Announcing Goalhanger’s First New Release of 2025: Journey Through Time

History from the ground up — the stories you didn’t learn, the people you never knew, shaping history in ways you never expected.

Launching on 20th March 2025, Journey Through Time uncovers the overlooked, forgotten, and untold sides of history — from hidden stories to new angles on events we thought we knew. Co-hosted by British-Nigerian historian and BAFTA-winning filmmaker David Olusoga and American cultural and literary historian Sarah Churchwell, Chair of Public Humanities at the University of London, the show explores the past from the ground up.

Each episode weaves the monumental with the personal. “We don’t just tell you what happened in the past; we want to show you what it felt to live through it,” says Co-host Olusoga. “Like the programs I make on TV, this show will uncover the sorts of history that didn’t take place in parliament or palaces. What Sarah and I are going to do is explore how political decisions, new technologies and the random chaos of the past played out on the street, within the home or on the battlefield.”

Co-host Churchwell adds, “We want to uncover the hidden layers of history—stories of ordinary people navigating extraordinary times. Our goal is to challenge familiar narratives and reveal the surprising truths behind what you think you know—or maybe haven’t thought to question. It’s about understanding history not just as something we study, but as the force that shaped our world.”

Click to play this video from YouTubeYouTube’s privacy policy

David and Sarah, both expert storytellers, will be blending engaging storytelling with sharp historical insights, bringing their distinct perspectives to stories that challenge what we think we know about the past. They will uncover the human experience behind events both famous and forgotten, revealing the choices, struggles, and ambitions that changed history in ways that continue to reverberate today.

In the first two episodes of Journey Through Time, David Olusoga and Sarah Churchwell explore a terrorist attack that shook America, led to the creation of new national security agencies, and helped push the United States toward war. But it’s not 9/11. They uncover the story of the 1916 Black Tom Island explosion—a devastating blast that rocked Manhattan and helped pave the way for America’s modern security state.

In upcoming episodes, David and Sarah uncover the remarkable story of Victoria Woodhull, the first woman to run for president in the United States in 1872; track the path of the Great Storm of 1703, the most violent weather event ever recorded in England; and follow the scandalous murder of architect Stanford White, a crime that exposed the dark side of America’s Gilded Age. They’ll revisit the Great Exhibition of 1851, where Britain put its industrial might and its insecurities on display; explore the true story of Bass Reeves, the formerly enslaved man who became one of the most legendary US Marshals of the American West; and uncover the lives of Anne Bonny and Mary Read, two women who defied the British Empire to become pirates in the Caribbean.

With a focus on social history, Journey Through Time brings the past to life — making it accessible, inclusive, and deeply personal. It shows that the past is richer, stranger, and more surprising than we’ve often been told — and it’s shaped by all of us.

David Olusoga is a British-Nigerian historian, best-selling author and BAFTA-winning TV Producer. He is author or co-author of eight books and writes journalism for the Guardian, Observer and New Statesman. He is presenter of the long-running BBC history series A House Through Time and Professor of Public History at the University of Manchester. David’s books have been awarded the British Book Awards, the PEN Hessell-Tiltman Prize and the Longman-History Today Trustees Award. He is a recipient of the BAFTA Special Award, the British Academy’s Presidents Medal and the Norton Medlicott Medal For Services to History.

Sarah Churchwell is Chair of Public Humanities at the School of Advanced Study, University of London. As a cultural historian, she researches the ways literature and history shape American myths, exploring the stories America tells about itself. Writing and broadcasting at the intersection of culture and politics, her work has appeared in the New York Review of Books, New York Times, Atlantic, Washington Post, Guardian, Financial Times, and Prospect, among many others. She has been named one of Prospect magazine’s Top 50 World Thinkers, was co-winner of the Eccles British Library Writer’s Award, and was longlisted for the Orwell Prize for Journalism.

Joining as a launch partner for the show is the online genealogy service Findmypast, while Google’s NotebookLM is also coming on board to support research across the series.

Sarah Bush, Managing Director of Findmypast, said: “We’re delighted to partner with Goalhanger to re-examine the events of the past through the eyes of the people that experienced them. History is so often told through great leaders and sweeping narratives; this podcast helps to make it personal. Thanks to Findmypast’s rich and varied online archive and easy-to-use platform, you too can delve deeper into the past and discover your own ancestor’s lives and how they experienced the world around them.”

Building on the success of Goalhanger’s acclaimed productions—The Rest Is History, Empire, The Rest Is Classified and We Have Ways of Making You Talk—Journey Through Time is an exciting new addition to our lineup, fresh off the back of 400m+ audio downloads and 85m+ YouTube views recorded across our key shows in 2024 alone.