Podcasts · History

Short History Of...

NOISER

289 episodes

History is full of the extraordinary.

More about the show

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.

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A Short History of Ancient Rome - the debut book from the Noiser Network is out now! Discover the epic rise and fall of Rome like never before. Pick up your copy now at your local bookstore or visit noiser.com/books to learn more.

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No part of this podcast may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems. In accordance with Article 4(3) of the DSM Directive 2019/790, Noiser Ltd expressly reserves this work from the text and data mining exception.

Episodes page 1 of 6

  1. Sydney Opera House

    · 54 min · S6 E259

    Sydney Opera House is a modern wonder of the world. One of the most recognisable and admired buildings of the 20th century, it is a symbol of modern Australia; an ambitious and outward-looking nation. But the iconic…

  2. Hoover Dam

    · 54 min · S6 E258

    Truly a modern wonder of the world, the Hoover Dam is one of the great feats of human ingenuity. Its creation was a saga of large-scale ambition and engineering genius executed by a labour force of thousands working in…

  3. Mary Shelley

    · 54 min · S6 E257

    Mary Shelley is best known today as the author of Frankenstein, a Gothic novel widely considered the first work of science fiction. As demonstrated by her Swiss sojourn with the married Percy Shelley and the scandalous…

  4. The English Civil Wars, Part 2 of 2

    · 53 min · S6 E256

    The First English Civil War ended with King Charles I defeated, his armies broken, and his cause apparently lost. But military victory for the Parliamentarians brought no real peace. Instead, the months that followed…

  5. The English Civil Wars, Part 1 of 2

    · 54 min · S6 E255

    The English Civil Wars are among the most traumatic and consequential events in British history. What began as a struggle between Crown and Parliament over power, money and religion tore England, Ireland and Scotland…

  6. The Peasants’ Revolt

    · 56 min · S6 E254

    The so-called Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 was the first mass popular uprising in England. A true people’s revolution, it involved not just peasants but also tradesmen, merchants, artisans, priests, village leaders — an…

  7. The Empire State Building

    · 51 min · S6 E253

    The Empire State Building is one of the most recognisable structures in the world, an iconic component of New York City’s skyline. Even for those who have never visited, the building is internationally famous thanks to…

  8. 9/11

    · 59 min · S6 E252

    On the morning of September 11th, 2001, terrorists from the Islamic extremist group Al Qaeda hijacked four commercial aircraft in a coordinated attack against targets in the United States. Two planes were intentionally…

  9. Introducing Jane Austen Stories: Emma

    · 47 min · Bonus

    This is a preview of a brand-new audiobook from the Noiser Podcast Network. Join Dame Julie Andrews as she reads another beloved Austen classic, Emma, on the Jane Austen Stories podcast. Step into the village of…

  10. Nina Simone

    · 55 min · S6 E251

    Nina Simone was not only renowned for her powerful, groundbreaking music; she also became an icon of the civil rights movement at a crucial point in its evolution. And while she lived with the spotlight of fame trained…

  11. Isambard Kingdom Brunel

    · 54 min · S6 E250

    Isambard Kingdom Brunel is remembered as one of the greatest engineers of the nineteenth century. Working on a dizzying array of infrastructure projects, he pushed the boundaries of what was considered technologically…

  12. Salvador Dalí

    · 52 min · S6 E249

    With his expressive face and gravity-defying moustache, Salvador Dalí is one of the most recognisable – and influential – artists of the 20th century. Famed for his paintings of melting clocks and his lobster…

  13. Nellie Bly

    · 51 min · S6 E248

    Nellie Bly was one of the most famous journalists on earth, a trailblazer who forged a unique path through an industry in which few women had ever worked. Challenging powerful institutions and exposing hidden…

  14. Ned Kelly

    · 50 min · S6 E247

    Ned Kelly, the leader of the infamous Kelly gang, has been described as Australia's only truly national hero. During a short but intense crime spree at the end of the 1870s, he led a gang of notorious outlaws who…

  15. Longitude

    · 55 min · S6 E246

    It was once one of the great unsolved problems of the early modern world: the calculation of exactly how far east or west a given point was on the surface of the Earth. Longitude was a challenge that sat at the…

  16. Ireland’s Easter Rising

    · 54 min · S6 E245

    In April 1916, a small group of poorly-armed Irish radicals made a stand against the British Army, in a bid for independence for their homeland. Over six days during Easter week, almost 500 people died in the uprising,…

  17. The Space Shuttle Challenger Disaster

    · 53 min · S6 E244

    In 1986, seven astronauts boarded Space Shuttle Challenger for what was meant to be a routine tenth flight of the orbiter. Seventy-three seconds after lift-off, the shuttle broke apart in front of millions of viewers,…

  18. The Brink’s-Mat Robbery

    · 50 min · S6 E243

    The Brink’s-Mat robbery was one of the largest thefts in British history. The discovery of the record-breaking haul in a west London warehouse in 1983 set off a chain of events that would echo through Britain’s…

  19. The Founding Fathers of the US (Re-run)

    · 58 min · Bonus

    The founding of the United States on July 4th, 1776, changed the world, and inspired other colonies to control their own destinies. The men responsible for writing and signing the Declaration of Independence - the…

  20. Hurricane Katrina

    · 52 min · S6 E242

    In August 2005, one of the most powerful storms ever recorded in the Gulf of Mexico barrelled toward the United States. When Hurricane Katrina finally struck land, it devastated hundreds of miles of shoreline, but the…

  21. The Kray Twins

    · 53 min · S6 E241

    Ronnie and Reggie Kray were a vicious pair of gangsters who somehow cultivated an air of charm and 60s cool. They were criminals who attracted celebrities like Jackie Collins and Judy Garland to the clubs they ran;…

  22. Introducing: Founding Fathers: An American Dream - Episode 1

    · 1 h 00 min · Bonus

    This is a preview of a brand-new show from the Noiser Podcast Network. Hosted by Clarke Peters (The Wire, The Boroughs), 'Founding Fathers: An American Dream' tells the epic story of the birth of the United States of…

  23. Punk

    · 50 min · S6 E240

    By the mid-1970s, many young British people felt locked out of life. The country was struggling, the future uncertain, and for a generation coming of age, there was a growing sense that no one was listening. In cities…

  24. Jacques Cousteau

    · 55 min · S6 E239

    Co-inventor of the Aqua-Lung, Captain Jacques Cousteau opened the ocean to the public like no one before. An explorer, filmmaker and environmentalist, he led groundbreaking underwater expeditions, and pioneered…

  25. Charlemagne

    · 52 min · S6 E238

    Charlemagne remains one of the towering figures of European history. He created for himself a vast territory that covered most of modern-day France and Germany, encompassing the Low Countries, areas in northern Spain,…

  26. The Golden Age of Railways

    · 55 min · S6 E237

    In the early nineteenth century, engineers discovered that steam power and iron rails could be combined to move people and goods faster than any horse or ox could. Within a few decades, railways had spread across every…

  27. The Haitian Revolution

    · 58 min · S6 E236

    The first and only successful uprising of enslaved people to establish a nation-state, the Haitian Revolution began in the French colony of Saint-Domingue in 1791. Inspired, in part, by the ideals of liberty and…

  28. The Real James Bond

    · 53 min · S6 E235

    In the early years of the twentieth century, long before James Bond stepped onto the page, one man was at work as a new kind of spy. He crossed borders as easily as he changed names, slipped between governments and…

  29. The Spanish Civil War

    · 54 min · S6 E234

    The story of Franco’s rise to power and the painful, repressive regime he oversaw is fundamentally interlinked with that of the Spanish Civil War. A brutal three-year conflict that laid bare the ideological divisions…

  30. Sir Francis Drake

    · 54 min · S6 E233

    Sir Francis Drake is most famous for his role in defeating the Armada of 1588 and saving England from a Spanish invasion. By that point in his life, he was already a wealthy and famous seafarer: the first Englishman to…

  31. Bob Dylan

    · 55 min · S6 E232

    The American singer-songwriter and musician Bob Dylan is one of the most important recording artists on the planet. A cultural icon, his work has had a profound influence on popular music since the 1960s. First gaining…

  32. The American Civil War (Part Two of Two)

    · 59 min · S6 E231

    In the decades since the United States declared their independence from Britain, the question of slavery had become increasingly divisive. As the nation expanded, fragile political agreements over the issue failed, and…

  33. The American Civil War (Part One of Two)

    · 58 min · S6 E230

    The American Civil War started with a single, explosive question: could a nation built on slavery survive without it? Several Southern states chose to protect the institution that underpinned their economy and social…

  34. The Assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand

    · 56 min · S6 E229

    In 1914, Europe was dominated by four great empires — the British, the French, the Russian, and the vast, uneasy realm of Austria-Hungary, stretching from the Alps to the Balkans. While international treaties bound the…

  35. C.S. Lewis

    · 55 min · S6 E228

    One of the most famous writers of the 20th century, C. S. Lewis was a scholar of medieval literature, an influential Christian thinker and a supremely gifted storyteller. A professor at the universities of Oxford and…

  36. Introducing: Real Vikings - Episode 1

    · 54 min · Bonus

    This is a preview of a brand-new show from the Noiser podcast network. Hosted by Iain Glen (Game of Thrones, Silo), Real Vikings takes you on a deep dive into the Viking age. You’ll board longboats bound for new…

  37. Ernest Hemingway

    · 57 min · S6 E227

    At the dawn of the twentieth century, a writer emerged who learned his craft not in a classroom, but in battlefields, bullrings, and bars. To some, Ernest Hemingway was the greatest writer of his generation. A Nobel…

  38. The European Middle Ages (Part 2 of 2)

    · 57 min · S6 E226

    Although the Middle Ages were an undeniably turbulent period in the history of Europe, characterised in part by endemic violence, hardship and inequality, the latter half of the era was also a time of great change and…

  39. The European Middle Ages (Part 1 of 2)

    · 58 min · S6 E225

    The period known as the Middle Ages was defined by more than knights and warfare. It began centuries before the First Crusade was called, in the confusion that followed the end of Roman rule in western Europe. And it…

  40. The Silk Roads

    · 58 min · S6 E224

    From the deserts of Central Asia to the gates of ancient China, from the bazaars of Persia to the harbours of the Mediterranean, the Silk Roads were never just one route. A living network of paths, mountain passes, and…

  41. The Falklands War

    · 57 min · S6 E223

    The sinking of the General Belgrano on May 2nd 1982 by a British submarine was one of the most controversial events of the Falklands War. The strike resulted in the deaths of 323 Argentine sailors, nearly half of…

  42. Rwandan Genocide

    · 54 min · S6 E222

    For hundreds of years, Rwanda’s Hutu and Tutsi groups had lived in relative harmony. But the arrival of European colonists enforced and exaggerated the differences between them, until, from the mid-twentieth century,…

  43. Rasputin

    · 57 min · S6 E221

    A Short History of Ancient Rome - the debut book from the Noiser Network is out now! Discover the epic rise and fall of Rome like never before. Pick up your copy now at your local bookstore or visit noiser.com/books to…

  44. The Māori

    · 56 min · S6 E220

    The Māori have had a presence in New Zealand for at least 800 years. For much of that time, they lived in imperfect harmony with the natural environment, developing a social and cultural system distinctly their own.…

  45. Nikola Tesla

    · 58 min · S6 E219

    A Short History of Ancient Rome - the debut book from the Noiser Network is out now! Discover the epic rise and fall of Rome like never before. Pick up your copy now at your local bookstore or visit noiser.com/books to…

  46. David Bowie

    · 53 min · S6 E218

    A Short History of Ancient Rome - the debut book from the Noiser Network is out now! Discover the epic rise and fall of Rome like never before. Pick up your copy now at your local bookstore or visit noiser.com/books to…

  47. The Louisiana Purchase

    · 54 min · S6 E217

    A Short History of Ancient Rome - the debut book from the Noiser Network is out now! Discover the epic rise and fall of Rome like never before. Pick up your copy now at your local bookstore or visit noiser.com/books to…

  48. The Conquest of Everest

    · 52 min · Bonus

    Short History Of... is taking a short break over the Christmas period. New episodes will continue from the 29th of December. Until then, we hope you enjoy this repeat episode! Happy Christmas from the Short History…

  49. The Crown Jewels

    · 47 min · Bonus

    Short History Of... is taking a short break over the Christmas period. New episodes will continue from the 5th of January. Until then, we hope you enjoy this repeat episode! Happy Christmas from the Short History Of...…

  50. Venice

    · 58 min · S6 E214

    A Short History of Ancient Rome - the debut book from the Noiser Network is out now! Discover the epic rise and fall of Rome like never before. Pick up your copy now at your local bookstore or visit noiser.com/books to…

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