The Explaining History podcast has published over 1,000 episodes since 2013, examining the decisive moments of the 20th century through scholarship, critical analysis, and expert interviews. Rather than a chronological survey, the show digs deep: taking a single event, figure, or movement and examining it from every angle until something genuinely illuminating emerges.
On this page you’ll find our curated episode collections organised by topic. Each collection brings together the podcast’s most essential episodes on a subject — embedded directly so you can listen without leaving the page. These pages are updated as new episodes are published, so bookmark the topic that interests you most and come back regularly.
Browse Episodes by Topic
Fascism
Nine essential episodes spanning the Spanish Civil War, Nazi Germany, Vichy France, and the post-war far right — from Franco’s march on Madrid to Jean-Marie Le Pen and the contemporary authoritarian playbook.
Weimar Germany and the Rise of Nazism
Thirteen episodes tracing Germany’s collapse in 1918, the violent birth of the Weimar Republic, and the decade-long crisis that brought Hitler to power — from the Spartacist uprising and the Frankfurt School to the Nazi seizure of power and the transformation of German society in the 1930s.
The Holocaust
Thirteen episodes tracing the full history of the Holocaust — from Himmler’s early camp system and SS ideology through the Wannsee Conference and the industrialisation of murder, to Auschwitz, genocide across occupied Europe, and the long reckoning of de-Nazification.
Stalin and the Soviet Union
Eight episodes tracing the full arc of Stalinist terror — from forced collectivisation through the Great Purge, the Eastern Front, and the Gulag revolts that followed Stalin’s death in 1953.
The Iranian Revolution and Modern Iran
Five episodes covering Iran from the Shah’s White Revolution through the rise of neoconservative policy, the nuclear confrontation, and the 2025 Israeli strikes.
Neoliberalism and Thatcherism
Six episodes tracing the ideological revolution that reshaped Britain and the world from the late 1970s onwards — from the post-war working class whose world Thatcherism dismantled through the social battles of the 1980s to the global spread of free market economics.
The Spanish Civil War
Ten essential episodes from the social crises of the Republic through the military uprising, the International Brigades, Soviet intervention, and the final defeat at the Battle of the Ebro.
World War Two
An introduction to Explaining History’s extensive World War Two archive — fifty-plus episodes spanning the Eastern Front, Nazi Germany, the Blitz, occupied Europe, the war in Asia, India, the Middle East, and the conflict’s aftermath.
Modern British History
Thirteen episodes spanning a century of British history — the interwar years and the Blitz, the post-war welfare state, Black Britain, radical pop music, austerity, and the emergence of a new left.
The British Empire and Decolonisation
Eleven episodes tracing the arc of British imperial power — from the mandate system in the Middle East and Indian soldiers defending Suez in 1914, through the Suez Crisis of 1956 and the final humiliation of British imperial pretensions.
India: Partition and Independence
Fourteen episodes tracing India’s road from colonial subject to independent nation — from the mass expansion of the Indian Army during the Second World War and the wartime crisis of Congress and the Muslim League, to the catastrophic violence of Partition in 1947 and the making of Pakistan.
The Ottoman Empire and its Collapse
Fifteen episodes tracing the fall of a 600-year-old empire — from the Young Turk Revolution of 1908 and the catastrophic Balkan Wars, through Gallipoli, the Armenian Genocide, and the Arab Revolt, to the Sykes-Picot partition and the Mandate system that shaped the modern Middle East.
The Arab-Israeli Conflict & Palestine
Fourteen episodes from Herzl’s political Zionism and the Balfour Declaration, through the British Mandate, the Arab revolt, and the 1948 War — to the Six Day War and the Cold War dimensions that gave the conflict global significance.
Syria: From French Mandate to Civil War
Eight episodes tracing Syria’s history from French Mandate rule and the 1925 uprising, through the Second World War, to the Syrian Civil War, Russian intervention, and the fall of Bashar al-Assad in December 2024.
Approaches, Methods & Ideology
Nine episodes on how historians think and how ideologies work — from Marxist historiography and the Frankfurt School to fascism, anarchism, and neoliberalism as political systems. Essential context for A-level and undergraduate students tackling historiography, source analysis, or political thought.
Africa: Colonialism and Independence
Ten episodes tracing modern African history — from the Mandate System and colonial resistance, through the Bandung Conference and the liberation movements of the 1950s–60s, to the fall of white minority rule in Rhodesia and the end of South African Apartheid.
The Balkans & the Yugoslav Wars
Eleven episodes tracing Balkan history from the Congress of Berlin and great-power rivalry over the Ottoman succession, through the creation of Yugoslavia, Tito’s Cold War defiance and Stalin-Tito split, and the catastrophic wars of dissolution that destroyed Yugoslavia in the 1990s.
Post-War America
Ten episodes tracing America’s rise to global dominance — Truman, the Marshall Plan, Eisenhower’s nuclear America, the Berlin Wall, the end of the Cold War in 1989, and the historical roots of today’s political crisis.
The American Civil Rights Movement
Fourteen episodes tracing the full arc of the Black freedom struggle — from Jim Crow and W.E.B. Du Bois through Freedom Summer and the Watts Riots, to Black Power, Nixon’s Southern Strategy, and the long unfinished legacy of the 1960s.
Mao and China
Eleven episodes on Mao’s China — from the Korean War and the Sino-Soviet split through the Cultural Revolution, Mao’s lost generation, and China’s transformation under Deng Xiaoping.
The Vietnam War & American Foreign Policy
Fourteen episodes tracing the full arc of America’s longest war — from Japanese-occupied Indochina and the fall of French power at Dien Bien Phu, through Kennedy’s CIA operations and McNamara’s body counts, to the anti-war movement, Nixon’s cynical endgame, and the fall of Saigon in 1975.
The Cold War
Thirteen episodes spanning the full arc of the Cold War — from Truman and Potsdam through McCarthyism, the Berlin Wall, Korea, Vietnam, and Gorbachev’s diplomacy to the global transformation of 1989.
The First World War
Thirteen episodes spanning the road to war, the Western Front, global theatres from India to Japan and the Ottoman Empire, and the failed peace at Paris in 1919.
The Russian Revolution & Bolshevism
Twelve episodes tracing the full arc of 1917 and its aftermath — from the proto-fascist Black Hundreds and the food crisis of the old order, through Lenin’s Red Terror and the civil war, to Trotsky’s legacy and the Soviet state’s global reach.
Reference Library
Alongside the episode collections, Explaining History maintains a structured reference library for students, teachers, and independent learners. Each section provides critical intellectual biography, analysis of ideas, and historiographical debates — designed to complement the episodes and to stand alone as a research resource.
- 20th Century Lives — Critical intellectual biography of thinkers, political actors, scientists, and epochal historians: Arendt, Gramsci, Fanon, Gandhi, Nkrumah, Hobsbawm, and more.
- 20th Century Ideas — Analysis of the major political and intellectual movements that shaped the century: fascism, Stalinism, social democracy, neoliberalism, anticolonialism, Black Power, second-wave feminism, and more.
- 20th Century Interpretations — The historiographical debates that still divide historians: the causes of the First World War, the Holocaust, the fall of Weimar, the origins of the Cold War, and more.
About Explaining History
Explaining History is a history podcast and website created by Nick Shepley, a historian and educator based in the UK. Since 2013 the show has published over 1,000 episodes covering the decisive moments, movements, and figures of the 20th century. The show is particularly strong on fascism and the far right, Stalinist terror, the Iranian Revolution, European social history, and the political economy of the post-war era. New episodes are released every week.
