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A Recast of ‘Literature and History’

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, the birth of Christianity, and the early Middle Ages. The show's current season is on early Islamic history. 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.

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Recast is a podcast rebroadcasting service. You can get your own personalised feed of a podcast which will deliver you the episodes from the start at a schedule of your choosing.

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Recastable Episodes (122)

1. Episode 1: The Tower of Babel (Cuneiform) Feb. 12, 2016
2. Episode 2: Before the Flood (The Enuma Elish and Atrahasis) Feb. 12, 2016
3. Episode 3: He Who Saw the Deep (The Epic of Gilgamesh) Feb. 12, 2016
4. Episode 4: Divine Judgment (The Book of the Dead) Feb. 12, 2016
5. Episode 5: Beneath the Obelisks (Ancient Egyptian Fiction) Feb. 12, 2016
6. Episode 6: The Pros and Cons of Wisdom (Ancient Egypt's Wisdom Literature) Feb. 12, 2016
7. Episode 7: Hesiod's Lands and Seasons (Hesiod's Works and Days) Feb. 12, 2016
8. Episode 8: Before Orthodoxy (Hesiod's Theogony) Feb. 12, 2016
9. Episode 9: Glittering Bronze Men (Homer's Iliad, Books 1-8) March 27, 2016
10. Episode 10: Homer's Gods (Homer's Iliad, Books 9-16) March 27, 2016
11. Episode 11: Who Was Homer? (Homer's Iliad, Books 17-24) March 27, 2016
12. Episode 12: Kleos and Nostos (Homer's Odyssey, Books 1-8) April 13, 2016
13. Episode 13: His Mind Teeming (Homer's Odyssey, Books 9-16) April 19, 2016
14. Episode 14: The Autumn Leaves (Homer's Odyssey, Books 17-24) April 27, 2016
15. Episode 15: Canaan (Biblical History and Archaeology) May 13, 2016
16. Episode 16: Four Main Parts (Introduction to the Bible's Structure) May 25, 2016
17. Episode 17: Roots of the Pentateuch (The Pentateuch and Comparative Mythography) June 1, 2016
18. Episode 18: The 613 Commandments (The Pentateuch's Prescriptive Materials) June 15, 2016
19. Episode 19: The One Who Struggles with God (The Historical Books and Biblical Archaeology) June 29, 2016
20. Episode 20: The Problem of Evil (The Book of Job) July 15, 2016
21. Episode 21: The Bible's Magic Trick (The Book of Psalms) July 27, 2016
22. Episode 22: Fatalism (The Book of Ecclesiastes) Aug. 16, 2016
23. Episode 23: Love. Desire. Exegesis. (The Song of Songs/Solomon) Aug. 25, 2016
24. Episode 24: God May Relent (The Bible's Prophetic Books) Sept. 1, 2016
25. Episode 25: Lyrical Ballistics (Sappho, Pindar, Archilochus, and Greek Lyric Poetry) Sept. 15, 2016
26. Episode 26: Ancient Greek Theater (The History of 5th-Century BCE Athenian Drama) Sept. 30, 2016
27. Episode 27: The Bloody King (Aeschylus' Agamemnon) Oct. 14, 2016
28. Episode 28: A Mother's Curse (Aeschylus' The Libation Bearers) Oct. 27, 2016
29. Episode 29: The Mound and the Furies (Aeschylus' The Eumenides) Nov. 11, 2016
30. Episode 30: Two Legs in the Afternoon (Sophocles' Oedipus the King) Nov. 23, 2016
31. Episode 31: The Requiem at Athens (Sophocles' Oedipus at Colonus) Dec. 7, 2016
32. Episode 32: Trees Bending to the Torrent (Sophocles' Antigone) Dec. 21, 2016
33. Episode 33: Woman the Barbarian (Euripides' Medea) Jan. 5, 2017
34. Episode 34: The Traditions of Our Forefathers (Euripides' Bacchae) Jan. 24, 2017
35. Episode 35: The Great Thundercrap (Aristophanes' The Clouds) Feb. 7, 2017
36. Episode 36: War and Peace and Sex (Aristophanes' Lysistrata) Feb. 22, 2017
37. Episode 37: The New Comedy (Menander's Old Cantankerous) March 3, 2017
38. Episode 38: The Epic Anti-Hero (Apollonius' Jason and the Argonauts) March 22, 2017
39. Episode 39: Medea and the Argonauts (Apollonius' Jason and the Argonauts) April 4, 2017
40. Episode 40: Hellenism and the Rise of the Self April 24, 2017
41. Episode 41: Everything So Far May 3, 2017
42. Episode 42: The Beginnings of Roman Literature Sept. 17, 2017
43. Episode 43: On the Move (Plautus' The Rope) Sept. 29, 2017
44. Episode 44: Homo Sum (Terence's The Brothers) Oct. 20, 2017
45. Episode 45: The Uncuttables (Lucretius' On the Nature of Things and Epicureanism) Nov. 16, 2017
46. Episode 46: The Republic at Twilight (Cicero's Early Life) Dec. 9, 2017
47. Episode 47: O Tempora, O Mores (Cicero's Career, 80-62 BCE) Dec. 20, 2017
48. Episode 48: The Right and the Expedient (Cicero's Career, 62-43 BCE) Jan. 15, 2018
49. Episode 49: The Strange Roots of Love (Catullus' Poetry) Jan. 31, 2018
50. Episode 50: Our Brutal Age (Horace's Poetry) Feb. 19, 2018
51. Episode 51: Horace and Augustan Age Poetry March 19, 2018
52. Episode 52: White Flowers Die (Virgil's Eclogues) April 12, 2018
53. Episode 53: Then Came Hard Iron (Virgil's Georgics) May 4, 2018
54. Episode 54: Out of Troy (Virgil's Aeneid, Books 1-3) May 31, 2018
55. Episode 55: Among the Shades (Virgil's Aeneid, Books 4-6) July 6, 2018
56. Episode 56: I Shall Release Hell (Virgil's Aeneid, Books 7-9) Aug. 13, 2018
57. Episode 57: The World Grows Dim and Black (Virgil's Aeneid, Books 10-12) Sept. 1, 2018
58. Episode 58: She Caught Me with Her Eyes (Propertius' Poetry) Oct. 10, 2018
59. Episode 59: Early Ovid (Amores, Heroides) Nov. 13, 2018
60. Episode 60: How to Make Love to a Roman (Ovid's Art of Love and Cure for Love) Dec. 10, 2018
61. Episode 61: Changes of Shape (Ovid's Metamorphoses, Books 1-5) Jan. 14, 2019
62. Episode 62: A Curious Passion (Ovid's Metamorphoses, Books 6-10) Jan. 27, 2019
63. Episode 63: All Is in Flux (Ovid's Metamorphoses, Books 11-15) Feb. 8, 2019
64. Episode 64: Ovid's Exile (The Tristia and Epistulae ex Ponto) Feb. 23, 2019
65. Episode 65: Seneca and the Julio-Claudians (The Life of Seneca) March 30, 2019
66. Episode 66: Stoicism, Seneca, St. Paul June 26, 2019
67. Episode 67: Jaws Dripping Blood (Seneca's Thyestes) July 17, 2019
68. Episode 68: Love Means Sin (Seneca's Phaedra) Aug. 5, 2019
69. Episode 69: Rome's Comic Novel (Petronius' Satyricon) Aug. 26, 2019
70. Episode 70: Rome's Forgotten Epic (Statius' Thebaid) Sept. 9, 2019
71. Episode 71: The Gods Depart (Statius' Thebaid) Jan. 29, 2020
72. Episode 72: Bread and Circuses (Juvenal's Satires) Feb. 14, 2020
73. Episode 73: The Golden Ass (Apuleius' The Golden Ass) Feb. 29, 2020
74. Episode 74: Marcus Aurelius (The Meditations) March 14, 2020
75. Episode 75: Dusk and Starlight April 25, 2020
76. Episode 76: Judea Under Herod June 7, 2020
77. Episode 77: The Gospels June 30, 2020
78. Episode 78: The Book of Acts Sept. 11, 2020
79. Episode 79: The Pauline Epistles Sept. 25, 2020
80. Episode 80: The General Epistles Oct. 14, 2020
81. Episode 81: Revelation Jan. 10, 2021
82. Episode 82: Zoroastrianism Jan. 31, 2021
83. Episode 83: Gnosticism Feb. 28, 2021
84. Episode 84: Manichaeism March 14, 2021
85. Episode 85: River April 4, 2021
86. Episode 86: An Introduction to Late Antiquity April 25, 2021
87. Episode 87: Lucian of Samosata May 7, 2021
88. Episode 88: Ancient Greek Sci-fi May 21, 2021
89. Episode 89: The Aethiopica of Heliodorus June 19, 2021
90. Episode 90: Ante-Nicene Catholicism July 4, 2021
91. Episode 91: The Passion of Perpetua and Felicity July 25, 2021
92. Episode 92: Athanasius' Life of Antony Aug. 8, 2021
93. Episode 93: Severus' Life of Saint Martin Aug. 18, 2021
94. Episode 94: Ausonius Sept. 12, 2021
95. Episode 95: Rutilius Namatianus Oct. 17, 2021
96. Episode 96: The Last Pagan Epic (Nonnus' Dionysiaca, Books 1-24) Oct. 31, 2021
97. Episode 97: Blood and Ivy (Nonnus' Dionysiaca, Books 25-48) May 8, 2022
98. Episode 98: The Life and Works of Saint Jerome Nov. 11, 2022
99. Episode 99: The Boy Who Stole Pears (Augustine's Confessions, Books 1-7) Dec. 10, 2022
100. Episode 100: Late Have I Loved You (Augustine's Confessions, Books 9-13) Dec. 30, 2022
22 more episodes