Prisoner dilemmas

Prosthetic legs, wheelbarrow wheelchairs and guide… children? Those were just some of the assistive technologies and body augmentations available to our medieval and early modern ancestors. In this episode, Rae Gillibrand highlights how bodily difference was understood in this pr ... Show More

It's now often used as an adjective for anything standard, plain, and borderline boring – but the history of vanilla is anything but. Eric T Jennings – whose book Vanilla: The History of an Extraordinary Bean is among the titles shortlisted for the 2026 Cundill History Prize – te ... Show More

Think of alchemy, and you likely imagine bubbling vials of strange potions and molten metals. But how close is this popular perception to the truth? That’s the question behind historian and adventurer Kit Chapman’s latest book, The Age of Alchemy, which was recently announced as ... Show More

Witch Hunt Podcast: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07rn38z/episodes/downloads Time Travels: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b094d4hl/episodes/downloads Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices 

From Alcatraz to the Tower of London, prisons are built to keep people in. But today's criminals dodged bullets, swam miles, changed their names—and even their faces—to gain freedom. Alaina and Ash decide which prisoner took the biggest risk… and if it paid off. Learn more about ... Show More

In part one of a three-part mini-series, we'll explore the fascinating history of crime and punishment in Britain, from medieval justice to the infamous Bloody Code. In this episode, you'll learn how the harsh consequences for even minor crimes evolved over the centuries, leading ... Show More

From tip-off letters about the gun powder plot to village quarrels that lead to jail time - today we’re going Betwixt the Sheets to find out about the history of hate mail. Joining Kate is Dr. Emily Cockayne, author of Penning Poison and consultant on the forthcoming film Wicked ... Show More

Britain’s war time intelligence operations are the subject of discussion as Al Murray and James Holland exchange notes on their latest reading matter, Behind the Enigma: The Authorised History of GCHQ. The boys also explore the escape attempts of British and Allied POWs in Italy. ... Show More

This 2022 episode covers six highly ingenious and low-violence prison breaks from history. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. 

Did you think smuggling in Britain was confined to the Jamaica Inn and the beaches of the Cornish coast? If so, you might want to listen to today's podcast, where Tom and Dominic are joined by author and smuggling oracle, Alex Preston. The discussion is wide-ranging, including w ... Show More