586 episodes

The world’s most popular history podcast, with Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook.

They question the nature of Greatness, why the West no longer has civil wars and whether Richard Nixon was more like Caligula or Claudius. They're distilling the entirety of human history, or, as much as they can fit into about fifty minutes.

Join The Rest Is History Club (www.restishistorypod.com) for ad-free listening to the full archive, weekly bonus episodes, live streamed shows and access to an exclusive chatroom community.

Here are some of our favourite episodes to get you started:

WATERGATE/NIXON apple.co/3JrVl5h


ALEXANDER THE GREAT apple.co/3Q4FaNk


HARDCORE HISTORY'S DAN CARLIN apple.co/3vqkGa3


PUTIN & RUSSIA apple.co/3zMtLfX

The Rest Is History The Rest is History Club

    • History
    • 4.7 • 4.8K Ratings

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

The world’s most popular history podcast, with Tom Holland and Dominic Sandbrook.

They question the nature of Greatness, why the West no longer has civil wars and whether Richard Nixon was more like Caligula or Claudius. They're distilling the entirety of human history, or, as much as they can fit into about fifty minutes.

Join The Rest Is History Club (www.restishistorypod.com) for ad-free listening to the full archive, weekly bonus episodes, live streamed shows and access to an exclusive chatroom community.

Here are some of our favourite episodes to get you started:

WATERGATE/NIXON apple.co/3JrVl5h


ALEXANDER THE GREAT apple.co/3Q4FaNk


HARDCORE HISTORY'S DAN CARLIN apple.co/3vqkGa3


PUTIN & RUSSIA apple.co/3zMtLfX

Listen on Apple Podcasts
Requires subscription and macOS 11.4 or higher

    Titanic: The Survivors (Part 6)

    Titanic: The Survivors (Part 6)

    "Then it is I drown again, with all those dim lost faces I never understood… Include me in your lamentations.”
    The aftermath of the Titanic’s sinking saw different reactions erupt across the Atlantic, and the responses of both mourners and onlookers were visceral. Guilt-ridden survivors were both ostracised and lauded. Heroes became legends - the unsinkable Molly Brown and the band that played on till the frozen end - while villains were condemned forever more. Reputations were splintered and characters blackened as the investigation went on. None more so than J. Bruce Ismay, the head of White Star, whose survival was viewed as a weakness of character. But the key question needed answering: was anyone really to blame, and if yes, who?

    Join Dominic and Tom, as they discuss the terrible aftershocks of the sinking of the Titanic, as they unpick truth from legend, and analyse James Cameron’s 1995 film, which famously immortalised this extraordinary story. 

    *The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*
    Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London! 
    Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com


    Twitter:
    @TheRestHistory
    @holland_tom
    @dcsandbrook


    Producer: Theo Young-Smith
    Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
    Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

    Titanic: Nightmare at Midnight (Part 5)

    Titanic: Nightmare at Midnight (Part 5)

    “A story of horror unparalleled in the annals of the Sea.”
    On the 14th of April 1912, Titanic, a floating palace sailing through the North Atlantic, found itself hurtling towards a formidable iceberg. Contrary to the panicked reactions of her crew who, fatefully, pulled the hulking vessel to starboard, the ship's passengers slept, laughed and played on, unaware of the danger ahead. Then came a terrible grinding sound, as the side of the ship grated against the iceberg, followed by a long, dead silence. At 12.15am a distress call went out, and the order went out to begin filling the lifeboats, women and children first. But, with far fewer lifeboats than passengers, who would be allowed to board them, and who would be left behind? What leverage did gender, class, and age provide when so many lives hung in the balance? By 1.55am, the lifeboats were scarce, and the panic of those still aboard the ship spiralled out of control, as the Titanic entered her death throes… 

    Join Tom and Dominic as they discuss Titanic’s collision with the iceberg, the reactions of her doomed passengers and crew, and the stories of courage, incompetence, and tragedy.

    *The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*
    Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London! 
    Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com


    Twitter:
    @TheRestHistory
    @holland_tom
    @dcsandbrook


    Producer: Theo Young-Smith
    Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
    Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 1 hr 5 min
    Titanic: The Iceberg Strikes (Part 4)

    Titanic: The Iceberg Strikes (Part 4)

    It is Sunday the 14th of April 1912, and the passengers of the Titanic, from the tycoons in first class to the migrants in third class, have been enjoying a journey incomparable in its modernity. The weather, up until that point exceptionally clement, suddenly grew colder, stiller, calmer, and the ice warnings that had been coming through the ship’s sophisticated communications machine since Friday were growing evermore urgent. Ominously, they were left beneath piles of competing letters, unread. Then, at 11.40pm that night, a night of dancing and laughter, a cry came from the crow’s nest: “Iceberg ahead!”

    Join Dominic and Tom as they unpack the captivating lives and stories of the Titanic’s third class passengers, and recount the days and moments building up to the ship’s final hours.

    *The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*
    Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London! 
    Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com


    Twitter:
    @TheRestHistory
    @holland_tom
    @dcsandbrook


    Producer: Theo Young-Smith
    Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
    Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 45 min
    Titanic: Countdown to Disaster (Part 3)

    Titanic: Countdown to Disaster (Part 3)

    The drama and tragedy of the Titanic’s sinking has spawned all manner of myths about those who left Southampton on the 10th of April 1912, and for four days luxuriated in the ship’s modern facilities, extravagant interiors, and plush cabins. Among them were many magnates and tycoons, such as J.J. Astor, the richest man onboard, and the American businessman Ben Guggenheim. Conspicuously absent, however, was J. P. Morgan, who cancelled his booking at the last minute, and five days later would find his greatest business competitors eliminated… Just as intriguing though, and often overlooked, were the Titanic’s second class passengers: middle-aged men with their teenage mistresses, a father who had his kidnapped his children, excited migrant families, and Joseph Laroche, a brilliant engineer and the only black man on board, for whom the Titanic provided the chance to start a new life- the same was true for many others.
    Join Tom and Dominic as they explore the dazzling, eccentric and endlessly fascinating First and Second Class passengers of the Titanic, whose extraordinary lives shine all the brighter for the terrible danger and tragedy waiting for them on the icy horizon…

    *The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*
    Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London! 
    Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com


    Twitter:
    @TheRestHistory
    @holland_tom
    @dcsandbrook


    Producer: Theo Young-Smith
    Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
    Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 48 min
    RIHC: The Ottoman Empire, James Bond and the Titanic Submersible

    RIHC: The Ottoman Empire, James Bond and the Titanic Submersible

    Does a mighty power need a formidable rival in order to become great? Was 20th century British culture uniquely British? When was the term democracy first applied to Western political systems? If the Ottomans had been victorious at Vienna and swept thought Europe, was it ever possible that Islam could have become the primary religion of Europe? And, which historical topics should all children be taught at school?

    Join Tom and Dominic for this week's bonus episode, as they discuss these intriguing historical questions.



    *The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*
    Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London!
    Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com



    Twitter:
    @TheRestHistory
    @holland_tom
    @dcsandbrook


    Producer: Theo Young-Smith
    Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
    Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor

    Titanic: Kings of the World (Part 2)

    Titanic: Kings of the World (Part 2)

    The Titanic was a product of the furious competition of the late Gilded Age, and no expenses were spared to make her the most extraordinary and luxurious ship ever built. The height of an eleven-story building, fully electric, and with first class suites designed for the world’s wealthiest, the Titanic embodied the Edwardian obsessions with grandeur and greatness. But the ship was also designed to accommodate immigrants, who made up the majority of its passengers, in third class, or “steerage”. But is their any truth behind the myths surrounding class-based mistreatment of the poorer passengers, in contrast to the over-pampered rich? Was safety sacrificed in favour of a hubristic lust for luxury and grandeur? 

    Join Dominic and Tom as they discuss the Titanic’s sumptuous, modern interiors, her gargantuan proportions, and the stories of builders who brought her to life. They dive into a world of butlers, stewards, maids and crewmen, and look into the man whose name would later become synonymous with disaster: the Titanic’s captain, Edward Smith. 

    *The Rest Is History LIVE in 2024*
    Tom and Dominic are back onstage this summer, at Hampton Court Palace in London! 
    Buy your tickets here: therestishistory.com


    Twitter:
    @TheRestHistory
    @holland_tom
    @dcsandbrook


    Producer: Theo Young-Smith
    Assistant Producer: Tabby Syrett
    Executive Producers: Jack Davenport + Tony Pastor
    Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

    • 52 min

Customer Reviews

4.7 out of 5
4.8K Ratings

4.8K Ratings

!markO ,

Brilliant

So interesting, witty, and occasionally hilarious-
these men are so great at what they do!
Their podcast brings me so much joy.

Fluffster Normalpaws ,

Tee hee

This is really pretty funny. Keeps my attention

Justthe1swan ,

Great for Listening or Sleeping

I started listening because I wanted to learn more about Oppenheimer, and, being a breastfeeding mom, podcasts are my ever present companions for midnight sessions. I am now a huge fan of the show and it’s making this sleep regression more interesting if not enjoyable. Always an interesting take on whatever the topic and their voices are relaxing enough to fall asleep to after my daughter finally lets me lay her down again.

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