Short History Of...

Short History Of...

History is full of the extraordinary. Each week, we'll transport you back in time to witness history's most incredible moments and remarkable people. New episodes Mondays, or a week early for Noiser+ subscribers. With Noiser+ you'll also get ad-free listening and exclusive content. For more information, head to noiser.com/subscriptions For advertising enquiries, email info@adelicious.fm Hosted by John Hopkins. Production: Katrina Hughes, Kate Simants, Nicole Edmunds, Jacob Booth, Dorry Macaulay, Rob Plummer, Cody Reynolds-Shaw. Compositions by Oliver Baines, Dorry Macaulay, Tom Pink.

Episodes

The Manhattan Project

June 15, 2025 • 64 mins
The Manhattan Project was the codename for the US government’s top secret programme to develop the first atomic bomb. At the height of World War Two, America’s top scientists - such as Dr Robert Oppenheimer - raced against Nazi Germany to harness the power of nuclear fission, and ultimately end the war. But what is the story of the other scientists, soldiers and civilians who brought about the birth of the A-bomb? What role did ...
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The First Emperor of China

June 8, 2025 • 61 mins
In the third century BC, China was a land fractured by war - a patchwork of rival kingdoms struggling for dominance. Out of this chaos rose a single, extraordinary figure who would reshape the course of history: Chin Shrr Hwong, the First Emperor of China. His achievements were monumental, but his reign was marked by ruthlessness, so how did this teenage king rise to power? What drove him to undertake colossal projects like the ...
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Anne Frank

June 1, 2025 • 56 mins
Anne Frank is one of the world’s most famous writers, yet she didn’t live long enough to see her work published. At the age of thirteen, Anne was a normal teenager, who poured her heart into a diary. But what made her diary different, was that she created within its pages a snapshot of the darkest events of World War Two, detailing the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands that forced her family to hide in a secret annex. But what ...
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Alfred Hitchcock

May 25, 2025 • 61 mins
Alfred Hitchcock was one of the most celebrated film directors of all time. In a career that spanned six decades, he produced more than 50 films, including Britain’s first successful talking picture. His countless awards and accolades earned him a reputation as the ‘Master of Suspense’, but how did an introverted working class boy come to dominate Hollywood? What was the truth behind the rumours of obsessive ruthless behaviour? And...
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Gaudi (Bonus Episode)

May 20, 2025 • 44 mins
In a long life, spanning the late 19th and early 20th century, Antoni Gaudi created some of history’s best-loved architecture. From his early lamppost designs, through to his great unfinished masterpiece, his unmistakable works are world renowned, inimitable, and iconic to this day. But how did a man who began life as a sickly child become one of history’s best loved architects? What drove him to reject marriage and dedicate his...
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The Romanovs

May 18, 2025 • 64 mins
Throughout their centuries-long dynasty, the Romanovs oversaw the transformation of Russia from a fragmented medieval state, into a vast empire. Despite their power though, the period of the Romanovs was plagued by violence, assassinations, and the heavy hand of autocratic rule. Then, in 1917, the course of Russian history took an irreversible turn, and the fate of the Romanovs was changed forever.  So what do we know of the liv...
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The Anglo Saxons

May 11, 2025 • 66 mins
The Anglo-Saxon period, also known as the ‘Dark Ages’ stretched from the withdrawal of Roman forces in 410 AD to the conquest of England by William of Normandy in 1066. The period is remembered by the legends that emerged from it, such as the tales of Beowulf and King Arthur, but it was also a time populated by very real historical figures: Alfred the Great, King Cnut, and Harold Godwinson.  So who were these people who came to th...
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VE Day

May 4, 2025 • 58 mins
Victory in Europe Day brought the curtain down on a horrific conflict that decimated a continent and upended the world. But the price of victory over fascism was impossibly high. Many millions had been killed, and vast areas of Europe had been all but destroyed. VE Day signalled the end of Nazi Germany, and yet the war on the Pacific Front was still raging, and Stalin was already tightening his grip on what would become the Eastern...
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The Salem Witch Trials

April 27, 2025 • 61 mins
For more than two centuries, between the late 1400s and early 1700s, a terror of witches gripped Europe. From Scotland to Spain, thousands of people were accused, tortured and executed. But as the hysteria faded in Europe, it crossed the Atlantic. In 1692, in New England, it took hold of a small Puritan settlement in Massachusetts - Salem. The events that followed resulted in the most infamous witch hunt in history. But how did th...
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The Egyptian Sphinx

April 20, 2025 • 59 mins
Measuring 240 feet long from paw to tail, and around the height of a six-story building, the Great Sphinx is one of Egypt’s most spectacular, and mysterious, monuments. Believed to have been built over four millennia ago, much of its story has been lost to history, and the rest is shrouded in myth. So what do we know about who built it? What caused such an impressive structure to be forgotten for centuries? And how is it being pro...
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The Real Greatest Showman

April 13, 2025 • 64 mins
PT Barnum may be better known as the loose subject of the movie The Greatest Showman, but his life was so much more than that work of fiction. A master of entertainment, an entrepreneur, and a genius of publicity, he built a career on feeding public curiosity with his grand illusions.  But his legacy is complicated, as many of his attractions reflect a world where sensationalism outweighed morality. His methods, viewed through a m...
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Introducing: Titanic: Ship of Dreams - Episode 1

April 8, 2025 • 51 mins
This is a taster episode of a brand-new podcast from the Noiser podcast network. Join host Paul McGann as he explores life and death on the most famous ship in history. You’ll be right there on board - setting sail from Southampton, chugging across the Atlantic, striking the iceberg and sinking into the icy depths. We’ll hear the harrowing tales of the victims and the testimonies of the lucky survivors. And Paul explores his own f...
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The Tudors, Part 2 of 2

April 6, 2025 • 63 mins
The later Tudor years were a time of turmoil, political intrigue, and national transformation. Initially defined by crises of succession, and shifts in the religious landscape, the period went on to see the reign of some of the most famous royal women in history. And, under the 44-year reign of Queen Elizabeth I, Britain experienced a golden age of culture and exploration.  But what made Elizabeth excel as a sovereign in a way tha...
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The Tudors, Part 1 of 2

March 30, 2025 • 65 mins
The Tudors are the most famous royal family in English history, ruling from 1485 to 1603. The dynasty began with the reign of King Henry VII, and ended with his granddaughter, Elizabeth I. Marked by political, religious, and cultural change, the Tudor era shaped the course of English history, and paved the way for modern Britain.  But how did the first Tudor king fight his way to power? What drove his son, Henry VIII, to break awa...
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Christopher Columbus

March 23, 2025 • 54 mins
The explorer, Christopher Columbus, is famous for reaching the Americas and opening up a new world to European pioneers. But though his determination and skills were second to none, he eventually fell out of favour at home and abroad, and was unwelcome even in the very colonies he’d founded. Contrary to popular misconception, Columbus never set foot in what is now the continental United States, and nor did he seek to prove that the...
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The Printing Press

March 16, 2025 • 60 mins
Before Johannes Gutenberg’s revolutionary invention, knowledge was a privilege accessible only to the wealthy, the powerful, or the devout. In this world, ideas travelled slowly, and were constrained by the limits of human hand.  So when, in the mid-15th century, Gutenberg invented the printing press, it became so much more than a machine. Ideas could be replicated by the thousands, making it the first great equaliser of informati...
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Ludwig van Beethoven

March 9, 2025 • 58 mins
One of the world’s most influential composers, Ludwig van Beethoven changed the course of Western music. Despite losing his hearing, he created some of history’s most celebrated works, and his compositions are renowned for their emotional depth, innovation, and freshness to this day. But how did an unpolished youth from the German Rhineland rise to become one of the most famous names in classical music? Why was his private life be...
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The Forbidden City

March 2, 2025 • 65 mins
Nestled deep in the heart of Beijing, the Forbidden City stands as one of the world’s greatest architectural marvels. Built in the early 15th century as the secretive seat of imperial rule, it’s the largest palace complex anywhere in the world, and the biggest wooden structure on earth. But how did an audacious coup lead to the construction of this mysterious compound? What was life like inside the gated city? And how did it survi...
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The Battle of Stalingrad

February 23, 2025 • 62 mins
During World War Two, the Battle of Stalingrad was one of the most brutal engagements of the entire conflict, and would go on to be one of the bloodiest battles in the history of warfare. Over a course of six months, Soviet forces fought to defend their city against the German Army, where an estimated 1 million Soviet soldiers, and 800,000 Axis troops were killed, wounded or captured.  But why was a modest little city in southern ...
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Pablo Picasso

February 16, 2025 • 61 mins
Pablo Picasso was one of the most celebrated and radical artists of the 20th century. His styles shocked and outraged contemporaries, and are still instantly recognisable today. But while the artist was publicly fêted, behind closed doors there was a darker side, and many of his female companions protested at his behaviour. So what drove Picasso to master the rules of art, and then break them? How did a man who claimed he didn’t ‘...
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