Episode 110: Music and Language

Redbubble store

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Transcript of this episode

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.

Your Brain on Facts

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

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

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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Transcript of this episode

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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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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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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Pliny’s letter 7.27 in English

Episode 62: Etymological Ghosts

Mark Sundaram October 22, 2018

From modern words for ghost, to Latin and Greek terms for spirits, to ghost words that haunt dictionaries, we explore some spooky etymologies and tell some ancient ghost stories.

Sound Education

Green Ghost Cocktail

Liquified Ghost Cocktail

Ghost video

Eidolon online journal

VIdeo of a performance of the Latin version of Pliny’s ghost story

List of ancient ghost stories sourced from Twitter

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Sound Education podcasting conference

Episode 60: What We Did on Our Summer Vacation

Mark Sundaram August 24, 2018

We report on our trips to EduCon, VidCon, Iceland, & England. Lots of museums and historical places, and check out the web page for pictures of some of our favourite artifacts and images.

We Create Edu community

Travelling Etymologies: Names in Iceland and England

Golden Circle Tour

Volcano House

Westman Island Eruption

Penis Museum

Vagina Museum

Rodin and the Art of Ancient Greece

Earliest English Word video

Episode with James Andean

Sator square

Our friend Michael (Wombat)’s blog post about the Battle of Towton

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Medieval Pets by Kathleen Walker-Meikle

Episode 55: Our Pet Topic (part two, with cats)

Mark Sundaram March 21, 2018

In part two of our miniseries on pets, we cover cats, monkeys, birds, and more. Find out the surprising origins of the word for parrot, what medieval people named their cats, and what bird was symbolic of the Virgin Mary.

Show Notes

@AllEndlessKnot on Twitter

"Greek and Roman Household Pets", Francis D. Lazenby

Animals for Show and Pleasure in Ancient Rome, George Dennison

Companion Animals and Us: Exploring the Relationships Between People and Pets Anthony L. Podberscek, Elizabeth S. Paul, James A. Serpell, eds.

Our episode on farm animals

Paw prints on a manuscript

Mosaic from Istanbul (from Caitlin Green's blog)

Dr. Caitlin Green's blog

Medieval Pets by Kathleen Walker-Meikle

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Episode 54: Our Pet Topic (part one)

Mark Sundaram February 27, 2018

The Lady and the Unicorn, Desire (Musée de Cluny

What makes an animal a pet? Who kept pets in the ancient and medieval worlds? What kinds of animals were they? And why are all the words for pets in English of (mostly) unknown origin?! We start a mini two-part series with a general discussion of ancient and medieval pets, and then some great stories about some Very Good Dogs.

Show Notes

@AllEndlessKnot on Twitter

"Greek and Roman Household Pets", Francis D. Lazenby

Federico II Gonzaga by Titian

Odyssey, 17. 309-10

Martial, 1.109

Petronius, Satyricon, 71

The Lady and the Unicorn, Desire

Animals for Show and Pleasure in Ancient Rome, George Dennison

Companion Animals and Us: Exploring the Relationships Between People and Pets Anthony L. Podberscek, Elizabeth S. Paul, James A. Serpell, eds.

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

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

Mark Sundaram January 31, 2018

In part two of our discussion about racism, we talk about ways to respond to the problems in the field, in teaching, scholarship, and more. Thank you to Katherine Blouin, Damian Fleming, Usama Ali Gad, Rebecca Futo Kennedy, Asa Mittman, Dimitri Nakassis, Helen Young, and Donna Zuckerberg for their generous contributions of time and thoughtful discussion of these difficult subjects. Please join in the conversation with your thoughts and ideas about how to move the fields forward.

Show Notes

Transcript

@AllEndlessKnot on Twitter

The Optimist Cocktail

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

Dr. Katherine Blouin
Everyday Orientalism blog
@isisnaucratis

Dr. Damian Fleming
@FW_Medieval

Dr. Usama Ali Gad
Classics in Arabic blog
@Usamaligad78

Dr. Rebecca Futo Kennedy
Classics at the Intersections blog
Sourcebook on Race and Ethnicity in the Classical World
@kataplexis

Dr. Asa Mittman
Inconceivable Beasts: The Wonders of the East in the Beowulf Manuscript

Dr. Dimitri Nakassis
Aegean Prehistory blog
@DimitriNakassis

Dr. Helen Young
Race & Popular Fantasy: Habits of Whiteness
@heyouonline

Dr. Donna Zuckerberg
Eidolon
@donnazuck

The Public Medievalist's series on Race, Racism, & the Middle Ages

In the Middle blog (frequently has useful posts on these subjects)

Hold My Mead: A Bibliography For Historians Hitting Back At White Supremacy by Sarah Bond

Medieval People of Color Tumblr

Pharos -- documenting misuse of the Classics

Conversation Starter cocktail

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

Mark Sundaram January 17, 2018

The Beowulf Manuscript; Marvels of the East; Beowulf; Judith (Cotton MC Vitellius)

What are the problems surrounding race and racism in the fields of Classics and Medieval Studies today? Where did these fields come from, and how does that affect the way we think about the past, and how we construct the present? For this episode (and the next) we interviewed eight scholars and put it together into an exploration of these unfortunately timely topics. Thank you to Katherine Blouin, Damian Fleming, Usama Ali Gad, Rebecca Futo Kennedy, Asa Mittman, Dimitri Nakassis, Helen Young, and Donna Zuckerberg for their generous contributions of time and thoughtful discussion of these difficult subjects. In our next episode, we will hear about possible responses to these problems -- in teaching, scholarship, and more.

Show Notes

Transcript

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

Part Two: Responses

Dr. Katherine Blouin
Everyday Orientalism blog
@isisnaucratis

Dr. Damian Fleming
@FW_Medieval

Dr. Usama Ali Gad
Classics in Arabic blog
@Usamaligad78

Dr. Rebecca Futo Kennedy
Classics at the Intersections blog
Sourcebook on Race and Ethnicity in the Classical World
@kataplexis

Dr. Asa Mittman
Inconceivable Beasts: The Wonders of the East in the Beowulf Manuscript

Dr. Dimitri Nakassis
Aegean Prehistory blog
@DimitriNakassis

Dr. Helen Young
Race & Popular Fantasy: Habits of Whiteness
@heyouonline

Dr. Donna Zuckerberg
Eidolon
@donnazuck

The Public Medievalist's series on Race, Racism, & the Middle Ages

In the Middle blog (frequently has useful posts on these subjects)

Hold My Mead: A Bibliography For Historians Hitting Back At White Supremacy by Sarah Bond

Medieval People of Color Tumblr

Anglo-Saxon Invasion video

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Episode 36: Looking for the Legend in Guy Ritchie's King Arthur

Aven McMaster June 7, 2017

We discuss how the recent Guy Ritchie movie King Arthur: Legend of the Sword fits into the history of adaptations of the Arthur legend. What kind of Arthur does it present, how does it interact with the Arthurian tradition, and what themes does it explore? And who has the biggest...er...elephants?

Show Notes

"What is the Earliest English Word?" video

History of English podcast episode on the English King Arthur

Episode 33: Purple, Pink, & Brown

Aven McMaster April 28, 2017

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

A brief history of rhyme | Baba Brinkman | TEDxNavesink

Episode 30: Baba Brinkman & Peer-Reviewed Rap

Aven McMaster March 10, 2017

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

Professor Elemental

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

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

Aven McMaster February 17, 2017

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”

Episode 19: Beef

Aven McMaster August 2, 2016

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.

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

Aven McMaster July 12, 2016

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.

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

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

Show Notes

Recreating Egyptian Bread by @miguelesquirol

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

Aven McMaster June 15, 2016

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.

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

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

Show Notes

Our picture of bread from the ROM Pompeii exhibit.

A loaf of Pompeian bread from the British Museum

Our attempt to recreate Pompeian bread:

Episode 11: Cuckold

Aven McMaster February 7, 2016

We discuss the origin of the word ‘Cuckold’, its connection to Valentine’s Day, its modern meaning, and the development of the modern idea of romantic love. Sexual fetishes, horned animals, Chaucer, Jane Austen, and Ovid all make it into the conversation--while we sip some Valentine's Day themed cocktails.

Show Notes

The Horny Cock Valentine's Day Card

Thank you to our Patreon supporters: Valerie Polichar, Lukas Hägele, Evermore Anon, and Ian & Susan McMaster

The Smitten Shine

Love Cocktail

Our Cafepress store

The "Cuckold" video

The "Sublime" video

"My Cuckoo Valentine" blog post

Claire McEachern, “Why Do Cuckolds Have Horns?” Huntington Library Quarterly 71. 4 (2008): 607-631.

The article about the capons with spurs grafted to their head is by A.W. Kozelka in the Journal of Heredity, 1929. UPDATE: The article has now been scanned in, here's the picture:

Horace Ode 3.6

Episode 2: A Detective Story

Aven McMaster July 27, 2015

We discuss and play "A Detective Story" (6'40'' - 20'40''), touching on Sir Gawain, Sherlock Holmes, memory palaces, and other ways to remember things.