What your hands say about you – according to history

HistoryExtra podcast

HistoryExtra

History

4.3 • 4.7K Ratings

🗓️ 11 February 2026

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

What do your hands reveal about you? Historian Alison Bashford joins Elinor Evans to explore the extraordinary history of how people have interpreted the human hand. From ancient divination to cutting-edge medical diagnostics, her book Decoding the Hand reveals how palm reading once sat at the centre, not the fringes, of science. In this episode, she explains how hands were used to predict character, diagnose disease, and even identify criminals – and why they still hold such symbolic power today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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