Episode 87: Alexander the Great, with Meg Finlayson

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Episode 86: Who's on Your Calendar?

Aven McMaster December 26, 2020

Happy holidays! In this seasonal episode we discuss the origins of the modern Western calendar, the names of the months and days of the week, and the sources we have for Roman calendars and Germanic gods. Happy new year, and may it be better than the last!

Herbert-Brown, Geraldine. “Fasti: the Poet, the Prince, and the Plebs” in A Companion to Ovid, ed. Peter E. Knox, Wiley-Blackwell. 2013.

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Mashed Radish blog post on Candidate

Episode 85: Election Talk to Take Your Mind off the Election

Aven McMaster November 3, 2020

It’s election night 2020 in the US, and our video from 4 years ago about the language of politics is relevant once again. We discuss the changing vocabulary of democracy and what it can tell us about shifting attitudes towards popular rule and politicians. It may not be a complete break from political coverage, but at least it’s mostly about the distant past, not the uncertain future!

Ballot Box Cocktail

Mashed Radish blog post on Poll

Anatoly Liberman on Booth

“Sublime” video

“Sublime” podcast

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“The asàrotos òikos mosaic as an elite status symbol” by Ehud Fathy

Episode 84: Linoleum: It's Not As Boring As You Think!

Aven McMaster October 11, 2020

In this episode we go from the origin of the world to the many uses of olive oil, with discussions of Roman mosaics, and trademark law along the way. This is the third of our episodes on Intellectual Property, following Episode 42: Bugging Out! on patents and Episode 57: Freebooting, Piracy, & Copyright on copyright. Also, it’s the start of Season 6, and we want to thank everyone who’s joined us over the last 5 years. It’s been a blast, and here’s to another half decade!

Ancient History Encyclopedia — the olive

Oxford Dictionaries blog post on “gasoline”

Hesiod, Theogony

First oil derrick — picture

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Episode 83: Recipes and Authority, from Intelligent Speech

Aven McMaster August 6, 2020

Back in June we had the pleasure of being part of the Intelligent Speech Conference 2020 — this year, held entirely online. It was a day filled with amazing podcasters and great conversations, and in this short episode we’re sharing the talk that we gave at the event. It’s about the word Recipe and early cookbooks, medicine, and women’s magazines. If you’d like to see the images that accompanied the presentation, you can watch the talk on YouTube, where the questions and post-talk discussion are also included.

Intelligent Speech Conference

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Episode 82: Plagues, with Moxie from Your Brain on Facts

Aven McMaster July 6, 2020

It’s time for us to talk about plagues — ancient, medieval, literary, etymological, and psychological! We’re joined by Moxie from Your Brain on Facts for a very fun — if slightly disturbing — discussion of many aspects of historical plagues.

Episode 44: "Us" & "Them" in the Ancient & Anglo-Saxon Worlds

Your Brain on Facts

Gardner, H.H. Pestilence and the Body Politic in Latin Literature. 2019.

Episode 51: Race & Racism in Ancient & Medieval Studies, Part One: The Problem

Episode 52: Race & Racism in Ancient & Medieval Studies, Part Two: Responses

Thorneloe Race forum episode

Statue/Systemic

Crisis/Discrimination

Thug/Protect

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Episode 81: The Rise (and Fall) of Skywalker

Aven McMaster June 5, 2020

star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-theatrical-poster-1000_ebc74357.jpeg

In an episode that was recorded in late May before the protests started, we took a break from COVID talk to give our thoughts on the final movie in the Star Wars saga. We discussed how it was similar to or different from ancient epic, medieval romance, and Icelandic sagas, but mostly we talked about the ways it failed to bring together the many threads of the Star Wars story.

Given current events, and the protests against police brutality and systemic anti-Black racism, we urge our white and non-Black listeners to continue their education on these subjects and, if you’re able, donate to support people fighting for justice. One good podcast series is “Seeing White” from SceneOnRadio, and there are anti-racism reading lists here and here; you can donate to Black Lives Matter or The National Bail Out Fund, or any of the many causes that need funds right now.

We also have two episodes on race and racism in medieval studies and classics; they’re several years old now, but may be of interest for thinking about issues of race in our particular fields, and the role our disciplines have played in supporting structural racism in Europe and North America. EPISODE 51: RACE & RACISM IN ANCIENT & MEDIEVAL STUDIES, PART ONE: THE PROBLEM and EPISODE 52: RACE & RACISM IN ANCIENT & MEDIEVAL STUDIES, PART TWO: RESPONSES.

Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge: Black Spire Cookbook

Lyceum

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Episode 80: Runes and Early Writing Systems

Aven McMaster April 10, 2020

We take a look at the history of runes and their connection to early alphabets and Germanic culture. Then we take a trip back to the Phoenician and Egyptian origins of the modern English alphabet, and talk about some of the earliest examples of Greek writing, in inscriptions, epic poetry, and myth. Also, introducing Lyceum, a new platform for educational podcasting!

The “Screaming Viking” cocktail

Lyceum

NativLang’s video Muslim Vikings & Magic Letters: The Odd History of Runes pt 1

Our Rune video

Images of English Runes

The story of Hyacinth (see under “Larkspur”) and images of possible “Ai Ai” flowers

“THE TEXT: Signs of Writing in Homer.” Homer: The Poetry of the Past, by ANDREW FORD, Cornell University Press, Ithaca; London, 1992, pp. 131–171. JSTOR.

The Runecast podcast

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Episode 79: Sex & Gender

Aven McMaster February 11, 2020

photo credit: Flickr user get directly down

We trace the etymologies and development of the words “sex” and “gender”, as well as words for women and men in Greek, Latin, and English, touching on Roman, Greek, and medieval English ideas about gender. Then we discuss the grammatical term “gender” and how it differs across languages around the world.

The History of Sex Podcast

The “Pink Lady” cocktail

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The Christmas Cake cocktail

Episode 78: An Etymological Holiday Feast

Aven McMaster December 17, 2019

This year’s holiday episode is all about festivals and feasts — and in particular, midwinter celebrations, the solstice, and the seasons. And we read a couple of Latin poems about drinking — and explore the odd connection between them and a tire company!

Hesiod’s Works and Days in English

Horace’s Odes in Latin

Horace Odes 1.37 in English

Feast video

Transcript

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Bonus Episode: Thorneloe Race Forum

Aven McMaster December 10, 2019

Race & Racism poster 2019 with image-page-001.jpg

This bonus episode contains two talks we gave at our university in November. Mark spoke about “The ‘Anglo-Saxon’ Problem: Language and Racism in Medieval Studies” and Aven spoke about “Defining ‘Race’ in the Ancient Mediterranean and Today”.

Google ngrams for collocations of “Anglo-Saxon”:

All English Texts

American English

British English

“Whitewashing Ancient Statues: Whiteness, Racism And Color In The Ancient World”, by Sarah Bond

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Episode 77: SoundEdu19, with Scott Lepisto

Aven McMaster November 19, 2019

Crossover time! We’re joined by Scott Lepisto, of the Itinera Podcast, in a conversation at the SoundEducation podcasting conference in Boston. We talked about the conference itself, the use of podcasting in classrooms, and the importance of public-facing scholarship in Classics and Medieval Studies. And please check out Scott’s podcast, in which he interviews classicists about their work and their journey to and through the field!

Scott on Twitter

Itinera Podcast

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Episode 76: Do You Believe in Magic?

Aven McMaster October 31, 2019

Happy Halloween! This year we’re talking about the etymology and origins of “Magic”, the differences between religion and magic, Greek and Roman spells and curses, and some rather bizarre tales about Virgil & Aristotle.

Our “Magic” video

Cocktail: Black Magic

Religion in the Roman Empire, James B Rives, 2007

Arcana Mundi,Georg Luck, 2006

Tomyris with the head of Cyrus the Great

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Classically Inclined blog

Episode 75: Tracking Monsters, with Liz Gloyn

Aven McMaster October 8, 2019

We speak with Dr. Liz Gloyn about her new book, Tracking Classical Monsters in Popular Culture. We talk about Hercules: the Legendary Journeys, the Odyssey, the problems with Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey pattern, and more!

Liz Gloyn

Tracking Classical Monsters in Popular Culture

Facebook Page for Tracking Classical Monsters

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The SoundEducation Conference page

Episode 74: Medieval Fact & Fiction, with Winston Black

Aven McMaster September 10, 2019

We talked to Winston Black about his new book, The Middle Ages: Facts & Fictions, which addresses the most common myths and misconceptions about the Middle Ages. And we touch on video games, D&D, and Game of Thrones in the process!

The Middle Ages: Facts & Fictions

Winston on Twitter

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Weird Sisters Blood & Hand Punch

Episode 73: Things Get Weird

Aven McMaster August 13, 2019

The Fates have decreed that it’s time for us to talk about the word “Weird”! We discuss its etymology, the concept of fate in the ancient and medieval world, whether mythical women really do usually appear in threes, and Shakespeare.

Twist of Fate cocktail

Shakespeare Not Stirred book

“Weird” video

“Does English have a future tense?” video

“Arrow” video

“As We Like It Podcast” – Macbeth episode

Chart of ‘strange’ vs ‘weird’ usage

Chart of ‘weird’, ‘uncanny’, ‘eerie’, & ‘unearthly’

More information about the Moirai

Hesiod passage about the Fates

Catullus 64

Theoi site for Greek mythology

Articles about WEIRD linguistics and WEIRD psychology

Professor Elemental “Everybody’s Weird”

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Episode 72: Dispatches from VidCon 2019

Aven McMaster July 16, 2019

While at VidCon this year, we sat down and chatted with a few of our fellow educational YouTubers: The Cynical Historian, Knowing Better, 12tone, and Step Back History. This is a compilation of our discussions about their channels, their reasons for making videos, and their experience of VidCon and its educational companion event, EduCon. If you don’t already watch their videos, we strongly recommend you check them out. Thank you to them all for taking part!

This podcast episode on YouTube

iTunes link

Stitcher link

Google Play Music link

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Erasmus Darwin cocktail menu, based on The Loves of the Plants

Episode 71: Enlisting Imagination under the Banner of Science

Aven McMaster June 18, 2019

We discuss a person who had an important impact on both science and language: Erasmus Darwin, grandfather of Charles. In particular, we talk about the use of poetry to explain science, from Hesiod to Lucretius to Darwin to Baba Brinkman, and the new wave of science communicators on and off line.

D.G. King-Hele. “Erasmus Darwin, Man of Ideas and Inventor of Words.” Notes and Records of the Royal Society of London 42.2 (1988): 149–180 .

Baba Brinkman

Hesiod’s Theogony

Aratus’s Phaenomena

Google Play Music link

This podcast episode on YouTube

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Carly’s article about Hadrian’s Wall

Episode 70: Carly Silver

Aven McMaster May 17, 2019

We spoke to Carly Silver, an editor and a writer on ancient history and horse racing, about how she connects the past to contemporary issues, the intriguing stories in curse tablets in Roman Britain, murder mysteries set in the ancient world, romance novels, breeding programs for American Thoroughbreds, and more!

Carly’s website

Carly’s article about the sexual assault charges against a workman in ancient Egypt

Carly’s writing about horse racing

Ancient murder mysteries mentioned in the podcast:

Gary Corby, Athenian Mysteries

Lindsey Davis

David Wishart

John Maddox Roberts, SPQR series

Rosemary Rowe

Big Finish Cicero series

Robert Harris

Paul Doherty

Agatha Christie “Death Comes as the End”

Google Play Music link

This podcast episode on YouTube

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