Life Lessons from History

History Extra

History

Latest episode

10 episodes

Love your neighbour, like an ancient Roman
26/1/2026 | 34 mins.
Good neighbours become good friends. If you ever watched the long-running Australian drama series Neighbours, you’ll recognise that ditty. According to Roman historian Dr Jess Venner, we could take a lesson on neighbourliness from ancient Rome – more specifically, ancient Pompeii.
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Find wonder in the world around you
19/1/2026 | 34 mins.
The Anglo-Saxons had a deep sense of wonder – they saw magic in the mundane, and expressed it through riddles. Eleanor Parker’s Life Lesson from History is that we, too, should seek out wonder in the world around us, and that a little bit of riddle-writing might help us find it.
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Paint a pot like an ancient Etruscan
12/1/2026 | 44 mins.
Be yourself and don’t be afraid to make mistakes. That’s one of the lessons that archaeologist Dr Lucy Shipley says we can take from the approach to life of the ancient Etruscans. These historical inhabitants of the Italian peninsula seem to have had a very self-confident attitude – one which we could learn from today.
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Live locally, live sustainably
05/1/2026 | 38 mins.
We know we should all be living sustainably if we can. Bestselling historian Ian Mortimer suggests that we should look back to the medieval period – an era in which people took a very local attitude to life – to seek inspiration for sustainable living.
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Don’t worry, be Babylonian
29/12/2025 | 21 mins.
Do you wake up in the middle of the night worrying? If so, you’re definitely not alone. But if you want to manage the anxieties of modern life, Selena Wisnom argues that you could take a leaf out of the book of the ancient Assyrians and Babylonians.
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About Life Lessons from History

How can the experience of the Babylonians and Assyrians ease our worries now? Can we look to a Tudor queen for advice on procrastination? How can we harness the ancient fear of faeries and witches to add a bit of enchantment to our lives today? What’s this all about? It’s a simple concept. I find a great historian or archaeologist and I ask them to propose a Life Lesson from History – some learning from their study of the past that will help us today to live better, happier, healthier, or more productive lives.

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