Podcasting for Historians

In recent years history podcasts have become hugely popular, offering new ways of communicating historical knowledge, opening up diverse scholarship to new audiences, and providing peer to peer support on any number of issues. Here we draw together a panel of historians with different experiences of podcasting. We will offer practical advice on best practice for those embarking on podcasting for the first time; discuss the current state of play and the impact of podcasts on historical understanding and practice; and think about future directions.  

We will also talk about the new IHR Podcast studio and how you might use it to create your own recordings.

Joining us to discuss their podcasting experiences will be Izzy Conn, Samuel Hume, Deanna Lyncook and Charlie Rozier.

Izzy Conn works at the IHR as the History & Policy Administrator, and IHR Trust Project Manager. Her historical research focuses on contemporary British political history, with a specialism in the history of the Labour Party. She has been working on a podcast series called Leading Labour - a series of 14 episodes, each focusing on a different former Labour leader from Clement Attlee to Jeremy Corbyn. The series is made up of over 65 interviews with historians, politicians, advisors, and other key figures, edited in an audio-documentary style. The series documents the highs and lows of Labour’s history since 1945, and the barriers that often prevent Labour from winning power, as well as charting wider historical events through the eyes of the Labour leaders’ responses to them.

Samuel Hume received his PhD in British imperial history in 2023 and currently teaches at the University of Aberdeen. Alongside this he produces the podcasts Winds of Change, Pax Britannica, and The History of Witchcraft, covering a wide range of periods and subjects. In 2023 he was shortlisted for the Independent Podcast awards, and in 2024 he became a BBC HistoryExtra 30 under 30 Public Historian.

Deanna Lyncook is a PhD History student at Queen Mary University of London. Her research takes a transnational approach to the experiences of Caribbean children in the British education system in Britain and its Caribbean colonies, in the second half of the 20th Century. It explores the migration experiences of Caribbean children through oral history. She is the founder and host of the weekly podcast The History Hotline where she discusses events and individuals that have shaped Black history in Britain and the Caribbean. Deanna has worked in public history and heritage spaces as an oral history and project officer at the Museum of Methodism, curating an exhibition on Black and Asian leaders in British Methodism. She has also worked on historical research projects for the Society for Caribbean Studies, the University of Leeds, SOAS, BBC Radio London and the Times Radio. She also co-organised ‘The Issue of Truth’ a Black British History Conference with Olivia Wyatt.

Charlie Rozier is Lecturer in Medieval Studies at the University of East Anglia. Alongside his research in medieval history, he is co-founder of the Early Career Researcher Podcast. The show provides a forum for discussing all things relating to the life and work of early career researchers in the Humanities, with episodes released every two weeks on a variety of themes ranging from tips on  academic writing and publishing, guides to the REF and research impact initiatives, and reflections on ‘having children in academia’.