Episode 103: Potatoes for Saint Patrick

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Transcript of this episode

Episode 97: Aegyptiaca Romana, with Bet Hucks

Aven McMaster September 28, 2021

We speak to Bet Hucks about Roman importation and love of Egyptian art and other cultural material, the importance of thinking about material remains in assemblages and considering the contexts in which they were displayed, and some innovative ways of bringing the physical experiences of the past to modern audiences. Oh, and also, crocodiles!

Bet’s Twitter: @RomanAegyptiaca

Bet on academia.edu

Thanks to Emma Pauly for editing and transcription of this episode.

This episode on YouTube

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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

This 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”

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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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The Sublime Moment Cocktail

Episode 59: From the Sublime to the Romantic

Mark Sundaram June 7, 2018

The etymology of 'sublime' takes us through a discussion of the Gothic, Neo-Classical, and Romantic periods, the origins of the Romance languages, the roots of romantic love, and more.

Mats Malm “On the Technique of the Sublime”, Comparative Literature, Vol. 52, No. 1 (Winter, 2000), pp. 1-10.

Sarah Bond on Polychromy in Ancient Statues

Alex Potts, Flesh and the Ideal: Winckelmann and the Origins of Art History

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Matt Gibbs' article in The Conversation

Episode 58: Symposium!

Mark Sundaram May 17, 2018

Rachel Mazzara, Chiara Graf, Drew Davis, Matthew Watton, & Jesse Hill

This episode, we travel to Calgary, Alberta for a conference, and try some very questionable "ancient" potables! Aven takes a microphone on the road, and chats with a bunch of classicists about Roman beer, barley water, Homeric kykeon, conference papers, social media, and more!

The slides & papers & resources from the Public-Facing Scholarship panel

Our previous episode about ancient and medieval beer brewing

Melanie Racette-Campbell

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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.

Polynesian Lexicon Project Online

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Episode 53: Tiki or Not Tiki?

Mark Sundaram February 14, 2018

We head back to the Endless Knot Cocktail Bar to talk about the history of the Mai Tai, the Tiki craze, Polynesian mythology, cultural appropriation, and World's Fairs. And then we turn to Rome's relationship to Greece, and discuss whether Horace wrote the Exotica music of the ancient world!

Show Notes

Mai Tai Video

@AllEndlessKnot on Twitter

Mai Tai Recipe

Wallace-Hadrill, A. “To Be Roman, Go Greek Thoughts on Hellenization at Rome.” Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Supplement, no. 71, 1998, pp. 79–91.

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

The "gens togata": Changing Styles and Changing Identities

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Episode 45: Costumes & the Language of Fashion

Aven McMaster October 27, 2017

Our Hallowe'en themed episode this year is about costumes -- and etymologies and origin stories of a whole bunch of iconic items of clothing. We talk about the semiotics of fashion, the many varieties of the toga, and hats that caused fainting fits, and finish off with a couple of spooky Roman stories! Also, check out this year's Hallowe'en video, on words for Ghost.

Show Notes

#2PodsADay

Werewolf Cocktail recipe

"Costume" video

"Jack o'Lantern" video

Ep 22: Jack o'Lantern podcast

Justin Trudeau in Canadian Tuxedo (Source)

Article about Trudeau

Portrait of Lady Hamilton as Bacchante, by Romney

Petronius Satyricon vol 2 chpt 62 werewolf story

Pliny the Elder werewolf passage

Full transcript of this episode

Episode 44: "Us" & "Them" in the Ancient & Early English Worlds

Mark Sundaram October 13, 2017

What words did the Greeks, Romans, and early medieval English use to talk about different groups of people? What differences did they think were important? How do those compare to modern conceptions of ethnicity, national identity, or race? We try to give some basic background on this complicated question, starting with the etymology of the vocabulary and addressing some of the ways differences were conceptualized.

Show Notes

#2PodsADay

Video on the Anglo-Saxon Invasion, collaboration with Jabzy

Ethnicity in Herodotus--The Honest Entry

How is the Ancient Mediterranean Diverse If Everyone There Is "White"?

“Black Odysseus, White Caesar: When Did "White People" Become "White"?” James H. Dee. The Classical Journal. Vol. 99, No. 2 (Dec., 2003 - Jan., 2004), pp. 157-167

“Did ancient identity depend on ethnicity? A preliminary probe” Erich Gruen. Phoenix. Vol. 67, No. 1/2 (2013), pp. 1-22.

Were Medieval People Racist?

“Medieval and Modern Concepts of Race and Ethnicity” Robert Bartlett.

Caitlin Green’s blog, for general evidence of diversity in Britain

Race and Ethnicity in Anglo-Saxon Literature. Stephen Harris, Taylor & Francis, 2003.

Where the the term "White People" come from?

Colorlines in Classical North Africa

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 26: Rogue One

Aven McMaster January 13, 2017

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.

Episode 9: The Force Awakens

Show Notes

Sam McLean

British Naval History

Episode 22: Jack o'Lantern

Aven McMaster October 26, 2016

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.

The podcast on YouTube

@HumCommCasters & @HumCommVids

Show Notes

Snopes.com pumpkin article

Horace Satires 1.8

"Costume" video

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 16: Red

Aven McMaster May 18, 2016

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.