Dan Snow's History Hit

The Silk Road was a pivotal ancient exchange network that connected the grassy steppes of Asia and the Middle East with the Western world. The passage of goods, ideas and technologies along this bustling commercial artery was crucial to the development of the ancient East and West. It was, quite simply, the glue that held the ancient world together. But what were the origins of this first global exchange network? In today’s episode of The Ancients, Tristan Hughes seeks to answer that very question. Speaking to Dr. Miljana Radivojevic they discuss how people living in Bronze Age Central Asia helped build the world’s first and most famous trading route. This episode was produced by Joseph Knight and edited by Aidan Lonergan Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign up HERE for 50% off for 3 months using code ‘DANSNOW’.We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at ds.hh@historyhit.com.You can take part in our listener survey here.

Adam Worth was the quintessential criminal mastermind. He faked his own death, robbed banks in the US, stole diamonds in South Africa and amassed a fortune that helped him evade capture for decades. As a gentleman thief in London high society, he infamously stole Thomas Gainsborough's celebrated Portrait of Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.Ben Macintyre, author of ‘The Napoleon of Crime: The Life and Times of Adam Worth, Master Thief’, take us through the life of the man who inspired Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Moriarty.Produced by Mariana Des Forges and James Hickmann, and edited by Max Carrey.Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign up HERE for 50% off for 3 months using code ‘DANSNOW’.We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at ds.hh@historyhit.com.You can take part in our listener survey here.

In 1798, the young French General Napoleon Bonaparte invaded Egypt. After successfully taking Alexandria, he ordered the reconstruction of a fort at the nearby city of Rosetta. As his soldiers did the back-breaking work of digging fortifications in the blazing sun, they uncovered an archaeological treasure that would prove to be the key to Egypt's past - the Rosetta Stone.Dan is joined by Egyptologist and writer Dr Chris Naunton to tell us what exactly was written on this vital relic, and why it mattered.Produced by Mariana Des Forges and James Hickmann, and edited by Max Carrey.Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign up HERE for 50% off for 3 months using code ‘DANSNOW’.We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at ds.hh@historyhit.com.You can take part in our listener survey here.

Not long after the turn of the first millennium, a Jewish prophet emerged from a period of desert solitude in the Jordan River valley. He wore simple camel hair garments and ate nothing but locusts and wild honey. His name was John the Baptist, and his pre-messianic preachings about repentance and God's final judgement would form the bedrock of the early Christian faith.Joan Taylor is Professor of Christian Origins and Second Temple Judaism at King's College London and author of 'The Immerser: John the Baptist Within Second Temple Judaism'. She explains why people were so drawn to him, and why he is considered the forerunner of Jesus Christ.Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Max Carrey.Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Sign up HERE for 50% off for 3 months using code ‘DANSNOW’.We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at ds.hh@historyhit.com.

Countless battles have littered the pages of our shared human story. Powerful leaders, hungry for glory and conquest, have always relied on conflict to achieve their goals. And despite this several-thousand-year-long history of warfare, the question still remains - why?To understand the persistence of violent conflict in the human story, Dan is joined by Richard Overy, one of the great military historians and author of 'Why War?'.Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Max Carrey.Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at ds.hh@historyhit.com.You can take part in our listener survey here.

Historian, broadcaster and author Jonathan Dimbleby joins Dan to explain how Hitler's plans in the East went disastrously wrong.2 weeks after the D-Day landings, a gigantic Soviet offensive tore through the German lines on the Eastern Front. Named for the Russian general who fought Napoleon, Operation Bagration swept through Byelorussia and put the Red Army within striking distance of Berlin. On the anniversary of this vital offensive, Jonathan and Dan look at the role it played in the liberation of Europe.Jonathan's new book is called 'Endgame 1944: How Stalin Won the War'.Produced by James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at ds.hh@historyhit.com.You can take part in our listener survey here.

Please note that this episode contains some explicit language.This is the story of Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, Britain's most extraordinary soldier. The one-handed, one-eyed, walking stick-wielding war hero fought in the Second Boer War, The First World War and the Second World War. He was wounded countless times, awarded prestigious medals for gallantry, and made into a figure of legend. Away from the battlefield the eccentric veteran rubbed shoulders with kings and emperors, and worked with some of the most important world leaders of the 20th century.To tell this astonishing tale, Dan weaves his storytelling with the words of Carton De Wiart himself, read by Dan's father, Peter Snow. In this second episode, Carton de Wiart survives the 1939 invasion of Poland, becomes a POW in Italy and eventually makes his way to China, where he becomes Churchill's personal representative to Chiang Kai-shek.Written and produced by Dan Snow, and edited by Dougal Patmore.Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at ds.hh@historyhit.com.You can take part in our listener survey here.

This is the story of Sir Adrian Carton de Wiart, Britain's most extraordinary soldier. The one-handed, one-eyed, walking stick-wielding war hero fought in the Second Boer War, The First World War and the Second World War. He was wounded countless times, awarded prestigious medals for gallantry, and made into a figure of legend. Away from the battlefield the eccentric veteran rubbed shoulders with kings and emperors, and worked with some of the most important world leaders of the 20th century.To tell this astonishing tale, Dan weaves his storytelling with the words of Carton De Wiart himself, read by Dan's father, Peter Snow. In this first episode, we follow the aspiring young officer from his baptism by fire in South Africa to the trenches of the Western Front.Written and produced by Dan Snow, and edited by Dougal Patmore.Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at ds.hh@historyhit.com.You can take part in our listener survey here.

With a sinister hierarchy of "grand wizards" and "dragons," hooded Klansmen concealed their identities as they unleashed a reign of terror on Black Americans and other minorities across America for almost a century.Dan is joined by Professor Kristofer Allerfeldt from the University of Exeter to map out the rise and fall of the KKK founded in 1866 by Confederate veterans in Tennessee, as a vehicle for white Southerners to resist Reconstruction and the enfranchisement of Black Americans right through to the 21st century.Produced by Mariana Des Forges, James Hickmann and edited by Dougal Patmore.Enjoy unlimited access to award-winning original documentaries that are released weekly and AD-FREE podcasts. Get a subscription for £1 per month for 3 months with code DANSNOW - sign up at https://historyhit.com/subscription/.We'd love to hear from you - what do you want to hear an episode on? You can email the podcast at ds.hh@historyhit.com.You can take part in our listener survey here.