Sermon for the Feast of the Holy Name (Luke 2:15-21) - January 1, 2023

What is the Marie Antoinette Syndrome? And what future Roman Emperor was kidnapped by pirates when he was 25? Answers on the Off Ramp Trivia Podcast.

172 All Over The Map Trivia

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Hear about how George Hayter's drawing relates to nineteenth-century innovations in stage craft.

George Hayter, "The Ghost of Caesar Appears to Brutus" from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, c. 1850, brush and brown wash on paper. The Clark, 1987.7

George Hayter, "The Ghost of Caesar Appears to Brutus" from Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

CAESAR KLEDJUS

Augustus had an almost unmatched impact on Roman politics, culture, and society and—through the widespread influence of Rome—on the way modern countries structure and imagine themselves.

Written by Brendan McCarthy. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this podcast is available at https://origins.osu.edu/milestones/august-2014-celebrating-roman-emperor-augustus. Production by Katherine Weiss, Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle, and Laura Seeger.

This is a production of Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective at the Goldberg Center in the Department of History at The Ohio State University and the Department of History at Miami University. Be sure to subscribe to our channel to receive updates about our videos and podcasts. For more information about Origins: Current Events in Historical Perspective, please visit origins.osu.edu.

Remembering Roman Emperor Augustus

Scientific epiphany strikes a wise-cracking redneck en route to a landscaping job and an existential crisis ensues. Set to a soundtrack of Molly Hatchet’s Flirtin’ with Disaster, The Corliss Effect is a metaphysical comedic tragedy that explores racial division, revisionist history, male gaze, space-time modeling, twin psychology, squandered potential and the burden of consciousness. Yeah, all that in the span of a morning commute.

The Corliss Effect By Ryan C. Eubank

The assassination of Julius Caesar was more than two thousand years ago, but it resonates more than ever today. In this podcast, WRR's Amy Bishop discusses the story of Caesar with actor T.A. Taylor, who stars in Shakespeare Dallas' production of Shakespeare's theatrical retelling of the historical event.

WRR101 Focus on the Arts: A deep dive into Shakespeare Dallas' production of Julius Caesar

'The Life of Herod The Great – like Hurston herself – is a masterpiece, a miracle, and a marvel. In other words, treasure for the whole world' Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage 

 'A bracing, livening audio experience…Underwood and Miles read with great gusto and conviction, mirroring Hurston's ability to weave folklore and mythology into story, and to animate figures both familiar to us and utterly unknown' Financial Times

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In the 1950s Zora Neale Hurston penned a historical novel reconsidering the life of one of the most well-known biblical figures, Herod the Great. That novel was never published in Hurston's lifetime. Now for the first time, it is brought to glorious life with commentary from scholar Deborah G. Plant.

Far from his villainous portrayal in the New Testament, Hurston casts Herod as a forerunner of Christ, a beloved king who enriched Jewish culture and brought prosperity and peace to Judea. An intimate of both Marc Antony and Julius Caesar, the Judean king lived in a time of war and imperial expansion that was rife with political assassinations and bribery, as the old world gave way to the new.

By bringing this complex, compelling and oft misunderstood leader into shining focus, The Life of Herod the Great invites the reader to reassess history and the world as they know it. What was in Herod’s time is and will be again. Zora Neale Hurston’s never-before-published novel is a lantern of understanding that might be held up to the present or the future, and nothing short of a masterpiece.

A never-before-published novel from beloved author Zora Neale Hurston, revealing the historical Herod the Great – not the demon the Bible makes him out to be but a religious and philosophical man who lived a life of adventure.

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Praise for Zora Neale Hurston:

'Zora Neale was a knockout in her life' MAYA ANGELOU

'Their Eyes Were Watching God is one of the very greatest American novels of the 20th century. It is so lyrical it should be sentimental

The Life of Herod the Great, By Zora Neale Hurston, Read by Blair Underwood and Robin Miles

Weird groove featuring some appropriate quotes from Julius Caesar

02/28/25 - The Shrewd Contriver

From the international bestselling author and notable journalist Aldo Cazzullo comes a brilliantly researched and extremely accessible journey through the history and legacy of the Roman Empire. 

 “The only way to narrate over a thousand years of history is to understand what it has left us. To tell the reasons, the things and the stories, thanks to which Roman civilization is alive”.

From its mythical foundations and epic construction to its enduring historical and cultural impact, the ancient Roman Empire has long fascinated readers across the world. In The Neverending Empire esteemed Italian journalist Aldo Cazzullo describes an exciting new historical perspective: that the Roman Empire never fell. In fact, its influence reaches further and deeper than ever.

Beginning with the origins of Rome, and the literary myth of Aeneas and Romulus, Cazzullo takes the reader on a page-turning voyage through ancient history, bringing to life the most captivating moments and characters of a dominant Empire: the republican age, with heroic men and women willing to die for their country. The adventure of coup plotters like Catiline and revolutionaries like Spartacus, the slave who inspired rebels of every age. The extraordinary stories of Julius Caesar and Octavian Augustus, two of the greatest leaders to have lived.

Cazzullo goes on to draw fascinating parallels between the ancient and modern world, revealing how Rome lives on, across every facet of life and society. The ancient Romans have inspired poets, and artists, from Dante to Hollywood. They have dictated the rules of war, architecture, language and law. They have inspired America’s democratic influence and the digital revolution led by Mark Zuckerberg, a great admirer of Emperor Augustus: the first man to lead a multi-ethnic community of people who didn’t know each other but shared language, images and culture.

From the Napoleonic to the British regimes, the ideas and philosophies of ancient Rome have been much imitated, but never surpassed. This is the remarkable story of an enduring Empire. An Empire that never died. An Empire that lives on, forever.

The Neverending Empire: The Infinite Impact of Ancient Rome, By Aldo Cazzullo, Translated by Dana Rinaldi (Nuanxed), Read by Dugald Bruce-Lockhart

This conversation delves into the life and legacy of Cleopatra, exploring her rise to power, her relationships with Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, and the political landscape of her time. The discussion highlights the significance of the Ptolemaic dynasty, the influence of Alexander the Great, and the eventual downfall of Cleopatra and Egypt as a powerful entity in the ancient world.

Cleopatra - Essence of History

Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar feels urgently contemporary in Rosa Joshi’s new production at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival—one of America’s largest and longest-running theater festivals, now in its 90th season. Staged in partnership with Seattle’s upstart crow collective, the production explores the threat of autocracy, drawing on global histories of dictatorship.

Performed entirely by women and nonbinary actors, Joshi’s Julius Caesar offers new perspectives on a historically male-dominated political landscape. The result is a fresh reading of Shakespeare’s classic tale of power, loyalty, and betrayal.

In this episode, Joshi reflects on the production, the politics of performance, and why Shakespeare’s plays continue to illuminate moments of crisis.

>> Discover more about Julius Caesar at the Oregon Shakespeare Festival

From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published August 25, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Rosa Joshi (she/her) is a director, producer and educator.  She currently serves as Associate Artistic Director of Oregon Shakespeare Festival.
Rosa’s directing work spans from Shakespeare to modern classics and contemporary plays.  Throughout her career she has created work independently through self-producing, and in 2006 she co-founded upstart crow collective a company that produces classical plays with diverse casts of women and non-binary people.  With upstart crow, she has directed King John, Bring Down the House, Richard III, Titus Andronicus, and Coriolanus. She is committed to creating ambitious productions of classical work featuring women, non-binary, and BIPOC artists.

As Interim Artistic Director of Northwest Asian American Theatre, Rosa produced a range of Asian American performances, including: A-Fest, an international performance festival; Traces, a world premiere multi-disciplinary, multi-media, international collaborative work. She was also a Resident Director and Artistic Director of the Second Company at New City Theater, where she directed and produced various classical and contemporary plays.

Rosa has been a faculty member at Seattle University and has also taught at The Old Globe University of San Diego Shiley Graduate Theatre Program, Hong Kong University, Hong Kong Academy of Performing Arts, and Cornish College for the Arts.

Rosa holds an MFA in Directing from the Yale School of Drama and a BA in Theatre and Psychology from Bucknell University.

Director Rosa Joshi on Julius Caesar Today

You may know Al Letson as a journalist—he’s the host of the popular investigative podcast Reveal. Before that, he created and hosted the public radio show State of the Re:Union. But Letson is also an actor, writer, playwright, and poet. His play Julius X: A Re-envisioning of The Tragedy of Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare kicks off Folger Theatre's 2025-26 season.

Julius X isn’t an adaptation of Julius Caesar — it’s a new play that borrows from Shakespeare’s language, characters, and plot to tell a different story. In Letson’s play, Julius X is a fictionalized version of Malcolm X. The play mixes lines from Shakespeare with Letson’s original poetry and songs. It expands the roles of Shakespeare’s female characters, as well as that of Cinna the poet.

Letson discusses the origin story of Julius X - a hint: it involves an audition, his lifelong love for Malcolm X, and the lessons he learned as an artist from Bill Moyers' series, The Language of Life: A Festival of Poets.

From the Shakespeare Unlimited podcast. Published September 9, 2025. © Folger Shakespeare Library. All rights reserved. This episode was produced by Matt Frassica. Garland Scott is the executive producer. It was edited by Gail Kern Paster. We had help with web production from Paola García Acuña. Leonor Fernandez edits our transcripts. Final mixing services are provided by Clean Cuts at Three Seas, Inc.

Al Letson is the Peabody Award-winning host of Reveal. Born in New Jersey, he moved to Jacksonville, Florida, at age 11 and, as a teenager, began rapping and producing hip-hop records. By the early 1990s, he had fallen in love with the theater, becoming a local actor and playwright, and soon discovered slam poetry. In 2000, Letson placed third in the National Poetry Slam and performed on Russell Simmons’ Def Poetry Jam, which led him to write and perform one-man shows.

In Letson’s travels around the country, he realized that the America he was seeing on the news was far different from the one he was experiencing up close. In 2007, he competed in the Public Radio Talent Quest, where he pitched a show called State of the Re:Union that reflected the conversations he was having throughout the US. The show ran for five seasons and won a Peabody Award in 2014. In 2015, Letson helped create and launch Reveal, the nation’s first weekly investigative radio show, which has won two duPont Awards and three Peabody Awards and been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize twice. He has also hosted the podcast Errthang; written and developed several TV shows with major networks, including AMC+’s Moonhaven and Apple TV+’s Monarch; and DC Comics recently released his series Mister Terrific: Year One.

Al Letson on his play Julius X

Welcome to Essence Of! Here you will learn about medicine, science, history, and life, all by our favorite neurosurgeon, Dr. Hamid Abbasi.

Home to the world's largest collection of Shakespeare materials. Advancing knowledge and the arts. Discover it all at www.folger.edu. Shakespeare turns up in the most interesting places—not just literature and the stage, but science and social history as well. Our "Shakespeare Unlimited" podcast explores the fascinating and varied connections between Shakespeare, his works, and the world around us.

The essence of life is to communicate love.
And the day I’m gone is the day you will realize what you’ve done.

Publishers of award-winning fiction and non-fiction audiobooks for adults and children. Listen to exclusive clips from our books and free audioook extracts here on Soundcloud.

In 1950 Sterling and Francine Clark chartered the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute as a home for their extensive art collection. Opened to the public in 1955, the Clark has built upon this extraordinary group of works to become one of the most beloved and respected art museums in the world, known for its intimate galleries and stunning natural environment. One of the few institutions in the United States that combines a public art museum with research and academic programs, including a major art history library, the Clark is now a leading international center for research and discussion on the nature of art and art history. Building upon the founders’ legacy, the Clark completed its master plan for the twenty-first century. This final phase of a transformational campus expansion program adds new facilities to support the growth of museum and academic programs; enhances the visitor experience of the Clark; improves circulation throughout the campus; and creates new levels of environmental sustainability across its 140-acre grounds while maintaining the unique character of its beautiful rural setting.

The Off Ramp Trivia podcast. Slow down, steer clear of crazy and take a side road to sanity with Bob & Marcia Smith.  PHOTO by Christopher Michel.

Smart conversations about today’s most interesting topics - a history podcast for everyone, produced by Origins from Ohio State's Department of History

New tracks tagged #Julius Caesar