, and to oppose the rising tide of fascism wherever and however they could. What caused Spain's…
Sir Francis Drake
Ep 233 · Apr 26, 2026 · 54 min
Sir Francis Drake is most famous for his role in defeating the Armada of 1588 and saving England from a Spanish invasion. By that point in his life, he was already a wealthy and famous seafarer: the first Englishman to sail around the world, knighted by Queen Elizabeth I in recognition of this astounding feat. But though he is remembered in England as a naval hero, Drake spent most of his maritime career as a pirate, feared by the Spanish whose colonies and ships he terrorised. To them, he was ‘…
Bob Dylan
Ep 232 · Apr 19, 2026 · 55 min
The American singer-songwriter and musician Bob Dylan is one of the most important recording artists on the planet. A cultural icon, his work has had a profound influence on popular music since the 1960s. First gaining fame as a folk singer with songs that addressed the subjects of the Cold War and the civil rights movement, he later revolutionised rock music. But Dylan is an artist of contradictions. A magnetic performer who remains fiercely private. One of the wealthiest musicians of his gener…
The American Civil War (Part Two of Two)
Ep 231 · Apr 12, 2026 · 59 min
In the decades since the United States declared their independence from Britain, the question of slavery had become increasingly divisive. As the nation expanded, fragile political agreements over the issue failed, and the frontier became a battleground. When Abraham Lincoln was elected in 1860, seven Southern states chose secession from the Union over accepting limits on slavery. War followed. Eventually, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation and transformed the war from a fight to prese…
The American Civil War (Part One of Two)
Ep 230 · Apr 5, 2026 · 58 min
The American Civil War started with a single, explosive question: could a nation built on slavery survive without it? Several Southern states chose to protect the institution that underpinned their economy and social order, at any cost. But when that necessitated their leaving the Union, the conflict that followed did not unfold along a single front. It tore across the continent, from dusty towns in the far West to river ports along the Mississippi, and from quiet New England villages to the cot…
The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand
Ep 229 · Mar 29, 2026 · 56 min
In 1914, Europe was dominated by four great empires — the British, the French, the Russian, and the vast, uneasy realm of Austria-Hungary, stretching from the Alps to the Balkans. While international treaties bound the continent together under a veneer of peace, beneath the surface, the balance was increasingly fragile. As this tension bubbled, the visit of Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his beloved wife Sophie to Sarajevo was meant to assert imperial authority. But waiting in the shadows, a group…
C.S. Lewis
Ep 228 · Mar 23, 2026 · 55 min
One of the most famous writers of the 20th century, C. S. Lewis was a scholar of medieval literature, an influential Christian thinker and a supremely gifted storyteller. A professor at the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Lewis is perhaps best known for his Chronicles of Narnia – stories which captured the imagination of millions with their blend of spiritual depth and swashbuckling adventure. But how were the seeds of the magical world of Narnia first planted? How did Lewis’ unconventiona…
Introducing: Real Vikings - Episode 1
Mar 18, 2026 · 54 min
This is a preview of a brand-new show from the Noiser podcast network. Hosted by Iain Glen (Game of Thrones, Silo), Real Vikings takes you on a deep dive into the Viking age. You’ll board longboats bound for new lands, follow mighty warlords, meet master navigators, and uncover the real figures behind the legends of the sagas. But we begin on a quiet beach in the south of England, where a cold-blooded murder on the shingle sends shockwaves reverberating throughout Europe… For more episodes, sear…
Ernest Hemingway
Ep 227 · Mar 16, 2026 · 57 min
At the dawn of the twentieth century, a writer emerged who learned his craft not in a classroom, but in battlefields, bullrings, and bars. To some, Ernest Hemingway was the greatest writer of his generation. A Nobel laureate whose sparse, muscular prose changed literature forever. But to others, he was a swaggering egotist, a man addicted to danger and performance, obsessed with his own legend. His own life fuelled his work, just as his work in turn fed his own myth. But behind the mask he forge…
The European Middle Ages (Part 2 of 2)
Ep 226 · Mar 9, 2026 · 57 min
Although the Middle Ages were an undeniably turbulent period in the history of Europe, characterised in part by endemic violence, hardship and inequality, the latter half of the era was also a time of great change and discovery. What historians call the High and Late Middle Ages saw a proliferation of philosophical and scientific enquiry, and economic advancement. This was a time of intense literary and artistic production, religious dynamism, and global trade and travel. An age of contradiction…
The European Middle Ages (Part 1 of 2)
Ep 225 · Mar 2, 2026 · 58 min
The period known as the Middle Ages was defined by more than knights and warfare. It began centuries before the First Crusade was called, in the confusion that followed the end of Roman rule in western Europe. And it persisted for a thousand years, until the Renaissance, the Protestant Reformation, and the discovery of the so-called New World ushered in the beginnings of modernity. But just how important was the fall of Rome for people across the continent? What political and religious instituti…
The Silk Roads
Ep 224 · Feb 23, 2026 · 58 min
From the deserts of Central Asia to the gates of ancient China, from the bazaars of Persia to the harbours of the Mediterranean, the Silk Roads were never just one route. A living network of paths, mountain passes, and caravan trails, they carried not only silk and spices, but stories, beliefs, technologies, and ideas that would reshape entire civilisations. For more than a thousand years, they connected worlds that might otherwise never have met, and, in doing so, transformed them. The Silk Roa…
The Falklands War
Ep 223 · Feb 16, 2026 · 57 min
The sinking of the General Belgrano on May 2nd 1982 by a British submarine was one of the most controversial events of the Falklands War. The strike resulted in the deaths of 323 Argentine sailors, nearly half of Argentina’s total casualties during the conflict. But though the escalation over the preceding months was swift, in some ways, the Falklands War had been simmering for centuries. Argentina, the closest mainland nation to the islands, saw them as a part of its territory and national iden…
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