They will feature some of the UK’s most prominent Historians and History Extra’s favourite guests from the past 11 years, including Mary Beard, Dan Jones and Ian Kershaw, who appeared in the very first episode.

The first podcast of the week, on Monday August 13, featured Historian, Author and Broadcaster Helen Castor discussing the psychology of Elizabeth I. For the 500th episode on Tuesday August 14, Ian Kershaw – the world’s leading biographer of Adolf Hitler – joined the podcast to discuss the history of modern Europe.

In today’s episode, August 15, Historian and Author Tracy Borman will be describing her foray into historical fiction. Thursday August 16 will feature an interview with the renowned Classicist, Author and Broadcaster Mary Beard about her life and career. To round things off on Friday August 17, the medieval Historian and Author Dan Jones will be revealing the secrets of bringing history to the masses.

Rob Attar, Editor of BBC History magazine, commented: “When we trialled our first episode more than 11 years ago, we had little idea that we would one day be producing more than 100 programmes a year that would be heard many millions of times all across the world. The podcast’s success shows what a huge appetite there is for popular history and that this medium is a brilliant way to deliver it.”

Produced by the editorial team behind BBC History magazine and historyextra.com, History Extra was first launched in 2007 as a monthly podcast. As its popularity has increased, History Extra now comes out twice a week on Mondays and Thursdays and gains 1.1 million listens a month and over 13 million a year.

History Extra features interviews with Historians, Authors and Broadcasters on a range of historical topics, from Ancient Egypt, the Vikings and Medieval history, to the Industrial Revolution, the World Wars and even events of the 21st century.

Previous guests on the podcast have included Historians David Starkey, Simon Schama, Dan Snow, David Olusoga and Lucy Worsley, as well as Broadcasters David Attenborough, Michael Palin and Jenni Murray.

The most popular episode was a conversation between Historians Dan Jones and Helen Castor about Jones’s book on the year 1215, which has been listened to more than 210,000 times.

The History Extra podcast can be downloaded or streamed on historyextra.com or via iTunes, https://www.acast.com/historyextra and several podcast apps.