Travels Through Time

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In each episode we ask a leading historian, novelist or public figure the tantalising question, ”If you could travel back through time, which year would you visit?” Once they have made their choice, then they guide us through that year in three telling scenes. We have visited Pompeii in 79AD, Jerusalem in 1187, the Tower of London in 1483, Colonial America in 1776, 10 Downing Street in 1940 and the Moon in 1969. Featured in the Guardian, Times and Evening Standard. Presented weekly by Sunday Times bestselling writer Peter Moore, award-winning historian Violet Moller and Artemis Irvine.

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Top 10 Travels Through Time Episodes

Goodpods has curated a list of the 10 best Travels Through Time episodes, ranked by the number of listens and likes each episode have garnered from our listeners. If you are listening to Travels Through Time for the first time, there's no better place to start than with one of these standout episodes. If you are a fan of the show, vote for your favorite Travels Through Time episode by adding your comments to the episode page.

[From the archive] Philip Hoare: Albert and the Whale (1520)

Travels Through Time

07/13/23 • 48 min

In 1520 the artist Albrecht Dürer was on the run from the Plague and on the look-out for distraction when he heard that a huge whale had been beached on the coast of Zeeland. So he set off to see the astonishing creature for himself.

In this beautifully-evoked episode the award-winning writing Philip Hoare takes us back to those consequential days in 1520. We catch sight of Dürer, the great master of the Northern Renaissance, as he searches for the whale. This, he realises, is his chance to make his greatest ever print.

Philip Hoare is the author of nine works of non-fiction, including biographies of Stephen Tennant and Noël Coward, and the studies, Wilde's Last Stand and England's Lost Eden. Spike Island was chosen by W.G. Sebald as his book of the year for 2001. In 2009, Leviathan or, The Whale won the 2009 BBC Samuel Johnson Prize for non-fiction. It was followed in 2013 by The Sea Inside, and in 2017 by RISINGTIDEFALLINGSTAR.

His new book, Albert & the Whale led the New York Times to call the author a 'forceful weather system' of his own. He is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Southampton, and co-curator, with Angela Cockayne, of the digital projects http://www.mobydickbigread.com/ and https://www.ancientmarinerbigread.com/

As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.

Show notes

Scene One: Nuremberg, home of Albrecht Dürer, at the height of its power as an imperial city, of art and technology.

Scene Two: The Low Countries. Driven out of Nuremberg by the plague and a city in lockdown, Dürer escapes to the seaside.

Scene Three: Halfway through his year away, Dürer hears a whale has been stranded in Zeeland. This is his chance to make his greatest print, a follow up to his hit woodcut of a rhinoceros. What follows next is near disaster, a mortal act. It changes his life.

Memento: Memento: A lock of Dürer’s hair (which Hoare would use to regenerate him and then get him to paint his portrait)

People/Social

Presenter: Violet Moller

Guest: Philip Hoare

Production: Maria Nolan

Podcast partner: Colorgraph

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Mary Hollingsworth: Charles V in Italy (1530)

Travels Through Time

03/02/21 • 41 min

In this sweeping tour of Renaissance century Italy, Mary Hollingsworth takes us to see the most powerful figure of the age: the King of Spain, Archduke of Austria, the Lord of the Netherlands and the soon-to-be-crowned Holy Roman Emperor - Charles V.

To WIN a hardback copy of Mary Hollingsworth's beautifully designed and written new book, Princes of the Renaissance, just 'like' our new Facebook page.

For much, much more, as ever, head to our website: tttpodcast.com

Show notes

Scene One: Bologna, 24 February 1530, Pope Clement VII crowns Charles V as the Holy Roman Emperor, the last Pope to do so, marking the end of an 800-year tradition that stretched back to Charlemagne.

Scene Two: Mantua, 2 April 1530. Charles V is staying with Federigo Gonzaga at his beautiful court, they play a game of real tennis before sitting down in the great dining hall surrounded by Guilio Romano’s erotic frescos to enjoy an elaborate banquet.

Scene Three: Florence, 15 April 1530 (Good Friday). Imperial forces surround the city of Florence, leaving just one access point into the city at Empoli. Inside the gates, the situation is getting more desperate, food supplies are very low, but the spirit of the Florentine Republicans remains undimmed.

Memento: A piece of Florentine plaster daubed with the words “Poor but Free!”

Further reading: Geoffrey Parker, Emperor: A New Life of Charles V, 2019 (Yale University Press)

People/Social

Presenter: Violet Moller

Guest: Mary Hollingsworth

Production: Maria Nolan

Podcast partner: Colorgraph

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Violet Moller: Map of Knowledge (529)

Travels Through Time

11/19/19 • 50 min

The passage of knowledge between the Ancient World and today’s modern one, has not been smooth. In many cases only a fraction of what was once known has reached us today. Just seven out of around eighty plays by Aeschylus survive, seven out of the hundred and twenty written by Sophocles and a similar proportion of those by Euripides.

Often knowledge was lost at specific moments of conflict or tumult in the human story. In this episode of Travels Through Time the historian Dr Violet Moller takes us back to one of the most crucial years of all: 529, when the Roman Empire was in its latter days and a new Christian world was emerging.

Violet’s travels through the past takes us on a picaresque tour of this significant year. In Constantinople we see the last great Roman emperor. In Athens a “Golden Chain” of learning is about to be severed after many centuries. And on a rocky hill in central Italy, a new monastic order that will have a spectacular future, is founded.

Dr Violet Moller is the author of The Map of Knowledge, winner of the Royal Society for Literature’s Jerwood Prize. The Daily Telegraph called it “popular intellectual history at its best.”

Show notes:

Scenes:

Constantinople where Justinian is rebuilding the city, rewriting the legal code and issuing proclamations limiting the practice of Pagan faiths and philosophy.
Athens, the Neoplatonist Academy is closing thanks to Justinian’s proclamation, breaking a tradition of learning stretching back hundreds of years. The philosophers pack up their books and leave for Persia where they would be protected by the Sassanid King Khosrow I.
Montecassino where St Benedict is building a monastery on the site of an ancient Temple of Apollo, establishing the most important religious order of the Middle Ages.

Memento: A crate of books, saved from the Neoplatonic Academy

People / Social

Presenter: Peter Moore

Guest: Dr Violet Moller

Producer: Maria Nolan

Editorial: Artemis Irvine

Digital Production: John Hillman

Titles: Jon O.

Justin Marozzi: Seizure of Constantinople (1453)

Travels Through Time

08/04/20 • 47 min

In this swashbuckling episode of Travels Through Time we head back to the year 1453. We watch on as the brilliant, ruthless young sultan, Mehmet II, makes use of terrifying modern weaponry as he seeks to capture the prize of his heart’s desire: the ancient city of Constantinople.

Our guest this week is the award-winning and bestselling writer Justin Marozzi. Marozzi has lived for much of his professional life in the Middle East and North Africa and is known for books like The Man Who Invented History: Travels with Herodotus (2008) and Baghdad: City of Peace, City of Blood.

The events described and the characters involved in this episode are taken from Marozzi’s latest book, Islamic Empires Fifteen Cities that Define a Civilization. That book is published in paperback on 6 August by Penguin Press.

For much, much more about this episode, including battle plans and portraits of Mehmed and Constantine, head to our website: tttpodcast.com

Show notes

Scene One: January 1453. A Hungarian siege engineer called Orban offers the Ottoman Sultan Mehmed II the most powerful new weapon in the world.

Scene Two: 22 April 1453, Mehmet displays an astonishing example of his military genius to seize control of the Golden Horn, Constantinople

Scene Three: 1:30am on 29th May, the battle for Constantinople reaches its dramatic climax

Memento: The magnificent cannon cast for the seige in 1453 by the Hungarian engineer Orban

People/Social

Presenter: Peter Moore

Interview: Violet Moller

Guest: Justin Marozzi

Production: Maria Nolan

Podcast partner: Colorgraph

Dr Priya Atwal: The Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire (1837)

Travels Through Time

02/01/22 • 50 min

In this episode of Travels Through Time we attend a magnificent Sikh royal wedding which was as much carefully orchestrated political theatre as it was the union of two people before god.

Indian weddings are famous for their exuberance and that of Prince Nau Nihal Singh, who married Bibi Nanaki Kaur Atariwala in 1837, may well have been the most extravagant of all time.

This lavish month-long celebration was an emotional moment for the young Prince’s grandparents, Ranjit Singh, ‘the lion of Punjab’, Maharajah and founder of the splendid Sikh dynasty that ruled northern India from 1799-1849, and his beloved wife, Maharani Datar Kaur. They oversaw the wedding preparations and presided over the whole extravaganza.

But while the guests feasted and the dancing girls performed, Ranjit Singh and his advisors were busy negotiating with representatives of the East India Company over the division of power in the Punjab and beyond.

Click here to order Dr Priya Atwal’s book Royals and Rebels, the Rise and Fall of the Sikh Empire from an independent bookshop near you.

Show Notes

Scene One: March 6th, 1837. The 'vatna' ceremony performed by his family (particularly his grandmother and the senior queens) where the couple are smeared with a paste made of turmeric as part of his pre-wedding celebrations.

Scene Two: Early April, 1837. The wedding ceremony at the home of Sham Singh Attariwala, local warlord and father of the bride.

Scene Three: End of March, 1837. The military parade performed by the groom in front of Maharajah Ranjit Singh's British guests at the end of the month-long celebrations.

Memento: One of the Maharani’s incredible outfits, including the jewels!

People/Social

Presenter: Violet Moller

Guest: Dr Priya Atwal

Production: Maria Nolan

Podcast partner: Unseen Histories

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Amy Jeffs: Tales from Medieval England (1327)

Travels Through Time

04/21/23 • 48 min

This week we have an extra Friday episode for you. It’s with the multi-talented artist, historian and musician Dr Amy Jeffs. She takes us back to 1327, a year of high political drama when King Edward II of England was deposed by his wife, Isabella, and his teenage son, Edward III was crowned and began his fifty-year reign.

Jeffs spent her university years deep in the Middle Ages, studying palaeography, Anglo-Saxon, Old Norse and Middle Welsh, alongside more traditional art history courses.

Her fascination with words and images in manuscripts has led her to create two books, Storyland and Wild which explore enigmatic early Medieval stories and are beautifully illustrated with her own linocut prints, while the audiobook versions feature her songs and compositions.

Wild, which is just out in paperback, explores the mysterious, riddling tales in The Exeter Book, a rare tenth century manuscript of old English literature which has been in Exeter Cathedral since 1072.

In this episode Jeffs tells Violet more about all of this and together they set off for 1327 to examine the year’s politics through the prism of two compelling manuscripts.

For more, as ever, visit our website: tttpodcast.com.

Show notes

Scene One: 1327. A disaster in the scriptorium. A group of manuscript makers, including a scribe and a painter, have been working on producing a book containing a series of portraits of English kings from William the Conqueror to Edward II, surmounting a poem that builds up to an exhortation for Edward II to conquer the Scots.

Scene Two: A mother’s gift. Sometime between 15-year-old Edward III’s knighting on 31st January and his coronation on 1st Feb 1327, his mother gives him a lavishly illuminated manuscript containing a treatise on kingship.

Scene Three. A funeral. Edward III’s father died/was killed at Berkeley Castle, on the 21st September 1327, but his funeral did not take place until 21st October. His body was borne to Gloucester Abbey, not in state, but with a wooden effigy.

Memento: Edward II’s crown, as displayed on his effigy.

People/Social

Presenter: Violet Moller

Guest: Dr Amy Jeffs

Production: Maria Nolan

Podcast partner: Ace Cultural Tours

Theme music: ‘Love Token’ from the album ‘This Is Us’ By Slava and Leonard Grigoryan

See where 1327 fits on our Timeline

Amy’s linocut images can be ordered from https://www.amyjeffshistoria.com

Insta: https://www.instagram.com/historia_prints/

Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/artist/2DrP4TiFqjZHAaWeLdQEGB

Leo Hollis: The Lost History of Mary Davies (1701)

Travels Through Time

06/01/21 • 42 min

St Paul’s Cathedral. The West End. The Houses of Parliament. London is one of the great cities of the world and we’re instantly familiar with its famous buildings and neighbourhoods. But rarely do we consider the simple question: ‘who owns it?’

This question is at the heart of a new book by the historian Leo Hollis. His research into the ownership of Britain’s capital took him on a journey deep into the personal history of a remarkable woman called Mary Davies, an heiress of enormous consequence who lived four hundred years ago.

In this episode Leo Hollis guides us back to 1701 and to an important year in Mary’s life and in the life of a city that was discovering its new, modern identity.

As ever, much, much more about this episode is to be found at our website tttpodcast.com.

Leo Hollis is the author of three books including the international bestseller, Cities are Good for You. His new book, published in May, is called, Inheritance, The Lost History of Mary Davies.

Show notes

Scene One: March 1701, The still incomplete St Paul's cathedral, centrepiece of the huge rebuilding project that began as a result of the Great Fire of London in 1666.

Scene Two: 12-18 June 1701, Hotel Castille, Paris. Mary Davies arrives from Rome, suffering from serious mental illness and accompanied by the Fenwick brothers, whose actions during these few days form the basis of the ensuing court cases. What really did happen?

Scene Three: 13 August 1701. A lawyer for the supposed husband pins a court summons onto the railings of the home of Mrs Tregonwell in Millbank, Mary's mother. Mary is inside but refuses to come out.

Memento: The only contract that Mary Grosvenor signed, from October 1700.

People/Social

Presenter: Violet Moller

Guest: Leo Hollis

Production: Maria Nolan

Podcast partner: Colorgraph

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Peter and Artemis in the pub (2019)

Travels Through Time

12/24/19 • 25 min

It's Christmas and TTT is one year-old! For this episode of Travels Through Time we went to the pub for a pint to celebrate.

One year, twenty six brilliant time travels, the best historians and tens of thousands of downloads from all corners of the world! We thought that all of this was worth celebrating with something a little different to usual. So we decided to toast TTT's first birthday with a drink.

In this episode you'll hear Peter and Artemis chatting about the idea for the format, revealing a little bit more about themselves and picking some favourite moments from the last year. At the very end we have some lines of wintry poetry from Sir Michael Palin.

Thank you to all of our wonderful interviewees over the past year and to History Today for partnering with us. We'll be back with the usual format on Tuesday 7 January, 2020.

Till then, a Merry Christmas to you all from us.

Show notes:

In the pub; Peter Moore and Artemis Irvine

Not speaking but in the pub too: Maria the Producer

Sara Cockerill: Eleanor of Aquitaine (1199)

Travels Through Time

12/17/19 • 45 min

In this captivating episode of Travels Through Time, we venture back to the year 1199 to see Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the great operators of the High Middle Ages, at the peak of her powers.

Eleanor is a remarkable character. She was queen of France and England and the mother of two English kings. One chronicler, describing her in late life, asserted that she was, “a matchless woman, beautiful yet chaste, powerful and modest, meek yet eloquent … whose power was the admiration of her age.”

But how much of this was reputation and what was the reality?

Our quest to answer this riddle begins in early spring 1199 when Eleanor’s son King Richard I, “the Lionheart”, is struck in the shoulder by a stray shotgun arrow. Richard’s wound swiftly becomes gangrenous. With death imminent, and the fate of his kingdom uncertain, Richard sends for his mother.

Today’s guest Sara Cockerill guides us, in three scenes, through the dramatic and uncertain sequence of events that follows.

Show notes:

Scene one: 6 April 1199, near Limousin, France. Deathbed of Richard the Lionheart

Scene two: 20 July 1199 Tours. Eleanor at the age of 65 performing homage to Philip Augustus.

Scene three: Autumn 1199. Fontevraud, Aquitaine. Eleanor burying her daughter Joanna.

Memento: A gold ring with a sapphire inset, inscribed with the letters R A.

Sara Cockerill’s book, Eleanor of Aquitaine: Queen of France, Queen of England, Mother of Empires is available in hardback now.

People / Social

Presenter: Peter Moore

Guest: Sara Cockerill

Producer: Maria Nolan

Digital Production: John Hillman

Titles: Jon O.

Prof. John Heilbron: Galileo's Ghost (1643)

Travels Through Time

02/02/21 • 43 min

This week we're heading to 1643 - a year of conflict and strife in the English Civil War.

Our guest is the distinguished historian of science, Professor John Heilbron. Heilbron opted to travel back to Royalist Oxford, a university city teeming with action.

Amid it all he finds a stranglely unstudied history lurking in the colleges. It's a story that is captured in a painting of a young scholar and his tutor, who sits beside a copy of Galileo's Dialogues.

See the painting discussed in this episode here.

The characters and stories in this episode feature in JL Heilbron's new book, The Ghost of Galileo, which has been recently published by Oxford University Press.

For much, much more, head to our website: tttpodcast.com

Show notes

Scene One: Sir John Bankes arrives in Oxford, probably in February of 1643

Scene Two: Summer 1643. Young John Bankes arrives in Oxford to begin his studies at Oriol College

Scene Three: The painter Francis Cleyn comes to Oxford on business.

Memento: Three copies of the original edition of Galileo’s Dialogue (current market value $1m each)

*** People/Social

Presenter: John Hillman

Interview: Violet Moller

Guest: Professor John Heilbron

Production: Maria Nolan

Podcast partner: Colorgraph

Or on Facebook

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FAQ

How many episodes does Travels Through Time have?

Travels Through Time currently has 197 episodes available.

What topics does Travels Through Time cover?

The podcast is about History and Podcasts.

What is the most popular episode on Travels Through Time?

The episode title '[From the archive] Philip Hoare: Albert and the Whale (1520)' is the most popular.

What is the average episode length on Travels Through Time?

The average episode length on Travels Through Time is 51 minutes.

How often are episodes of Travels Through Time released?

Episodes of Travels Through Time are typically released every 6 days, 23 hours.

When was the first episode of Travels Through Time?

The first episode of Travels Through Time was released on Dec 20, 2018.

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Travels Through Time