A conversation with Jeremy Swist (Michigan State University) on the emperor Julian (361-363 AD) and how he tried to combine his love of philosophy with ruling the Roman empire. We talk about why Julian continues to excite such passions, how in some ways he may have been more Roman than Greek, and how he read Roman history in light of the theurgical Neoplatonism that he espoused. The conversation is based on Jeremy's recent book, Julian Augustus: Platonism, Myth, and the Refounding of Rome (Oxford University Press 2025).
<p><strong>Is what’s happening on OnlyFans real? Or is it only a fantasy?</strong></p><p>In this provocative investigation into OnlyFans—the adult platform where subscribers around the world spent more than $7 billion in 2024—journalist Leon Neyfakh teams up with comedian and OnlyFans creator Gracie Canaan for a one-of-a-kind exploration into the current state of human connection. Throughout, they discover that the site originally built for spicy adult content has quietly and surprisingly become something more complicated— an emotional marketplace where desire, performance, care, fantasy, and vulnerability seemingly blur together.</p><p>As Neyfakh and Canaan navigate timely questions about autonomy, performance, and profit, a question emerges: is connection mediated by a screen still authentic? To find the answer, they meet creators building lucrative businesses, subscribers who believe they’ve found something real, professional “chatters” who are paid to simulate affection, and pioneers who have helped engineer intimacy at scale.</p><p>Captivating and tender, OnlyFantasy is ultimately about the cost of loneliness, the seductive power of desire, and how the rules of human intimacy are being rewritten online.</p><p>Listen to OnlyFantasy wherever you get your podcasts. Or binge all episodes of OnlyFantasy ad-free right now on Audible. Start your Audible subscription in the Audible App or on Apple Podcasts.</p><p>See Privacy Policy at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy</a> and California Privacy Notice at <a href="https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info</a>.</p>
Hello from Dan! Don’t fret. There’s nothing happening to This Is History! I thought I’d give you a little treat ahead of Season 11 of A Dynasty to Die For. The excellent Dr Harini Bhat has kindly given you a special preview of her new podcast, Hidden History. She’s a clinical pharmacist and storyteller obsessed with the moments in history that still can't be fully explained. Every week she investigates real events that defy easy explanation. Mass hysterias. Vanished civilizations. Medical oddities. Strange signals. Unexplained phenomena that keep repeating across centuries, as if history is trying to tell you something. Hidden History doesn't dismiss ancient events as myth or superstition. It treats them as open case files, shaped by the limits of knowledge, technology, and record-keeping. Because the unknown isn't a failure of explanation. It's a constant in human experience, one that evolves, repeats, and sometimes deepens the more we learn. Get new episodes every Monday. Follow now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or watch on YouTube @hiddenhistorypod. Listen here: https://play.megaphone.fm/65qgwrg-sq-mmvg7tpqgfa Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
Have you ever wanted to put a curse on someone? How about ask a river goddess for some healing? Or maybe speak a charm that’ll make your life better? If so, today’s episode is for you. This week, Danièle speaks with Brigid Ehrmantraut about Celtic magic, druidic haircuts, and what Celtic curses have to do with <i>The Lord of the Rings</i>.<br /><br />This podcast is made possible by the generous support of listeners like you! To find out how to help spread the joy of medieval history, please visit patreon.com/themedievalpodcast
Three brothers. One crown. And no ounce of loyalty between them. In the final Plantagenet season of A Dynasty to Die For, Dan Jones traces the spectacular implosion of a dynasty that defined medieval England. You will meet King Edward IV, who marries for love and splits his court in half. His former champion, the Earl of Warwick, becomes a mortal enemy. Edward’s heirs mysteriously vanish in the Tower of London… just before their uncle becomes England’s last Plantagenet monarch — Richard III. As the Plantagenet dynasty crumbles,, across the sea, a boy nobody wanted is about to upend English history forever. His name is Henry Tudor. It took centuries to forge this dynasty. It will take one battle to bury them. Listen to the debut episode of Season 10 of This Is History — A Dynasty to Die For, premiering on Tuesday May 26. Subscribers can listen to episode two straight away on the same day — become one of Dan’s Royal Favourites to get early ad-free access: patreon.com/thisishistory. –– A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices – Presented by Dan Jones Producer - Alan Weedon Senior Producer - Dominic Tyerman Executive Producer - Louisa Field Production Manager - Jen Mistri Production Coordinator - Eric Ryan Head of Content - Chris Skinner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
<p>How can we unlock the hidden value of the 80,000 to 100,000 Byzantine seals that have survived to this day? In this round table episode, we sit down with a group of leading scholars and digital humanists to discuss the "Digitizing the Byzantium" project. We dive into the development of the <em>Sigidoc</em> encoding standard and explore how digital tools are making it possible to systematically research Byzantine seals for the first time. Join us for a fascinating look at the future of Byzantine Studies.</p><p><br /></p><p><strong>_____</strong></p><p><br /></p><p>Πώς μπορούμε να ξεκλειδώσουμε την κρυμμένη αξία των 80.000 έως 100.000 βυζαντινών σφραγίδων που έχουν διασωθεί μέχρι σήμερα; Σε αυτό το επεισόδιο με στρογγυλή τράπεζα, συζητάμε με μια ομάδα κορυφαίων μελετητών και ειδικών στις ψηφιακές ανθρωπιστικές επιστήμες για το έργο "Digitizing the Byzantium". Εμβαθύνουμε στην ανάπτυξη του προτύπου κωδικοποίησης <em>Sigidoc</em> και εξερευνούμε πώς τα ψηφιακά εργαλεία καθιστούν δυνατή τη συστηματική έρευνα των βυζαντινών σφραγίδων για πρώτη φορά. Ακούστε μια συναρπαστική ματιά στο μέλλον των Βυζαντινών Σπουδών.</p><p><br /></p><ul><li>Teaching Digital Byzantine Sigillography: First Experiences and Future Strategies<a href="https://journal.digitalmedievalist.org/article/id/11677/">https://journal.digitalmedievalist.org/article/id/11677/</a></li><li>Creating a Sigillographic Search Engine for Byzantium: Preliminary Results<a href="https://journal.digitalmedievalist.org/article/id/15235/">https://journal.digitalmedievalist.org/article/id/15235/</a></li><li>SigiDoc GitHub Repositories: <a href="https://github.com/SigiDoc">https://github.com/SigiDo</a></li><li>Onboarding Guidelines: <a href="https://sigidoc.cceh.uni-koeln.de/en/about.html">https://sigidoc.cceh.uni-koeln.de/en/about.html</a></li><li>SigiDoc Portal: <a href="https://sigidoc.cceh.uni-koeln.de/en/">https://sigidoc.cceh.uni-koeln.de/en/</a></li><li>SigiDoc Guidelines: <a href="https://github.com/SigiDoc/Guidelines/wiki">https://github.com/SigiDoc/Guidelines/wiki</a></li></ul><p><br /></p>
Just in time for his feast day on May 16, we’re looking at St. Brendan, an Irish saint whose holy encounters included island-sized whales, lava-slinging smiths, and rodents of unusual size. This week, Danièle speaks with Gordon Barthos about St. Brendan’s epic odyssey, his long-standing popularity, and just some of his incredible adventures.<br /><br />This podcast is made possible by the generous support of listeners like you! To find out how to help spread the joy of medieval history, please visit patreon.com/themedievalpodcast
Elizabeth Day grew up in Belfast and would as a child walk past the most bombed hotel in Europe. Dan Jones recalls a Croatian widow whose husband went out for bread and never returned. In this final episode of History’s Greatest Fails, Dan and Elizabeth name war as history's ultimate failure and reflect on the changes that follow societal collapse. Together, they draw on conflicts that have changed the course of world history, such as the Hundred Years' War, the World Wars, the Troubles, and the breakup of Yugoslavia. Plus, Elizabeth delves into a special area of interest: How societies choose to remember war and how that has influenced the evolution of art, literature, and architecture. So what can we learn from history’s ultimate failure? – As always, Dan’s royal favourites can chime in anytime on the royal court on Patreon at patreon.com/thisishistory. And don’t forget to listen to this season’s accompanying bonus episodes for this miniseries, where Dan and Producer Al are dissecting the biggest historical failures as submitted by the royal favourites. In this episode, they attempt to answer why invading Russia is never a good idea, and the futility of France’s Maginot line amid the 20th-Century’s rapid technological change. – A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices –– Presented by Dan Jones and Elizabeth Day Producer - Alan Weedon Senior Producer - Dominic Tyerman Researcher - Phoebe Joyce Executive Producer - Louisa Field Executive Producer - Dan Jones Executive Producer for Daylight Productions - Elizabeth Day Production Manager - Jen Mistri Production Coordinator - Eric Ryan Head of Content - Chris Skinner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
A conversation with Charlie Kuper (University of Tennessee, Knoxville) about the Menologion of Basil II, a lavishly illustrated manuscript pairing brief notices about the saints with images of them and their ordeals, arranged according to the liturgical calendar. We talk about how this manuscript was made and how it can be read, specifically the texts in relation to the images. Charlie has just reedited those texts and made them available in translation in the DOML series (vol. 89): The Menologion of Basil II (2025). For a digitized version of the entire manuscript (Vat.gr. 1613), where you can see the images as well, go here. Look around in it, skim it, zoom in, enjoy!
In the medieval world, people interacted with Biblical history and the adventures of their favourite saints in all sorts of ways – including through plays. One of the most beloved saints – Mary Magdalene – is the main character in an English play that has it all: raging tyrants, perilous sea voyages, angelic interventions, at least three resurrections, and perhaps most thrilling of all, a woman preaching. This week, Danièle speaks with Joanne Findon about the incredible medieval story of what happened to Mary Magdalene after the resurrection, how even the most holy figures were brought to the stage, and why thi play may have been rescued from destruction.<br /><br />This podcast is made possible by the generous support of listeners like you! To find out how to help spread the joy of medieval history, please visit patreon.com/themedievalpodcast
If you’re an artist, when would you like recognition to strike? Do you want it to be in your lifetime, only to be forgotten decades after your death? Or do you want to remain undiscovered, with your story potentially echoing for centuries after you’ve been discovered posthumously? These are some of the thorny questions Dan and Elizabeth consider in this episode about artistic failure. Together, they trace the stories of artists whose lives don’t neatly match up with the reputations their works have gathered: French writer George Sand, and the painters Vincent Van Gogh, and Artemisia Gentileschi. Each artist presents a differing experience of the kaleidoscope that is artistic failure: Van Gogh and Gentileschi suffered great personal anguish yet have given the world canonical paintings, while Sand was one of the most popular novelists of the 19th century – only to be cast out of the canon in the next century. So what would you rather: Acclaim now, or acclaim posthumously? – As always, Dan’s royal favourites can chime in anytime on the royal court on Patreon at patreon.com/thisishistory. And don’t forget to listen to this season’s accompanying bonus episodes for this miniseries, where Dan and Producer Al are dissecting the biggest historical failures as submitted by the royal favourites. In this episode, they discuss a potential research fail about Battle of Hastings, what happens when failure is lost in translation, and what American Reconstruction can teach us about historical failure. – A Sony Music Entertainment production. Find more great podcasts from Sony Music Entertainment at sonymusic.com/podcasts To bring your brand to life in this podcast, email podcastadsales@sonymusic.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices –– Presented by Dan Jones and Elizabeth Day Producer - Alan Weedon Senior Producer - Dominic Tyerman Researcher - Phoebe Joyce Executive Producer - Louisa Field Executive Producer - Dan Jones Executive Producer for Daylight Productions - Elizabeth Day Production Manager - Jen Mistri Production Coordinator - Eric Ryan Head of content - Chris Skinner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices
The death of both Alexander Balas and Ptolemy VI in 145 meant that the throne belonged to Demetrius II Nicator. Yet another round of civil war would soon follow Demetrius' increasingly unpopular reign, as the official Diodotus Tryphon would endorse the infant Antiochus VI Dionysius as king, before proclaiming himself one too. The Hasmoneans in Judea hoped to leverage the situation to their advantage until the death of Jonathan Apphus, who was replaced by his brother Simon Thassi as High Priest. Such instability in Syria allowed the Parthian ruler Mithridates I to conquer Babylonia in 141, forcing Demetrius to make a desperate attempt to reclaim the Upper Satrapies before his empire crumbled around him. Episode Notes: (https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/2026/05/05/120-the-seleucid-empire-writing-on-the-wall/) Episode Transcript: (https://hellenisticagepodcast.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/120-the-seleucid-empire-writing-on-the-wall-transcript-1.pdf) Social Media: Twitter (https://twitter.com/HellenisticPod) Facebook (www.facebook.com/hellenisticagepodcast/) Instagram (https://www.instagram.com/hellenistic_age_podcast/) Bluesky (https://bsky.app/profile/hellenisticpod.bsky.social) Show Merchandise: Etsy (https://www.etsy.com/shop/HellenisticAgePod) Redbubble (https://www.redbubble.com/people/HellenisticPod/shop?asc=u) Donations: Patreon (https://patreon.com/TheHellenisticAgePodcast) Ko-Fi (https://ko-fi.com/hellenisticagepodcast) Amazon Book Wish List (https://tinyurl.com/vfw6ask)
