Past Lives
Today: #169 in History on our combined chart.
Today: #161 in History, Canada on our combined chart.
Today: #115 in History, Philippines on our combined chart.
Chart positions today · Japan
Not on the United Kingdom charts we track today.
Not on the Australia charts we track today.
Not on the Germany charts we track today.
Not on the Brazil charts we track today.
Not on the Mexico charts we track today.
Not on the New Zealand charts we track today.
Not on the Ireland charts we track today.
Not on the India charts we track today.
Not on the Japan charts we track today.
Not on the South Africa charts we track today.
If you like Past Lives, try…
Ranking history · Japan
Latest episodes
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Interview: Professor Kyle Harper on Mass Extinction and the Future of Life
October 21, 2026 · 40 minKyle Harper is one of the most wide-ranging, curious, and rigorous scholars working today, and he's outdone himself with his latest book, available everywhere now -The Last Animal: Human History and the Fate of Life on Earth from the Ice…
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Selling Books from the Dawn of Print to the Twenty-First Century: Interview with Professor Andrew Pettegree
October 14, 2026 · 37 minThe history of the book is a fascinating topic, and Professor Andrew Pettegree has taught us all more about the business of print and how books actually circulated than anyone else. His new release, The Bookshop: A History of Bookselling…
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Leprosy, Plague, and Life in Anglo-Saxon England
October 7, 2026 · 27 minThe small Anglo-Saxon cemetery at Edix Hill, in Cambridgeshire, isn't one of the more impressive examples of the type: no gold or silver or kings buried in boats. It nevertheless contains a wealth of information about daily life, how the…
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The Man with a Knife for a Hand (Lombard Italy, Late 6th Century)
September 30, 2026 · 31 minToward the end of the 6th century CE, a man was buried in northern Italy. He had lived an interesting life: born in what is now Hungary, he crossed the Alps as part of the great Longobard migration to Italy. Most surprising of all is the…
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Xin Zhui, the Best-Preserved Mummy of All Time
September 23, 2026 · 26 minWhen Chinese archaeologists opened a tomb in the city of Changsha in 1972, they found an undisturbed burial chamber filled with treasures from the early Han Dynasty. At the center was the body of a woman who looked like she had died only…
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How Do You Get Bitten by a Lion in Roman York?
September 16, 2026 · 29 minAround 1800 years ago, a man was bitten by a lion in the city of York, in what is now northern England. Lions aren't native to York, so how did it get there, and why was it biting this man? The answers to those questions tell us a great…
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The Siberian Ice Maiden and the Scythian World
September 9, 2026 · 29 minAround 270 BC, a woman died of breast cancer in the Altai Mountains of southern Siberia. Her tomb, cut into the permafrost, is one of the best-preserved archaeological sites on the planet. Thanks to the ice, everything from her…
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Weapons Sacrifices and the Long Road to the Viking Age
September 2, 2026 · 29 minWhen we think of Scandinavia, it seems to be a long way from the Roman Empire, with hundreds of miles separating the Rhine and Danube frontiers from the bogs of Jutland and Sweden. Why, then, were hundreds upon hundreds of Roman-made…
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Professor Peter Mancall on Understanding Colonial America
August 26, 2026 · 53 minProfessor Peter Mancall is one of the finest historians of colonial America working today, and he's written a banger of a book, the newest entry in the wonderful Oxford History of the United States series. It's entitled Contested…
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Tollund Man
August 19, 2026 · 29 minMore than 2,400 years ago, a man living in southern Denmark was hung from a plaited leather cord, then buried in a bog. There he stayed until 1950, when his perfectly preserved face emerged from the peat. We know him as Tollund Man, but…
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Bog Bodies
August 12, 2026 · 28 minBog bodies - the age-old remains of people who were submerged in bogs - are an eerie sight. Soft tissue remains, often to an even greater extent than mummies, bringing us face to face with people who died thousands of years ago. Become a…
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The Human Sacrifices of the Shang Dynasty
August 5, 2026 · 29 minOver more than two centuries, the rulers of Bronze Age China's Shang Dynasty sacrificed at least 13,000 people. Who were they? Where had they come from, and what were their lives like? Thanks to new studies, we can finally take our focus…

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