Instant Classics

Weekly conversations on ancient history and its relevance to modern life AI summary

Vespucci History · EN · 72 episodes · latest 2026-11-12

Rank 1578

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What it is about

Join world-renowned classicist Mary Beard and Guardian chief culture writer Charlotte Higgins for Instant Classics — the weekly podcast that proves ancient history is still relevant. Ancient stories, modern twists… and no degree in Classics required. Discover The Odyssey and join the book club at: https://www.exploringtheodyssey.com

Publisher’s own description, taken unchanged from the podcast feed.

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Latest episodes

Medea 3: The Immortal (with Edith Hall)

2026-11-12 · 50 min

Mary and Charlotte explore Medea’s afterlife, from Ancient Athens into the 21st Century - the way her story continues to beguile and challenge us. To do this, they are joined by Edith Hall, Professor of Classics at…
BONUS Instant Classics live at the FT Weekend Festival

2026-11-09 · 45 min

In September, Mary and Charlotte appeared at the FT Weekend Festival for a wide-ranging conversation covering Greek tragedy, Ukraine, the Bayeux Tapestry, tech bros and - inevitably - Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey.…
Medea 2: Princess and Witch

2026-11-09 · 1 hr 0 min

Last episode, we saw how Medea was driven to murder her own children, using Euripides’ famous play as our primary source. In this episode, Mary and Charlotte delve deeper into Medea’s life both before and after this…
Medea 1: Child killer

2026-10-29 · 53 min

Medea is one of the most intriguing characters in Greek mythology: a sorceress, scion of the sungod, and a serial killer. In the first part of a new series, Mary and Charlotte begin with the incident for which she is…
Exploring Anne Carson

2026-10-22 · 1 hr 2 min

It’s not every year that a classicist wins the Nobel Prize for Literature (in fact, it hasn’t happened since 1959), so Mary and Charlotte interrupt the schedule to reflect on Anne Carson’s extraordinary career as both a…
Roman Cancel Culture

2026-10-15 · 52 min

We think of cancel culture as a 21st-century phenomenon, but it’s been going on since the ancient Egyptians (if not earlier) and the Romans were enthusiastic adopters as a strategy for control. Mary and Charlotte…
What did Roman emperors really look like?

2026-10-08 · 59 min

There are thousands of surviving busts and sculptures of Roman emperors, but… do we actually know what they looked like? The problem is that the function of these statues was less to do with realistically representing…
The Bayeux Tapestry: Britain’s Lost Latin masterpiece

2026-10-01 · 56 min

Mary and Charlotte delve into the stitching of the Bayeux Tapestry, a 224-foot long narrative embroidery charting William the Conqueror’s successful invasion of England in 1066. Little is certain about the creation of…
Classic Chats: Daniel Mendelsohn on translating the Odyssey

2026-09-24 · 1 hr 0 min

Mary and Charlotte talk to Daniel Mendelsohn, one of America’s most revered classicists, whose new translation of the Odyssey was published last year. Daniel’s decision to translate the Odyssey occurred rather…
How Homer’s Odyssey Conquered the English-speaking World

2026-09-17 · 1 hr 0 min

Last episode, Mary and Charlotte looked at how Homer’s Odyssey was reinterpreted in the Ancient World by writers like Euripides, Virgil and Ovid. In this episode, they show how it shaped English fiction - from…

Episode details from the publisher’s feed. Playback happens at the publisher.

Publisher details

Oldest episode in feed: 08/2025 · over a year
Typical length: 46 min
Format: Episodic Newest first, episodes stand alone

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