Episode 34: The Gimlet & the Diseases of Colonialism

We discuss the origins of the Gimlet cocktail, the stories about its name, and its connection to the treatment of scurvy; then we talk about some of the other diseases tied to the early era of European expansion and colonialism, including the classical history of malaria in Greece and Rome. Also featuring conversation about gin, the pronunciation of quinine, and a cameo appearance by Alexander the Great!

Show Notes

"Gimlet" video

"Gimlet" blog post

Gin, Glorious Gin: How Mother's Ruin Became the Spirit of London by Olivia Williams

"The Dead Do Tell Tales", Ethan Barnes, Corinth, Vol. 20, Corinth, The Centenary: 1896-1996 (2003), pp. 435-443. JSTOR

Malaria and Rome: A History of Malaria in Ancient Italy, Robert Sallares, OUP 2002.

"A Note on Alexander's Death", Donald Engels, Classical Philology, Vol. 73, No. 3 (Jul., 1978), pp. 224-228. JSTOR

Episode 33: Purple, Pink, & Brown

Show Notes

We finish up our colour series (for now!) with a discussion of Purple, Pink, & Brown. From Phoenician shellfish, Virgil's Aeneas,& Propertius's Cynthia, to flowers, beavers, & bears, this episode covers a lot of ground. Let us know what fun colour facts we've missed, and what colourful topics you might like us to cover in the future!

Note: one area of discussion we rather left out is the place of purple in Byzantium/the Eastern Empire... maybe we’ll pick that up in the next episode briefly!

Talk the Talk Podcast

Let’s Talk Talk Podcast

Article on mealtime terms

Aviation

Pink flowers

"Costume" video

Our Patreon page

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

This podcast episode on YouTube

Episode 32: Ariadne's Clue

We've joined forces with the MythTake podcast for a pair of episodes about the myth of Theseus, the Minotaur, and Ariadne. In our episode we talk about the story of Theseus & Ariadne, and the development of the word 'Clue' from Chaucer's version of the tale, as well as Catullus and Ovid's depictions of Ariadne's abandonment, and the connections to fingerprints, detective fiction, and Agatha Christie's life. Meanwhile, Alison & Darrin in their episode talk about two poems by Bacchylides, and the Greek sources for the life of Theseus and his heroic exploits, as well as a few more English words derived from his adventures.

Show Notes

"Clue" video

MythTake episode 21: Theseus

Catullus 64

Amalia Carosella's books about Helen

"Paddle Your Own Canoe" video

Our Patreon page

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

This podcast episode on YouTube

Episode 31: #CreateICG

It's #CreateICG Week! A bunch of internet creators are putting out videos, podcasts, blogs, & more, all on the theme of CREATE – with all sorts of different approaches and interpretations. The event is centred around the Internet Creators Guild, a non-profit organization with a mission to support, represent, and connect creators whose primary platform is online. If you’d like to find out more about them, you can go to internetcreatorsguild.com – and to find more amazing creations by ICG members, search #CreateICG on your social media of choice, check our show notes for links, or go to createicg.wordpress.com for lists of creators and their works.

In this episode we talk about the etymology of CREATE, the origin of breakfast, how mealtimes moved around the day, the history of theatrical and artificial lighting, and Greek and Norse creation myths -- including the story of the body-fluid-filled mead of inspiration!

Show Notes

#CreateICG

"Create: Myth, Mealtimes, & Matinées" video

#CreateICG YouTube Playlist

Neil Gaiman's Norse Mythology

Our Patreon page

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

This podcast episode on YouTube

Episode 30: Baba Brinkman & Peer-Reviewed Rap

We have the immense pleasure of interviewing Baba Brinkman, a Canadian rap artist & award-winning playwright best known for his “Rap Guide” series of plays and albums, with which he has toured the world; these cover topics like evolution, religion, medicine, and most recently climate change. He’s also pioneered the genre of ‘lit-hop’ with his adaptations of Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, Gilgamesh, Beowulf & more. Our conversation ranges through tree-planting; the connections between Homer, Chaucer, & rap; Horace, Lucretius, & Erasmus Darwin as science communicators; the comedy of neuroscience; Trump; language & dictionaries; and more.

At the end of the interview we play a couple of tracks by Baba: his newest single "Erosion", and the first two tracks from his Rap Canterbury Tales album, "General Prologue" & "The Knight's Tale (scene 1)".

Show Notes

Baba Brinkman's website

A brief history of rhyme | Baba Brinkman | TEDxNavesink

Professor Elemental

Baba Brinkman & Professor Elemental - What's Your English?

 

Our Patreon page

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

This podcast episode on YouTube

Episode 29: Evolution, with Ray Belli

How do words change their meanings? What are the mechanisms behind semantic change? And how do technological advances -- like the development of e-books --  affect language? We discuss these topics and more with Ray Belli, host of the Words for Granted podcast.

Show Notes

Evolution video

Evolution playlist

Words for Granted Podcast

Our Patreon page

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

This podcast episode on YouTube

Episode 28: Coach, or The History (& Future?) of Education

We trace the history of 'coach' back to its Hungarian roots, and explore its connections to the development of higher education in Europe. Then we run through a capsule history of the goals (stated and unstated!) of education from classical Athens to today, and discuss how the new world of online learning, including YouTube and podcasts, fits into the ideals and best practices of the future of education. Please let us know about all the things we over-simplified, left out, or got wrong in the process of covering almost 3000 years of western European schooling, and weigh in on where you see things heading now!

Show Notes

"Coach" video

CGP Grey's video  “Digital Aristotle”

Veritasium's video “This Will Revolutionize Education”

Our Patreon page

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

This podcast episode on YouTube

Episode 27: Yellow & Orange

We return to our series on colour words with a discussion of Yellow and Orange in Greek, Latin, & English. The Roman and medieval associations of the colours take us from a wedding hymn by Catullus to Mary Magdalene & pawnbrokers -- and finally to modern connections to cowboys and Cheetos.

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

This podcast episode on YouTube

Our Patreon page

Show Notes

Words for Granted Podcast

Gagliardo Cocktail

Golden Dream Cocktail

Gastropod Ice cream episode

Catullus poem 61 & English translation

Lexicon Valley episode on Orange

Ben Zimmer's Word Routes article on Orange

Episode 26: Rogue One

We're joined by Sam McLean to discuss Rogue One's connections to Germanic heroism, Norse thautr, Roman epic, Terry Pratchett, heist films, &  The Dirty Dozen. Following up last year's conversation about The Force Awakens, we're interested in seeing how the newest Star Wars film changes genres and develops new themes.

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

This podcast episode on YouTube

Our Patreon page

Show Notes

Episode 9: The Force Awakens

Sam McLean

British Naval History

Episode 25: Twelve Days

Episode 24: Talking Turkey

Episode 23: Dirk Gently

We discuss Douglas Adams' Dirk Gently novels, the 2010 BBC miniseries, and the new BBC America adaptation, with Samuel Barnett & Elijah Wood, written by Max Landis. We talk about "the fundamental interconnectedness of all things" as inspiration for Mark's work, the process of adaptation, and 1980's Englishness.

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

This podcast episode on YouTube

Our Patreon page

Show Notes

@HumCommCasters & @HumCommVids

Michael Wombat's website & blog

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, BBC America, 2016

Episode 22: Jack o'Lantern

In our Halloween episode we discuss the origins of the holiday, the etymology of Jack o'Lantern, the Canadian connections to trick-or-treating, and the great pumpkin scandal of 2016, and we read a Roman poem about witches scared off by a wooden fertility god.

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

The podcast on YouTube

Our Patreon page

Show Notes

@HumCommCasters & @HumCommVids

Snopes.com pumpkin article

Horace Satires 1.8

"Costume" video

Episode 21: Haggard Hawks

We talk to Paul Anthony Jones about where his love of etymology and obscure words came from, how he researches his books, the unexpected popularity of his Haggard Hawks twitter account, and more.

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

Our Patreon page -- and thank you to our newest supporters, Alex Smallman & Benjamin Walls!

Show Notes

Come from Away official site

"Ambition" video

@HumCommCasters & @HumCommVids

Haggard Hawks website

Episode 20: Blue & Green

We explore the terms for blue & green in Greek, Latin, and English, and discuss their symbolism and meaning in the various cultures. Is it true the ancient Greeks couldn't see blue? Why do we go 'green with envy'? And what did chariot racing, colours, and religious riots in Constantinople have to do with the Italian national football team?

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

Our Patreon page -- and thank you to our newest supporter, Rémi Belleau!

Show Notes

Mythtake podcast

Linoleum video

Our merchandise

Berlin & Kay colour list

Article about Greeks not seeing the colour blue

Talk the Talk podcast

Article about ultramarine

Horace Ode 1.9 (Soracte) in English

Horace Ode 2.5 (Heifer) in English

Horace Odes Book 1 in Latin

Horace Odes Book 2 in Latin

Mosaic of the charioteers

Episode 19: Beef

We chat about the Norman French influence on Anglo-Saxon words for animals and meat, the powerful emotional and political aspects of the words we use for food, and then delve into Latin technical terms for farmyard animals, ending off with Virgil's pastoral poems, the Eclogues.

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

Our Patreon page -- and thank you to all our Patreon supporters!

Show Notes

Classy Little Podcast

Roman Colour Thesaurus – Caroline Lawrence (Roman Mysteries)

Merchandise

Beefeater cocktails

Episode 18: Beer

All about beer! From experiments in baking bread with the leftovers from brewing beer to the etymology of beery words, and the complicated question of how fizzy beer has been through the ages.  We follow up on questions raised in our Loaf podcast, and get some tips from other foodie podcasters.

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

Our Patreon page -- and thank you to all our Patreon supporters!

Show Notes

Recreating Egyptian Bread by @miguelesquirol

The Feast Podcast Episode 3: The Medieval Michelin Guide: Finding Food on the Camino de Santiago, 1490

Recipe for medieval trencher bread and recipe for spent grain tea biscuits, via @Feast_Podcast

Our experiment making bread from leftover beer sludge

Gastropod: Everything Old is Brew Again

Posts on traditional Peruvian beer and traditional South African beer via @beervana

Sources for history of barrels: here & here.

Artificial carbonation of beer & cask and bottle conditioning via @Gastropodcast

Episode 17: Loaf

We talk about words for bread and the close connection between "loaf" and lords, ladies, and dairy-maids, then turn to the history of baking bread and our adventures with sourdough, baking Pompeian bread, and brewing beer.

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

Our Patreon page -- and thank you to all our Patreon supporters!

Show Notes

Turkish language website
Stack Brewing
"Loaf" video
Re-creating the Pompeii loaf video
 

Our picture of bread from the ROM Pompeii exhibit.

Our picture of bread from the ROM Pompeii exhibit.

A loaf of Pompeian bread from the British Museum

A loaf of Pompeian bread from the British Museum

Our attempt to recreate Pompeian bread:

Episode 16: Red

We talk about Old English, Greek, and Latin words for red, the cultural importance of dyes, basic colour terms, blushes, blood, and gods. And a little bit about sex and phalluses, but only in the most genteel way. We promise.

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

Our Patreon page -- and thank you to all our Patreon supporters!

Show Notes

MythTakes Podcast

Lexicon Valley: Red Herring

Lexicon Valley: Orange and Ben Zimmer's blogpost

"Album" podcast episode

Our "Weird" video

Episode 15: Stephen Le

We talk to Stephen Le about his book 100 Million Years of Food: What Our Ancestors Ate and Why It Matters Today, and his efforts to use an understanding of evolution to help us decide what to eat. We chat about what it means to "eat what your ancestors ate", the cultural history of food, and his wide-ranging travels in search of traditional foods to try--especially insects! 

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Show Notes

Stephen's Website

Our Patreon page

And thank you to our Patreon supporters: 

Carlos Solis
Valerie Polichar
Lukas Hägele
Evermore Anon
Ian & Susan McMaster
Chantal Sundaram
Sean Soderman

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