Tudor life with Ruth Goodman
HistoryExtra podcast
10/19/25
•27m
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What did ordinary Tudors eat and drink on a daily basis? How did they keep themselves clean without baths and showers? And what surprising beliefs did they hold about sex, religion and childhood? Social historian Ruth Goodman – presenter of a new HistoryExtra Academy on Tudor life – reveals the often surprising realities of everyday existence in the era in conversation with Rachel Dinning.
Don’t miss Ruth’s new HistoryExtra Academy video series on Tudor Life. The seven episodes, filmed on location at Plas Mawr in Conwy, cover everything you need to know about daily life in the Tudor era – from childhood and marriage to food and religion. Download the HistoryExtra app to access the latest episodes, ad-free: https://bit.ly/4n2t0oo.
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.
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Previous Episode
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In the autumn of 1605, Robert Catesby and Guy Fawkes led a desperate band of Catholic gentlemen in one of history's most daring conspiracies. Having smuggled 36 barrels of gunpowder beneath the Palace of Westminster, their plan was to blow up James VI & I, along with the majority of England’s Protestant elite, paving the way for the restoration of Catholicism. In this first episode of our four-part series on the plot, Danny Bird speaks to historian John Cooper to uncover a world of persecution, espionage and faith-driven extremism. They unfurl the conspirators’ bold plan and interrogate the powerful spy networks of late Elizabethan and early Jacobean England that set the scene for an explosive act of treason.
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GO BEYOND THE PODCAST
Want to know more about the Gunpowder Plot? Danny Bird has curated a selection of essential reading from the HistoryExtra and BBC History Magazine archive to help you explore the religious tensions, political intrigue and lasting impact of this infamous act of treason: https://bit.ly/3WDunPw.
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(Ad) John Cooper is the author of The Lost Chapel of Westminster: How a Royal Chapel Became the House of Commons (Apollo, 2024). Buy it now from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lost-Chapel-Westminster-John-Cooper/dp/1801104514#:~:text=debate....-,John%20Cooper's%20The%20Lost%20Chapel%20of%20Westminster%20is%20a%20meticulously,beating%20heart%20of%20parliamentary%20debate/?tag=bbchistory045-21&ascsubtag=historyextra-social-histboty
The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.
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The HistoryExtra podcast is produced by the team behind BBC History Magazine.
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