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PODCAST

Ancient History Fangirl

Jenny Williamson and Genn McMenemy

An ancient history podcast run by two Millennial women. Misbehaving emperors, poison assassins, mythological mayhem; it’s like if Hardcore History met up with My Favorite Murder in the ancient world, with a heavy helping of booze and laughter.

history

All Episodes

77:43

Like a Wolf but Not a Wolf: The Beast of the Gevaudan...

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/11/27

⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last episode, we detailed the rise of the Beast of the Gevaudan, some of its most gruesome attacks, and the doomed efforts of professional hunters to take it down. In this one, we’ll discuss how the Beast finally died—and the theories that arose after its death about what exactly just happened in the Gevaudan. The thing is, even with a body—and a detailed autopsy—we’re still not sure what the Beast of the Gevaudan was. Theories

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75:30

Like a Wolf but Not a Wolf: The Beast of the Gevaudan...

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/11/20

⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! From 1764 to 1767, an area of southeastern France called the Gevaudan was stalked and terrorized by a mysterious beast. Some said it was a wolf. Others that it was “like a wolf, but not a wolf”—far stronger, faster, more brutal and more intelligent than other wolves. Still others provided much more strange and otherworldly descriptions that did not resemble a wolf at all. This was the Beast of the Gevaudan. It didn’t hunt like a wolf

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72:44

RE-RELEASE: Catholic Werewolves

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/11/13

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! ⁠We’ve covered werewolves in the ancient world before—and their connection to the Berserker myth. But wait til you hear what happened to werewolf mythology when the Catholics got their hands on it. This episode is a wild ride, taking you from the ancient Greek and Roman werewolves to a Medieval monster tied to the mysteries of serial killing, mental illness, domestic abuse, and the paranoia of the Witch Trials. It turns out Catholic

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80:20

RE-RELEASE: Werewolves of Wolf Mountain: Terrors of...

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/11/06

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! ⁠The werewolf myth as we know it today generally involves getting bitten by a werewolf, transforming during the full moon, and being very susceptible to silver bullets. But werewolves in ancient Greece and Rome were a little different. Join us for a spooky-season deep dive into ancient werewolf mythology from thousands of years ago. We'll take a look at the pre-Christian origins of the werewolf myth and its connections to death,

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56:22

Maiden, Monster, Medusa with Ayana Gray

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/11/04

⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Today on the podcast, we’re thrilled to welcome bestselling author Ayana Gray. Ayana is the author of the blockbuster YA novel Beasts of Prey, and is now joining us to discuss her adult fiction debut: I Medusa, an exploration of one of mythology’s most misunderstood “monsters.” Join us as we discuss all things Medusa—from the true nature of her snakelike hair to her identity as a sister and daughter, mortal and Gorgon—and why her

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82:38

RE-RELEASE: Buzzballs and Buboes: The Plague of...

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/10/30

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! ⁠⁠This is an episode about a plague that killed up to 100 million people by the time it was done—as many as 60% of its victims. It’s the first documented occurrence of a pandemic that we have, and it’s the first documented outbreak of the deadlyYersinia pestis. No, we're not talking about the Black Death of Medieval Europe. We're talking about the Plague of Justinian. The Plague of Justinian was just one part of the fallout of the global

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64:52

RE-RELEASE: The Haunting of Crater Lake

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/10/23

⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Crater Lake is a caldera lake in the Cascade Mountains in Oregon—the remnants of an ancient volcanic eruption. It’s the deepest lake in the country and one of the deepest in the world. And this place is steeped in lore: unexplained events, murders and suicides, disappearances and hauntings, and a strange 200-year-old floating log that probably controls the weather. But the history of this lake goes back even farther: to the volcanic

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52:22

RE-RELEASE: Sea of Trees: The Japanese Suicide Forest

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/10/16

⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In this episode, we’ll delve into the mystery of Aokigahara, known in Japanese as the Sea of Trees—and to the rest of the world as the Suicide Forest. After the Golden Gate Bridge, it is the second most popular suicide destination in the world. The forest is over a thousand years old. It grew over lava floes laid down in a devastating volcanic eruption on the slopes of Mt. Fuji, a holy mountain believed to be a gateway to the spirit

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95:49

RE-RELEASE: Teotihuacan: Eat the Rich

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/10/09

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! ⁠Teotihuacan is an ancient pre-Colombian city in central America, founded two thousand years ago. It’s the home of some of the most iconic Mesoamerican monuments in existence, including the Pyramids of the Moon and Sun. The city was abandoned after about 750 years of habitation. When the Aztecs first encountered it, it had stood empty for 600 years. Walking through the empty ruin, they marveled at the towering pyramids, the incredible

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84:41

RE-RELEASE: This Episode is Full of Lies: Lucian's A...

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/10/02

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! ⁠Lucian’s A True History has been called the world’s first work of science fiction—but above all, Lucian of Samosata was a satirist. And he had a bone to pick with the famous historians of his time—guys like Herodotus and Ctesias of Knidos. They were Lying Liars who Lied, you see, and Lucian was mad about it. So he set out to write his OWN monument to lies—lest he be the only writer out there “exempted from the liberty of lying.” The

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59:22

Horses of Fire, Daughters of Bronze (with AD Rhine)

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/09/30

⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! AD Rhine is the pen name of the authors Ashlee Cowles and Danielle Stinsen, who have been friends and creative partners for over 25 years. Their novels Horses of Fire and Daughters of Bronze follow the Trojan War saga. They are our kind of nerds—so naturally we had to interview them. The story of Troy and its fall still resonates with us thousands of years later. Cowles and Stinsen have tackled this story from the point of view of the

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23:36

End of Season 13 Announcement

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/09/25

⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! It is the End of Season 13--and what a wild ride it's been. We've had so much fun triangulating the Goths for you--and we hope you now are as obsessed with them as we are. Join us as we debrief the previous season, talk about how our year has gone (it's been a big year for BOOKS, for both of us!) and discuss what's coming up next! Find Jenny's book, Enemy of My Dreams, Here! (And preorder the sequel, Game of Thieves!) Get Genn's most

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57:32

How an Empire Ends: Goths vs Goths vs Goths (Part 2)

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/09/11

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! ⁠In our last episode we talked about the opulence of Goth–Gothic architecture, fashion, and art of all kinds–and the connection between this and the opulence of the Visigoths and their vast state treasure plundered from Roman cities and towns. But there’s more to Goth than plunder. There’s a romance to Goth. A dark romance steeped in obsession. Many of the original Gothic romances involve tragic deaths. And what else do we know of that

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69:44

How an Empire Ends: Goths vs .Goths vs. Goths (Part 1)

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/08/28

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! We have come to the end (or almost the end) of our long, sweeping epic history of the Goths. But we have one corner of Gothic history as yet uncovered: what is the connection between Gothic literature, music, art and fashion, and Goths (the Germanic / Hunnic / etc. people who sacked Rome and occupied Italy)? Join us as we make some questionable leaps in logic and take some big swings in trying to connect Goth with Goth. In the first

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62:33

How an Empire Ends: Germanic Heroic Legend

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/08/14

⁠⁠⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! Long after the smoke from the battlefields died down, long after the ravens had eaten their fill, the Migration Era lived on in Germanic heroic legend, well into the Middle Ages. For centuries after the battles and events of that era, people throughout Europe were crafting legends and sagas that repurposed and mythologized those events, sometimes recasting major figures from that time into villains and heroes of a later saga. Goths

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83:25

How an Empire Ends: Rise and Fall of the Visigothic...

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/07/31

⁠⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! We've told you the story of the Ostrogoths, the Amal ruling family, who built an imperial dynasty only to see that rulership dissolve within two generations. But what happened to their cousins, the Visigoths? The Tervingii tribe and the Balthi royal family? Alaric’s Goths? Turns out they lasted much longer. But they weren’t necessarily the ones who had it most together. Join us for a vast, sweeping tale of constant regicide and

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31:17

The Official Lore Olympus Cookbook (with Genn McMenemy)

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/07/24

⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! For a while now, Genn has been hinting at a "Secret Project" in the works--and now it's out in the wild: the Official Lore Olympus Cookbook. Genn was heavily involved in this project, weaving together the history and mythology of Greek cuisine with the world of Rachel Smythe's Lore Olympus to create a cookbook that's not only delightful to cook with, but fun and educational to read. Join us as Jenny interviews Genn about the

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99:36

How an Empire Ends: Gothic Christianity

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/07/17

⁠⁠⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! When Alaric of the Visigoths sacked Rome, it shocked the world—not least because Rome hadn’t been sacked in a thousand years. But also, while Rome was a Christian city by now—it had been for decades—the Visigoths were Christian too. And they weren’t recent converts, either. They had all been Christian for over 160 years. Theirs was the earliest conversion of a Germanic people in recorded history. And their Christianity was different

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87:21

How an Empire Ends: Gothic Paganism

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/07/03

⁠⁠Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! In our last episode about Amalasuintha and the end of the Ostrogothic Kingdom, we said we were next going to turn to the Visigothic Kingdom. But the story of the Visigothic Kingdom can’t be told without knowing a little more about the history of Gothic religion. Both Visigoths and Ostrogoths were Christian by the time they appear in ancient sources. They were the earliest Germanic group to convert to Christianity. But what was their

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107:00

RE-RELEASE: Buzzballs and Buboes: The Plague of...

Ancient History Fangirl ·

2025/06/26

Help keep our podcast going by contributing to our Patreon! ⁠This is an episode about a plague that killed up to 100 million people by the time it was done—as many as 60% of its victims. It’s the first documented occurrence of a pandemic that we have, and it’s the first documented outbreak of the deadlyYersinia pestis. No, we're not talking about the Black Death of Medieval Europe. We're talking about the Plague of Justinian. The Plague of Justinian was just one part of the fallout of the global

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326 results

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