History Cafe

True history storytelling at the History Café. Join BBC Historian Jon Rosebank & HBO, BBC & C4 script and series editor Penelope Middelboe as we give history a new take. Drop in to the History Café weekly on Wednesdays to give old stories a refreshing new brew. 90+ ever-green stand-alone episodes and building... Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Episodes

#118 'She will be called a man' (Jerome) - Ep 6 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church

November 19, 2025 • 39 mins

Church Father, Jerome, wrote this about women who took vows of chastity for God. ‘When she wishes to serve Christ more than the world, then she will cease to be a woman, and will be called a man.’ What now survives from the Roman Empire – and the Church in particular - only tells one, heavily redacted, medieval version of the past.

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#117 The Rich man and Melania - Ep 5 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church

November 12, 2025 • 36 mins

By AD400 all it took to be bishop was to be stratospherically wealthy. There was no demand that bishops even knew their bible until AD787.

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#116 Chariot races in church - Ep 4 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church

November 5, 2025 • 40 mins

Chariot races in church. How did we get there? 3rd Century climate change.

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#115 The Missing Women - Ep 3 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church

October 29, 2025 • 38 mins

What happened to the women? Until the late second century committed, educated women and men who perhaps space in their own homes led informal house churches. But once church leadership became a paid, public role, they were taken by the men. This was not theology. It was the way of the world.

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#114 The Missing Link - Ep 2 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church

October 22, 2025 • 31 mins

What real connection is there between the earliest, informal meetings of the first apostles and their friends, and the mighty, glitzy, authoritarian institution that mushroomed in the 4th Century, and especially after AD320? And is still here today. Is it possible that there is in reality, no direct connection at all?

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#113 Whatever happened to Saint Peter? - Ep 1 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church

October 15, 2025 • 33 mins

The Church says that Simon Peter was chosen by Jesus as the foundation of the Church. It says that Saint Peter was the first bishop of Rome and that there is a chain of direct continuity from Peter to the present pope Leo. It’s these direct links that gives the Church the right to tell its followers what to do and what to think. But is there any historical evidence?

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#16 The Men behind the Myth - Ep 7 Why did Kennedy cause the Cuba Missile Crisis?

October 8, 2025 • 21 mins

Within days of 28 October 1962 two journalists publish the official but untruthful White House account, as instructed and edited by the President. They also call-out a political enemy for daring to consider a humiliating missile swap with the Soviets. But we show how the Kennedys had already suggested this very missile swap to Khrushchev via private backchannels, on condition he kept it secret. Which he did. (R)

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#15 'The Fourteenth Day' - Ep 6 Why did Kennedy cause the Cuba Missile Crisis?

October 1, 2025 • 30 mins

28 October 1962: by holding his nerve Kennedy defuses the crisis in just 13 days. He says it’s over although he’s unable to verify whether Khrushchev ever withdraws his missiles or not. The last missiles do indeed leave Cuba on day 48 of the crisis but for very different reasons. (R)

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#14 'Eyeball to eyeball' - Ep 5 Why did Kennedy cause the Cuba Missile Crisis

September 24, 2025 • 31 mins

22 October 1962: President Kennedy goes on prime-time TV and announces a blockade around Cuba to prevent more Soviet missiles reaching the island. But US sailors call the so-called ‘quarantine’ nothing but ‘grand theatrics.’ Not a single Soviet ship is stopped by the US Navy. What was going on? (R)

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#13 'Russian roulette' - Ep 4 Why did Kennedy cause the Cuba Missile Crisis?

September 17, 2025 • 24 mins

15 October 1962: Soviet nuclear missile sites are discovered. It’s only three weeks before the mid-term elections. Kennedy decides that to negotiate publicly with Khrushchev would be a disaster at the polls; as would ignoring them which is what his allies advise him to do. So, as Noam Chomsky puts it, the President chooses ‘to play Russian Roulette with nuclear missiles.’ (R)

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#12 'The only way to save Cuba' - Ep 3 Why did Kennedy cause the Cuba Missile Crisis?

September 10, 2025 • 22 mins

The Cuban Missile Crisis begins not because Castro is a dangerous communist but because he is NOT. Khrushchev tells his ruling council: ‘The only way to save Cuba is to put missiles there’ - not only to prevent an American invasion, but also to keep Fidel Castro sweet. (R)

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#11 Fidel Castro was not a communist - Ep 2 Why did Kennedy cause the Cuba Missile Crisis?

September 3, 2025 • 28 mins

1959: The first country the new revolutionary president of Cuba visits is the United States of America. And he’s a big hit. The students at Princeton carry him on their shoulders. Castro wants a trade deal with the American government. So why does Kennedy fight the presidential election of 1960 on getting tougher than the Republicans with Cuba? (R)

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#10 'These missiles do not significantly alter the balance of power' - Ep 1 Why did Kennedy cause the Cuba Missile Crisis?

August 27, 2025 • 31 mins

We have the memo to President Kennedy dated Day 2 of the crisis with his own security chiefs clarifying that the Soviet missiles on Cuba made ‘no significant difference.’ So why does October 1962 develop into the closest we’ve ever come to nuclear war? (R)

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#112 Loss, love and the struggle to stay alive in 1912

August 20, 2025 • 26 mins

Jon explains his decision to write an historical novel, A Spring Marrying. He discovered the extraordinary history of the sail trawlers working off the English coast before 1939 whilst making a film for C4. It was the men who crewed them that fascinated him the most. Down in Brixham, Devon, they had four crew – skipper, mate, deckhand, and a cookie who was often only 12 or so. Theirs was an unremitting routine. Danger and death wer...

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#31 'Remember, remember, the fifth of November' - Ep 8 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot

August 13, 2025 • 22 mins

At the time, London gossip accused the king’s chief minister Robert Cecil of fabricating the entire plot to blow up everyone who mattered and leave the country ungovernable. When Cecil died seven years later, he was remembered as lying and self-serving. ‘The King’s misuser, the Parliament’s abuser, Hath left his plotting… is now a rotting.’ On the first anniversary, 5 November 1606, people were forced to celebrate by going to churc...

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#30 'A tall and desperate fellow' - Ep 7 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot

August 6, 2025 • 33 mins

The night before - 4 November 1605: Guy Fawkes, a Catholic with experience as a soldier fighting for the Spanish, is found with matches and fuse powder in a storeroom under the House of Lords. He’s ‘booted and spurred’, ready for a quick get-away. Or maybe not. The government account keeps changing. (R)

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#29 The King's Fear - Ep 6 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot

July 29, 2025 • 32 mins

As his father had done, Cecil built his entrapments around a germ of genuine plotting. We uncover a small Catholic rebellion in Warwickshire in response to the king’s tougher anti-Catholic laws. And we examine Cecil’s imaginative embellishment: a mystery letter delivered to a compromised Catholic peer on 26 October warning of ‘a terrible blow this Parliament.’ It was handed to the king to decipher. If anything was designed to terri...

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#28 'A formidable network of secret agents' - Ep 5 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot

July 23, 2025 • 31 mins

We dig deeper into the animosity between the king and Cecil whom he bullied and called names. And we see the Gunpowder plot in the context of the previous plots hatched by the Cecils against their enemies. All of which historians now agree were largely fabrications. Father and son had spies everywhere and openly boasted of their policy of entrapment. (R)

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#27 'Hellish miners' - Ep 4 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot

July 16, 2025 • 33 mins

To avoid any possible blame for the plot falling on himself or the king, Cecil procures confessions saying the seven gentlemen plotters began excavating a tunnel under the House of Lords long before the government stepped up its anti-Catholic legislation. They apparently lived on site, in an upstairs room, seven to a bed. They dug unnoticed, only in the day (or was it only in the night?) for almost a year, before spying a handy cel...

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#26 Why blow up Parliament anyway? - Ep 3 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot

July 9, 2025 • 30 mins

The parliament of 1604 refuses to grant the king money. They’re still paying for the effects of the last plague. But this is Cecil’s job. What to do? On 5 November 1605 the assembled MPs and peers are calmly informed that there has been a devilish Catholic plot to blow the lot of them up. A plot that their king and Cecil have brilliantly foiled. Unsurprisingly, this time, they vote the king the money he so badly needs. Job done. (R...

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History Cafe

Episodes

.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}#118 'She will be called a man' (Jerome) - Ep 6 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church

.css-r6mb8g{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:1;overflow:hidden;}#117 The Rich man and Melania - Ep 5 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church

#116 Chariot races in church - Ep 4 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church

#115 The Missing Women - Ep 3 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church

#114 The Missing Link - Ep 2 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church

#113 Whatever happened to Saint Peter? - Ep 1 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church

#16 The Men behind the Myth - Ep 7 Why did Kennedy cause the Cuba Missile Crisis?

#15 'The Fourteenth Day' - Ep 6 Why did Kennedy cause the Cuba Missile Crisis?

#14 'Eyeball to eyeball' - Ep 5 Why did Kennedy cause the Cuba Missile Crisis

#13 'Russian roulette' - Ep 4 Why did Kennedy cause the Cuba Missile Crisis?

#12 'The only way to save Cuba' - Ep 3 Why did Kennedy cause the Cuba Missile Crisis?

#11 Fidel Castro was not a communist - Ep 2 Why did Kennedy cause the Cuba Missile Crisis?

#10 'These missiles do not significantly alter the balance of power' - Ep 1 Why did Kennedy cause the Cuba Missile Crisis?

#112 Loss, love and the struggle to stay alive in 1912

#31 'Remember, remember, the fifth of November' - Ep 8 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot

#30 'A tall and desperate fellow' - Ep 7 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot

#29 The King's Fear - Ep 6 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot

#28 'A formidable network of secret agents' - Ep 5 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot

#27 'Hellish miners' - Ep 4 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot

#26 Why blow up Parliament anyway? - Ep 3 Blowing up the Gunpowder Plot

Popular Podcasts

#118 'She will be called a man' (Jerome) - Ep 6 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church

#117 The Rich man and Melania - Ep 5 The Real-Life Magisterium: the secret history of the Roman Catholic Church