You should listen to more than one history podcast. But if you have pick just one, pick In Our Time, the venerable BBC radio show and podcast that covers a different topic each episode. It’s your best opportunity to learn a little bit about a lot of things. And it’s the best way to figure out what parts of history really interest you, for further learning.

Do you fancy yourself a knight in shining armour? Are you a hopeless horse person? Is A Knight's Tale your favourite film? Have I got the job for you... Jousting is back, and it's reclaiming the spotlight, with international tournaments being broadcast on ESPN and Fox Sports. A combination of athleticism, horsemanship and pure nerve, we spoke to professional jousters about what it takes to make it big.

Welcome to the start of Daylight Saving Time — the "spring forward", so to speak — but who came up with this bizarre practice? And why? Who should you blame for losing an hour of your glorious weekend?

Here's an interesting piece of trivia you won't find in your high school history book. When Captain James Cook "discovered" the southeastern coast of Australia in 1770, he wasn't actually a Captain. Furthermore, he never held this rank at any point during his naval career. Blame alliteration.

Roald Dahl is best known for writing a series of beloved and critically acclaimed children's books. But before Willy Wonka, Mr Fox, the B.F.G and all the rest, Dahl had a career of a very different sort - as a fighter pilot in the Royal Air Force.

During World War 2, he took part in the brutal Battle of Athens, sustained life-threatening injuries in a crash and rose to the rank of squadron leader. Oh yeah, and he also fell in love with a nurse.

The image of a witch riding her broomstick off into the night is one that we all take for granted, but do you know where the association between witches and brooms comes from? Turns out it's less to do with the occult than with ye olde experiments with homebrew hallucinogens. You'll never look at Harry Potter's Firebolt the same way again.

I used to think classical paintings of Jesus were all the same - if you've seen one, you've seen 'em all, right? Today I discovered this isn't entirely accurate... a bit like the raging erection on a crucifixion victim.

The Aqua GUI in Apple’s operating systems has undergone a remarkable evolution since March of 2000, when it found its way into OS X 10.0, and you might be surprised at just how different everything looks now. Thanks to the newly-launched Aqua Screenshot Library, you can revisit every version of OS X (and macOS) through the years and view the gradual evolution of Apple’s operating system — all from your browser.

In the 16th Century, over the course of five years, almost 80% of the Aztec population were wiped out due to an unknown disease that burnt through their villages, causing high fevers, bleeding from the mouth, nose and eyes and eventually lead to death. Without understanding the epidemic, the Aztecs named the phenomenon 'cocoliztli', their native word for 'pestilence'.

Scientists have pondered the potential cause of the cocoliztli epidemic for years, but only recently has new research uncovered what may have caused it.

Many Aboriginal Australians would say with conviction that they have always been here. Their ancestors and traditional learnings tell them of this history, and their precise place within it. Our review of the scientific evidence, published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, suggests that for all practical purposes, this is indeed the case.

Video: Mozart wrote a party song called “Kiss My Arse”. The filthy lyrics (“kiss my arse, quickly, quickly”) weren’t discovered until 1991. This is the stuff you’d learn if The A.V. Club was doing interviews in the 1700s. And it’s another great way to appreciate classical music. Just like pop music, the music is more fun if you learn the story behind it. In this video we tell you how.

Oh the Popemobile. The holiest, safest and most odd-looking of transports. Since Pope John Paul II toured the world in a glass box mounted on the back of a truck, the Popemobile has become a bit of a meme. But over in Ireland, you can hire out a vintage Popemobile for your stag do, if that's what floats your boat.

Until relatively recently in human history, the colour blue didn’t exist. It is conspicuously absent from most ancient languages, including Greek, Chinese, Japanese, Hindustani, Icelandic and Hebrew.

It's as if our ancestors were all colour blind, but only when it came to shades of blue. Today I discovered why.

Mac/iOS: I recently checked out clipboard management app Paste 2. While it’s a bit pricey — $22.99 for the full version — it has some compelling features, and a free trial, that make it worth considering.

On Friday, a leader from North Korea crossed the Korean Demilitarised Zone for the first time ever to talk denuclearisation and long-awaited peace. It was a truly historic moment, but it's only the latest event in a complicated conflict that's lasted nearly 70 years. Here's everything you should know about the Korean War.

Have an Audible subscription but not sure what to listen to next? I know the feeling well. My credits were starting to pile up to the point I thought about cancelling my subscription - until recently. Have you considered something educational?

When those bullies from business school mocked you for getting a useless doctorate in medieval literature, they didn't see the world of history podcasts coming. Now it's cool as hell to sit in your closet and read out your doctoral thesis. It turns out that podcasts are a fantastic way for people to learn about history, at all scales and time periods, one lesson at a time.

As a lover of history, I'm enamoured by photos of the past. Important moments that have been preserved through light and lenses. Some are joyous. Some mournful.

I often trawl historic images on Instagram, because my nerdom knows no bounds. So I thought I would share some incredible photographs that have captured moments in tech history, from some of my favourite accounts.

The subreddit /r/trippinthroughtime is for memes about historical figures, where someone in art or an old photo looks confused or silly. Each picture has a caption, usually treating the weird art as some modern relatable situation. But in the comment threads, you'll often find someone explaining cool facts about the original artwork.