Podcasting History: an Introduction and Guide - a Royal Historical Society Workshop, 25 April 2024

Podcasting has recently emerged as one of the most popular formats for presenting history to the public. But what makes for a compelling history podcast? And how are these podcasts made?

This session features two perspectives on the podcast-making process. Dr Bob Nicholson, writer and presenter of the 7-part podcast series 'Killing Victoria' (BBC Sounds, 2023), will outline how the series was made and what he learned about the art of developing a documentary-style podcast. He’ll walk you through the process of scripting the series, identifying locations/interviews, recording segments, and then editing everything together.

Dr Dave Musgrove launched, produces and co-presents the long-running HistoryExtra podcast. His part of the session will build on Bob’s series scripting advice and then talk about building a podcast presence and identifying a likely audience, how to make interviews work, and ways to really harness the power of podcasting as a tool to spread the word about your research.

Dr Bob Nicholson is a historian based at Edge Hill University. He works on the history of nineteenth-century popular culture, and is particularly keen on unearthing surprising new stories about the Victorians. He has written and presented items for BBC Radio 4, Radio 3, 'History Today', and 'BBC History Magazine'. Most recently, he wrote and presented the podcast documentary series 'Killing Victoria' for BBC Sounds (2023), which explored the lives of seven men who attacked Queen Victoria and reached the top 5 in the UK History charts.

Dr Dave Musgrove is content director of 'BBC History Magazine' and the HistoryExtra podcast and website. His PhD was in medieval archaeology, and he has worked for 'BBC History Magazine' for over 20 years. He has written popular history books on British heritage and the Bayeux Tapestry, He launched the HistoryExtra podcast in 2007 and has worked on it ever since.

This online event was hosted by Dr Andrew Smith (Queen Mary University of London) and a Council member of the Royal Historical Society.