Literature and History

A podcast by Doug Metzger

Categories:

Arts History

105 Episodes

  1. Episode 65: Seneca and the Julio-Claudians (The Life of Seneca)

    Published: 3/30/2019

  2. Episode 64: Ovid's Exile (The Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto)

    Published: 2/23/2019

  3. Episode 63: All Is in Flux (Ovid's Metamorphoses, Books 11-15)

    Published: 2/8/2019

  4. Episode 62: A Curious Passion (Ovid's Metamorphoses, Books 6-10)

    Published: 1/27/2019

  5. Episode 61: Changes of Shape (Ovid's Metamorphoses, Books 1-5)

    Published: 1/14/2019

  6. Episode 60: How to Make Love to a Roman (Ovid's Art of Love and Cure for Love)

    Published: 12/10/2018

  7. Episode 59: Early Ovid (Amores, Heroides)

    Published: 11/13/2018

  8. Episode 58: She Caught Me with Her Eyes (Propertius' Poetry)

    Published: 10/10/2018

  9. Episode 57: The World Grows Dim and Black (Virgil's Aeneid, Books 10-12)

    Published: 9/1/2018

  10. Episode 56: I Shall Release Hell (Virgil's Aeneid, Books 7-9)

    Published: 8/13/2018

  11. Episode 55: Among the Shades (Virgil's Aeneid, Books 4-6)

    Published: 7/6/2018

  12. Episode 54: Out of Troy (Virgil's Aeneid, Books 1-3)

    Published: 5/31/2018

  13. Episode 53: Then Came Hard Iron (Virgil's Georgics)

    Published: 5/4/2018

  14. Episode 52: White Flowers Die (Virgil's Eclogues)

    Published: 4/12/2018

  15. Episode 51: Horace and Augustan Age Poetry

    Published: 3/19/2018

  16. Episode 50: Our Brutal Age (Horace's Poetry)

    Published: 2/19/2018

  17. Episode 49: The Strange Roots of Love (Catullus' Poetry)

    Published: 1/31/2018

  18. Episode 48: The Right and the Expedient (Cicero's Career, 62-43 BCE)

    Published: 1/15/2018

  19. Episode 47: O Tempora, O Mores (Cicero's Career, 80-62 BCE)

    Published: 12/20/2017

  20. Episode 46: The Republic at Twilight (Cicero's Early Life)

    Published: 12/9/2017

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With millions of downloads, hundreds of hours of soundtracked content, and an overall emphasis on the cultural history behind famous works of literature, Literature and History is one of the most popular independent podcasts on its subject. Starting with Sumerian cuneiform in 3,100 BCE, Literature and History moves forward in chronological order through Assyriology, Egyptology, the Old Testament, Ancient Greece and Rome, and the birth of Christianity. The show's current season is on Late Antiquity (or 200-700 CE) and the dawn of the Middle Ages. A typical episode (they average about two hours) features a general introduction to a work of literature, then a full summary of that work that expects no prior knowledge, and finally, an analysis of the cultural, biographical, and historical forces that gave rise to the work in question. Original symphonic and ambient background music is woven throughout each show, and all episodes offer free full, illustrated, footnoted transcriptions as well as quizzes for purposes of review. The show has no advertisements, and its host takes pride in a professional approach that avoids chitchat and ephemera and gets straight to the educational content. You can listen to the episodes in any order, although most listeners begin at the beginning and proceed from there, as the podcast itself is chronologically organized. Doug Metzger finished his Ph.D. in literature in 2011. His chief scholarly interest, following his dissertation work, continues to be 19th-century realism and postbellum American philosophy.