Accessing our podcast
At Travels Through Time we’re eager for as many people to be able to enjoy our podcasts as possible.
For some people that is harder than others.
According to the Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID), there are 12 million adults with hearing loss greater than 25 dBHL. That is approximately one in five adults
In the USA, about 15% of the adult population report problems with their hearing
You can read more about this issue in this article (Feb: 2020) by Forbes Magazine
To help people with hearing difficulties enjoy Travels Through Time, we have started to release transcripts of some of our episodes. These often stretch to between 8,000-10,000 words and they serve as vibrant written records of our journeys into the past. Scroll down to see which of our episodes are currently available. We hope you enjoy them. We intend to keep adding to this catalogue when our resources allow.
Transcripts
This year the journalist and humorist Craig Brown won the Baille Gifford Prize for his glittering history of the Beatles - One, Two, Three, Four: the Beatles in time. In this entertaining episode Brown guides us through the events of the Beatles’ magical year - 1963.
Full transcript. (7,580 words / 37 minute read)
Full transcript (PDF). (7,580 words / 37 minute read)
The extrordinary snow of early 1963 have long lived in British memories. In this episode Juliet Nicolson goes in search of the human stories that played out against the frosty backdrop.
Full transcript. 6,420 words (32 minute read)
Full transcript (PDF). 6,420 words (32 minute read)
Britain Alone: Philip Stephens (1962)
Britain’s place in the world changed drastically after World War 2. No longer could she rival the two true super-powers, Russia and the USA. In 1962 the question of what kind of nation Britain was going to be came to a head as Harold Macmillan met with JFK and Charles de Gaulle.
Full transcript. 7,800 words / 39 min read.
Full transcript (PDF). 7,800 words / 39 min read.
In this emotionally-charged episode we talked to the author Ariana Neumann about her New York Times bestselling memoir, When Time Stopped. She takes us back to the year 1944 and the moment of her Jewish father’s escape from the Nazis.
Full transcript. (10,146 words // 50 minute read)
Full transcript (PDF). (10,146 words // 50 minute read)
One of the greatest seaborne invasions in human history took place in June 1944 when the Allies invaded Nazi-occupied Europe. In this episode the military historian Peter Caddick-Adams takes us back to the Normandy beaches.
Full transcript. (7,738 words. 38 minute read)
Full transcript (PDF). (7,738 words. 38 minute read)
In this conversation with the Sunday Times bestselling historian Andrew Roberts, we visit one of the most dramatic moments in all British history.
In seventy two hours in the middle of May 1940, Britain’s political leadership was transformed. Out went the undistinguished government led by Neville Chamberlain. It was replaced by a regime of ‘growling defiance’, headed by the pugnacious Winston Churchill.
Full transcript. (7,144 words / 35 minute read)
Full transcript (PDF) (7,144 words / 35 minute read)
Food historian Annie Gray takes us behind the scenes of Number 10 Downing Street to meet an important, valued but low-profile historical figure. In this episode we head off to 1940 to meet Winston Churchill’s magnificent cook: Georgina Landemare.
Full transcript. (9,682 word / 49 minute read)
Full transcript (PDF). (9,682 word / 49 minute read)
What better tour guide than Sir Michael Palin? Here the writer, Python, actor and adventurer takes us back 150 years on the trail of HMS Erebus - one of the last British ships to participate in the Golden Age of exploration. He takes us from one end of the world to the other, while pondering one of the greatest mysteries in maritime history.
Full transcript. (4,916 words / 25-minute read)
Full transcript (PDF). (4,916 words / 25-minute read)
The award-winning historian William Dalrymple joined us for a journey back to a decisive series of battles on the Indian subcontinent. Strangely enough one of the beligerants was not a soverign nation, but a merchant - the East India Company.
Full transcript. (8,689 words. 43 minute read)
Full transcript (PDF). (8,689 words. 43 minute read)
In this episode we head back to the events that surrounded one of the most significant books ever written. In 1684 Christopher Wren set his friends - Robert Hooke and Edmund Halley - a challenge. It set in motion a series of events that ended with the publication of Isaac Newton’s Principia Mathematica.
Full transcript. (6,666 words / 33 minute read)
Full transcript (PDF). (6,666 words / 33 minute read)
In this episode the multimillion bestselling author of the Languedoc Trilogy, Kate Mosse, takes us to the heart of one of the most dramatic and violent episodes in French history.
Paris in the summer of 1572. The St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre.
Full transcript. (7,511 words / 41 minute read)
Full transcript (PDF). (7,511 words / 41 minute read)
In this episode we talk to one Professor Diarmaid MacCulloch, one of Britain’s leading historians.
The year we examine is 1536 - one that has long fascinated historians. It is the year that King Henry’s marriage to Anne Boleyn spectacularly implodes, but it is also the year of one of the most dangerous rebellions: The Pilgrimage of Grace.
Full transcript. (8,833 words / 44 minute read)
Full transcript (PDF). (8,833 words / 44 minute read)
In this episode of Travels Through Time, Penn guides us back to the blackest year of them all, 1483. This was the year that Richard Duke of Gloucester conceived a ruthless plan to seize the throne for himself. His actions would make his reputation for cunning, opportunism and recklessness. In retrospect, Penn argues, this was the year that the powerful House of York began to consume itself.
Full transcript. (8,394 words / 42 minute read)
Full transcript (PDF). (8,394 words / 42 minute read)
Join Professor Jonathan Phillips on a tour back to the year 1187 and one of the most consequential battles of the Crusading Era - Saladin’s victory at the Battle of Hattin.
Full transcript. (8,225 words / 41 minute listen)
Full transcript (PDF). (8,225 words / 41 minute listen)
In this episode of Travels Through Time the bestselling historian Dan Jones guides us back to 1147, the year the Second Crusade was launched, drawing on material from his new book Crusaders.
Full transcript. (7,296 words / 36 minute read)
Full transcript (PDF). (7,296 words / 36 minute read)
Once a well-known episode, the story of the White Ship has become somewhat forgotton over the past half century. In this episode, the historian Charles Spencer guides us back to one of the most devastating disasters ever to strike the English Crown - the sinking of the White Ship.
Full transcript. (8,153 words / 40 minute read)
Full transcript (PDF). (8,153 words / 40 minute read)
In this fascinating episode of Travels Through Time, Ken Follett, one of the world’s best-loved historical novelists, takes us back to the beginning of the last millennium. The year we visit comes at a time of change when, after centuries of stagnation, English society was beginning to emerge from that gloomy period we today call ‘The Dark Ages.’
Full transcript. (8,234 words / 41 minute listen)
Full transcript (PDF). (8,234 words / 41 minute listen)
In this episode we talk to Catherine Nixey, author of the critically acclaimed book The Darkening Age.
She takes us back to a fascinating moment in Late Antiquity, when the old, classical world was being replaced by a new Christian one. She also introduces us to a singular character: Hypatia.
Full transcript. (8,089 words / 40 minute read)
Full transcript (PDF). (8,089 words / 40 minute read)
In this usual episode we venture back more than one hundred thousand years, to meet the Neanderthals.
Full transcript. (8,124 words / 40 minute read)
Full transcript (PDF). (8,124 words / 40 minute read)