Written over the span of 800 years from ca. 400 B.C. to ca. 400 A.D, the Mahabharata tells a riveting tale of disputed kingship and warring families. But just as the action-packed narrative reaches its climax, the story pauses to convey a dialogue between the reluctant warrior Arjuna and his charioteer Krishna, who dramatically reveals himself as the incarna ... Show More
Today
752 The Brontes' Sibling Rivalry (with Catherine Rayner) | My Last Book with Keith Cooper
Charlotte Brontë wasn't born the eldest child, but she was thrust into a leadership role at the age of ten, as the Brontë children dealt with the tragic deaths of their mother and two eldest sisters. How did this affect their family dynamic? And when the younger two sisters, Emil ... Show More
1h 1m
Nov 20
751 Covering Iran's Women-Led Uprising (with Nilo Tabrizy) | My Last Book with Sharmila Sen
In September 2022, a young Kurdish woman, Mahsa Jîna Amini, died after being beaten by police officers who arrested her for not adhering to the Islamic Republic’s dress code. Her death galvanized thousands of Iranians—mostly women—who took to the streets in one of the country’s l ... Show More
1h 2m
Nov 17
750 A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway (with Mark Cirino) | Joyce Carol Oates vs the Trillionaire | My Last Book with Ken Krimstein
It's the 750th episode of the History of Literature, and what better way to celebrate than to talk some Hemingway with repeat guest Mark Cirino? In this episode, Jacke talks to Mark about Hemingway's classic love-and-war novel A Farewell to Arms, including the recent Norton Libra ... Show More
1h 28m
Mar 2024
129. Ashoka: The Great Buddhist Emperor of India
Ruling in the 3rd century BC, Ashoka was one of India’s greatest ever rulers. Under his rule, the Mauryan Empire grew into the largest empire India had ever seen. Its capital, Pataliputra was a dazzling, glorious, cosmopolitan city that was eleven times larger than Athens. After ... Show More
50m 47s
Sep 2023
Ravi Gupta and Kenneth Valpey, "The Bhagavata Purana: Sacred Text and Living Tradition" (Columbia UP, 2013)
Today I talked to Ravi Gupta and Kenneth Valpey about The Bhagavata Purana: Sacred Text and Living Tradition (Columbia UP, 2013)
A vibrant example of living literature, the Bhagavata Purana is a versatile Hindu sacred text written in Sanskrit verse. Finding its present form by th ... Show More
50m 55s
Mar 2024
128. The Life of the Buddha
India was the forgotten heart of the ancient world. For a millennium and a half, from about 250 BC to 1200 AD, India was a confident exporter of its diverse civilisation, creating around it a vast empire of ideas, an ‘Indosphere’ where its influence was predominant. During this p ... Show More
55m 19s
Jan 2022
Conversations: Deus Ex Alien, Ancient Realities vs. Pseudoarchaeology w/ David S. Anderson
Liv speaks with archaeologist David S. Anderson about the concept, and harm, of pseudoarchaeology. Why it matters to promote false notions of alien intervention and the study of the very real ancient people of the world is much more important.CW/TW: far too many Greek myths invol ... Show More
1h 10m
May 2023
La danza del cóndor y el águila: Etnografías y narrativas del 'despertar muisca'
En la vida, muchas veces adoptamos filosofías, expresiones e incluso comportamientos que no obedecen a nuestros contextos inmediatos; tal vez por mayor empatía con unas u otras, lo cual nos lleva a construir nuestras propias identidades. Otras veces nos quedamos con nuestros pasa ... Show More
59m 48s
Jul 2023
The Firebrand from Damascus (Part 1)
Ibn Taymiyyah is known as the “Sheikh of Islam” to his admirers, and to his detractors, one of the most significant antecedents of modern Salafi Jihadism. Simultaneously a genius scholar, brutal warrior and unflinching polemicist, he is one of the most important pioneers of a mil ... Show More
52m 46s