Let's Talk About Myths, Baby! | Greek Mythology & the Ancient Mediterranean

Liv Albert
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Mar 27, 2026 • 1h 27min

Conversations: Why is Being 'Complicated' a Bad Thing? Translating Homer w/ Emily Wilson

Liv and Michaela speak with THE Emily Wilson about her new book, Crossing Wine Dark Seas, and the wide, wondrous world of translating Homer today. Pre-order Liv's Odyssey adaptation (!!!), The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Submit your question for the next Q&A via email or a voice note. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Enter our podcast guest form if you'd like to be on the show as a conversation guest!CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. I try to provide direct warnings when there is reference to anything with overtly traumatic themes but be aware that Greek mythology regularly features assault, death, and many other potentially triggering events.Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.Learn more about Liv's next group trip, this time following along with Ariadne's escape from Theseus. Pre-order Liv's new book, The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 24, 2026 • 50min

All Day Every Day, Therapist, Mother, Maid; a History of Women’s Labour

A (brief) history of women's labour, from myth to etymology to the modern mess. Pre-order Liv's Odyssey adaptation (!!!), The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Submit your question for the next Q&A via email or a voice note. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Enter our podcast guest form if you'd like to be on the show as a conversation guest!CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. I try to provide direct warnings when there is reference to anything with overtly traumatic themes but be aware that Greek mythology regularly features assault, death, and many other potentially triggering events.Sources: Paris Paloma's song, Labour. Theoi.com's entries on Nymphs and Pandora; and Perseus.tufts.edu, Logeion.uchicago.edu, etymonline.com and wiktionary.com for various Greek and English definitions, etymologies, etc.Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.Learn more about Liv's next group trip, this time following along with Ariadne's escape from Theseus. Pre-order Liv's new book, The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 20, 2026 • 1h 29min

Liv Reads Homer: The Odyssey (A Modern Translation!) Book 4

Liv reads Book 4 of Homer's Odyssey, translated by Ian Johnston. This modern translation is used with immense gratitude to translator Ian Johnston and Vancouver Island University. Submit questions and prompts for future Odyssey readings at mythsbaby.com/questions and get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbabyCW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. I try to provide direct warnings when there is reference to anything with overtly traumatic themes but be aware that Greek mythology regularly features assault, death, and many other potentially triggering events.This is not a standard narrative story episode, it's a reading of an ancient source, audiobook style. For regular episodes look for any that don't have "Liv Reads..." in the title!Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.Learn more about Liv's next group trip, this time following along with Ariadne's escape from Theseus. Pre-order Liv's new book, The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 17, 2026 • 1h 33min

Ancient History 101 by Alexandra Sills, a Memory Collective Podcast

This is an episode of the brand new ancient history podcast, Ancient History 101, by Alexandra Sills! Featuring Owen Rees who introduces the ancient Greek historian, Xenophon. Subscribe to Ancient History 101 wherever you get your podcasts or learn more. Pre-order Liv's Odyssey adaptation (!!!), The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Submit your question for the next Q&A via email or a voice note. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Enter our podcast guest form if you'd like to be on the show as a conversation guest!CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. I try to provide direct warnings when there is reference to anything with overtly traumatic themes but be aware that Greek mythology regularly features assault, death, and many other potentially triggering events.Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.Learn more about Liv's next group trip, this time following along with Ariadne's escape from Theseus. Pre-order Liv's new book, The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 13, 2026 • 1h 36min

Conversations: Get In the Dragon Wagon, We’re Going Shopping, Women in Euripides w/ Dr. Alecto Hardwick

Dr. Alecto Hardwick, a scholar of Greek literature who focuses on women and marginalized identities, dives into Euripides’ portrayals of Medea and other women. They trace Medea’s transformation from divine to human, explore foreignness, rhetoric, and grief, and map how myths like Medusa and Ion were reused over time. The conversation also touches on canon formation and creative collaborations.
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Mar 12, 2026 • 35min

BONUS RE-AIR Beloved of Aphrodite, the Lives & Legacies of Ancient Greek Sex Workers

This episode originally aired in March 2024. A little look into the lives of ancient Greek sex workers, particularly two Hetairai, Phryne and Rhodopis, whose accomplishments achieved them 2300+ years long legacies. Pre-order Liv's Odyssey adaptation (!!!), The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Submit your question for the next Q&A via email or a voice note. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Enter our podcast guest form if you'd like to be on the show as a conversation guest!CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. Given it's fiction, and typically involves gods and/or monsters, I'm not as deferential as I would be were I referencing the real thing.Sources: Phryne: A Life in Fragments by Melissa Funke; Love in Ancient Greece by Robert Flaceliere; Herodotus' Histories, translated by GC Macauley; Aphrodite by Monica Cyrino (the Nossis poem is found here); Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Antiquity by Sarah B Pomeroy; Venus and Aphrodite by Bettany Hughes; Diodorus Siculus and Strabo, from the Topostext entry on Rhodopis.Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.Learn more about Liv's next group trip, this time following along with Ariadne's escape from Theseus. Pre-order Liv's new book, The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 11, 2026 • 1h 22min

BONUS RE-AIR Conversations: The Missing Women of Euripides, Fragments w/ Dr Melissa Funke

Dr Melissa Funke, a classicist who studies Euripides and fragmentary drama, joins to explore lost plays and why fragments survive. They talk about new papyrus finds, strange Euripidean plots, motherhood and pregnancy outside marriage, patterns of assault and recognition, theatrical performance clues, and debates over whether Euripides can be seen as proto-feminist.
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Mar 10, 2026 • 50min

The Man, the Myth, the Monstrous Legend... Retelling the Odyssey for a Modern Odyssey

IT'S FINALLY TIME! Liv talks about writing her Odyssey retelling, reads from it, and answers a listener question about translation and retelling. Pre-order Liv's Odyssey adaptation (!!!), The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Submit your question for the next Q&A via email or a voice note. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Enter our podcast guest form if you'd like to be on the show as a conversation guest!CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. I try to provide direct warnings when there is reference to anything with overtly traumatic themes but be aware that Greek mythology regularly features assault, death, and many other potentially triggering events.Sources: The Odyssey, translations by Emily Wilson, Richard Lattimore, AT Murray, and Ian Johnston.Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.Learn more about Liv's next group trip, this time following along with Ariadne's escape from Theseus. Pre-order Liv's new book, The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 9, 2026 • 44min

BONUS RE-AIR: High Priestess of Ur, the World’s First Author, Enheduanna

This episode originally aired in March 2024. The first recorded author in all of human history was a woman, a high priestess, her name was Enheduanna. Pre-order Liv's Odyssey adaptation (!!!), The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Submit your question for the next Q&A via email or a voice note. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Enter our podcast guest form if you'd like to be on the show as a conversation guest!CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. Given it's fiction, and typically involves gods and/or monsters, I'm not as deferential as I would be were I referencing the real thing.Sources: The Complete Poems of Enheduanna, the World's First Author by Sophus Helle; Enheduanna.org. Things The Mesopotamians Did First; Very Baseline Ancient Iraq Bits: Wikipedia: Akkadian Empire; Mesopotamia.Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.Learn more about Liv's next group trip, this time following along with Ariadne's escape from Theseus. Pre-order Liv's new book, The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
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Mar 8, 2026 • 3h 25min

BONUS RE-AIR Conversations: Othering Women in the Origins of Western Medicine w/ Dr Christie Vogler (Parts 1 and 2

TW! Horrors of Women's/Female Health. Liv speaks with Dr Christie Vogler about the long and storied and utterly infuriating ancient history of women's medicine in the West. Check out Christie's podcast, Movies We Dig, now part of the Memory Collective podcast network! Pre-order Liv's Odyssey adaptation (!!!), The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Submit your question for the next Q&A via email or a voice note. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Enter our podcast guest form if you'd like to be on the show as a conversation guest!Recommended reading and sources: Cleghorn, Elinor. 2022. Unwell Women: A Journey Through Medicine and Myth in a Man-made World; Cooper Owens, Deirdre. 2018. Medical Bondage: Race, Gender, and the Origins of American Gynecology; Draycott, Jane. 2021. Roman Domestic Medical Practice in Central Italy: From the Middle Republic to the Early Empire; Joshel, Sandra R. 1992. Work, Identity, and Legal Status at Rome: A Study of the Occupational Inscriptions; Mulder, Tara. 2016. “The Hippocratic Oath in Roe v. Wade | by Tara Mulder.” EIDOLON; Nutton, Vivian. 2013. Ancient Medicine; Ripat, Pauline. 2016. “Roman Women, Wise Women, and Witches.”; “Roe v. Wade | 410 U.S. 113 (1973).”; Stanley Spaeth, Barbette. 2014. “From Goddess to Hag: The Greek and the Roman Witch in Classical Literature.” In Daughters of Hecate: Women and Magic in the Ancient World, edited by Kimberly B. Stratton and Dayna S. Kalleres; Upson-Saia, Kristi, Heidi Marx, and Jared Secord. 2023. Medicine, Health, and Healing in the Ancient Mediterranean (500 BCE–600 CE): A Sourcebook; Woods, Robert. 2007. “Ancient and Early Modern Mortality: Experience and Understanding.” The Economic History Review 60.CW/TW: far too many Greek myths involve assault. Given it's fiction, and typically involves gods and/or monsters, I'm not as deferential as I would be were I referencing the real thing.Attributions and licensing information for music used in the podcast can be found here: mythsbaby.com/sources-attributions.Learn more about Liv's next group trip, this time following along with Ariadne's escape from Theseus. Pre-order Liv's new book, The Odyssey: a Modern Retelling. Get ad-free episodes and so, so much more, by subscribing to the Oracle Edition at patreon.com/mythsbaby. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

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