x

75% of people globally want unbiased news (Pew Research) but are concerned they're not getting that.

Get balanced coverage with Symby. See how stories are covered across diverse outlets and spot when one side covers a story the other skips.

PODCAST

Instant Classics

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. Become a Member of the Instant Classics Book Club here: https://instantclassics.supportingcast.fm/

history

All Episodes

42:17

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (or...

Instant Classics ·

2025/12/11

From Asterix to Up Pompeii to Life of Brian, there are lots of modern comedies about the Romans, but what did the Romans themselves find funny? In this episode, Mary and Charlotte share their favourite Roman jokes and ask the bigger questions: what can Roman humour tell us about the world of ancient Rome itself? Can we still ‘get’ Roman jokes and do any of them still have the power to make us laugh now? Fortunately, there’s a surprising number of Roman jokes that survive today - whether graffiti,

en

62:05

Life, Death and Gladiators in Roman London

Instant Classics ·

2025/12/05

Recorded live in an actual Roman amphitheatre underneath the Guildhall Art Gallery in London, Mary and Charlotte uncover the (Roman) origins of one of the world’s great cities. London’s Roman amphitheatre may not be the Colosseum, but it’s thought it could hold up to 7,000 spectators, which is not nothing in the ancient world. London was founded soon after the invasion by the Romans in 43 CE as a port city, on the lowest bridgeable part of the Thames, and it quickly became a hub of trade and

en

43:32

Athena: Private Life of a Greek Goddess

Instant Classics ·

2025/11/27

Athena: goddess, shape-shifter, helper of heroes, fashion guru, patron deity of Athens and a bit of a daddy’s girl. She’s also one of the most elusive and puzzling characters in Greek mythology. In this episode, Mary and Charlotte ask who exactly is Athena? Is she a female role model for feminine power? More importantly, what exactly is a god in Greek mythology? Part of Athena’s appeal is that she bucks the perception of Ancient Greece as inflexibly misogynistic. For Charlotte, discovering Athena

en

31:34

Boudica: The Woman Who Defied an Empire Pt2

Instant Classics ·

2025/11/20

In the second of this two-part special, Mary and Charlotte rejoin Boudica as she marches on London, continues her path of destruction, and finally meets the Roman army on the battlefield. It’s a dramatic story, complete with Boudica’s rousing speeches to her troops and her death by suicide when she realises the battle is lost. The Roman historians who tell this story depict her as a brutal perpetrator of war crimes, but… they also present her as a victim, brave warrior and inspiring speech-giver,

en

29:41

Boudica: The Woman Who Defied an Empire pt 1

Instant Classics ·

2025/11/13

Boudica. Britain’s original badass. A warrior queen who almost defeated the Romans, gave voice to the oppressed and inspired countless school children ever since. But what do we really know about her? Mary and Charlotte trace her story, asking how much of the myth is true and whether we should really celebrate her today. History is told by the victors - and everything we know about Boudica comes from the Romans. It’s almost certain that there really was a woman called something like Boudica who

en

46:20

A Trip To The Underworld

Instant Classics ·

2025/11/06

Any Greek hero worth their salt makes a trip to the Underworld at some point during their adventures. Mary and Charlotte follow in their footsteps, crossing the River Styx to ask: what exactly was the Underworld? How was it different to the Judeo-Christian ‘Heaven’? And why has the idea of it proven so enduring even though nobody believes in it? The Underworld can’t be mapped (although some scholars have tried) because it didn’t exist, but there are consistent features in the many myths in which

en

37:43

Roman Ghostbusters

Instant Classics ·

2025/10/30

As the Halloween season hits, Mary and Charlotte turn to the wealth of ghost stories from the ancient world to ask: did the Greeks and Romans really believe in ghosts and why are their stories so similar to ours when many of our beliefs are so different? Mary and Charlotte recount a ghost story recounted by Pliny the Younger about a haunted house in Athens and the successful attempt by a philosopher to both encounter the ghost and lay its spirit to rest. They also tell the story, written down in

en

1:09

Special Announcement! - Instant Classics Live

Instant Classics ·

2025/10/28

Exciting News!Vespucci, in collaboration with the City of London Corporation and the Culture Mile Business Improvement District, is thrilled to present the very first live recording of Instant Classics on November 26th, 2025. Join hosts Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins as they journey back nearly two millennia to uncover what life was really like in Roman London. What did a typical night out look like for a Londoner in the first century CE? Were they cheering on gladiators, swapping gossip in

en

43:44

Did Nero Really Fiddle While Rome Burned?

Instant Classics ·

2025/10/23

‘Fiddling while Rome burns’ is an accusation flung at every political leader at some point in their career. In this episode, Mary and Charlotte uncover the origins of this phrase and ask: why has it proved so resonant that it has carried through the centuries and right around the world? In 64 CE, a huge fire broke out in Rome. It lasted for over a week and devastated much of the city. Today, what is more famous than the fire itself is what the emperor Nero did while it was going on. He watched -

en

39:10

Underneath The Toga

Instant Classics ·

2025/10/16

Can it really have taken seven episodes of Instant Classics to get to everyone’s favourite Roman meme: the toga party? Mary and Charlotte grasp the thistle - or rather the sinus (fold at the front of a toga) - and ask what exactly is a toga? Who wore them and when? And how do you make one? In this fact-filled episode, we discover that - despite the antics of students around the world today - a toga wasn’t a bed-sheet turned into a sort of cheap tunic for getting blind drunk in, but an elaborate,

en

49:02

Cassandra: Prophet Of The Modern World?

Instant Classics ·

2025/10/09

Who was the mythical Cassandra and why have pop stars started singing about her? Mary and Charlotte turn sleuth and track the elusive Trojan princess through the pages of ancient texts - from Homer’s Iliad to Virgil’s Aeneid. Today, Cassandra is most famous as a prophetess who could predict the future, but was cursed to never be believed. As a result, Troy burned and Agamemnon and Cassandra herself were murdered. Generally, that disbelieving was done by men. No wonder people talk of Greta Thunberg

en

34:26

How did Rome begin?

Instant Classics ·

2025/10/02

We all know what Rome became - largest empire of the ancient world, public bathing, gladiators, aqueducts, excellent roads and all that - but how did it begin? Who founded it? When? And why? Mary and Charlotte sift through the various myths that give some insight to these questions. Peel back the layers of history and Rome’s origins are lost in the bog on which it was built. Archaeology offers us evidence of Bronze Age huts, burial practice and trade with neighbouring (and far-flung) lands, but

en

52:47

Decoding The Parthenon

Instant Classics ·

2025/09/25

The Parthenon is one of the most celebrated and recognisable buildings in the world, but what did it mean to the Ancient Greeks? What role did it play in Greek society? And what did it look like in its heyday? Together, Mary and Charlotte decode the Parthenon. By happy coincidence, Mary is not just co-host of Instant Classics, but author of Charlotte’s favourite book on the subject: The Parthenon (Profile/Harvard University Press, 2002). In this episode, Mary and Charlotte pick their way through

en

47:48

Free Speech - An Ancient History

Instant Classics ·

2025/09/18

In the wake of recent conflicts over free speech and acts of political violence, Mary and Charlotte discuss how - then as now - free speech dominated the political agenda in the ancient world, with wildly different interpretations about what it meant and who got to decide. They discuss two distinct, yet complimentary principles in Ancient Athenian democracy: Parrhesia (free or frank speech) and isegoria (the equal right to speak). In theory, parrhesia preserved the right to speak truth to power,

en

25:08

The Odyssey#2: "Tell Me About A Complicated Man, Muse"

Instant Classics ·

2025/09/16

Tell me about a complicated man, muse… In this episode of Instant Classics Book Club, Mary and Charlotte dwell on the first ten lines of The Odyssey (as translated by Emily Wilson) and show how it contains not only a summary of the story that follows, but introduces the themes, the subject, and the way the story will be told. Whoever Homer was, they were not a blind sage belting out rudimentary lyrics to listeners round a camp fire, but a sophisticated story-teller/s working and re-working their

en

51:31

What Sappho Still Teaches Us About Love

Instant Classics ·

2025/09/11

In Ancient Greece, the Iliad was the poem above all other poems - an epic full of war and bloodshed that tells of the great heroes who fought and died for Troy. But not so long after the supposed composition of the Iliad, a woman on the Mediterranean island of Lesbos, close to the coast of modern-day Turkey, introduced a new and enduring note to poetry: desire. Her name was Sappho. She was revered through the Ancient World, but today only one work survives in its entirety: a poem usually known

en

42:05

A Day At The Races In Ancient Rome

Instant Classics ·

2025/09/04

Think ‘Roman sport’ and images of Kirk Douglas, Russell Crowe, Paul Mescal and other Hollywood gladiators may come to mind. But while the Romans were partial to blood-sports, chariot-racing was the really big thing. The archaeological remains of chariot-racing tracks have been found all over the Roman Empire, but none suggest a scale or grandeur close to the Circus Maximus in Rome. At full capacity, we think it could take a quarter of a million people - that’s twice the largest football stadium

en

17:23

The Odyssey#1: Journey Begins

Instant Classics ·

2025/09/02

(We hope you enjoy this introduction to The Odyssey. To continue the journey, please join the Instant Classics Book Club at https://instantclassics.supportingcast.fm/New episodes will be published every other Tuesday, and available exclusively for members beginning 30th September. Sign up now with the promo code EARLYBIRD25 to receive a 25% discount on membership). The Odyssey, along with its sister text, The Iliad, is often considered the bedrock of western literature. In it are the seeds of

en

3:37

Introducing the Instant Classics Book Club - The Odyssey

Instant Classics ·

2025/09/01

Dropping tomorrow, and every other Tuesday, the Instant Classics Book Club.Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

en

43:56

Which Roman Emperor is Donald Trump?

Instant Classics ·

2025/08/28

For a long time being a classicist didn’t exactly make you a hit at a party. Then along came Donald Trump and suddenly everybody wants to know: Which Roman emperor is he most like? In this inaugural episode of Instant Classics, Mary Beard and Charlotte Higgins confront the question they are asked the most. And, as ever when Mary Beard is involved, the answer isn’t always as simple as you might think. Mary and Charlotte explain how most of what we know about the emperors is unreliable. We do get

en

41 results

Similar Podcasts

The Old Front Line

Paul Reed

Today In History with The Retrospectors

The Retrospectors

جنود خلدهم التاريخ

ALSUMOOD PODCAST

Film History - Daily

Inception Point Ai

Madonna - Biography Flash

Inception Point Ai