Show Notes
Ghost stories have haunted conversations since ancient times, from the Mesopotamians to the Romans to the Vikings. The medieval period was particularly awash with ghost stories - after all, it was an era of great plague, piety and corporal punishment. Ghost stories served as useful tools to uphold hierarchies and manipulate the masses - live in accordance with the bible or be visited by a restless spirit... or become one yourself. To delve into some of the most popular ghost stories of medieval Britain and what the restless dead can tell us about the anxieties of the living, Dan is joined by Dr Eleanor Janega, historian and host of the Gone Medieval podcast.
Produced by Mariana Des Forges and edited by Natasha Hughes.
Sign up to History Hit for hundreds of hours of original documentaries, with a new release every week and ad-free podcasts. Sign up at https://www.historyhit.com/subscribe.
You can also email the podcast directly at [email protected].
Dan Snow's History Hit is a History Hit podcast.
History Hit is part of Little Dot Studios, a Certified B Corp™.
Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from Dan Snow's History Hit
In June 1940, France was collapsing. Paris was in enemy hands, the government had fled, and Marshal Pétain was preparing to surrender. Into that chaos stepped a lanky, rigid French general with no army, no government and almost no followers - Charles de Gaulle. From penniless exile to twice head of state, his career would span two world wars, the collapse of empire, and the birth of modern France.
From the elaborate burial rituals of Ancient Egypt to Victorian mummy unwrapping parties, mummification has fascinated humanity for centuries. But what is mummification really about? Because Hollywood, supernatural folklore and popular culture have muddied our understanding of the real history behind this burial practice. Dan is joined by Dr Campbell Price, Egyptologist and curator of Egypt and Sudan at the Manchester Museum to unravel (pun intended) the myths and misconceptions around Ancient Egyptian mummification and explore the morbid curiosity the Romans, Greeks and Victorians all had for this mysterious practice.
When the Khmer Rouge marched into Phnom Penh in April, 1975, they immediately declared 'Year Zero' - a ruthless ideological crusade to reset history, and forge Pol Pot's vision for a communist utopia. Over the next four years, the regime carried out a genocide that killed nearly two million people - almost a quarter of Cambodia's population.
Obviously, a secret sect doesn't control global events - despite what the internet says. But the myth of a shadowy cabal of elites grew out of a very real secret order, and one that went extinct within a decade. So what is the true story of the Illuminati? And why has it been blamed for every major crisis since, from the French Revolution to the New World Order?
On the night of October 10th, 1917, a revolutionary disguised as a priest slipped into an apartment in Petrograd and browbeat his comrades into an armed insurrection. The revolutionary in question was Vladimir Lenin, and two weeks later, he and the Bolsheviks seized power in a coup that set the course of the 20th century.