The best history podcasts actually have a lot to say about the present. After all, as novelist Pearl Buck once poignantly put it: “If you want to understand today, you have to search yesterday.”
With current global affairs shifting at an ever-quickening pace and an important election on the horizon, there’s never been a better time to mine the annals of the past for insight—not just in order to feel more informed, but also to feel less alone. Little is as connective as a truly great story, and history is full of them.
Here, a look at some of our favorites history podcasts in every category, spanning the worlds of politics, art, fashion, entertainment, and beyond. Who knows—you may just find yourself swapping your go-to true crime podcasts for one or two of the very worthwhile listens below.
We’ve all heard the cliché that “behind every great man, there’s a great woman,” but how often do we get to hear the details about who these people really were? This pod uncovers the hidden truths about the individuals who never became household names but who—thanks to their intimate relationships with notable figures—irrevocably shaped history nonetheless. Just take Gala Dalí, the wife of painter Salvador Dalí, who lived a very Surrealist life of her own and influenced an entire genre of art. “Each episode tells a story you might not know about a person you probably do,” explains narrator Liza O’Brien, who just so happens to be the wife of Conan O’Brien. “History is full of great individuals, but if we look beyond the spotlight who else might we see? Almost always the story sheds light on not only the past, but the present as well.” Featuring cameos from guests like Ester Perel, Malcolm Gladwell, Jameela Jamil, Rita Wilson, Lisa Kudrow, and more, Significant Others provides valuable insight into what it truly takes to make a mark.
Hosts Tom Holland (a different one!) and Dominic Sandbrook are quintessential academics complete with proper British accents and Oxford degrees—but don’t let their prestigious credentials fool you: The Rest Is History is anything but stodgy. With humor, wit, and an occasional improvised reenactment, the two are able to take even the most dry-sounding topic, connect the dots, and distill it down into a fascinating tale of drama, scandal, and awe. There’s seemingly nothing they can’t expertly discuss or banter on about; the 600-plus episode topics range from classic (the death of JFK; Genghis Khan) to mythic (the history of dragons; Atlantis). Listen to just one episode and you’ll walk away not only feeling ten times smarter, but also highly entertained.
Thanks to archival recordings, expert commentary, and careful sound layering, listening to Throughline feels a bit like eavesdropping on a documentary rather than tuning in to a podcast. Each slickly produced and thoroughly researched episode drops you right into the action, bringing the distant (and not-so-distant past) sharply into the present to answer the timeless question: How did we get here? Though the podcast covers serious and important topics (poverty in America, the 14th Amendment, the rise of Hamas) it also dives deep into fascinating thematic territory. Some favorite episodes in that vein include “The Nostalgia Bone,” which explores our obsession with “the good old days”; “The Scent of History,” an examination of smell and memory; and “The Labor of Love,” which looks at the American myth of the ideal mother.
Billed as the history podcast for people who don’t like history, Greg Jenner’s light-hearted but thorough series offers snapshots of historical figures, periods, civilizations, and phenomena, with standalone episodes on all manner of weird and wonderful things—from the history of 18th-century fandoms to Victorian bodybuilding. Comedians are brought on to quiz historians on these wacky topics, giving us plenty to laugh about but just as much to chew over as we question our own views of the past and the people who shaped it.
With another divisive presidential election looming, there’s no better time to revisit this Washington Post podcast from 2016, helmed by the sensitive Lillian Cunningham, which examines the American presidency, from 1789 to today. Episode by episode, she takes us from the stories of the almost mythical George Washington and Thomas Jefferson to figures like Millard Fillmore and Rutherford B. Hayes, considering how the impact of their work can be felt in our current political system, as well as the lessons that can be learned from their time in the White House. The deep dives into Abraham Lincoln, Franklin D. Roosevelt, and John F. Kennedy are as moving as they are eye-opening, but special mention must go to the Richard Nixon episode featuring Bob Woodward, one of the investigative reporters who uncovered the Watergate scandal that precipitated Nixon’s downfall; and the ones dissecting the lives of more recent presidents including Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, Donald Trump, and Joe Biden. Cunningham summarizes their terms but also gets under their skin, speaking to historians, biographers, and political strategists about what they’re really like and the personal histories that compelled them to seek the highest office in their nation.
Why have certain people or events been miscast in the public imagination? That’s the question journalists Sarah Marshall and Michael Hobbes ask in this compelling series which seeks to debunk our misconceptions about everything from the escapades of Bonnie and Clyde to vilified women like Princess Diana, Marie Antoinette, Monica Lewinsky, and Yoko Ono. It’ll make you reconsider everything you thought you knew, and identify the roots of those misunderstandings, too.
The half Indian, half Irish, Australia-raised journalist Marc Fennell, who describes himself as a product of the British Empire who has no real understanding of his own history, is the engaging host of this engrossing, bluntly titled podcast. It focuses on that empire’s extensive loot, now displayed in museums and galleries across the country—objects with complex, contested histories, many of which have sparked global debates about what ought to be returned, and to where. One episode might center on how the Parthenon marbles ended up in the British Museum (answer: via bribes, court cases, and dodgy deals) and the centuries-long campaign to have them brought back to Greece, while another examines how Tippoo’s Tiger at the V&A, a wooden toy tiger presented mauling a European soldier, which was taken from the South Indian ruler Tipu Sultan after his death, became a symbol of the struggle between India and its former colonizers.
Historians April Calahan and Cassidy Zachary’s absorbing podcast is a fashion obsessive’s dream, offering wide-ranging discussions on the history of clothes, trends, and subcultures, from the industry’s enduring obsession with Egyptomania to the emergence of the Barbie doll as a fashion icon and the significance of Kim Kardashian wearing Marilyn Monroe’s dress to the Met Gala. Ever wondered why women’s clothes still have fewer pockets? Or what the connection is between the invention of cat-eye glasses and cigarettes? They have all the answers.
Listening to this Hollywood history podcast is the aural equivalent of slipping into a warm bath at the end of the day—from the gentle, dreamlike music to the dulcet tones of host Karina Longworth’s voice, it’s as soothing as it gets, and riveting to boot. Her focus is on secret or forgotten stories from the movie business’s first century, so expect to find seasons dedicated to the biggest stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age, the scandals of the silent era, warring gossip columnists, and the erotic thrillers of the ’80s and ’90s. My personal favorites include the six-part series on the wildly ambitious Joan Crawford, which tracks the Oscar winner from her hardscrabble childhood to the Broadway stage, Los Angeles, a string of high-profile marriages, success, decline, a comeback, and a thorny legacy shaped by What Ever Happened to Baby Jane? and Mommie Dearest; and a 13-episode examination of tragic blonde heroines from Jean Harlow and Veronica Lake to Marilyn Monroe and Grace Kelly. You’ll leave each and every new installment with a long list of classic films to watch, and a much deeper understanding of those who created and starred in them.
This multi-season Slate podcast examines powerful figures and events that have profoundly impacted the world we live in now, from the Supreme Court’s Clarence Thomas and David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, to Roe v. Wade and the 1992 LA riots. However, its strongest installments are still its very first two, helmed by journalist Leon Neyfakh: a truly gripping, blow-by-blow account of the Watergate scandal, followed by a hair-raising and heartbreaking analysis of the Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton affair. Both are meticulously researched and make you feel as if you’re right there in the room with those involved, grappling for answers that are just out of reach. The latter season, in particular—which features an explosive interview with Linda Tripp, the civil servant who secretly recorded phone calls in which Lewinsky spoke about the president—is particularly jaw-dropping.
In August of 1619, the first ship carrying enslaved Africans arrived in the then English colony of Virginia. Four hundred years on, this searing New York Times podcast hosted by investigative reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones examines everything that followed: how slavery turned this young nation into a financial powerhouse over the next 250 years, the violence and oppression that was wielded to ensure its smooth running, the basic rights that were denied to workers, and how they endured and resisted, despite it all. Its eloquent guests, who speak passionately on everything from public health to land ownership, include Harvard historian Khalil Gibran Muhammad, novelists Yaa Gyasi and Jesmyn Ward, and the descendants of slaves who reflect on this unimaginable legacy.
It’s impossible to talk about the best history podcasts without mentioning Malcolm Gladwell’s Revisionist History; after all, the author who brought us The Tipping Point and Blink is the contemporary king of examining our culture, both past and present. Though Revisionist History isn’t about history in the classic sense, it draws on significant (and niche) happenings to explore the current state of things and shift our perspective. Isn’t that the whole point of looking at history, anyway?
Historian William Dalrymple and author Anita Anand chart the rise and fall of empires around the world, from the Ottoman Empire to the Russian Empire, in this always fascinating series, which combines epic tales of battles and invasions with more intimate explorations of overlooked historical figures. It’s best to begin with their first installment, which focuses on the British in India: a whopping 20 episodes across which they plot the unlikely rise of the East India Company, the true horrors of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, the contested legacy of Mahatma Gandhi, and the heartbreaking realities of partition. While some may know the broad strokes of this recent history, certain episodes are likely to come as a total surprise: for instance, the one which tells the extraordinary story of Princess Sophia Duleep Singh, born to a Sikh maharaja father and a German-Ethiopian mother, who was a debutante, suffragette, and goddaughter to Queen Victoria, or the four-part analysis of the centuries-spanning and unbelievably bloody history of the Koh-i-Noor diamond. There’s also a clear effort to link these stories to our turbulent present, with guests such as David Olusoga invited on to speak about the future of the Commonwealth, and an examination of Rishi Sunak’s ancestry and the East African Indian diaspora. This is living, breathing history.
Hosted by Hamish Bowles, Vogue’s own fashion history podcast is a mad dash through one of fashion’s greatest decades: the ’90s. Kicking off with an episode on the birth of the supermodel, it takes us through the rise of grunge to the dominance of Karl Lagerfeld, the revolution Tom Ford brought about at Gucci, the emergence of London designers as global players, the power of It-girls, and an exploration of how hip-hop changed fashion. Hooked? Follow it up by bingeing In Vogue: The 2000s, which looks at Carrie Bradshaw’s style influence, Gisele ruling the runway, and the beginnings of a shift to digital that would transform the industry forever.
