History Extra podcast

Richard J Aldrich and Rory Cormac discuss Queen Victoria’s love of espionage and her network of royal intelligence agents

Rana Mitter answers your questions on one of the defining events of modern Chinese history, launched by Chairman Mao in 1966

Dominic Sandbrook explains how the Beatles reflected 1960s Britain, from the globalisation of pop culture to a fascination with mysticism

Matthew Gabriele and David M Perry challenge some widely held views about the history of medieval Europe

Thomas Morris recounts a strange historical cold case revolving around a body found in a railway office that was locked from the inside

Mike Carr reveals how there was more to Muslim-Christian relations in the medieval era than the Crusades

Thomas Harding discusses a little-known uprising by enslaved people in the British colony of Demerara in 1823

Naval historian Kate Jamieson tackles listener questions on the Age of Sail, when sailing ships dominated global trade and warfare

Jane Desborough speaks about a new Science Museum exhibition, Ancient Greeks: Science and Wisdom

Edward Brooke-Hitching explores the many heavens, hells and lands of the dead from civilisations across global history